The results I tasted from both Clos Cantenac and Château Séraphine are downright delicious. Distinctly different from the two previous vintages, the reds are slightly more approachable at this stage than their predecessors, and they have a decisively bordelais flair. The rosés and white crackle with freshness and structure. All made in very small quantities, these are worth seeking out.
Read MoreApparently, a French man in the early 1800s became interested in Chilean flora, fauna and geology. Claude Gay became the effective patron saint of local, Chilean plants. Thanks to Claude, anytime you travel to Chile, it is made abundantly clear in all government proclamations that you cannot bring in any plants, fruits or vegetables. A friend inadvertently crossed customs with an apple in his pocket (I believe he was traveling from Taiwan, though he lives in London) about 15 years ago and was firmly reprimanded, despite eating the same apple in the presence of immigration officers.
Read More"We have refrigerated sunshine. It is sunny all the time, but it is never hot." The Hilt winemaker, Matt Dees, was referring to the one-two punch of the cold Pacific Ocean mere miles away and the mountains just south of The Hilt vineyards that block warmer, more southerly influences. I had tasted The Hilt Pinots before and found them not just crunchy, but almost raw. With such a vivid vineyard description, it certainly was easier to understand the wines' dispositions.
Read MoreThe Mauro Veglio wines - from husband-and-wife team Mauro and Daniela along with their nephew, Alessandro - are elegant wines focused primarily on single vineyard expressions. Of their six Baroli (the Rocche dell'Annunziata not tasted here), only the Barolo DOCG is a made from a combination of vineyards and villages. Their aim is to release wines ready to drink - not an easy feat to achieve thanks to Nebbiolo's firm tannins. However, they certainly did hit the bullseye with their stylistic aim in three - possibly four - of the wines in the 2017 vintage.
Read MoreCatena is an imposing family name in Argentinian wine. The first three generations built the initial and incredible, international reputation of the Catena wines. However, it is the fourth-generation vintner, Laura Catena, who is building an even bolder, bigger platform for the Catena reputation. How so? Laura is thinking about more than wine. Still, she works through the same lenses as those who carried the family name before her: observation, hard work and the willingness to take calculated risks.
Read MoreWhen Fabrice Reynaud, the fifth-generation custodian along with his brother Philippe, asked if I would be interested to taste their flagship estate's 2020 en primeur wines, I was happy to do so. Sure, I was interested to taste some Graves wines from Bordeaux's excellent 2020 vintage, but I was also deeply curious to taste wines from Château des Places. Because in 1859, a large stash of Roman coins - one of the largest found in France - was found in the vineyards that a few years later began the legacy of this château. A Roman winemaker is purported to have buried them in 49 BC. How could a history buff refuse?
Read MoreI've been following Attems Pinot Grigio (non-Ramato) for over a decade. It is always strikingly good, true to variety and place and well-distributed. For so many reasons, it is an easy-to-recommend wine in this country, where distribution is highly unpredictable. So, I was deeply interested in the chance to taste the Ramato, or copper, wine, which is made as a skin-contact rosé. It has been produced for years, but it has somehow evaded my glass. Not so this year, and thank goodness for that!
Read MoreIt's not every day you run into a Dane making wines in Spain. Nicholas Hammeken founded his winery in 1996 after honing his marketing and sales skills for years in the UK and falling in love with Spain. The Hammeken Cellars labels wow with their spunky, fun attitudes, and his value-driven wines are lively and made for early drinking.
Read MoreTilia Wines has all of the right messaging and eco-savvy practices mixed with beautiful packaging and value-driven pricing to make a splash during its US debut. Alas, the wines fall short, even at the low price of $11 per bottle.
Read MoreEsporão 2020 Loureiro Vinho Verde: This is a mealy 2020 Loureiro pulsing with the vibrant flavors of pluots, yellow plums, donut peach skin and white flowers. A hint of almond skin provides a pleasant dryness on the lingering finish. This is a sleek, juicy wine with a surprisingly pronounced medium body, given it is only 11% abv. Wholesome and full-flavored with excellent balance thanks to the integrated acidity, this is delightful now and will hold nicely a few years.
Read MoreI often say that the trend of "chillable reds" is the effect of long-offered, bad advice. The old days of "room temperature" are now equivalent to "cellar temperature". To achieve cellar temperature in our modern homes, we need to chill the wines if we don't have wine fridges. These three Argentinian reds from Mendoza certainly benefited from cooler temperatures. All were at about 60° F when I tasted them.
Read MoreThings move quickly at Domaine Courtault-Michelet. That's unusual on the sleepy hillsides surrounding Chablis. However, once you meet Stéphanie Courtault, the second-generation winemaker now leading the estate with her husband, Vincent Michelet, it's not so surprising. She's full of energy and enthusiasm - and with good reason considering how quickly her family's estate has made a name for itself and how rapidly it has grown.
Read MoreWith heat blast down on us during these mid-August days - and even nights, I keep reaching for thirst-quenching whites. I have an extra row of whites stacked in my refrigerator, and a few delicious bottles from Rias Baixas are always amongst them. Here are three excellent, flavor-packed choices that I recently enjoyed.
Read MoreThe 2019 vintage marks Jordan Chardonnay's 40th anniversary. As ever, the Jordan Chardonnay wildly over-delivers in quality and price with this decade-marking, birthday vintage. I can't believe the winery still only charges for $35 for this class act, but I'm very happy that such an attractive and age-worthy Sonoma Chardonnay is available at such an (all things relative) incredibly accessible price.
Read MoreCharles Heidsieck made its first Blanc de Blancs in 1949. This non-vintaged cuvée, however, disappeared from the house's line-up until its reintroduction in 2018. This is composed of 2012 Côte des Blancs Chardonnay with 25% reserve wines averaging five years old. Disgorged in 2018, it received 10 g/L of dosage. It is a wine with captivating flair.
Read MoreWines arrive constantly at my doorstep and occasionally, I end up with wines that didn't fit into a tasting elsewhere that still merit write-ups. Such is the case here, with both of the reds being personal favorites.
Read MoreThe new Prosecco DOC Rosé category continues to impress. The Consorzio's rigid standards for Rosé DOC - between the two exclusive varieties allowed, the quantities required of each variety, the vintage prerequisite, the longer fermentation period and the narrower residual sugar allowances - are creating a more homogenous category that is easier to navigate than the (non-rosé) Prosecco DOC category. I'm happy to report that the Caposaldo entry in the field performs nicely. Of notable interest is the fact that 100% of the grapes are hand-picked.
Read MoreGrown at a rather low 33° North, there is a fine balance of latitude and altitude that makes wine production possible win the Golan Heights. The altitude - with vineyards climbing to 1,150 meters / 3,773 feet - mitigates the low latitude. Yet, the latitude helps in a surprising way as the grapes near harvest. Whereas more northerly regions receive more sunshine during the middle of the growing season, as the earth turns for the Autumn Equinox, the Golan Heights receive extra hours of sunshine in the crucial weeks before harvest.
Read MoreI met Jules Taylor on a buyers' trip to New Zealand many (err...many) years back when she was making wines for Kim Crawford Wines. An MW Candidate at the time, I was in heaven learning all sorts of technical winemaking details from her. I didn't know then, but she was just about to launch full-time into her side winemaking project with her husband, George Elworthy.
Read MoreOperating under Winery License No. 4 since the repeal of Prohibition, the Pellegrini family of Sonoma has Pinot Noir vines that are about to mark their 50th birthday. The oldest in the Russian River Valley, the Olivet Lane Vineyard's vines show up as single vineyard designates on many prestigious producers' labels: Williams Selyem, Merry Edwards, MacRostie and Gary Farrell among them. In contrast to the star-struck prices of some of those cuvées, the Pellegrini family's wines offer better value at the high-end.
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