This lushly structured charmer has taken over the wine lists of New York City it seems. I sat at the bar at Contra (with The Skinny Food Writer) and we... read more →
Solidarity! Drink Olivier Cousin this month. If you’ve not heard, the vigneron has been hauled to court for defying the AOC. You see, he makes wine outside of the appellation,... read more →
The super serious and sensitive Etienne de Bonnaventure is behind the winemaking for his family’s domain, and this 2011 is yet another example of an undersung vigneron. Fermentation and elevage... read more →
Note to self: buy more Amirault and lay down. I’m struck by its age worthiness, knit and powdery tannin. The grapes are farmed from three different soil types. There has... read more →
Consider yourself warned, this wine from Jacques Broustet is a brett bomb, you know, that bacteria that can give wine overtones of a herd of sheep? So if you’re intolerant,... read more →
There are a few people working naturally in Cahors, and thank the gods because the place has the stuffing of greatness. Fabien Jouves is one of them. Here we have... read more →
West of Toulouse and east of Bordeaux in Buzet, Magali Tissot and Ludovic Bonnelle do the old fashioned thing, work by hand, foot crush, deeply respect the soil, get silly-low... read more →
The Caslot siblings are gifts to the wine world, as are their wines. The value for the quality of the work over the amount of land they have (quite a... 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 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 →