Previous Offers
Domaine Grande Nicolet
With little relief from the dollar, and mounting demand on the world market, prices for top, small estate Chateauneuf du Pape are skyrocketing. We've spent the last few weeks looking for Chateauneuf look-alikes, wines made in neighboring appellations from old vine Grenache that have the same richness, density and explosive fruit characteristics -- without the $40+ price tag.
Thorn-Clarke
Twenty years ago, Australia's Barossa Valley was nothing more than an afterthought. But, beginning in the 1980s, a small handful of winegrowers invested heavily, determined to make a Shiraz imprint on the world market. By the late 1990s, the world wine press, led by Robert Parker and Aussie writers like Jeremy Oliver, began paying close attention to the work of Greenock Creek, Torbreck and David and Cheryl Clarke's Thorn-Clarke. Suddenly, the market for these lush, sometimes astonishingly vibrant Shiraz exploded, seemingly expanding from New York to Tokyo overnight.
Dr. H. Thanisch Muller Burggraef
We had packed t-shirts and shorts, a single sweatshirt. But we really needed a parka or two. After the unseasonably warm spring in Northern Europe, things had turned cold and nasty. Our trip to Bordeaux left us shaking our heads, wondering how the French press was going to explain away the mildew that was ravaging the vines. But while much was written about the near catastrophe in Bordeaux, little has been said about the 2007 vintage in Germany, where that bitter summer gave birth to some of the most glorious Rieslings in memory.
RR
Sometimes being first really pays off. Almost 30 years ago Harry Peterson-Nedry began scouting potential vineyard locations in Oregon's burgeoning wine country. He soon discovered what's now called Ribbon Ridge, an ancient, uniform sedimentary hillside at the extreme western end of the Chehalem Mountains. After conducting extensive soil studies, he secured a pristine parcel and planted the first vines on what he called Ridgecrest Vineyards in 1982.
Domaine Font Sarade
It took us a while to catch up to Bernard Burle after tasting his sweet, concentrated and elegant 2006 Vacqueyras. Not surprisingly, we found him on his tractor, working his Grenache and Syrah vines at the northern edge of the appellation. Chateauneuf and Vacqueyras have had an unprecedented vintage run, beginning in 2004. 2004-2007 offered sweet, succulent fruit, but Burle told us that he has a special fondness for the 2006. "C'est riche, mais elegant. Quand c'etait un cuve, j'avais l'impression de boire un elixir." ("It's rich, but elegant. When I tasted it in cuve, I thought I was drinking an elixir.")
Quinta de la Quietud
Jean-Francois Hebrard picked up the message off his cellphone in 2001. The call came from his enology school friend, Javier Ausas. Hebrard had spent 5 years consulting for 30 of the top producers of the Rhone Valley, including Gerin and Villard in Cote Rotie and La Janasse in Chateauneuf, but this was a call that would change Hebrard's career. While Hebrard was putting his stamp on the Rhone, Ausas had landed the most prestigious job in Spain -- head winemaker at Vega Sicilia and the guy whose signature is all over the $300 Unico bottling. The two young winemakers had remained close since they finished their studies at the University of Bordeaux.
Chateau Le Doyenne
It's a marketplace of adversarial partners -- an 'old boy' network of chateau owners and traders. The wines have evolved, but nothing much has changed on the Place de Bordeaux. The world's largest wine exchange is a power see-saw where traders take to great vintages like vultures, then reluctantly act as 'good partners' in weak vintages so as not to have their supply turned off.
Domaine Magellan
It was the summer of 1988 and we were eating a roasted chicken in Chambolle Musigny. Our three hosts had a combined age of about 80, but the wines on the table were liquid genius. Dominique and Bruno Lafon had brought a bottle of 1982 Meursault Charmes -- still the greatest white wine in memory -- while Christophe Roumier was uncorking an ethereal 1976 Bonnes Mares. We have faint memories of the poulet roti, but we'll never forget the purity and and the chiseled aromatic perfection of the Burgundies.
Clos des Templiers
In 2004, Hughes Delacour was doing what every Right Bank Bordeaux producer does from time to time. He was dreaming about ownership in Pomerol. Occasionally, small parcels in Bordeaux's most sought after appellation came up for sale, but it wasn't just the price tag (over $1.5 million an hectare!) that scared Delacour away. French law requires that any wine bearing the Pomerol appellation be made in a winery within the appellation's boundary, so if Delacour couldn't buy a winery, buying land was financial folly.