Articles

5/12/12 - Gabacho – Used in Spain as a pejorative term to describe a Frenchman.  In this case a winemaker from France who crosses the border to conduct his craft in Spain. We love the much-lauded, traditional wines of this area, but with a region as vast and as diverse as Rioja, it seems unfair to pin “greatness” on just a few lapels.  At...

5/11/12 - ​We're very proud to be importing the lovely natural wines from Le Mas de Casalas, near Mondragon on the north side of the Massif d'Uchaux. Jerome Hue and Isabelle Supparo have 2 hectares of old vines, mostly Grenache, Carignan and Cinsault which they tend organically, producing uncommonly well-balanced and delicious wines. Directly behind their house, the north-facing slope is mostly sandstone (grés...

5/5/12 - A common refrain when the names of André Beaufort and Vincent Laval are mentioned in the Montagne de Reims is “no one makes wines like that here.” Not merely amongst the bottles in our Champagne section, amongst growers in the region, these wines are singular. Though Laval’s and Beaufort’s wines are essentially different in style: Laval’s chiseled and super dry, Beaufort’s broad,...

5/3/12 - In wine – as with much in life - the next big thing is often the same big thing as in years past. Sherry, Rose, and Riesling are periodically trotted-out by the press to remind us that we’re missing something special; previously seen as overly sweet and passé, they are gradually finding wider appreciation. Our candidate for rehabilitation is Lambrusco, known to...

5/1/12 - (Rousset vineyards, Crozes-Hermitage) ​At the suggestion of Jean and Pierre Gonon, as well as other trusted sources in the Rhône Valley, we made an appointment to taste with Stephane and Robert Rousset in the Crozes-Hermitage village of Erome. They have some of the best vineyards in Crozes was the story we heard, and they've always worked the soil, even plowing with a...

4/26/12 - Eric Texier is certainly making some of the finest wines in the Rhône Valley, both in the south and the north. His Chateauneuf-du-Pape, red and white, are outstanding. His work in Brézème and St Julien-en-St Alban has resurrected forgotten vineyards and has produced magnificent wines. His inexpensive Cotes-du-Rhône are wonderfully refreshing and balanced, unencumbered by high-alcohol and gobs of hedonistic fruit. In...

4/24/12 -   Nothing gives us greater pleasure than offering mature Champagne at a great price. As much as we relish the cut and the laser-like complexity of well-made, young Champagne, we have a true appreciation for the broad, savory tones, the mellow earth and mineral characteristics of a fine, “adult” bottle of Champagne. In fact, Champagne ages very interestingly, the vivacious flavors and...

4/23/12 - (Giovanni Scarfone from Bonavita) ​Slightly over 3 miles from the rocky Calaiabrn coast is Messina, the gateway to Sicily.  The Greeks first founded the colony in the 8th Century BC, and the land came to be known as “Casale del Faro” because of the influx of Greeks from the town of Pharis.  In the 18th Century Faro became internationally renowned for its...

4/18/12 - (Jo Landron, Domaine Louvetrie, Photo: Jill Lillie) South and east of the French city of Nantes, about 25 kilometers upstream from where the Loire River empties into the Atlantic, the appellation of ­Muscadet–Sèvre et Maine covers approximately 8,000 hectares of the southern bank — plateaus and gently rolling hills, which descend to the Sèvre and Maine rivers, tributaries of the Loire. The...

4/17/12 - Over the past few years we’ve been lucky to taste many older vintages of the Produttori del Barbaresco – back to the early 1960s. If there is another wine making cooperative in the world that can come close to the Produttori’s long history of consistently producing high quality wine, we’d love to know about it! In most vintages the Produttori bottle 9...

4/15/12 - One of the stars of my recent trip to Champagne was Benoït Lahaye, a grower in the Grand Cru of Bouzy, a village in the Montagne de Reims known for its powerful Pinot Noir-based Champagnes. I already knew that I liked Lahaye’s wines very much; I had been working to procure them for Chambers Street since the eminent Champagne writer, Peter Liem,...

4/10/12 - (Marc Ollivier, Harvest 2011) One of our greatest pleasures over the years has been CSW's involvement with the greatest producers of Muscadet Sevre et Maine and the promotion of their beautiful wines. In a region where modern, mass-production winemaking has led to mediocrity and economic distress, a small number of vignerons persisted in honoring their superb terroirs by hand-harvesting, fermenting with indigenous yeasts and working...

4/07/12 -   From the fringes of the Willamette Valley to the foothills of the Sierras, West Coast winemakers are breaking new ground. We're particularly impressed by Olga and Barnaby Tuttle of Teutonic Wine Company, who farm and source fruit from extreme Oregon vineyards. They make tangy, focused, mineral-driven Oregon wines, wines that taste as though they emerged from the soil. Inspired by the...

3/31/12 -     The story of Colares is not an easy one to tell without getting at least a little sentimental.  Even our own unflappable jefe, David Lillie, gets a glimmer in his eye when recalling his days as a Portuguese wine buyer, the chance to meet the Colares legend Paolo da Silva, and to drink his Colares Chita wines from the 70’s. ...

3/28/12 - Jan Gross. Photo courtesy of Lars Carlberg No, it's not that Schaefer, nor is there any relation to Willi's legendary property in Graach an der Mosel.  Karl Schaefer is a 175-year old estate in the Pfalz that has been absent from the US for decades, and we're excited to introduce them to you as a Chambers St. Wines exclusive.  The estate has...