Vacqueyras: The Southern Rhône’s Stealth Appellation
France: Rhône & Beaujolais, featured
, Feb 2020
While its more famous neighbors have long been on the radar of wine lovers and collectors, Vacqueyras and its wines continue to fly under the radar. That is likely to soon change, especially given the consistently fine value these wines offer and the uniformly high quality of recent and upcoming vintages.
Latest Releases: Calabria, Basilicata, Puglia and Sardinia
Italy: Center & South, featured
, Feb 2020
Southern Italy offers many excellent and often inexpensive wines for those willing to venture outside their comfort zone. Although there are underachievers, if you stick to the producers I recommend here, you won’t be disappointed, for there are a myriad of wine grapes, styles and estates worth discovering.
Complex, Not Complicated: 2017 DRC in Bottle
France: Burgundy, featured
, Feb 2020
Tasting the newly released wines from Domaine de la Romanée-Conti is never an ordinary day. The 2017s were in the spotlight this year. Here’s how the day unfolded hour by hour…
Gigondas Maintains Its Tempo
France: Rhône & Beaujolais, featured
, Feb 2020
Gigondas, like the rest of the southern Rhône Valley, experienced lows and highs, in that order, in 2017. The low points came at the beginning of the year, when warm weather set off early flowering, and in May, when shatter severely affected Grenache, resulting in significant crop loss across the region. Fortunately, the remainder of the season was picture perfect, if warm, while the quality of the crop was very high.
Alto Adige: On a Roll
Italy: North, featured
, Feb 2020
Readers will find some of Italy’s best wines in Alto Adige, the northerly mountain region that borders Austria. It is here that the country’s top white wines are made, while there are increasingly more compelling reds to choose from as well. Readers won’t want to miss out on the latest vintages. Overall quality has never been higher.
Refusing to Follow the Script: Jean-Marie Guffens
Verticals & Retrospectives, France: Burgundy, featured
, Feb 2020
The outspoken Jean-Marie Guffens has spent almost four decades making superb Mâconnais wines. This retrospective would always be entertaining. But what do Blade Runner and Pink Floyd have to do with it?
2016 Barolo: Right Place, Right Time
Italy: Piedmont, featured
, Feb 2020
In so many ways, 2016 is all about being in the right place at the right time for Barolo. An ideal growing season with all the prerequisites for a great vintage comes at a time when so many winemakers are in their primes, past the stage of experimentation and settled into their own personal styles. The result is a vintage full of truly spectacular, breathtaking wines that captures all the pedigree that Nebbiolo and Barolo are capable of.
Volpe Pasini Pinot Bianco Zuc di Volpe: 1999-2017
Italy: North, featured
, Feb 2020
Pinot Bianco has called Friuli Venezia Giulia home for centuries now. Volpe Pasini’s Zuc di Volpe single-vineyard bottling is one of the best Pinot Biancos Italy has to offer. Pretty and varietally expressive, it’s also quite ageworthy.
Vintage Seeks Home: Bordeaux 2017 In Bottle
France: Bordeaux, featured
, Jan 2020
A surprise late spring frost was not the greatest start to the Bordeaux 2017 vintage, and unexpected import tariffs meant that the wines hit the shelves in an uncertain market. Despite all this, the vintage contains pleasant surprises. They just need to find homes.
Paso Robles Can’t Stop Winning
featured, United States: California
, Feb 2020
At the risk of sounding like a broken record, 2017 yielded yet another exceptional harvest for Paso Robles. It’s the latest in a stretch of outstanding vintages that extends, unbroken, back to 2011, which was by no means a truly bad year. The best wines deftly combine richness and energy, with a balance of fruit and structure that is compelling.