A dark, concentrated and powerful wine, with dark fruit tones and impressive flavor impact. But that’s only...
Ingleside Winery, Virginia (United States) Petit Verdot 2014
With good concentration and flavor intensity, this is an attention-grabber, but the tannic grip is gentle, and the wine...
Veritas Vineyard and Winery, Monticello (Virginia) Petit Verdot 2014
A quite complex and detailed wine, this shows both black and red fruit tones, with interesting oak backnotes of toast,...
Valley Road Vineyards, Monticello (Virginia) Petit Verdot 2014
This is among the most “polished” of the 2014 Virginia Petit Verdots I have tasted, but it isn’t...
Best of 2017…With a View to 2018
My last column of 2017 took a retrospective look at some of the vinous highlights I observed during the year, whereas this...
Best of 2017, Vol. I
Everyone seems to have his or her favorite holiday, and for many years, mine has been New Year’s Eve and Day. I love...
Luciano Sandrone, Nebbiolo d’Alba (Piedmont, Italy) 2015
This wine is sourced from an unbelievably steep, impeccably maintained site in the Roero district near Alba. I first...
Luciano Sandrone, Barbera d’Alba (Piedmont, Italy) 2015
This is the best Barbera I tasted during 2017, and one of the best young Barberas ever to pass my lips. Everything...
Dr. Loosen, Mosel (Germany) Riesling Kabinett 2016
Loosen's Bernkasteler Lay vineyard (situated quite near the estate house in Bernkastel) sometimes produces Eiswein and now...
Olga Raffault, Chinon (Loire Valley, France) 2011
Made entirely from Cabernet Franc, this wine is at a lovely stage of development right now, showing emerging complexities...
Fritz Haag, Mosel (Germany) Riesling 2016
A sensational Riesling that might well be the best dry release I’ve ever tasted from this fine producer, this is a...
Penfolds, South Australia (Australia) Shiraz – Mataro 2014
This wine from Penfolds -- a genuinely great producer and a standard-bearer for all of Australian wine -- falls somewhere...