MENTIONED IN THIS POST: -Cos d’Estournel -Lafite-Rothschild -Latour -Mouton-Rothschild -Haut Brion -Petrus -Cheval Blanc -Angelus -Talbot -L’Evangile After spending nearly a week in France last year, I quickly learned which recent Bordeaux vintages were worth my time. I already knew which vintages critics loved best, like 2009 L’Evangile or 2005 Lafite-Rothschild, but trying these superb…
MENTIONED IN THIS POST: -Ponsot -Liger-Belair -DRC In 2016, a vineyard frost in Burgundy was the worst the region had seen in nearly 30 years. In response, this year, Burgundy’s top producers are being far more cautious with their delicate early buds. They’re using special “hailstone shields” in their vineyards to prevent the worst of…
MENTIONED IN THIS POST: -Kosta Browne -Rhys You might assume that it costs the same for a winery to make wine with high alcohol by volume (ABV) as it does to make wine with low ABV. But this isn’t the case in the United States. We actually tax low ABV wines at $1.07 per gallon,…
MENTIONED IN THIS POST: -DRC -Screaming Eagle -Lafite -Margaux -Liger-Belair -Yquem -Krug Critic Matt Kramer recently praised the “contrarian cellar” in his Drinking Out Loud op-ed. He thinks of a contrarian cellar as the opposite of what you’d normally see in a collection; instead of dust-covered bottles of DRC, you’ll find obscure Quarts de…
MENTIONED IN THIS POST: -Lafite -Le Pin -2013 Aubert -2012 Shafer -2002 Moet & Chandon One of my friends works as a chef at a California winery, and over the years, she’s gathered a modest stash of about 50 bottles from her employers. But rather than keeping these bottles neatly on a wine rack in…
MENTIONED IN THIS POST: -2015 Philippe Pacalet Moulin-a-Vent -2007 Santa Duc Grand Grenache 66 -2011 Teso La Monja Alabaster -Chateau Petrus -Joh Jos Prum -2013 Kumeu River Chardonnay Mate’s Vineyard -2009 Didier Dagueneau Pouilly-Fume Buisson Renard -Guigal Over the past few years, naysayers have been skeptical over whether sommeliers can actually identify wines from…
MENTIONED IN THIS POST: -DRC -Georges de Vogue -Henri Jayer -Louis Jadot -Claude Dugat A young wine collector I know visited France for the first time, and decided to spend a full day shopping for new bottles in Lyon. In one wine shop, she found several 2008 bottles from her favorite Burgundy producer, each selling…
MENTIONED IN THIS POST: -Pichon Lalande 1982 -Angelus -Latour When I asked my uncle to name his all-time favorite bottle of Bordeaux, his answer surprised me. “It’s 1982 Pichon Lalande, by far,” he said. Although he had uncorked other greats like Angelus and Latour, he loved the 1982 Pichon Lalande most of all. This vintage…
MENTIONED IN THIS POST: -Inglenook 2013 -Shafer When I first started drinking and collecting wine, I was convinced that no bottle was too rare to drink. After all, wine was meant to be drunk. Sure, I might feel sheepish after opening a rare bottle, but I always believed that the pleasure of tasting that ultra…
MENTIONED IN THIS POST: -DRC -Lafite There’s a niche group of wine collectors who only buy the best Domaine de la Romanee Conti vintages, and it’s easy to see why. DRC consistently produces some of the most collectible wine bottles in the world. Legendary, 100-point vintages sell for as much as $20,000 per bottle, on…
MENTIONED IN THIS POST: -JJ Prum -Grunhaus -Donnhoff A few months ago, I got into a heated debate with my friend over which wines are more storage-worthy: sweet German Riesling or dry German Riesling? My friend was convinced that sweet Riesling is the only Riesling worth storing long term because it is the original…
MENTIONED IN THIS POST: -Ausone -Angelus -Cheval Blanc Close to one year after Burgundy’s devastating 2016 frost, Bordeaux went through an equally destructive cold snap that damaged up to 90 percent of the vines on some estates. On April 27, 2017, winemakers in most regions of Bordeaux awakened to temperatures as low as 24.8°F, cold…
