The Barton Dynasty:What makes the history of the Barton family so fascinating is how each generation has left its mark and added its stone to this exceptional heritage.In 1722, Thomas Barton left his native Ireland to settle in Bordeaux. He founded a wine trading company and, above all, a family, or rather a dynasty, which […]
Bernard Baudry is unquestionably one of Chinon’s most outstanding producers. Bernard Baudry, now joined by his son Matthieu, is a master of terroir-driven winemaking in the Loire Valley. Cabernet Franc is the common denominator here, but the Baudry vineyards span a range of soil types—sand, gravel, clay, limestone, chalk—yielding fascinatingly diverse expressions of the same […]
THOMAS GEORGE ESTATES:Established in 2008 when Canadian Tom Baker acquired the winery from esteemed Russian River Valley wine pioneer Davis Bynum. “Our main purpose,” says Baker, “is to produce wines that are the best expression of Russian River Valley [through] principles espoused by the great winemakers of Burgundy.” Accordingly, the estate focuses on single-block Pinot […]
Introducing Dana Estate: “A very impressive revival of this historical estate in Rutherford (formally the Livingston-Moffett Estate), under the diligent consultancy of Philippe Melka, Dana Estates is producing polished and expressive superstar wines from three wonderfully diverse vineyards. Helms Vineyard consists of five acres on gravelly loam, right on the northern edge of the Rutherford […]
Domaine Thierry Laffay is a small high-quality yet little-known Estate managed by Thierry Laffay since 1985. Laffay farms 7 hectares of vineyards over seven excellent appellations. They are mostly organic citing that their viticultural practices are those of reasoned cultivation ‘lutte raisonnée’ scrupulously applied, avoiding systematic treatments and intervening only in the event of a […]
2022 JEAN BAPTISTE JESSIAUME OFFER: Jean-Baptiste Jessiaume, representing the sixth generation, grew up watching his father, Marc, make wine, and the two continued to run Jessiaume for several years after selling the estate in 2006. The pair later moved down to Bouzeron in the Côte Chalonnaise to take over Domaine Chanzy, and following that, Jean-Baptiste—who […]
From father and son winemakers Chris and Josh Phelps (Formerly of Petrus, Dominus and Caymus) Coil represents the cyclical nature of grapes and winemaking, and the tension that makes a good wine remarkable. “In 2018, we received a fateful phone call from our friend Roger Scommegna. He had just harvested one of his vineyards—a prime site for extreme-elevation, […]
“I believe you can make a case — not airtight, mind you, but a pretty good one — that Spring Mountain District is the most unrecognized source of great wine in Napa Valley today.”“There’s a distinction to the wines from this small zone. They have that “smack of Californian earth” that Robert Louis Stevenson wrote […]
Has Chianti Classico really come of age as a world-class wine? “I have never tasted such an incredible Chianti Classico from the region between Florence and Siena in Tuscany, even though I have been tasting and visiting the area since 1983. The pure sangiovese showed the finesse and intensity of a great Barolo or Brunello, […]
2015 Luciano Sandrone • Barolo Vite Talin. 97 Points Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate. September delivery You’ll have to wait until 2021 for this release, but it absolutely will reward your patience. What an exceptionally fine creation this is, the 2015 Barolo Vite Talin. It is soft and generous, with great concentration, and the dark fruit […]
