Every year, Steve Edmunds manages to make great wine and this 2013, a 1⁄2 grenache blend, is a pure example. The fruit here comes from the Unti vineyard in Sonoma.... read more →
One of our favorite Californians is back in its 2013 version. From granitic loam soils. Harvest was earlier this year. It’s 100% whole cluster and foot- stomped, raised in 600... read more →
In 2013, the Los Pilares was a foot-stomped glory. If you remember the previous vintage you’ll get the difference; in part it’s due to vintage, part to different fruit sourcing... read more →
When the vintage is stellar, we get the aforementioned cabernet franc, but in lesser years, Kim and Debra blend it with some gamay noir (which they believe is actually valdigue),... read more →
From the winemaker Brianne Day and her Portland fermenting home. The fruit comes from Evie’s Block of Mae’s Vineyard in the Applegate Valley farmed by Herb Quady. Racked into stainless... read more →
In 2004 when I was the Time magazine wine correspondent, I visited winemakers/farmers/artists Kim Engle and Debra Birmingham, who were then in a very different vinous place. In 2006, a... read more →
When I first broke wine with Steve, it was at Gramercy Tavern. We bonded over our mutual love of gamay, and California’s current gamay revival owes much to his efforts... read more →
I’ve been beating the Claire Naudin drum for a long time, and the truth is, they’re terribly hard to find in the United States, or anywhere else for that matter.... read more →
Château-Chalon is a bowl-like terroir, the most famed in the Jura. Everything made there is Vin Jaune: savagnin raised under a voile (veil—aka flor) for six years and three months... read more →
The wines of Patrick Le Brun couldn’t be more different than from those of Selosse, his more famous Avize neighbor. The two are a study in terroir interpretation; the fat... read more →