Meursault wine is a unique white Burgundy

The Ultimate Guide to Meursault Wine

Burgundy, Buying Wine, France, Investing, Wine Regions

The reason so many wine enthusiasts adore Meursault wine is that it is opulent yet approachable. These wines taste luxe and silky even in their youth, making them some of the easiest wines in the world to collect. You don’t have to worry about opening your Meursault too early, as even the youngest wines have spectacular balance and layers of flavor. Whether you’re starting a Meursault collection for the first time or you want to explore a few lesser-known producers or styles from this area, this guide will help you discover all that this region has to offer.

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The best Valentine's Day wine ideas should reflect your personality as a couple.

Valentine’s Day Wine Ideas for Every Type of Celebration

Buying Wine, Enjoying Wine, Holiday

My idea of the perfect Valentine’s Day wine is generally either vintage Champagne or aged red Burgundy. However, last year, we decided to try something a little different. We chose a bottle of 1961 Château Prieuré du Monastir Del Camp Rivesaltes–a truly special wine that had fascinating flavors of fresh citrus and dried fruit. Serving decades-old Grenache was an unexpectedly great Valentine’s Day wine idea because it made the evening much more memorable. My spouse and I have shared dozens of bottles of Champagne together, but we’ve only had one bottle of 1961 Grenache from the Languedoc.

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Masseto makes some of the Super Tuscan best vintages

Super Tuscans: The Best Vintages for Your Collection

Buying Wine, Collecting, Italy, Wine Regions

What I love most about Super Tuscans is how diverse these wines are. Some are almost purple in color, with bold, fruit-forward flavors, while others are bright red, finessed, and racy. No matter what type of wine you prefer to drink, there’s a Super Tuscan out there that is perfect for you. However, this diversity also makes these wines more difficult to shop for based on vintage alone. When you drink a red Bordeaux blend or a white Burgundy, you usually know exactly what to expect before you uncork the bottle, based on what critics have said about the vintage. But with Super Tuscans, finding the best vintages isn’t always so clear-cut. The best vintage for a bold Syrah blend, for example, might differ from that for a Sangiovese blend. To find the highest-quality Super Tuscan vintages, you need to take into consideration the weather conditions and how they affected the primary grape varieties in the blend.

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Sauternes, Champagne, and port all make great Christmas wine.

The Ultimate Guide to Christmas Wine

Buying Wine, Enjoying Wine, Holiday, Parties

Hosting Christmas can be a challenge—not only do you need to make sure there’s enough wine to go around, but you also have to choose those wines carefully so that they appeal to everyone. As a wine enthusiast, you might have a tradition of drinking aged Bordeaux on Christmas Eve, while your uncle prefers California Chardonnay. Even if you’re invited as a guest to Christmas, it’s customary in some families to bring along a bottle or two of wine to share.

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A great start to a Christmas wine basket is one red wine and one white.

Why You Should Make a Christmas Wine Basket for Everyone on Your List

Buying Wine, Gifts, Holiday

A wine collector I know buys dozens of bottles online around the holiday season, and over the years, he’s become acquaintances with the UPS driver who drops off the packages. They often have conversations about their favorite bottles of wine while he signs for the deliveries. One year, my friend decided to get the UPS driver a Christmas wine basket to show his appreciation for handling the deliveries with such care. He chose three bottles of wine that he thought the driver would enjoy and gave the basket to him during one of his usual deliveries. The driver was thrilled with the unexpected gift and the thought that went into it.

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How to Create Champagne Gift Baskets from Scratch

Buying Wine, Champagne, France, Gifts, Holiday

For the wine enthusiasts in your life who seem to have everything, the most memorable gift is one you can make yourself. Rather than buying them yet another waiter’s corkscrew or monogrammed glass, you can give a curated Champagne gift basket unlike any they’ve seen before. Even if the person on your gift list has a fully-stocked cellar, a carefully-selected basket of fine Champagne and accessories will make their holiday season unforgettable. These baskets also appeal to casual wine drinkers, so you can make one for nearly anyone on your gift list this year.

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The best holiday wines of 2018 are Sauternes and Champagne.

The Best Holiday Wines of 2018: Celebrate the Season in Style

Buying Wine, Enjoying Wine, Gifts, Holiday, Parties

Three years ago, I was invited to a New Year’s Eve dinner party with a small group of close friends. I knew that I wanted to bring a bottle of wine, but I was having trouble deciding what type to bring. I assumed that everyone else would be bringing the usual Champagne for New Year’s Eve, so I crossed that off the shortlist. I wanted to choose a wine no one else in the group would think to bring, like New-World Pinot Noir, Riesling, or Torrontés. I eventually decided on a bottle of Rhys Pinot Noir, and it turned out to be the perfect choice for the event. The wine paired beautifully with our food and it was a nice change of pace from the sparkling wine everyone else brought.

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Champagne can make one of the best wine retirement gifts.

The Best Wine Retirement Gifts, from Champagne to Fine Bordeaux

Buying Wine, Gifts, Parties

Some bottles are destined to make great wine retirement gifts. In a recent discussion on the Wine Berserkers forum, member Andrew Demaree wrote that he gave a bottle of 1997 Montelena to his father to celebrate his recent retirement. To Demaree’s surprise, another forum member responded to his comment saying that he, too, had been given an entire case of the exact same vintage after retiring from his company. Demaree wrote back, “That’s fantastic. They must’ve thought very highly of you!”

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The 2018 Bordeaux harvest was very successful.

The 2018 Bordeaux Harvest Promises an Exciting, Perhaps Classic, Vintage

Bordeaux, Buying Wine, Collecting, France, Investing, Wine Regions, Winemaking

Usually, winemakers in Bordeaux are hesitant to call a vintage superb until all of the grapes have been picked and the wine has finished fermenting. This year, however, winemakers across the region are thrilled with the quality and ripeness of the grapes–they’re already calling the 2018 Bordeaux harvest one of the most successful of the past decade. While it’s still too early to make any definitive predictions about the investment potential of the 2018 vintage, based on the health of the grapes picked so far, you can expect to see plenty of age-worthy, intense wines. This is a vintage that you’ll want to keep a close watch on as it develops over the next few months.

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Bordeaux and Burgundy wine as an asset class for investors.

Why You Should Treat Your Wine As an Asset Class

Buying Wine, Collecting, Investing, Wine Markets

Considering wine as an asset class can be an attractive option for collectors because trends in the wine market are generally more stable and predictable than they are in many other industries. Domaine de la Romanée-Conti (DRC), for instance, has held a strong share of the secondary market for decades, and this trend isn’t expected to reverse anytime soon. However, in order to maximize your returns, you need to consider what makes wine a great investment, how to identify wines that are worth keeping, and what to do with your bottles once you have them in your cellar.

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