Articles

11/15/13 - Armagnac – perhaps France’s most underappreciated brandy region.  Where else can one buy a spirit aged in barrel for 30 years for just over a hundred bucks?  When we look at what Bourbon of a similar age costs these days, it’s as if the Gasconians haven’t heard of Van Winkle or Macallan and the prices that they sell for!  We think that...

11/12/13 -  We grew up in a Francophile world of wine; we had hardly ever tasted old Rioja before our introduction in 2001 to Lopez-Heredia. Anyone who has been lucky enough to taste those wines will testify to their splendor in old age. Being Francophiles, the finesse and depth of the Lopez wines reminded us of fine vintages of old Haut Brion and La...

11/7/13 -  (Gnarled Old Vines in Bedrock Vineyard (July 2013)) We are thrilled to host a special tasting this Saturday to celebrate the release of "The New California Wine," the eagerly anticipated new book from San Francisco Chronicle Wine Editor, Jon Bonné. We have been stashing some of our favorite and most limited bottles to crack for the occasion; please stop by between 4...

11/6/13 - (The imposing Ayler Kupp) We’ve written at length many times about these two favorite Saar growers: the Webers at Hofgut Falkenstein and Florian Lauer. We don’t need to repeat ourselves any more than you want to re-read the same prose, so let’s cut straight to the salient points: 1. New 2012s from both estates have arrived. 2. The vintage is absolutely tremendous...

11/2/13 - (The famous 'cube' at Ceretto in Castiglione Falletto makes a very visisble and useful landmark. It's not clear that anyone realized in advance just how hot it would get inside the cube, but the view from it is spectacular.) Last Sunday we had a great dinner with a bunch of old friends at Maialino, Danny Meyer's Roman-style trattoria.  After a glass of...

11/1/13 - How is the 2011 Red Burgundy vintage? These are wines that are delicious now and have very good aging potential.  Michel Lafarge compares it to 1952,  which to this day is a great vintage.  Marie Christine Mugneret Gibourg compares it to 1985 and 2002, two fantastic vintages that are still drinking beautifully. All of these vintages have superb ripe fruit and drank...

10/30/13 - (An old map of Wagram's Feuersbrunn slope showing Spiegel and Rosenberg in the center) We get as excited as anyone by the exotic, the unfamiliar, the new and intriguing. This is no less true in the Austrian department than anywhere else in the store. Want biodynamic field blends from Vienna? We have them. How about late-release Gelber Muskateller that has spent almost...

10/29/13 - Maison F. E. Trimbach has been producing top Alsatian wines since 1626, none greater than the most famous wine of the region, Clos Ste. Hune.  Now under the twelfth generation of family ownership and winemaking, the Trimbachs have not strayed from traditional styles of dry Alsatian wine even when fashions in the region shifted to wines with large amounts of residual sugar. ...

10/28/13 -   To be frank we think the concept of “Wine of the Vintage” is marketing bs. Even under lab-like conditions, each time a truly great wine is tasted, we’re only provided with a snapshot of that wine at that moment. It’s artificial and even annoying that one wine must be anointed Wine of the Vintage; it’s certainly as subjective a judgment as...

10/22/13 - (Nelly Busch keeping watch over the Pündericher Marienburg) We love Clemens and Rita Busch. Not only do they make some of the most distinctive, unexpected wines of the Mosel Valley, they also have some of the biggest hearts of anyone in the wine world. Their humility and gentle, giving spirit comes through in their wines and Clemens’ careful biodynamic stewardship of their...

10/20/13 - Of the three grapes varieties that go into most Champagne, Pinot Meunier is generally considered to be rustic and fruity in comparison to Chardonnay and Pinot Noir. We believe that everything depends on the maker, and top-notch Meunier specialists (like Jérôme Prevost and Aurélian Laherte) produce Champagnes based on Meunier that rival the region’s great Grand Cru Pinots and Chardonnays. We’d like...

10/18/13 -   European wine producers working in denominated wine districts are obliged to submit samples of their wines to tasting panels on a regular basis. These panels are supposed to ensure that all wines bearing the official local designation (“Chianti Classico DOCG”, “Appellation Beaujolais Villages Controlee”, etc) conform to established standards of taste, aroma, color, and general quality. In principal this is a...

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....