When wine critic James Suckling gives you the title of “world’s greatest wine collector,” you know you are doing something right. Collector Henry Tang earned such a title when Suckling visited his personal cellar in 2013. Tang’s cellar was meticulously organized by each Burgundian producer in his extensive collection, which made it simple for Tang…
Champagne has been hailed as the king of wine for centuries, but over the past 10 years, it is slowly being replaced in popularity by sparkling wine from other regions. Sparkling wine sales in other countries have increased by 40 percent, selling about 2.3 billion bottles globally every year, compared to Champagne’s 3 million…
Since 1978, the Wilson Daniels company has maintained one of the world’s most selective fine wine and spirits portfolios. Over the years, founders Win Wilson and Jack Daniels distilled a family-driven philosophy, treasuring their relationships with a strategic mix of terroir-based luxury producers who set the tone for winemaking across the world’s top wine…
A recent study conducted in New Zealand could explain the source of New Zealand and Napa Valley’s one-of-a-kind terroir flavors.1 Terroir characteristics in wine have little to do with minerals in the soil, and everything to do with the yeast strain S. cerevisiae, according to this study. Certain strains of this yeast, which seem…
As one of the top two winegrowing regions in Italy, Piedmont stands out for its one-of-a-kind varietals, Nebbiolo and Dolcetto. What many collectors might not realize is that this region is cultivating a new era of classic wines such as Cabernet Sauvignon, in addition to its traditional, regional-based offerings. To find the latest trends…
Today, wine collectors consider Mouton Rothschild synonymous with premium Bordeaux, but this wasn’t always the case. The 1855 Classification in France passed over the estate in its first round of surveys, refusing it the title of Grand Cru. Despite the estate’s centuries-long history of viticulture, and its growing reputation as a role model for fine…
In 1988, billionaire Bill Koch bought the wine of a lifetime: four pristine 1784 Lafite bottles owned by Thomas Jefferson himself. Koch paid wine collector Hardy Rodenstock nearly $500,000 for the privilege of owning a piece of wine history. In 2005, Koch submitted his bottles to the Boston Museum of Fine Arts, but soon discovered…
With wine fraud, it’s difficult to know how widespread the problem is until major collectors like Bill Koch become its victims. The wine industry brings in about $300 billion per year in revenue, but experts believe that hundreds of thousands of dollars in profits are made exclusively on fake or mislabeled wine. A recent study…
In the wine industry, many still scoff at the idea of Alsace red wine; they imagine the delicate flavors of Alsace Pinot Noir, served at cool temperatures much like a Rose, believing that Alsace’s version lacks the depth and intensity of classic Pinot Noir. Today, Pinot Noir in the region has become denser and…
Perhaps no state in the US has surpassed expectations in 2015 more than Oregon. International Oregon wine sales have increased by a whopping 50 percent over the past year, which is the most a single state in the US has increased in more than 10 years. A renewed culture of fine wine in the…
On public radio station NHPR, Chef Evan Mallett describes the first time he tried oxidized wine at a Parisian restaurant, Saturne.1 A decade ago, Saturne’s owner would have been committing a major faux pas by knowingly serving an oxidized wine to a customer, since this wine quality is considered a fatal bottle flaw. However,…
The age of the truly free New York sommelier might be over. The New York State Liquor Authority recently announced that it will change the state’s beverage laws, making it impossible for restaurants to craft wine lists based around wines from private collections. In other words, New York restaurants will only be able to…
