September 2010
De Wetshof Estate, a Cape Chardonnay specialist, returns to the U.S. market
Posted: Sep 30, 2010 12:22pm ET
It’s been two years since the wines of South Africa’s De Wetshof Estate were in the U.S. market. Following an importer change, the winery is back; I sat down with the winery's current generation, Peter de Wet, here at my office last week to get caught up. De Wet, 26, is working alongside his father, the well-respected Dannie, who helped turn the winery into one synonymous with crystal clear, Chablis-like Chardonnay.
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From Provencal rosé to Finger Lakes Riesling on tap, Bieler gets a wide range of wine to market
Posted: Sep 28, 2010 10:41am ET
I’m not wet behind the ears any more, but not a grizzled veteran yet either. At least I think not. Still, I’ve been around the industry long enough to meet people who’ve set up shop in more than one wine region I cover—producing wine in both Chile and Argentina for example. Yet I’ve never met someone who overlaps with me quite the way Charles Bieler does. I sat down with him at my office last week to discuss Grenache in the Rhône, Malbec in Argentina and even Riesling in the Finger Lakes, among other things.
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The Bordeaux second-growth's managing director talks about the quality of 2010 Cabernet on the Left Bank
Posted: Sep 24, 2010 10:11am ET
I sat down with David Launay of Château Gruaud-Larose here at my office last week. He was making a quick trip through the New York market before heading back for the impending harvest. Like other Bordelais I’ve spoken to recently, he’s enthused about the early potential for the 2010 crop. “It’s going to be a strong Cab year on the Left Bank,” said Launay.
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The peripatetic vintner refocuses on his Chilean project
Posted: Sep 22, 2010 10:43am ET
I sat down with François Lurton at my office the other day, to get up to date on his efforts in Chile. Lurton’s Chilean operation is based in the Lolol area of the Colchagua Valley and he is another of the growing number of winemakers to convert to biodynamic viticulture.
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The new chairman of the Bordeaux Wine Council has ambitious plans for France’s most important wine region
Posted: Sep 20, 2010 11:28am ET
Bordeaux is a big place, winewise. It’s France’s largest and arguably most famous wine region. It counts over 298,000 acres of vines, 8,600 growers and nearly five dozen appellations. In 2009 alone, Bordeaux accounted for more than 3.5 billion euros in sales. The U.S. gobbled up 1.2 million cases in imports valued at more than $179 million last year. That’s a lot of moving pieces.
And now, Georges Haushalter is tasked with trying to get them all moving in synchronicity, so that all the pieces benefit. I sat down the other day with the newly elected chairman of the Conseil Interprofessionnel du Vin de Bordeaux (CIVB) to discuss his plans for Bordeaux going forward.
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The duo shift from consulting to producing with their Geo Wines project
Posted: Sep 16, 2010 1:53pm ET
I sat down earlier this week with Chile’s Álvaro Espinoza, arguably one of the country’s best winemakers, who also guest-blogged for us during the 2009 harvest. He still runs his own small winery, Antiyal, while also overseeing the Concha y Toro-owned organic operation at Viñedos Emiliana. But now he’s getting involved deeper in developing his project Geo Wines, along with his partner Sergio Reyes, who also joined us.
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Posted: Sep 14, 2010 10:00am ET
I sat down here at my office last week with Laurent Von der Heyden, owner of Château Monbrison in Margaux, to chat about things in Bordeaux.
After suffering hail damage that reduced his crop dramatically in both 2008 and 2009, Von der Heyden is especially optimistic for the quality of the upcoming 2010 harvest.
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Tweaks to the winery's top Malbec bottling improve a superb wine
Posted: Sep 10, 2010 12:04pm ET
I sat down yesterday to chat with Luis Barraud and Paul Hobbs of Argentina’s Viña Cobos, tasting through a vertical of the winery’s top, single-vineyard Malbec bottling in the process. The Malbec Mendoza Marchiori Vineyard has become one of the country’s top bottlings since it debuted in the 1999 vintage. The wine has hit some serious highs in its short tenure, but the vertical tasting showed it’s also on an upward trajectory.
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The owner of Luigi Bosca and the president of Wines of Argentina talks about maintaining Argentina's growing foothold in the U.S. market
Posted: Sep 9, 2010 10:00am ET
I sat down with Alberto Arizu of Argentina's Bodega Luigi Bosca yesterday. Arizu's winery has steadily become one of the larger Argentine players in the U.S. market, he has also just begun his term as president of Wines of Argentina, the winery-funded group that works to promote the Argentine wine industry worldwide.
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