Articles

2/9/14 - A few days ago our good friend, Mike Carleton of the small Connecticut-based import company, Transatlantic Bubbles, braved the worst snow storm of the season to bring us Champagne to taste. Low and behold, his bag was full of delicious wines that revived us from the torpor of dreary January with fine, energetic bubbles, and bracing minerality. In addition to the soulful...

2/8/14 - Over the past 20 years Hans Reisetbauer has risen to the forefront of Eau-de-Vie distillation.  (Eau-de-Vie, meaning “water of life” is the evocative French name for fruit brandies.)  In Austria there is also a proud tradition of making these spirits, but one would be more likely to hear them called by their Germanic name: Schnaps.  Americans spell Schnaps with an extra p,...

1/24/14 - (The rare Duras vines of Bernard Plageoles in Gaillac (photo courtesy of Isabelle Rosembaum)) Ancient, Tenacious Reds of South-West France The South-west of France was once the supplier of wines to Roman Emperors, the Gauls having planted vines as early as 600 B.C. by some accounts. These days, ancient sites and expressive, elegant wines fit for the ruling classes are selling at...

1/22/14 - (Roagna's vines in lower part of Paje in May; the vines at the top of the photo are not Roagna's.) When you walk from neighboring vines into Roagna’s vineyard, you feel a little as if you’d left the desert for an oasis; on the day the photo above was taken there were birds, butterflies, and rabbits amongst the vines. Aside from the...

1/21/14 - Suntory, Japan’s first and most prominent malt whisky distillery, announced last week that they were going to purchase Jim Beam for about $13.5 billion. Although not yet a household name in the states, Suntory, and the ever more visible Japanese whisky industry, are set to take the whisky world by storm.   Japanese whisky and Japanese whisky culture are rooted in Scotland, but...

1/15/14 - Oh the cosmic rhythm of the wine store. The final month of the old year depletes our stocks; the first month of the new replenishes… Quite possibly the best aspect of January is putting new wines on the shelf (let’s face it; the weather leaves something to be desired…). This week we’re particularly excited about a fresh batch of wines from the...

1/10/14 One of our favorite Burgundy producers is de Montille in Volnay, a Domaine that dates back to the 1800s.  Along with Lafarge and D'Angerville, Domaine de Montille produces some of the longest lived Volnays and some of the very best Pommards to cross our paths. De Montille's Rugiens "Bas" (considered a superior morsel of the Rugiens vineyard) is a benchmark of the appellation,...

1/7/14 - (Vines of Christian Ducroux) We salute the New Year, and with it the arrival of Christian Ducroux's delicious 2013 Prologue, the lovely 2012 Brouilly and Morgon from Georges Descombes, and the return of the wonderful 2011s from our new friends, Joëlle and Roland Pignard. 2013 will not go down in history as a great vintage in the Beaujolais, or any other region...

12/17/13 - Whisky is more popular than ever.  In the United States the surge has been led by ultra-aged Bourbons and the ever-expanding landscape of small, local-production distilleries, but we haven’t forgotten about Scotch.  Single Malt Scotch is made entirely from barley, and distilled in pot stills that produce much less spirit than the industrial stills used to make the majority of the world’s...

12/12/13 -    This is most likely our last offer of old Piedmont wine this year; there are some interesting wines we want to draw your attention to: Barolo Chinato is a ‘digestivo’ – something you usually drink after a meal, although in Piedmont some people like it as an aperitif. It has a base of Barolo, with sugar added and herbs and quinine,...

12/12/13 - (Sunrise Over Vogelzang Vineyard, Happy Canyon AVA. (Photo courtesy of Dragonette Cellars.)) The season for obligatory merriment is here, providing a variety of excuses to open delicious wines and share them with others! The domestic shelves are presently full of party-friendly and gift-worthy bottles, ranging from the experimental to the classic. Our California offers tend to be dominated by favorite winemakers from...

12/9/13 -   (One of the Nahe's most special sites, Schloßböckelheimer Königsfels) We are huge fans of Eric Asimov and his excellent wine columns in the New York Times. Often we find his taste lines up with our own, and he's done more than almost any other writer to help bring attention to the lesser-known regions and categories of the vinous world that we...

12/3/13 - (Brunate, with La Morra on the hilltop; May 2013) A year or more has passed since we last wrote about handling old wine. A happy number of fine bottles have passed across our table since then, and the additional tasting experience has reinforced our conviction that old Piedmont wines need to be decanted, and that they only benefit from time in the...

(Vincent in the Vines.) It might seem counterintuitive, but there’s a school of thought amongst some wine lovers that very fine Champagne represents good value in comparison to equivalent wine from other prestigious regions. Yes behemoth Champagne négociants drive up the prices of their luxury brands, but Champagne is also costly to produce, requiring extensive labor and long periods of sur lie aging. While...

11/21/13 -  (Plowing at Domaine du Traginer) "Banyuls and Banyuls Grand Cru are the appellations for France's finest and certainly most complex vin doux naturel" says The Oxford Companion to Wine, and we have enjoyed fine examples from Dr. Parcé, Domaine de la Rectorie, La Tour Vieille, and others. Recent tastings of the Banyuls and Collioures from Jean-Francois Deu at Domaine du Traginer have...