News & Features
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Tasting Highlights
New reviews of 11 offerings from one of California's most highly acclaimed Pinot labels
Posted: June 4, 2012 By James Laube
May 31, 2012 Issue
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Columns
Posted: May 31, 2012 By James Laube
News & Features
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Retrospective / Vertical
In a recent blind tasting, 28 wines earn outstanding or classic scores; 10 years on, they still display power and finesse
Posted: May 29, 2012 By James Laube
Blogs
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James Laube's Wine Flights
The 2009 Napa Cabernets are rich and structured; Sonoma Pinot Noirs are great again in 2010
Posted: May 18, 2012 By James Laube
The more I taste the 2009 Napa Cabernets and 2010 California Pinot Noirs, the more I like them.
April 30, 2012 Issue
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Columns
Posted: April 30, 2012 By James Laube
Blogs
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James Laube's Wine Flights
In the long term, new vineyard plantings will shore up supply; in the short term, value abounds outside the Golden State
Posted: April 26, 2012 By James Laube
There's talk of a pending grape shortage in the Golden State, and with it, the prospect of rising prices. Don't be concerned unless you exclusively buy California wines.
If California wine prices continue to rise—and that doesn't seem to be a widespread phenomenon—they will do so because of heightened demand. Typically that means brand by brand. As it is, California has long lagged the broader wine market when it comes to value anyway. People looking to get the most from their wine dollars shop across borders and oceans.
Blogs
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James Laube's Wine Flights
Revisiting the 2002 California Cabernets reminds us that tasting a wine, young or old, creates a unique moment that can't be replicated
Posted: April 24, 2012 By James Laube
I'm finishing a retrospective tasting of 2002 California Cabernets this week, most of them from Napa Valley. Revisiting wines you reviewed seven or eight years ago is the best way to evaluate how the wines are aging and recalibrate drink recommendations.
It can also be a minefield of second guesses. There is one thing, however, that becomes obvious to those of us who routinely revisit wines we rated years ago: You can't replicate the moment.
Blogs
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James Laube's Wine Flights
Bordeaux first-growth Château Latour won't sell futures after 2011, but the rest of Bordeaux is unlikely to follow
Posted: April 18, 2012 By James Laube
For the longest time, Bordeaux has been the envy of most vintners everywhere.
Its wines have history, tradition and prestige and are often in great demand. The top classified-growths produce thousands of cases that command top-rung prices. Most of the elite wines are sold before they're even bottled. As a business model, it has few peers.
Yet apparently it's not perfect. Last week, Château Latour announced it would abandon the long-time tradition of selling wine futures, a move that sent shock waves through the Bordelais wine trade, primarily because of Latour's status.
Blogs
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James Laube's Wine Flights
Catching up with Tom Hinde, Yao's winemaker, after tasting the premiere 2009 vintage
Posted: April 16, 2012 By James Laube
Yao Ming, the world's tallest vintner, has put a towering price on his premiere wine. Yao's 2009 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon Family Reserve, priced at $625 a bottle. All 300 cases have already sold out in China, the only market the where the reserve was offered. A second Napa Valley Cabernet, also from 2009, was released at $175; 5,000 cases were made.
The quality of the reserve is impressive. Here are my notes.
Blogs
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James Laube's Wine Flights
Napa's Copia Center is long shuttered, but the statue of André Tchelistcheff that stood at its door may soon find a new home
Posted: April 11, 2012 By James Laube
A life-size statue of André Tchelistcheff may be on the market. If I had a $1 million, I'd bid on it. Seriously.
It could be auctioned as part of the liquidation of the bankrupt Copia, which begins with sales at the American Center for Wine, Food and the Arts' gift shop this weekend and culminates in two days of auctions April 20 and 21. It will be an estate sale of unparalleled scope and value, at least here in Napa.
I consider Mr. T perhaps the most influential man in Napa Valley history, right up there alongside Robert Mondavi. Though André the Great has been dead for two decades, winemakers still speak of him in reverential terms. One could write a book about his contributions to wine. But today I'll just mention a few of the ways Tchelistcheff stood out.
