Winemakers often feel the need to stretch their boundaries. While I’ve heard of a number of Sonoma Pinot Noir makers heading to Oregon for fruit, I’ve not heard similar stories about Napa-ites reaching north. Until now. It turns out that in 2012, Dennis Cakebread ushured in a new era for his wildly successful family business.
Read MoreFive generations ago, the Gonzalez Byass brandy legend awoke in the southwestern outpost of Spain’s Jerez. Today, the “everyday” Soberano is distilled in a continuous distillation system while the Lepanto brandies are carefully curated in pot stills imported from Cognac.
Read MoreCombine two well-known winemakers with a significant dose of ambition and a chunk of fine terroir, and you’ll naturally have compelling results. This is true even with Vassilis Tsaktsarlis’ and Vangelis Gerovassiliou’s unknown variety project, Biblinos Oenos, a black grape about to be registered on Greece’s “National List of Varieties.”
Read MoreI’ll never say “No” to Burgundy, especially red Burgundy. Love me some Pinot Noir! Just to offer one reason, these three wines are each strikingly different in both style and price point. Burgundy offers more diversity than most of us expect.
Read MoreIf by name only you thought these wines came from Italy, it would be understandable. Lenny Recanati’s family heritage stretches back to Italy (also a Mediterranean-influenced grapegrowing country), but Lenny was born in Israel, where his state-of-the-art winery is located today.
Read MoreLa Chablisienne 2014 Petit Chablis Pas Si Petit: This cuvée is composed of fruit from over 280 grape growers dedicated to one of France’s best cooperatives! Its laser-like acidity initially gives the wine a chiseled feel on the palate, but a swarm of fruit quickly follows to make this accessible and easy to sip.
Read MoreThis magenta-inflected, rose-colored wine drinks more like a light red than most rosatos. So, I’m a fan of serving it only gently chilled.
Read MoreWhen I was offered the opportunity to taste the latest releases from Boroli, I jumped. I loved the recent story of the winery discovering a long-lost cru, La Brunella, in Piedmont’s Castiglione Falletto. While you’re waiting to get your hands on some La Brunella, check out these gems to reassure yourself it’s worth the wait!
Read MoreIt’s rare to see wine lists in wine-producing European countries that bother with wines outside their own country, sometimes even outside their region. This was not the case at Locanda Marinelli, which offers some excellent grower Champagnes and top-notch Burgundies, among others.
Read MoreIlili offers the most expansive list of Lebanese wines in the US. The owners’ ambition is to soon offer the largest list of Lebanese wines in the world. The selections are rounded out by a number of wines from the US, France, Italy and Spain, as well as a few other key regions. Perhaps the best news is that the wines are very kindly priced.
Read MoreThis bubbly really surprised! It has chops and can serve as well at the table as it can as a hearty apéritif. Lightly fruity on the dry attack, the palate then fills in with a super pleasant, toasty yeastiness then with a crispness akin to dried bread crumbs on the back palate.
Read MoreWe’d chosen big-flavored dishes, and I figured we either could match their rusticity or contrast it with a fruit-driven wine. A few Puglians and a Vino Nobile di Montepulciano met the first consideration while a Dolcetto matched the second.
Read MoreIn a time when 20-year-olds are either Google prodigies or career college students, it is hard to image that Pierre Taittinger began building his Champagne legacy at age 20. He wouldn’t even be legal to drink in the US today! Yet almost 84 years ago, after having served in the Champagne region during World War I, he purchased a tattered bubbly business (originally established in 1734.)
Read MoreMarchesi di Gresy 2014 Nebbiolo Langhe Martinenga: This may well have been my favorite of this tasting of Marchesi di Gresy. It is perfumed and accessible, showing all the intrigue and joy Nebbiolo can bring. This wine smells of rose petals, dried strawberries, tobacco leaf and beef jerky spices - just as Nebbiolo should by its textbook description.
Read MoreThis unusual, 100% Pinot Noir Sekt has fine and dainty bubbles. In fact, they are so fine and the wine is so vinous that I chose to sip the wine from a white wine glass rather than a flute.
Read MoreThere’s a sad misperception that Bordeaux is either utterly unaffordable or really, really bad. It’s true that most of us don’t buy much of super fancy stuff these days as their prices are, indeed, dizzyingly high. However, even in difficult vintages, Bordeaux – like the rest of the world – generally makes darn good wine today.
Read MorePinot Noir isn’t an easy grape to grow and it isn’t an easy grape to vinify either. Combine those two points with low yields and you have a wine style that tends to be pricey, wherever it hails from. Plus, Sonoma isn’t an appellation known for its bargains, whatever the grape variety may be. So, when I recently purchased a dozen Sonoma Pinot Noirs under $40, I was particularly pleased to find these three bottlings under $25.
Read MoreThe 2010 and 2012 show vibrantly rich fruit with tendancies toward the blacker end of the fruit range. The 2011 shows the most perkiness, both in its redder fruit character as well as its refreshing acidity and lower alcohol. The 2014 white is fresh and highly drinkable.
Read MoreWine folks – myself included – often look skeptically upon Bordeaux Supérieur. What’s so superior about a few extra years of vine age in a region that actually keeps its vines quite young? Sure, Supérieur wines age at least nine months before release as well, often in some sort of barrel…but, they don’t have to. At least Supérieur doesn't refer to a half percent of extra alcohol here.
Read MoreWhen I see Pomerol, I envision one of those old school cash registers, the ones with dollars popping up one after another on metal blades behind a glass window. Pomerol is a sort of insurance policy for high quality wine. You pay extra for the name, but you sweat less as you wait for your dining companions’ verdicts.
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