Articles

7/17/2007 - Finally, the top growers in the AOC Muscadet Sèvre et Maine are beginning to get the credit they deserve (see for example "Take an Oyster by Surprise" - Eric Asimov, NY Times, Jan 11th, 2006), as over the last 10 years many of the best cuvées by Marc Ollivier, Pierre Luneau-Papin, Claude Branger, Jo Landron, Guy Bossard and Andre Bregeon have become...

7/14/2007 - With all of the hoopla over 2005 Germany, 2005 Burgundy, 2005 Bordeaux, 2006 Austria, and 2001 Piedmont, no one is talking about the brilliance of the 2004 vintage in Tuscany, particularly for Sangiovese. 1997 is a good vintage - but too ripe for me and others. 1999 is very good -  almost like a less good version of 2004. 2001 is very...

7/6/2007 - As you may recall, Giampiero Bea, the undisputed master of Sagrantino, works with Neal Rosenthal, the great wine importer. Neal doesn’t add a lot of new wines to his already rich and varied portfolio, but when Bea introduced him to the remarkable white wine made by Cistercian nuns in Lazio, it proved irresistible. Irresistible because the wine is really good. Made from...

7/2/2007 - Until recently I had thought Vernaccia di San Gimignano was pretty dull stuff. It tasted great if you were in the neighborhood (of San Gimignano, that is), and we've always sold quite a bit to people nostalgic for their time in Tuscany, but until I met the wine from Montenidoli I would never choose it for myself. Last night we had fresh...

6/22/2007 - Tim Frohlich has been on a roll recently and he is definetly a member of the wine elite in the Nahe and maybe all of Germany. All that at the tender age of 32. Tim's wines are akin to the great master of the Nahe, Helmut Donnhoff, but they seems to have more of a juicy playfulness that gives them their own...

6/16/2007 - Simon Bize is arguably the top producer in Savigny-Les-Beaune. Granted he has some stiff competition with Chandon de Brialles, Ecard and Pavelot but in 2005 Patrick Bize crafted the wines of his life. They are absolutely stunning examples of Savigny that showcase the vintage through each of his different vineyards. The differences between the vineyards are striking in 2005 and the terroir...

6/1/2007 - It has been a very exciting year for German wines at CSW with the tail end of the 2005 vintage selling briskly and the extremely limited-production high- quality 2006's arriving mostly with some more to arrive throughout winter/spring 2008. Since I have arrived at CSW I have made sure that German wine has a big presence on the shelf and also that...

5/30/2007 - Chandon de Briailles is a somewhat overlooked estate that has been improving steadily since the mid 1980's and has become a favorite at Chambers Street Wines. The farming is biodynamic with replanting by massale selection and the winemaking is traditional (bottled without fining or filtration) . . .leading to wines of elegance, purity and wonderful ageworthiness. Some of their choicest sites include...

5/24/2007 - This wine is so secret that Joe Dressner, the Desvignes importer did not even know about it. Unbeknownst to the American importer (Joe Dressner) the Desvignes made two bottlings of Javernieres from an "upper section" and a "lower section" of the vineyard. So what the heck is this wine that no one knows about it? To give a little background I (Lyle)...

5/22/2007 - Joseph Voillot has always been a very good producer but in the last few vintages his star is rising and he is becoming one of the top addresses in the Volnay/Pommard area. 2005 is by far the best vintage at this estate. The Voillot house style is sappy deep fruit mixed with great acidity, serious structure and wonderful purity. The purity of...

5/18/2007 - Eric Asimov has followed up my initial case with another handpicked case and this one is even more interesting as now I really have a feel for his palate and put some even more esoteric stuff in there. Some of it pretty out there but delicious nonetheless. I will let the wines speak for themselves. You can click on the link below...

5/12/2007 - If there ever is a vintage to test the waters of Cabernet Franc on a virgin palate it is the 2005 vintage. Like a confluence of 2004 and 2003 it has the wonderful ripe, sappy fruit of 2003 but also has the structure and acidity of 2004. These are wines that are full of fruit with the necessary backbone for middle to...

4/30/2007 - (Alice and Olivier de Moor in the cellar) The estate of Olivier and Alice de Moor is unique in Chablis as they are deeply involved in the "natural" wine movement in an area that is highly mechanized. It is very unusual to work with organic methods in Chablis due to the high rainfall, larger size of the estates and the general reluctance...

4/21/2007 - When I traveled to Germany in August of 2006 I fell in love with the Grosses Gewachs and Erstes Gewachs bottlings. These are literally translated as Great Growths and are a relatively new category in the ever changing German wine arena. These are dry wines that when translated into regular German nomenclature are Spatlese Trocken. Make no mistake about it these are...

4/14/2007 - With the resounding success of our Paul Pernot offer (people are still calling and most of the wines have been sold out for weeks!) here comes another great offer from one of our favorite and most reliable estates in the Cote de Beaune.  Burgundy '05's in general have been very expensive so when there is an offer like the '05 Lafouge wines,...