Made by South Africa's first black female winemaker, Ntsiki Biyela, Aslina Wines are crafted from classic French grape varieties in a lush and classy, South African style.
Read MoreDavid & Nadia Wines 2018 Pinotage Swartland: This is an unusual wine as it took ages to open up. The first day, it showed dull and flat. With just a few ounces out of the bottle, I put stoppered it and put it back in the wine fridge. Two days later, it was exactly the same. Back into the wine fridge under Vacu Vin. Nine days later, it finally came out of its shell.
Read MoreStonestreet Estate Vineyards 2019 Sauvignon Blanc: This lush, come-hither Sauvignon Blanc is dynamic from the first sniff. Its aroma is immediately engaging, with an impressive unleashing of Key lime, honeydew melon, guava and grapefruit.
Read MoreA few weeks back I had the chance to speak with Sabrina Tedeschi on climate change, some history of her family estate (she with siblings Antonietta and Riccardo are the fifth generation) and the current releases of Tedeschi wines. How I miss those one-on-one connections! I learned a lot and got to taste the wines while we were speaking, even though we were thousands of miles apart. Here is a summary of the most interesting points of our conversation as well as my wine notes.
Read MoreAlta Mora means "tall black". That's exactly what the vineyards' home territory, Mount Etna, looks like. So, black is also the color of the soil. And, the soil on Mount Etna is very unusual. Walking through the soft, silky depths of the vineyards can give you the impression that you're about to sink right through the mountainside and into the inferno below.
Read MoreI have always found the precise and pure Cusumano wines incredibly juicy and approachable. This trio serves to reinforce my many prior experiences.
Brothers Diego and Alberto source the estate-grown fruit for their Cusumano wines from four different areas of Sicily covering over 500 hectares / 1235 acres. (Etna is a fifth region that they use for their other label, Alta Mora.) Focusing on local and international grapes in varietal and blended wines, the wines are a comfortable fusion of modern winemaking and Sicilian soul.
Read MoreTenuta di Arcano 2013 Arcanum Toscana: This very attractive and fragrant wine composed of predominantly Cabernet Franc (73% - from 16 different blocks of vines, along with 17% Merlot and 10% Cabernet Sauvignon) needs some time to open, despite the fact that it is showing decidedly tertiary aromas.
Read MoreThis tasting was exercise for sure. And, it was an unusual one. They don't taste at all of Sangiovese and less yet of Sangiovese di Romagna. At least, they are ambitious; they are concentrated with decent finishes and taste of (very) new oak. They both need a vigorous decanting (I used my WinePrO2) to even consider approaching now. These wines need food.
Read MoreTwenty years of study have flown by since the inception of Mandrarossa. This project is a study of the best combinations of grape varieties and terroirs in Sicily. The idea is that it is a modern day story akin to the Benedictine monks in Burgundy fast-forwarded a few hundred years and speeded up thanks to technology and global research. Based in the Menfi area, on the island's southwestern coast - almost directly across from Palermo on the north coast, the Mandrarossa project is a study of "micro-terroirs".
Read MoreI was pleased to see Ventisquero pop up a few weeks ago. It's been a while since I have seen this name. I used to buy some of the wines for the defunct Spice Market Atlanta when it first opened. The GREY Carménère was a favorite at the time, and I often lamented that the range wasn't more widely available in the US for the other restaurant lists that I was overseeing at Culinary Concepts by Jean-Georges. Over a decade later, it appears the wines are now widely available in the US. Check them out!
Read MoreLiterally, it does take the stuff from that class that you had to take in high school. It also takes chemistry for two winemaking teams - and two palates per team - with different styles to come together and make wines that they all stand behind. Sourced from various Willamette Valley sites, these wines are the brain children of the winemakers of Chehalem Winery and Stoller Family Estate (under the same owner since early 2018). The Chemistry wines are a clever line-up that stylistically sit equidistant the palates of the two wineries. The real proof of this is in the Pinot Noir, Oregon's signature black grape.
I was wowed by the wines. Then, I did a double take when I looked at their prices. They seriously over-deliver for their price points!
Read MoreTwo years into the new ownership of Chehalem Winery, it is interesting to see how the winery is faring. The wines remain clean and pristine, and the prices of the most accessible wines remain exactly or about the same. Perhaps there are distinctions more visible further up the quality chain? At any rate, winemaker Katie Santora - with Chehalem since 2012, keeps the heartbeat steady here, from what I have tasted.
Read MoreOne hundred years passed between the Giuntini family's last two purchases of land for vineyards, 1897 and 1997. So, the 19-year wait to produce the first single vineyard wine, Vigneto Erchi, from that new plot was relatively quick. (The family planted the vineyard in 1999.)
In the same year that Selvapiana welcomed this new wine to its stable, the winery also celebrated the 300th harvest since Pomino's first quality decree, or bando, by Grand Duke Cosimo III de’ Medici in 1716. The duke defined this area to protect the quality of wines being shipped to England (in place of French claret during the various wars of those days) for increasingly higher prices and volumes.
Read MoreTwo beautifully and imaginatively packaged Romagna DOC Spumante wines that sell under the new Novebolle brand should be set to hit the US market soon (COVID-19 & new tariffs notwithstanding). Not only do the bottles look smashing, there is an incredible amount of subtle history applied in their design, too.
Read MorePartners Leonardo Erazo, winemaker for Altos Las Hormigas, and Justin Decker, an American living in Chile, make energized wines from old bush vines near the Pacific. As the name suggests, this is Chile gone rogue. The wines and their labels are unconventional and thoroughly compelling, especially the Blanco.
Read MoreToday’s Bordeaux is affordable Bordeaux. No, I’m not talking about the 2019 En Primeur campaign, where prices are being slashed despite the most recent declarations of “the vintage of the century” in the face of the challenges presented in bringing the wines to market in the face of COVID-19. Rather, I’m talking about the 90%+ of Bordeaux wines that are sold outside of the En Primeur system. In fact, many sold within the En Primeur system are highly affordable, too. The fanfare at the precipitous (price-wise) top of the quality pyramid has distracted far too many consumers for far too long. During the same time, quality was skyrocketing while prices throughout most the region remained modest.
Read MoreFor the wine geeks: while made in the Nino Franco cellars in Valdobbiadene, this blended spumante (80% Merlot and 20% Cabernet Franc) technically is not a Prosecco for several reasons. The differences add up to make the Faìve Rosé Brut a more intense and concentrated sparkling with with a definitively dry edge and focused finish
Read MoreNicolas Potel has the most amazing side labels with information on surface area of vineyard planted, rootstock, plantation date, planting density, exposition, soil type, altitude, slope and even GPS location! They are ridiculously, delightfully nerdy. On the label you can also find the harvest date, fermentation vessel, final malolactic fermentation percentage, fining and filtration details and bottling date. It's almost as good as sitting with Nicolas himself.
Read MoreThis is the third Côté Mas that I have tasted in the last few years. The wines show clear familial style, but the 2019 is the most sophisticated yet.
Read MoreThis new collaboration between Donnafugata and Dolce & Gabbana is a study in classy restraint. It's a blend of Nerello Mascalese from Etna's northern slopes and Nocera from Contessa Entellina, hills that sit almost equally inland from Palmero and Marsala.
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