Articles

3/20/2007 - One of the great things about Hanno Zilliken is that he always has loads and loads of back vintages in his cellar. His wines age very slowly because the cellar is more than ideal for aging wine. It is very moist due to water seeping in naturally through the walls,and has extremely high humidity so there are stalagmites growing from the ceiling....

3/19/2007 - Offers like this do not come around very often so run, call, e-mail, send your significant other or do anything else remotely possible to get a bottle of this wine. Giacomo Conterno is arguably the top producer of traditional Barolo in Piedmont and 1982 is sometimes referred to as the last of the great old-school vintages in Piedmont. The next great vintage,...

3/16/2007 - This wine easily competes with the greatest white wines of the world for a much more affordable price. The Chidaine Bournais is just as age worthy, complex and elegant as any Grand Cru White Burgundy, White Rhône or great German, Austrian or Alsatian Riesling. As great Chenin gets older too it has a finesse that is very hard to come by in...

3/5/2007 - Marc Ollivier and Geneviève Cormerais from the Domaine de la PépièreMarc's Muscadet Sevre et Maine is our biggest selling wine almost every year, and is one of the world's greatest values. His Clos des Briords 2005 is an awesome Muscadet that will age beautifully for 10 to 20 years. Evelyn de Jessy and Isaure de Pontbriand from Domaine du CloselThe Savennières from...

1/8/2007 - “Champagne’s cult-grower number one”, says Richard Juhlin, in his remarkable book “4000 Champagnes”. Selosse’s cult status has been exacerbated in the US by the near total absence of his wines – it seems that no importer can persuade him to sign-up (the wines were formerly imported by Robert Kacher, but it’s been a couple of years now). As so often happens, cult...

12/4/2006 - There’s a lot of buzz around 2005 Burgundy, with news filtering back that it really is a very fine vintage coming from both pro and amateur aficionados – maybe even “very fine indeed”. Certainly the 2005s that I tasted in June (Mugnier, Fourrier, Bachelet, Mugneret-Gibourg, Lafarge, etc) seemed very promising, even though many were still finishing malolactic or were otherwise in an...

11/15/2006 - Champagne is a region in France where wine production is dominated by a handful of brand names - think Moet, Veuve Cliquot, or Nicolas Feuillate, for example. These brands produce 80% of the total output in Champagne, but they own only 12% of the vineyards. Instead they purchase grapes, juice, and even sparkling wine from all over the region. They bring to...

11/12/2006 - We have some of the very best Northern Rhône wines coming in – and you don’t have to spend hundreds for Guigal… Well, anyway we think that Allemand and Jamet make some of the very best wines. Both Domaines have a bit of cult status – Allemand even more than Jamet, perhaps because Cornas is so small and younger producers of quality...

10/31/2006 - Recent additions to our Loire Valley portfolio include a unique selection of older wines as well as new arrivals from the lovely 2005 vintage - while it may not rival 1989, the 2005 reds surpasses any recent vintage and the whites are uniformly as good or better than the excellent 2002s. From Pierre and Monique Luneau-Papin in the Muscadet we have received...

10/12/2006 - Having just returned from Italy, I have the pleasure of reminiscing about my visit to one of the most influential estates in Tuscany.  Southeast of Sienna, lies Fattoria di Fèlsina in the sleepy village of Castelnuevo Berardenga.  I had heard of Fèlsina for two reasons: number one, they were an early proponent of bottling Chianti exclusively from Sangiovese,  and secondly, they were...

8/4/2006 - Pierre and Jean Gonon work the family's 9 hectares of vineyards located in Mauves, Tournon and Saint-Jean-de-Muzols.  (7 hectares of Syrah, and 2 hectares of Marsanne and Roussanne in the "les Oliviers" parcel) The massale selection vines average 30 years of age and are densely planted.  The soil is fertilized only with their own composts and is plowed and aerated.  Only natural...

Article from 2008 - This estate has been in the family for several generations. Basically, the Foucault brothers (Nadi and Charlie) tend exceptional vineyards, harvest at small yields, vinify in barrel, let the wines bubble for a couple of years in a glacially cold cellar and bottle without filtration. And what you get is the some of the top red wines of the Loire...

Article from 2008 - La Signora and I have spent a couple of weeks on the wagon; that really nasty cold/cough we both had took all the pleasure out of wine. When we fell off the wagon the other night we had THE BEST BOTTLE OF WINE EVER MADE! How’s that for good luck?!  Since you’ll never guess the wine, here’s the secret: Occhipinti...

[Illustration by Michel Tolmer] Earlier this year, we wrote an article about the untimely passing of Dominique Belluard in June of 2021. A reflection on the context of this tragedy, it was a rather somber piece of writing, but today our tone will be celebratory instead. We are excited to share that there will be a future for Dominique's legendary Gringet vines and a...

The Domaine de la Pépière Muscadet "Les Gras Moutons" is one of the most versatile and crowd-pleasing of all Muscadet! It's especially delicious in the 2022 vintage as the slightly lower acidity makes it immediately ready to drink. It's a glass full of Muscadet pleasure that will accompany just about anything - stock up! "Les Gras Moutons" is a great parcel on gneiss, in layers...