MENTIONED IN THIS POST: -Coche-Dury -Bruno Clair -Montelena Making Chardonnay is usually a delicate process that requires a gentle hand–you have to carefully sort the fragile fruit into a nearly-airtight grape press, then slowly squeeze each cluster just enough to let the juice run out. But modern wineries are beginning to embrace a darker, more…
MENTIONED IN THIS POST: -Chateau Margaux -Chateau Ausone -Chateau d’Yquem -Maison Louis Jadot -Domaine Henri Jayer When I first started collecting wine, I assumed I knew everything about reading a French wine label. As long as I recognized words like “Chateauneuf du Pape,” “Grand Cru,” or “Margaux,” I thought that I could tell whether a…
MENTIONED IN THIS POST: -2009 Dal Forno Amarone -2011 Beaucastel -2009 Alvaro Palacios -2005 Cheval Blanc If you’re just getting started as a wine collector, you might have noticed that wine critics and other enthusiasts rarely, if ever, talk about wine’s intoxicating effects. They’ll praise a wine’s soft fruit, residual sugar, and long finish, but…
MENTIONED IN THIS POST: -Sine Qua Non -2005 Ojai Syrah Melville Vineyards -2005 Jonata El Desafio de Jonata This July, a massive wildfire scorched through hectares of riverbeds and grapevines along the edge of North Canyon Vineyard in southern California. Winemakers at the neighboring Bien Nacido Vineyards feared that the fire would make its way…
MENTIONED IN THIS POST: -Kapcsandy -Harlan -Sine Qua Non -Scarecrow -Rhys -Schrader -Saxum -Shafer -Abreu -Bryant Family -Marcassin -Dalla Valle -Screaming Eagle Would you wait 10 years to get on the best California wine mailing lists? For collectors wishing to buy directly from the state’s top producers, spending a decade trying to get onto a…
MENTIONED IN THIS POST: -Yquem -2001 Yquem -2007 Yquem -2011 Yquem Chateau d’Yquem’s 2001 vintage nearly breaks our rating system. It’s one of those rare wines that already tastes perfect in its youth, and only seems to get remarkably better as the years wear on. Many critics who have tried this wine aren’t even sure…
MENTIONED IN THIS POST: -Taittinger -Rhys Wine seller Tom Natan recently noticed a major difference between millennial wine drinkers and older generations: millennials usually buy far more wine, and in greater variety, than their older peers. Over the past few years, he’s seen young wine enthusiasts order case after case of mixed wine from every…
MENTIONED IN THIS POST: -Hourglass -Screaming Eagle -Ornellaia Earlier this year, Hourglass had a close call with a handful of pine trees in their vineyard. Months of unusually heavy rain in the late winter caused massive flooding in the vineyard, which caused several 150-foot pine trees to rip right out of the ground. Vineyard proprietor…
MENTIONED IN THIS POST: -Aubert -Latour -2009 Margaux -Ausone As someone who, when I was younger, used to buy wine exclusively at my favorite shop down the street from my house, I never thought that I’d need to know how to ship wine. However, everything changed for me when I decided to order my first…
MENTIONED IN THIS POST: -Clos des Papes -Clos St. Jean -Dalla Valle -2012 Beaucastel -2002 Dominus -2001 Haut-Brion Blanc The Washington Post’s Kristen Hartke was a self-proclaimed “wine consumer, not a connoisseur.” She didn’t have an in-depth knowledge of the winemaking process–she didn’t even know which grapes make up the perfect bottle of Chateauneuf du…
MENTIONED IN THIS POST: -Sine Qua Non -Harlan -DRC -Sine Qua Non The Bride -Sine Qua Non Pagan Poetry -Guigal New World wines taste better today than they have in the history of the wine industry. California cult wines, in particular, have greatly improved in quality since the 1960s, yet one cult winery seems to…
MENTIONED IN THIS POST: -Screaming Eagle -Chateau Latour You would think that a wine enthusiast loves walking into a restaurant to find a wine list hundreds of pages long. In theory, more wine choices means a better chance that you’re going to find something exciting and mouthwatering. However, in practice, most of the wine lovers…
