Articles

[Raphaëlle Guyot and her recent Chardonnay planting in 'Les Robinettes'] Since I started working at Chambers Street Wines in 2020, I have not been so excited for a boat to come in as I am for that which recently arrived bearing the wines of Raphaëlle Guyot, on offer today. At risk of sounding like a broken record, the past decade has been a remarkable...

10/14/2022 David Moreau (Courtesy of Michel Joly/Becky Wasserman Selections) From a viticultural standpoint, Santenay can be somewhat unforgiving. Along with its little sibling Maranges, Santenay sits at the very south end of the Cote de Beaune where the hills start to bend west and open up. The resulting wind-swept valley has always been colder and later-ripening than their northern neighbors and so in tough...

A few months back a sales rep stopped in to taste us on a bottle that set us hard on our backsides - a blend of Mencia, Trousseau and Palomino grown deep in San Luis Obispo in California. The wine was brilliant - pure and juicy and seemingly weightless. I'd never have seen this one coming but when the wine's origins were explained, everything...

[View from the Romanissa vineyard (@tomlubbe)] I can't remember the first time I met Tom Lubbe, but I will never forget him! Anyone who knows Tom will certainly understand why. He's witty, intelligent, sarcastic, thoughtful, and warm-hearted, and meeting him leaves an impression. He also happens to be a darn good winemaker! I do recall that I was in the Loire Valley when I...

8/15/2022 Years ago, back in the late 2000's, wines from a relatively unknown estate, L'Anglore, began making the rounds in Paris, and by 2010, were imported into New York by our own David Lillie and friend Phillipe “Fifi” Essome. Made by a humble beekeeper and grape-grower named Eric Pfifferling, who had been selling to the local co-op in Tavel/Lirac area until 2002, these wines...

6/28/2022 Clos du Breuil in the center, Les Bournais upper right. 2020 is another great vintage for the dry Montlouis cuvées from François and Manuela Chidaine, featuring the superb "Les Bournais," now recognized as one of the very finest Chenin Blancs of the Loire! In 1989 François discovered a mostly abandoned vineyard near a cliff overlooking the Loire called "Les Bournais" named after a...

6/13/2022 [Gilles Lafouge in the new cellar] While value is relative in the ever more expensive world of Burgundy, perhaps no grower offers as much value as Gilles Lafouge. The wines are precise, honest and satisfying at prices that allow for (nearly) everyday drinking as well as cellaring beautifully. John Gilman's excellent View From the Cellar concurs:     Not surprisingly, for folks who...

[Christine and Gerard Villet in the vineyards.] About 8 years ago, I visited the Christine and Gerard Villet in Arbois for the first time. We met at the Foire Eco Bio in Colmar, which I believe is still the largest organic fair in Western Europe, complete with composting toilets, cheese, beer, clothes, spices, wines, bike powered concerts - literally every organic thing you could...

3/30/2022 Oliver Horiot and Denyse Louis of LDM in the vines. (Photo courtesy of LDM and John Kafarski.) The center of gravity in Champagne skews decidedly northward. Montagne de Reims, La Valée de Marne and Côte des Blancs are spoken of more frequently and likely more glowingly, than Sézanne, Montgueux, and Côtes de Bar/Aube. But there’s serious terroir in those hills and valleys of...

[A man and his vines: Olivier Lejeune (Courtesy of Grand Cru Selections)] A few weeks back my colleague David Hatzopoulos and I were tasting with a sales rep some wines that we had been allocated but unable to try on our own. As we finished up, he asked us if we would like to taste a Loire wine that he was very fond of,...

3/7/2022 The "Grand Pin" lieu-dit in Pignan We were very excited a few years ago to discover the beautiful Châteauneuf-du-Papes of Chapelle Saint-Theodoric, a project by importer Peter Weygandt with winemaker Baptiste Grangeon of Domaine du Christia. The wines are aromatically complex and lovely, not heavy or over-extracted with fabulous density and length on the palate but with lightness and elegance in a Burgundan style...

2/16/2022 Gevrey-Chambertin 1er Cru Clos Saint Jacques (Courtesy of Louis/Dressner Selections). Though I spent some time working in Gevrey-Chambertin, I never had the opportunity to taste at Domaine Sylvie Esmonin. I've always wanted to - she has a reputation among her peers and consumers alike as thoughtful and warm and who enjoys talking about her wines. I met her only briefly when an enormous truck...

[Got this Trousseau in 750 ml... and half a dozen in magnum! Yes please!!] One of the best wines I drank in 2020 was from Alice & Olivier De Moor, the world famous winegrowing couple in Chablis - but this bottle wasn't an ethereal, limestone-edged Chardonnay. The 2016 Melting Potes VDF was a blend of Clairette and Grenache Blanc from the Languedoc and Viognier from the Ardèche. After losing most...

10/21/2021 - Nicole with a beautiful Jura white (producer site) If you look at the center of the emblem above, fixed inside that red star, you'll see "VG." Victor Gros bought Domaine de Montbourgeau in 1920, according to the producer's website, and in 1956, his son, Jean, took over. It was Jean and his daughter, Nicole Deriaux, who created the domaine as we know it today....

For many years, the annual arrival of the Daterra Viticultores wines has been celebrated by the staff at Chambers Street. Enthusiastic hand sells always follow, and soon the small allocation we receive dwindles down to a bottle or two. Before starting to write this piece about the wines, I found myself wondering why we never wrote a newsletter about this project, and the inspired...