I’ve known collectors who love the idea of professional storage, but they’re too afraid to do it because they fear that if anything goes wrong during shipping, they’ll lose every bottle they own. I get it–even though a professional warehouse may be the safest place for your wine, getting a large number of bottles there…
Last summer, I went to a restaurant renowned for its expansive white wine list. I decided to try a flight of German Riesling, and the wines were exactly as I expected–full of life and minerality. When I told the sommelier this, he asked, “Have you ever had Weingut Gesellmann from Austria?” I told him I…
When you have vintage Krug, Screaming Eagle Cabernet, and Angelus Grand Cru on the menu, you need to give these special wines plenty of space to impress your guests (and yourself). If you serve the Screaming Eagle first, the wine’s robust, juicy flavors will overpower your palate, eclipsing the lighter flavors found in the Krug.…
My wine-loving uncle always told me that big Champagne bubbles were a bad sign. He’d say, “You might as well drink a bottle of cheap club soda.” However, researchers are now finding that when it comes to buying the best Champagne, bigger bubbles could be an important factor to consider. Physicist Gerard Liger-Belair recently discovered…
When you think of a Napa Valley cult wine, you probably picture a rich, fruit-forward glass of Cabernet Sauvignon. However, some of the best cult wines of the moment are in fact made from California’s lesser-known Cabernet Franc, a relatively uncommon varietal that’s only been gaining traction on the wine market over the past five…
As a collector, you’re always on the hunt for the next “it” wine, and we want to help you find it. We’ve discovered and compiled the most essential wine trends from the fall quarter that will keep you ahead of the game this year, and we’ve looked into what’s happening in the global wine market,…
The problem with legendary vintages that are more than 90 years old is not whether they’re worth investing in–they undoubtedly are–it’s that finding an authentic bottle becomes more and more difficult every year. A wine like 1928 Mouton-Rothschild combines rarity, old age, and quality, and it’s these factors that make it one of the greatest…
The summer after I graduated from high school, I stayed at my grandmother’s house for a few weeks to help her with a gardening project. After a long day of digging in the dirt, she’d usually relax on the couch with her knitting and a chilled glass of Robert Mondavi Chardonnay. One evening, her foot…
Last spring, a group of French winemakers hijacked five tankers carrying gallons of cheap Spanish wine. They forced the tankers to the side of the road, turned on the their taps one by one, and dumped tens of thousands of liters of generic red wine into the streets. The hijackers destroyed the wine because they…
One of my acquaintances invests in white Burgundy every year, even in times of hardship for the region. I recently asked what he thought of Burgundy’s low 2016 yields, and he said, “I have a feeling my favorites will be hard to find…I’m thinking about buying more Loire instead.” He isn’t alone; Loire Valley is…
In 2009, a collector tried a delicious aged bottle of Cayuse from Washington, and immediately signed up for the mailing list. Years later, he finally cleared the list, but his excitement was short-lived. After buying two bottles of 7-year-old Armada and God Only Knows, he found their funky, earthy flavors far too overpowering. The collector…
My grandmother always told me that I should never keep open Champagne overnight. When I got older, I decided to test this theory. Early one evening, I got more than halfway through a bottle of Moet & Chandon (don’t ask me why I opened it knowing I wouldn’t finish it) and since I didn’t want…
