Articles

4/7/13 - (Wink Lorch and Stéphane Tissot.) It’s a rare occurrence that we ask you, dear customer, to direct the energy of your wallet to something other than the bottles that grace our shelves. We are doing so today in the interest of friendship, scholarship, and the overall understanding and promotion of the wines of the Jura. I had the great privilege to meet...

4/4/13 -   Mencía first gained respect as a gateway to Spanish wine for lovers of young, juicy, high-acid reds. This offering highlights the deeper, more sumptuous side of Mencía, exemplified by the stunning single vineyard bottlings from Guímaro. The Amandi subzone of Galicia's Ribeira Sacra is home to precipitous, south-facing slate slopes, where Pedro Rodriguez and his parents farm 8 hectares organically. Prior...

4/2/13 -   The limestone hills of Saint-Aubin have been planted to vines since the third century AD. They are steep, well-drained slopes with a high concentration of clay, some of which are on the south and west slopes of the Mont Rachet, around the corner from the Grand Crus. Since Chambers Street began we have been buying the beautiful Saint-Aubins of Henri Prudhon...

3/27/13 -     Chambers Street Wines is proud to partner with Carlo Huber in making the terrific wines of Vienna available to readers of Saveur magazine. Here's a bit about the wines: Up until the late Middle Ages, vines were grown inside the ramparts of Vienna, lacing right to the centre. Todays vineyards are situated mainly on the outskirts of Vienna on the...

3/24/13 - (Thanks to Peter Liem of Champagneguide.net for the use of his picture.) In the first few minutes of a recent visit to Pascal Agrapart, a friend and sommelier described Agrapart as having, “that master of the universe thing going on,” and I knew what he meant. This description is reserved for vignerons who have figured it out - “it” - being the...

3/20/13 - (Pierre and Monique prepare for Langoustines with 1976 "L" D'Or, at Villa Mon Reve in Nantes) It was almost twenty years ago that we first encountered the superb Muscadets from Pierre and Monique Luneau-Papin, who were sharing a stand with Huet at the Salon des Vins de Loire in Angers. Tasting the 1976 was quite a thrill and opened our eyes to...

3/19/13 - (Huge chunks of Porphyr in the Niederhäuser Klamm) Today we're happy to introduce Weingut Von Racknitz, a Nahe producer that has never before been sold in the United States. Winemaking here goes back a very, very long time; a monastery was founded here in the 6th century and monks likely planted vines in the 11th. It's been in the Von Racknitz family...

3/8/13 - We've written before about our love for the oft-ignored "third way" between sweet and dry Riesling, a category once described as halbtrocken, but more and more frequently referred to as feinherb (a slightly more attractive term than ‘half-dry’). To us, feinherb wines are those that fall in between what one would describe as 'technically dry' and 'noticeably sweet.' Our recommendations in this...

3/6/13 - (Chavot under a blanket of snow.) We’ve been following the progress of Laherte Frères Champagnes with keen interest for several years, since we had the good fortune to meet the talented Aurélian Laherte at a trade show in Italy. We’re drawn to these wines for their intense acidity, their long, mineral-laden finishes, and the variety of cuvées offered by this excellent Domaine....

3/4/13 -   CVNE, the Compañía Vinícola del Norte de España, has been known since its founding as one of the very greatest producers of traditional Rioja.  Refreshingly, in a world now full of overextracted, overwooded, overrated luxury Spanish cuvèes built to achieve high scores and higher prices, the winery has held to the traditional Rioja style of wines built to age gracefully for...

3/1/13 - (Jean Gonon) One of the highlights of the year is our winter visit with Jean and Pierre Gonon at their beautiful new cellars in Mauves, where the welcoming attitude, good humor and deep intelligence of the two brothers is reflected in their elegant, perfectly balanced wines. Having bounced perilously through their parcels over the years, we can attest to the great vineyard...

2/20/13 -  California winemaking today defies the generalizations of yesterday. Ripe, oaky monoliths have made room for a generation of wines that showcase unprecedented grace and structure within the broad, buoyant fruit that makes California wines unique. The pursuit of interesting and balanced wines from this region yields many surprises: Scholium Project's stern, crunchy Verdelho from the dried mud "anti-terroir" of the Lost Slough...

2/18/13 - (Vigna Rionda in May, 2012. At the very top right are what's left of Canale's vines.) When people have been growing grapes in the same place for generations, a lot of wisdom accumulates regarding the character and quality of the local vineyards, and a consensus emerges about which are the best. In the Barolo zone, the short list includes the resonant names...

2/14/13 - (Le Combard (Photo E. Lillie)) Just arrived from Domaine Garon are the 2010 Côte-Rotie "les Triottes" and 2011 "La Sybarine" as well as their wonderfully delicious 2011 Vin de Pays Syrah. The Garon family has been in Ampuis for many generations but only began re-planting abandoned vineyards in the early 1980s, and made their first wine in 1995. Their parcel on the...

 2/12/13 - The great 2010 Baudry La Croix Boissée has just arrived in New York and we take this opportunity to feature all four of the Baudry's top wines from this vintage. Having begun with Bernard Baudry in 1989, we take great pleasure in featuring this group of wines from this quite different, but perhaps equally excellent year. Our first tasting of these beautiful...