Wine

Ten year old wines usually show their, well, age. Wines from cooperatives can be very middling. Many wines from Puglia are ponderous because weather is warm and overripens grapes. Yet, every now and then a wine turns your head and upends all of your preju

A slightly effervescent red wine, light and refreshingly sweet, low alcohol, that should be served chilled. Made in Northwestern Italy's Piedmont region, this 100% Malvasia is a conversation piece of every dinner party. Aromas of rose petals, juicy grapes

This wine is a rosé de saignée of 100% Prieto Picudo, coming from old vines planted in stony clay at high altitude (800m above sea level). Prieto Picudo is a dark-skinned grape variety that is native to León in northern Spain. The wine is macerated for tw

Werner Näkel took over his family's scant 1.5 hectare estate in 1982. With little in the way of formal training (he was destined to become a Math and Phys. Ed. teacher), he had the audacity to eschew the region's then popular large neutral foudre for Burg

Charbono is a rare, near extinct grape variety. Recent reports indicate there are only about 90 acres of this variety in existence, half planted in Napa. The original cuttings were brought to Calistoga from the French Alps in about 1880, and shortly there

Tenuta Valdipiatta was founded in the 1960s and purchased in 1980 by Giulio Caporali. Giulio's daughter, Miriam, took over the estate in 2002 and began converting to organic viticulture. The soils in Valdipiatta's vineyards are clay based and rich in sand

Fausto Albanesi, winemaker and enologist at Torre dei Beati, has adeptly shepherded the vineyards since 1999 when he and his wife, Adriana, began producing wine on land inherited from Adriana’s father in the Vestina subregion of Abruzzo.

Fausto nurture

Jean-Pierre Charlot, with his nephew Etienne Chaix beginning in 2019, helm this venerable fifth-generation domaine with holdings in the top vineyards of both Volnay and Pommard. For many years, Jean Pierre was a professor at the Lycée Viticole in Beaune,

Giuseppe Maria “Giugi” Sesti did not initially choose a career in wine. Instead, he studied music, art, and astronomy, making the last of those his profession. He met his future wife in North Wales (sigh) while writing his first book on this topic. In 197

Rosso di Montalcino is a separate DOC that allows producers of Brunello di Montalcino an opportunity to bottle younger drinking wines, also made from 100% Sangiovese, which can be released as early as September 1st of the year following harvest, whereas B

Elias Mora Toro 2018

Round and creamy, the Jansz Premium Brut Rosé Non-Vintage is 78% Pinot Noir and 22% Chardonnay, aged for 24 months sur lie with an 8 grams/liter dosage. The blend is of older and new vintages that undergo malolactic fermentation, resulting in sparkling wi

Montenidoli Chianti Colli Senesi “il Garrulo” 2019

The Maison Aguila vineyards are planted in chalky soils at elevations ranging from 200 to 600 meters and are worked sustainably and traditionally without herbicides or fertilizers. The yields are limited to 40 hectoliters per hectare and harvesting is don

This wine is the collaboration of Antoine Graillot, the youngest son of the late great Alain Graillot from Crozes-Hermitage, and Bierzo visionary Raúl Pérez. Antoine’s contribution was to conduct fermentation in cement vat, a practice that fell out of fav

Much has been said about the late Serge Hochar, proprietor of Chateau Musar, by writers far better than myself, but I think two facts will give you a good picture. First, he studied winemaking at the University of Bordeaux under the famed Émile Peynaud (y

Jean-Pierre Charlot, with his nephew Etienne Chaix beginning in 2019, helm this venerable fifth-generation domaine with holdings in the top vineyards of both Volnay and Pommard. For many years, Jean Pierre was a professor at the Lycée Viticole in Beaune,

Heir to one of the most enviable wine legacies of all time, Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, whose wines are some of the most sought after—and expensive!—in the wine world, the young Aubert de Villaine was more interested in literature and law than wine. Afte

The Bretons farm eleven hectares of vines in France's Loire Valley, just east of Bourgueil in the village of Restigné. They produce Chinon and Bourgueil, as well as a bit of Vouvray, creating honest wines for both early consumption and longer aging. The B

In the vineyard Johannes Hirsch uses biodynamic preparations and follows the lunar cycle for vineyard work. Eighty five percent of his holdings are in the slopes in the villages of Zöbing and Kammern, home to the Heiligenstein and Gaisberg Riesling vineya