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June 2006
$550 For A Bottle Of Wine? Well, If It's The Right Wine...
Posted: 04:03 PM ET, June 28, 2006
I just spent $550 on a bottle of wine. Want to take a guess what it was. ’05 Latour? Nope. Haut-Brion? Nope. Margaux, Mouton or Lafite? Zip, zilch, nada.
No, there are 15,000 to 20,000 cases made of each of those wines, and they’ll be in the marketplace from now until they mature. Read more
A Toast To Al Brounstein
Posted: 04:04 PM ET, June 27, 2006
With the passing of Al Brounstein, we lose a pioneer of the California wine industry and a wonderful character.
I remember one of my first trips to Napa in the early '90s and a visit to Diamond Creek. Al drove my wife and I around his property, proudly telling the story of how he bought it, discovered the different soils he had, and decided to bottle vineyard-specific Cabernets before most people in Napa even knew what Cabernet was. Read more
The American Palate - One Dimensional, or Growing Up?
Posted: 10:35 AM ET, June 23, 2006
The American palate prefers only fruit-forward wines. It’s a statement that you hear often these days – by terroir-driven wine producers and purist wine lovers who decry what they see as a trend toward a homogenization of wine styles. Read more
A Sit-Down With Alexandra Marnier-Lapostolle
Posted: 05:00 PM ET, June 21, 2006
I sat down with Alexandra Marnier-Lapostolle the other day. The owner of Chile’s Casa Lapostolle tempted me with a complete vertical of her Clos Apalta, a blend of Carmenère, Merlot and Cabernet Sauvignon sourced from a small, old-vine plot in the Apalta area of Chile’s Colchagua Valley. Read more
Great Wine Can Come at a Price—But How High Is Too High?
Posted: 02:59 PM ET, June 16, 2006
In my Ask the Editor’s blog earlier this week, I mentioned how exciting some of the top Argentinean wines are – but how prices are also quickly rising for the best wines.
I don’t begrudge a winery getting all it can for its product (assuming the quality is there), but my first responsibility is always to you the reader, the consumer – and high prices are always a bone of contention. Read more
Ask the Editors
Posted: 04:11 PM ET, June 13, 2006
Now it's my turn to sit in the hot seat on our "Ask the Editors" blog. My tasting beats are the Rhône and Loire valleys, along with Chile, Argentina and South Africa, so fire away—answers will start appearing on Wednesday. Read more
Cork vs. Screw Cap: A Culture Clash
Posted: 12:39 PM ET, June 12, 2006
Just spoke to the one of the co-owners of a major Chilean winery, who related this interesting tidbit of info. They were thinking of moving to screwcap closure for some of their whites, and their Australian distributor said if they did, they would double their order. Read more
A Sit Down with Viña Santa Ema and Kingston Family
Posted: 11:33 AM ET, June 08, 2006
Just a few days after Concha y Toro came in to show me their new small production Carmenère bottling, I met with Viña Santa Ema winemaker Andrés Sanhueza, and Kingston Family owners Courtney and Michael Kingston. Both of these Chilean wineries are looking to break out of the Cabernet-only mold that Chile is stuck in these days. Read more
Wine List Pet Peeves
Posted: 12:22 PM ET, June 05, 2006
One of my responsibilities here at Wine Spectator is to review the wine lists that are entered into our annual Restaurant Awards program. We received nearly 4,000 entries this year (results will appear in the Aug. Read more
A Tough Question...
Posted: 08:59 AM ET, June 02, 2006
I was sitting with my wife at dinner, lingering over a glass of '59 Latour, watching the sheets of rain come down outside.
"So, like the wine?" I asked.
"Yes," she said.
"Is it great?" I asked. Read more
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