For some years, I have been following European experimental vineyards planted to preserve forgotten native grapes, usually...
Seña, Aconcagua Valley (Chile) 2019
Twenty-five vintages ago, an exuberant Robert Mondavi and a quite young Eduardo Chadwick launched Seña, intending...
Shut Up and Drink Your Pinot Noir!
I love sitting down with a winemaker and tasting her wines, but only because opening bottles and filling glasses gives her...
Lail Vineyards, Napa Valley (California) Cabernet Sauvignon 2019
Robin Daniel Lail is one of a pioneering handful of daughters in Napa Valley to take up their father’s profession at...
19 Crimes, California (United States) Chardonnay 2020
In 2004, the until-then straight-laced Martha Stewart, food and entertaining doyenne, was sentenced to five months in a...
Billecart-Salmon, Champagne (France) 2008
In an introductory Zoom presentation, Billecart-Salmon leader Mathieu Rolland-Billecart joked, “If you don’t...
Echeverria Family Wines, Maipo Valley (Chile) Cabernet Sauvignon 2016
Buying a wine with a hefty price tag is a transaction that needs to be justified only by the buyer, and wine writers...
Cliff Lede Vineyards, Stags Leap District, Napa Valley (California) Cabernet Sauvignon 2019
Cliff Lede’s vineyards lie in the northern part of Stags Leap District, but, unlike most of the area’s...
Evolutionary Winemaking Comes to Patagonia
If you ever couch ideas in terms of Darwinian evolution, then winegrowing in Patagonia makes a lot more sense today than it did...
Ramey Wine Cellars, Petaluma Gap, Sonoma Coast (Sonoma County, California) Syrah 2015
Dave Ramey always makes good to great wines, but the one variety he seems to repeatedly excel at is Syrah, especially...