Santa Cruz Mountains – The Gorgeous 2016s
featured, United States: California
, Aug 2018
Readers who appreciate the transparency and nuance of site-specific Chardonnays, Pinot Noirs and Bordeaux blends will adore the 2016s from the Santa Cruz Mountains. The wines are aromatically nuanced, delineated and highly expressive of their origins. After brutally low yields in 2015, Mother Nature was more generous in 2016. Yields are never especially high in the mountains, but producers had enough fruit to bottle all of their labels, a highly positive development compared to 2015, when a number of wines weren't made at all. As always, I am struck by the complexity and world-class pedigree that seems to come naturally in the Santa Cruz Mountains, a bucolic, seemingly remote region that is in reality quite close to Silicon Valley and some of the most vibrant communities in the United States.
Make Way for Even More Rosé
featured, Rest of the World
, Aug 2018
This summer gave me an opportunity to sample a number of high-quality Rosés, wines that are ideal companions to hot-weather food or for just enjoying by themselves. But don’t be in a hurry as their adaptability at the table often makes them year-round drinking options.
Mirror Image: 2016 & 2017 Chablis
featured, France: Burgundy
, Aug 2018
Chablis has born the brunt of frost and hail in recent vintages and yet it remains one of Burgundy’s most exciting regions. With the spotlight on 2016 and 2017, how did growers cope with the hurdles that Mother Nature threw in their way and how is Chablis changing as a region?
Rocca di Montegrossi: Vigneto San Marcellino 1995–2013
featured, Verticals & Retrospectives, Italy: Tuscany
, Aug 2018
From his first vintage in 1995, Marco Ricasoli-Firidolfi has crafted powerful, yet elegant wines imbued with real character. This vertical tasting of the Chianti Classico Vigneto San Marcellino once again showed the pedigree Sangiovese is capable of in the hands of an inspired grower guided by a desire to make wines that express the essence of site and vintage.
Aiming High: Haut-Condissas 1997–2015
featured, Verticals & Retrospectives, France: Bordeaux
, Aug 2018
I rarely travel to the far northern reaches of the Médoc. Beyond Calon-Ségur, the Médoc is a mystery...like Narnia...or north Essex. However, when Jean Guyon invited me for a complete vertical of Haut-Condissas back to 1997, I was intrigued to discover whether or not it fulfills its lofty ambitions.
2016 Gigondas – A Slam Dunk
featured, France: Rhône & Beaujolais
, Aug 2018
Two thousand sixteen in Gigondas, as in the rest of the southern Rhône, experienced a growing season for the record books, yet again – producing expressive, intense, fruit-driven wines of often profound depth as well as energy.
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Dunn Cabernet Sauvignon Howell Mountain: 1979–2014
featured, Verticals & Retrospectives, United States: California
, Aug 2018
From the outset, Randy Dunn’s flagship Cabernet has been one of Napa Valley’s slowest agers and most consistently outstanding wines. This retrospective going back to the inaugural 1979 vintage showed the Howell Mountain Cabernet to be a wine of great intensity and staying power but also of restraint and class.
Rheingau and Mittelrhein Riesling 2016: Stress Test
featured, germany: Mosel
, Jul 2018
The 2016 growing season in the Rheingau and Mittelrhein set weather records. But the resulting Rieslings, while variable in quality, are often impressive thanks to their balance and understated character, which stand in contrast to the vintage's meteorological extremes.
Argentina’s Wines Enter the World Stage
featured, Argentina
, Jul 2018
Against a backdrop of some recent tricky growing seasons and the constant economic challenge of doing business in Argentina, the country’s best producers are making more refined, aromatically complex and vibrant wines than ever before – bottles that should satisfy even hard-core fans of classic European wines.
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The Marital Margaux: d’Issan 1945-2015
featured, Verticals & Retrospectives, France: Bordeaux
, Jul 2018
Château d’Issan is one of the most ancient estates in Bordeaux, and traces its history all the way back to the 12th century. D’Issan, at the time known as La Mothe-Cantenac, hosted the nuptials of the future King Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine in 1152. Amazingly, some 866 years later, visitors can still tour the château and imbibe the wine that Henry and Eleanor purportedly drank on their wedding day. This article focuses on a comprehensive vertical that I undertook with co-owner Emmanuel Cruse that spanned the entire postwar period.