After helping Cloudy Bay bring New Zealand wines to the world’s attention with its racy Sauvignon Blanc — Cloudy Bay’s 1985 Sauvignon Blanc awakened Americans to New Zealand’s potential for making unique wine — Ivan Sutherland and James Healy are changing the New Zealand wine industry again.… Read more
Category Archives: Articles
THE ESSENTIALS: Spain’s Priorat region flexes its muscles
Editor’s note: Beginning today, the Wine section will profile noteworthy wine regions across the United States and around the world, with an eye toward helping you in your wine-buying decisions. Look for the Essentials every few weeks in Wine.
In just 20 years, wines from Priorat have gone from obscurity to being the most expensive in Spain.… Read more
An American in Beaune
It’s dinnertime in Beaune, the capital of the Burgundy wine trade, and Ma Cuisine, an unpretentious bistro, is packed and bustling as usual. When the door opens and an American with a charming boyish grin enters, the locals greet him with enthusiasm.… Read more
HdV Brings French Accent to Carneros
Here on the Eurocentric East Coast — remember we’re nearly as close to France as to California — I still am asked, albeit less frequently than two decades ago, whether America produces wines comparable to France. As my daughters would say, ‘Duh.’… Read more
Don’t Miss The 2004 White Burgundies
There is a good reason why fans of white Burgundy are smiling. Wines from the underrated 2004 vintage are now on retailers’ shelves, thankfully replacing the 2003 vintage.
Prices for the 2004 white Burgundies are steady or even lower than ’03, with no signs of upward movement. … Read more
Catalonia: Leading the Renaissance in Spain
Spain, a country with a long history of wine production, is seeing an unparalleled renaissance in its wines. In the past few years, Spain has leaped to primacy among wine producing countries in putting exciting new wines on the market.
In some respects, the current renaissance in Spain resembles the remarkable resurgence witnessed in Italy during the 1970s and 1980s.… Read more
Louis Latour’s Corton-Charlemagne: An Age-Worthy White Burgundy
Maison Louis Latour’s Corton-Charlemagne is the benchmark wine for that grand cru vineyard. Always tightly wound when young, its remarkable character opens and expands with years-even decades-of age.
The conventional wisdom holds that white wines don’t benefit from aging and often loses something, but this does not apply to most grand cru white Burgundies and certainly not to Latour’s Corton-Charlemagne.… Read more
Another French Paradox: Alsace Riesling
Everyone is familiar with the French Paradox: the French eat a diet rich in fat, but have a low rate of heart disease. Another French paradox is why Alsace Riesling is not more popular in the United States. By all rights, it should fly off the shelves.… Read more
For Seafood, Spanish Winemakers Finally Getting It White
Spain has the largest per capita consumption of seafood – after Japan – according to David Parker, Export Manager of Castillo Perelada, one of Spain’s leading wineries. But when I think of Spanish wines, it is the great reds from that country – Rioja, Priorat, Ribera del Duero – that leap to mind.… Read more
Australia’s western frontier: Maverick vintners make sophisticated, well-priced wines on the other side of the Outback
Everyone knows about Australia’s inexpensive, fruit-driven, mass-produced wines — think Yellow Tail, the largest-selling wine brand in U.S. food stores by dollar volume, according to ACNielsen.
But there is a wine-producing part of the country that shatters just about every aspect of that image.… Read more
Prosecco: Sparkling Summer Sipping
Prosecco, Italy’s unique and stellar contribution to the world of sparkling wine, must have been invented for summertime. Although the Italians drink it year round as an aperitif (consuming over two-thirds of the region’s 3 million case annual production), summer is the perfect discovery time for those unfamiliar with the joys of this light and “friendly” wine. … Read more
It Takes a Noble Grape to Make a Vino Nobile di Montepulciano
Vino Nobile di Montepulciano exemplifies the confusion surrounding Italian wine labels. This wine’s meteoric increase in quality over the past decade has yet to be matched by its price, so it’s definitely worth unraveling the name.
The Italians name their wines by place name, such as Chianti, or grape name — think Pinot Grigio — or both, Dolcetto d’Alba. … Read more
Everybody Loves a Deal: Alter Ego
Everybody loves a deal, and some of the best deals in Bordeaux these days are the “second” wines of the top-rated Bordeaux properties. “Second wines” come from parcels of the vineyard or barrels in the cellar that, for whatever reason, just don’t measure up to the producer’s standard for that particular year.… Read more
Special Report: Bordeaux 2005 Tasting Notes
The following notes are based on barrel samples tasted (unblinded) at the chateaux, at an unblinded tasting organized by the Cercle Rive Droite de Grands Vins de Bordeaux, an association of Right Bank producers, an unblinded tasting organized by Bill Blatch, a respected négociant, or at blind tastings organized by the Union des Grand Crus de Bordeaux.… Read more
Special Report: Bordeaux 2005, A Vintage to Cellar
After a week in Bordeaux, where I tasted more than 400 wines from the 2005 vintage, there is no question that this is a great vintage for red, dry white and sweet white wines. Although nature was equally benevolent across the regions, winemaking techniques (how long to macerate, how much new wood) and decisions (when to pick) resulted in dramatically different styles of wine, especially in Saint-Emilion.… Read more
Western Australia: A Different Style of Shiraz
Shiraz (aka Syrah) is now firmly in place as Australia’s most popular grape–and wine. But it wasn’t always that way. From the mid-1970s to the mid-1980s, plantings of Shiraz went down by half (to about 12,500 acres) because the Australian government paid growers to pull out vines as consumption of red table wine fell from fashion.… Read more
Refined Reds from the Wild West
The labels say “product of Australia,” but red wines from Western Australia are about as un-Australian as you can get. Those expecting super ripe flavors and 15 percent alcohol so common in Australian wines are in for a major–and pleasant–surprise. These wines, whether made from Cabernet or Shiraz, have elegance, finesse and complexity.… Read more
Vintage New York
The current fashion in wine, certainly in New World wines, is for ripe, fruity flavors and the massive alcohol that invariably accompanies them. Consumers looking for alternatives need to look outside the mainstream. Wines from New York State, which certainly qualify as “outside the mainstream,” offer an extra touch of ripeness that is the New World’s signature, while retaining vibrancy that a cool climate imparts.… Read more
Selecting Wine in a Restaurant
It is the part of restaurant dining that most people dread. You are with a group of colleagues or friends, or perhaps on a special date. The conversation is flowing, everyone is relaxed and having a good time. Then, the waiter gives you the wine list.… Read more
Author’s Expertise Makes Book an Intoxicating Read
Paul Lukacs, author of “American Vintage: The Rise of American Wine” (Houghton Mifflin, 2000), has written another great book about American wines that every wine lover, especially Francophiles, should own. The beauty of his new book, “The Great Wines of America: The Top Forty Vintners, Vineyards, and Vintages” (W.W.… Read more
This poor man’s Barolo is surprisingly rich
Barolo is the king of Italian wines. Made from the nebbiolo grape grown in a small, sharply delimited area surrounding the village of Barolo, near Alba in Piedmont, it requires a king’s ransom to put some in your cellar. Even after paying $50 to $100 a bottle and often more, you need plenty of patience because it’s a wine that needs many years of bottle aging before its complex glories emerge.… Read more
Reserve Wines Score, But at What Price?
Bait and switch, an unsavory tactic in the used-car business, is finding its way into the wine industry. Think of the bait as a New World reserve wine that is produced simply to generate a 90-point-plus score from a top wine critic.… Read more
Enjoy a vintage Port without the waiting
Vintage Port, though one of the world’s great wines, is made the same way as all Port. The grapes are harvested, crushed, and fermented for only three days, instead of the usual 7-10 days for red table wine. At that point, the winemaker adds brandy, which raises the alcohol to 20 percent and kills the yeast, stopping fermentation before all the grape sugar has been converted to alcohol.… Read more
2001 Io has plumlike and peppery contrast
Back in the ’80s, when syrah, grenache, and mourvèdre were hardly known outside their traditional home in France’s Rhône Valley, a group of winemakers advocated growing them in California.
One of these Rhône Rangers was Byron ”Ken” Brown, who introduced Rhône varieties into the Santa Ynez Valley of Santa Barbara County while working at Zaca Mesa Winery.… Read more
A French Connection Lifts Oregon Vineyard
Although the film “Sideways” highlighted Southern California as pinot noir country, Oregon is also a leading source of superb wine made from that grape. Many comparative tastings have shown that Oregon’s pinot noirs rank with the world’s best, and to many consumers it has become that state’s signature wine.… Read more
Who Says New World Wines Don’t Develop?
The major criticisms of wines from the New World are that they have too much fruit and alcohol and too little subtlety and elegance. Critics go on to say that these wines are unbalanced and fail to develop complexity and layers of non-fruit flavors as they age.… Read more
A cabernet sauvignon for an occasion
Frank Altamura, the winemaker at his eponymous property in California, is a farmer at heart. ”The big fun is in the vineyards,” he says.
With no formal winemaking training, he learned by doing, first at Sterling Vineyards and then at other notable Napa Valley properties: Trefethen, Caymus, and Dunn.… Read more
A $10 Spanish Red That’s Easily Sipped
Although Spain has been producing wines since the Phoenicians settled there, they have become fashionable only recently. The modernization of Spain’s wine industry and leap in quality come from an influx of investment after it joined the European Community in 1988.… Read more
A vintage champagne that’s affordable
Like other fine wine, champagne can improve with age, as Duval-Leroy’s nearly 10-year-old vintage champagne demonstrates. Although 1996 produced excellent wines throughout France, no region did better than Champagne, where it will rank as one of the greatest vintages ever.
Most champagne is nonvintage; a blend of wine from several years’ harvests aimed at producing a consistent house style year after year.… Read more
Sauvignon Blanc from Marlborough: A True New World Terroir
The French speak passionately about terroir, a concept maintaining that the character of a wine comes from the unique climate and soil where the grapes are grown. They claim grapes are mere vehicles for transmitting the flavor of the earth into the wine from which they are crafted.… Read more
Chilean Cabernet Sauvignon is Fruity Yet Sophisticated
Chile, initially known for its well-made under-$10 wines, has entered the upscale market with bottlings in the $60-plus range, such as Almaviva, a joint effort of Bordeaux’s Mouton Rothschild and Chile’s Concha y Toro, Casa Lapostolle’s Clos Apalta, and Vinedo Chadwick.… Read more
Hungarian Tokaji a dry delight
With wine, as with most of life, it pays to listen to people with experience.
George Bardis, who runs the wine department at Martignetti’s Soldiers Field Road store and tastes thousands of wines each year, recently returned from Hungary where he sampled scores.… Read more
An elite chardonnay without the cost
It’s always a treat to run across a wine that delivers more than it is supposed to. And it’s a special treat when the wine is made from chardonnay, since wines made from that grape can be monotonous.
Although Californian and Australian chardonnay dominate the American market, the finest ones come from Burgundy.… Read more
A Conversation with Christian Moueix, Part II: Dominus Estate
Christian Moueix, perhaps the most influential wine figure in Pomerol and St. Émilion where he oversees his family’s ten properties, also owns Dominus Estate in the Napa Valley. During a recent trip to California to supervise activities at Dominus, he stopped in Boston and we met and tasted for three illuminating hours in my kitchen.… Read more
New Zealand Bubbly Deserves A Toast
Champagne, without doubt the world’s best bubbly, is a good but pricey way to alleviate end-of-summer blues. Often, we must make do with a less-expensive alternative, sparkling wine.
Notwithstanding the label of some California sparkling wines, true champagne comes only from a specified method using chardonnay, pinot noir, and pinot meunier grown in the Champagne region of France, about 100 miles east of Paris.… Read more
Torrontes offers sweet taste of summer
One sip of torrontes, made from Argentina’s most widely planted white grape of the same name, will keep you in the summer spirit; it is the perfect summertime wine.
It is likely the grape arrived in Argentina from Northern Spain, but its precise lineage and origin remain obscure, so don’t bother looking for a European counterpart.… Read more
La Posta’s 2003 bonarda is a lively dinner partner
By now, many wine drinkers are accustomed to ordering malbec, currently Argentina’s signature wine. But how many know or have even heard of bonarda, Argentina’s second most important red wine grape? As recently as 25 years ago, it was Argentina’s most popular red grape, as growers planted it after they ripped out malbec.… Read more
A Conversation with Christian Moueix
Perhaps people who spend their entire life with Merlot become like the wine: easy-going and charming, without hard edges. That describes Christian Moueix, a man who is remarkably straightforward, especially for someone so important and influential in the world of wine.… Read more
2001 Napanook a ‘second’ with first-class traits
Christian Moueix was born with merlot in his blood, which makes what he has done in Napa Valley all the more amazing. His family owns or controls the most prestigious properties in Pomerol, including Chateau Petrus, one of Bordeaux’s finest wines.… Read more
N.Y. Riesling lacks cloying sweetness
New York wines lack the cachet of those from California, which is too bad since some, like Riesling, are stellar and more exciting than their West Coast counterparts.
The Finger Lakes region, with almost 100 wineries, accounts for 90 percent of the state’s wine.… Read more
Bring on the Lo Mein, but Hold the Corkscrew
WINE NEW ZEALAND SAUVIGNON BLANC
Carry-out Chinese food has been one way to get through the worst heat spells this summer. That begs the question of what to drink with it.
Some prefer beer, while others complain that it’s too heavy.… Read more
Critic’s success story is an intoxicating read
Elin McCoy’s ”Emperor of Wine, The Rise of Robert M. Parker Jr. and the Reign of American Taste” ($25.95; Ecco) is an essential book for anyone interested in wine, but it would also be enjoyed by general readers, especially those interested in a uniquely American accomplishment.… Read more
2002 Red Burgundies: Catch Them While You Can
Although they may lack the cachet of wines from small growers, such as Lafarge or Mongeard-Mugneret, the Burgundies made by négociants, especially in 2002, are not to be missed. Négociants are companies, either large or small, that buy grapes or newly made wines in bulk from growers.… Read more
Let Your Palate Pick What’s Fit to Savor
It’s important to trust your palate when it comes to wine. Recommendations from so-called experts and friends are helpful, of course, but should never be the final word because sometimes reviewers disagree. Take, for example, Grgich’s 2002 Chardonnay. A national specialized wine magazine gave it an average score, 76, earlier in the year, but I’ve tasted it twice recently and thought it was terrific.… Read more
A Match for Either Burgers or Lobsters
Chenin blanc gets no respect, and there’s a reason: Most wines made from this grape are insipidly sweet and characterless.
There are exceptions. The Loire village of Vouvray is home to fruity but racy wines made from chenin blanc that are definitely not insipid and go down quite nicely in the summer heat.… Read more
’02 Quincy could be a local favorite
If there was ever a wine that should fly off the shelves based on the name alone, especially south of Boston, it is Domaine Henri Bourgeois’s 2002 Quincy. Fortunately, the wine doesn’t have to rest solely on labeling; it’s delicious and well priced, too.… Read more
Paraduxx an exuberant blend from California
Duckhorn Vineyards made a name for itself in the late 1970s by producing an exceptional wine from merlot, a grape considered at that time best suited for blending. … Read more
A carmenere that’s complex without the cost
Some grapes are unique to a locale. Carmenere is one that used to be. Along with cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc, and merlot, it was used in 19th-century France to make red Bordeaux. But it was exported to Chile at that time, when the modern Chilean wine industry was getting started, and now it is found throughout that nation and rarely elsewhere.… Read more
A wine blend from quality grapes
In 1395, Phillip the Bold, Duke of Burgundy, banned what he called the ”très mauvais” (very bad) gamay grape from Burgundy, relegating it to Beaujolais, a less prestigious area further south. But as with many royal decrees, not everybody listened. So there is still plenty of gamay planted in Burgundy, even though pinot noir is considered the red grape of that region.… Read more
A Sancerre substitute is more than suitable
White wines from Sancerre and its neighboring Loire River town of Pouilly, which gives us Pouilly Fume, have grown so popular that it is unusual to find a bottle from either for less than $20. Their appeal comes from a lively combination of minerality and zestiness derived from the sauvignon blanc grape grown on the region’s limestone soil.… Read more