Wine collector Billy Grippo opened his first premox bottle about eight years ago, when he was out to dinner with friends. He brought along a fantastic Leflaive 2002 Chevalier-Montrachet that he thought would be incredible in its old age, but when he poured the first glass, it looked nothing like the rich, straw-colored liquid he…
I think of Sancerre and Chablis as sisters from another mister. Sure, Chablis is technically Burgundy, just as Sancerre is technically Loire, but they have far more in common with each other than they do with any of their regional peers. The very first time I tried a bottle of Chablis, I did a double…
Some wine experts have a pretty loose definition of “unicorn wine.” I’ve seen critics give unexceptional wines the unicorn title simply because the vintner didn’t produce as much wine as expected in a particular year. Personally, I’m far more measured about which wines I deem unicorns. They can’t just be rare or expensive; they should…
When you think of celebrating the holidays, you probably imagine crystal flutes of fine Champagne, but writer Eva Weirich dreams of Cremant de Bourgogne. Her family originally bought this famous sparkling Burgundy to cook with, and over time they’ve realized they enjoy drinking Cremant more than Champagne, especially during the holidays. She says Cremant is…
This spring, on April 26, the worst frost in 30 years hit Burgundy, wiping out potentially 30 percent or more of the budding grapes in the region. As temperatures dipped low, budding flowers were coated in a thick frost overnight, killing off the still-tender young sprouts. Damage estimates are still coming in, but so far,…
Wine investor Tom Gearing has seen his fair share of nervous wine collectors trying to get into investment-grade French wine for the first time. Collectors often feel as though they need to spend thousands of dollars on the top wine estates in France in order to get decent profits from their investments, but this isn’t…
During a recent survey of producers from the Cote d’Or wine region, Jancis Robinson said, “I think our general impression of the Cote d’Or, the heartland of Burgundy, is that it is one of the world’s most traditional wine regions and hardly changes at all.” What she found during her tour surprised her; multiple…
Now that 2015 has come to a close, the London International Vintner’s Exchange (Liv-ex) has released its annual report detailing the best-performing wines and wine regions in the world. This year’s report suggests that Bordeaux has lost some of its hold on the market over the past year, but that other regions like California,…
When today’s sommeliers taste wines, they can often immediately pick out the unique flavors and bouquets associated with bottles from Champagne and Bordeaux. That’s partly because, in the late 1800s, French land became cheap and plentiful, allowing winemakers to purchase entire regions of their own, and to grow the grapes to the same high standards.…
Burgundy’s reputation for growing the finest Chardonnay on the market comes down to the one-of-a-kind clay, limestone, and chalk terroir that provides its wines with intense minerality. Modern winemakers clamber to buy grapes from every subregion of Burgundy, making it the region with the most widely-replanted white grape roots in the world. Terroirs in Napa…
Climate change experts agree that the planet is on the cusp of another huge heat wave that could last for centuries, and this year, wine producers around the globe felt the impact. While the heat and subsequent hailstorm in the Chablis region of France threatens to destroy this year’s precious crop, Oregon is in the…