Articles

10/9/13 -   I still remember my first bottle of Chandon de Briailles… a 2002 Savigny-les-Beaune consumed as a novice wine professional in New York City circa 2007. The wine was the soul of elegance and restraint with gorgeous, woodsy red fruits on the nose and beautiful fine tannins (though many would have considered it a baby…). The Domaine was totally unknown to me...

10/3/13 - The store is awash in delicious Spanish wines this fall! We are particularly pleased to welcome the vivid, textured, and nuanced reds from Rafa Bernabé in Spain's resurgent Alicante region. Rafa's importer, Jose Pastor, explains that Bernabé was long respected in the central Mediterranean region as a maker of more modern, showy wines from Monastrell and international varieties like Cabernet Sauvignon. He...

9/30/13 -  (Vincent Laval and healthy soils in Cumières.)   Over the past few years Champagne grower Vincent Laval of Domaine Georges Laval has ascended to a place of prominence in our hearts and minds. Georges Laval (Vincent’s father) converted to organic viticulture in the early 1970s and the estate continues to be one of only a few in Champagne to be certified organic....

9/26/13 - (Lumpi XVII - The 17th dog of this name and breed to live at Nikolaihof)   The Wachau is loaded with great producers and at the high end they're all over the stylistic map. The Pragers, Hirtzbergers, Pichlers and Knolls of the region are at the top of anyone's list of the stars of the region, but we've also long loved the...

9/24/13 - (Thierry and Jean-Marie Puzelat (photo: Bert Celce)) Some insanely delicious new wines have arrived, inspiring us to send this selection of Pineau D'Aunis, Gamay, Cabernet Franc and Pinot Meunier from our favorite organic folks in the Loire Valley. Please note that 2012 was a very small harvest in the Loire with many wines in short supply. And a special thank-you to Jean-Marie...

9/19/13 - The Wine World’s Most Amazing Cooperative Originally published in John Gilman's "A View from the Cellar" Issue #22, July-August 2009            The Produttori del Barbaresco has been producing stellar wines since its inception in 1958, and is clearly one of the most impressive success stories for a winegrowers’ cooperative in the history of wine. Since its very first vintage, it has been...

9/16/13 -   For years the beneficent wine lord Chadderdon smiled upon us and permitted us to sell the beautiful Ligurian wines from Bruna (along with some Quintarelli, Bartolo Mascarello, Boxler – and perhaps a little something else that he’d send along at his whim). Happy were we, mostly, to be among his chosen. Then a couple of years ago he up and retires;...

9/12/13 - Our thanks to Eric Asimov for another excellent article about wines from the Rhône Valley!  In this article Eric discusses his love for the traditional Chateauneufs that he drank in the eighties and nineties: "wine with all the sort of mossy idiosyncrasies that might characterize the old castles that dot the region... a wine of fruit flavors, yes, but also aromas of...

9/9/13 - There’s a mountain in the middle of Champagne between Epernay to the south and Reims to the north. Scaling it in a snow storm in a miniature rental car on the way to the Bérèche winery is an excellent way to observe the frozen landscape that gives us these steely and focused Champagnes, and also a petrifying experience. Such a journey is...

9/4/13 - (Paolo from Madonna delle Grazie, at VinItaly.) VinItaly is a gigantic wine trade fair held every April in Verona. To call it gigantic is an understatement – you could never imagine that there were so many wine producers in Italy (there is some wine from other countries, but the fair is at least 90%+ Italian). For a couple of New Yorkers who...

8/28/13 -   From the Oxford English Dictionary: “legend n. 1a a traditional story sometimes popularly regarded as historical but unauthenticated; a myth. b. such stories collectively. c a popular but unfounded belief.” If there’s one grossly abused word in terms of describing wine it’s legendary, and we try to avoid it – there just can’t be that many legendary wines out there. However…...

8/23/13 - Meursault.  Puligny Montrachet.  Chassagne Montrachet.  These three villages produce some of the best Chardonnays on the Cote D'Or – at the top of the list of the finest, most age-worthy wines of France.The 2011 white Burgundies are fantastic: there is great fruit and balance and roundness coupled with minerality and lively acidity. They are not as acidic as the 2010's and they are...

8/22/13 - The thirst for rosé wine is at its seemingly unquenchable peak in late spring, when The Season’s pale pink and white wine-like rosés begin to arrive. (Only in reference to rosé do we speak about “season” as though we’re selling open-toed shoes or baseball tickets – items that are only relevant at one time of year – rather than wine. White wine,...

8/17/13 -   (Eric Laguerre's high-altitude vines) Poor timing perhaps, but we've just received some truly fascinating wines from the Languedoc/Roussillon as well as some beautiful biodynamic wines from Jurançon - one of our favorite of the lesser-known wine regions of France. The Aurisset family in Cardesse (Jurançon) converted to organic farming in the 1990s and has been certified Biodynamic since 2007. They hand...

8/12/13 - The single greatest benefit of having an ample Champagne section is being able to offer something for everyone, even within the realm of small growers making wine from their own grapes. We’ve recently received shipments from three favorites in three distinct styles. Between these growers there is, literally, something new on the shelf for every Champagne lover. Cédric Bouchard makes wines in...