Indholdsfortegnelse for September 30, 2022 i Wine Spectator

Visit WineSpectator.com/093022 to find links to all of the following resources. FREE RESOURCES FOR ALL WINESPECTATOR.COM READERS WINE SPECTATOR’S VIDEO CONTEST Share your wine story to compete for great prizes! Submit your short film to Wine Spectator’s 16th annual video contest and you could win tickets to our spectacular Wine Experience weekend or a Grand Tasting. Entry deadline is Monday, Aug. 29. Check out the rules and previous years’ finalists online. LABOR DAY CELEBRATIONS We’ve recruited leading chefs and cookbook authors to share their favorite end-of-summer recipes. Plus, Wine Spectator editors pick well-priced, highly rated wines to enjoy over the long weekend. NEED-TO-KNOW NEWS For both consumers and the trade, WineSpectator.com is the place to go to find out which big-name wineries have been sold, how tariffs might impact your wine choices, the…

Now In Our IGTV Archives JUNE 29 Nicole Hitchcock, winemaker, J Vineyards & Winery JUNE 22 Luca and Elena Currado, Vietti Winery JUNE 16 Louis Barruol, owner and winemaker, Château de St.-Cosme JUNE 8 Dave Phinney, winemaker, Orin Swift Cellars JUNE 1 The Chicks, music band and founders of Gaslighter Wine Co. MAY 18 Gianluca Bisol, president, Bisol Winery MAY 11 Ikimi Dubose-Woodson, co-founder, The Roots Fund MAY 4 Drew Bledsoe, founder and owner, Bledsoe Wine Estates APRIL 27 Samantha Rudd, owner, Rudd Estate APRIL 20 Giovanni Mazzei, export director, Castello di Fonterutoli WATCH ON INSTAGRAM Scan the QR code to start watching on our IGTV channel, or visit instagram.com/wine_spectator/channel…

The Historical Super Tuscans Committee was recently founded to protect and enhance the value of super Tuscans by sharing the history and the vision of the winemakers who created these groundbreaking wines. The wines we know today as super Tuscans were originally classified as simple vino da tavola (table wine) because, in the interest of achieving higher quality, they did not conform to the established practices and grape requirements of the region’s DOC and DOCG designations. Much of the early production of super Tuscans was centered on the region of Chianti Classico. It was here, at San Felice, a small hamlet and winery in the commune of Castelnuovo Berardenga, that Enzo Morganti arrived in 1967. What he found were Sangiovese vines planted in wide rows interspersed with olive trees, with…

In late May 2020, I was penning a column reflecting on virtual wine tasting in the midst of COVID-19. It had been two very long months of lockdown, and at that point the reality had set in that things weren’t going to change anytime soon. My column was a call to action for wineries, retailers and other suppliers to do more to engage consumers in the proliferation of virtual tastings that were being promoted at the time. Fast-forward to today. In-person tastings and events have resumed, but as I surmised in my 2020 column, this hasn’t meant the end of virtual tastings. There are still a lot of benefits to virtual tastings: health and safety, comfort and accessibility, and both the time and financial savings versus travel for in-person events.…

“The fact that we make Pinot Noir and Chardonnay from a vineyard in Rutherford is a bit of a tough story,” admits El Molino owner Lily Berlin. In the heart of Napa Valley, ground zero for $300 bottles of Cabernet Sauvignon, spa resorts and world-class restaurants, lies El Molino’s 68-acre vineyard. Nearby, a modest combination of family home and winery sits a few miles north of St. Helena, just off Highway 29. It’s the site of one of the first wineries in Napa, dating to 1871. It’s a charming home, a multi-generational, family-owned winery—and it’s also a bit of a time capsule. El Molino wines have been made the exact same way, with the same equipment, since its resurrection with the 1987 vintage. Even the label is the same as…

This Buying Guide contains ratings of new releases from around the world. Complete tasting notes are provided for new releases scoring 85 or more points (on the Wine Spectator 100-point scale, explained below). Hundreds of additional reviews appear each month on our website, www.winespectator.com. Each review carries the initials of the Wine Spectator editor who blind-tasted and scored the wine and wrote the review, based on the regional specializations indicated below. Bruce Sanderson Burgundy, Piedmont, Tuscany, Germany, Austria James Molesworth California Cabernet Sauvignon and Pinot Noir, Bordeaux, Rhône Valley, Port MaryAnn Worobiec California Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc, Australia, New Zealand Alison Napjus Spain, Italy, Champagne, Alsace, South Africa Tim Fish California Zinfandel and Merlot, Oregon, Washington, U.S. sparkling wines Aaron Romano Argentina, Chile Kristen Bieler France, Israel How We Do…

I have been a huge fan of California Pinot Noir for many years, but even I am surprised at how winemakers continue to raise the bar on quality while also advancing diversity. The proliferation of new wineries and limited-production bottlings makes it difficult to keep up. Senior editor and lead taster on the wines James Molesworth has literally hit the ground running for his first-ever report on these wines, traversing the region and assembling an impressive list of high-scoring 2019 Pinots from among more than 340 wines blind-tasted from the vintage. This both delights and frustrates me, as I’ve yet to try many of these wines and they can be challenging to find on the East Coast, either at retail or in restaurants. It presents a real roadblock in my…

American consumers have a thirst for bubbly—sales of sparkling wine from numerous regions continue to be one of the strongest-growing categories in the U.S. market. And while French Champagne and Italian Prosecco are well-known success stories, Spanish Cava emerged as a winner in 2021; shipments to the United States skyrocketed, ending the year at a record 1.98 million cases, according to the Consejo Regulador del Cava, an impressive 40% increase from 2020. Cava has long waited in the wings of the sparkling wine world. Produced using the same traditional method as Champagne, Cava was the first sparkling wine to introduce and use the gyropalette, a machine that reproduced the labor-intensive and costly riddling process of traditional method production. Cava producers passed those savings along, with many situating themselves in the…

The founder of Calera Wine Company, Josh Jensen chased what many considered an impossible dream—to make Burgundy-style Pinot Noir in California—and succeeded, becoming one of the state’s top Pinot Noir producers. The visionary and icon of the California wine industry died June 11 at his home. He was 78. Jensen spent much of his 20s in Europe, sleeping in ramshackle hotels or on friends’ couches. While his accommodations left much to be desired, the food and wine did not. Jensen ate at some of France’s finest restaurants and became enamored with Burgundy. He landed a gig picking grapes at Domaine de la Romanée-Conti, then worked at Domaine Dujac, followed by a stint at Château-Grillet in the Rhône. Later he returned to California, determined to find a vineyard site that would…

Tuscan Style This group of reds from Tuscany are all based on Sangiovese, the region’s signature grape. Most are from Chianti Classico, where a string of excellent vintages in recent years has delivered an array of outstanding wines. BASILICA CAFAGGIO Chianti Classico Riserva 2018 (95, $35) Pure, silky; cherry, raspberry, rose CAPRAIA Chianti Classico Riserva 2018 (94, $27) Cherry, strawberry, plum, flowers, eucalyptus, tobacco; complex, harmonious VITICCIO Chianti Classico Riserva 2017 (94, $40) Supple, vibrant; black cherry, blackberry, violet, mineral, tobacco BARONE RICASOLI Chianti Classico Brolio Riserva 2019 (93, $31) Cherry, plum, iron, spice; concentrated, dense FATTORIA DI BASCIANO Colli della Toscana Centrale I Pini 2019 (93, $29) Ripe, luscious; blackberry, plum, leather, mushroom, spice CASA EMMA Chianti Classico 2020 (92, $23) Raspberry, flowers, wet earth, mineral; pure, elegant, juicy CASTELLO BANFI Chianti Classico…

Redwood trees are like skyscrapers in the mountains around Anderson Valley, a remote slice of Mendocino County in California that seems unblemished by civilization. It was an unlikely location for Louis Roederer to establish a California outpost in 1982. Back then, most Champagne houses were investing in Napa or Sonoma, and Anderson Valley was a farflung and untested location, with only a handful of wineries and vineyards. But then-Roederer president Jean-Claude Rouzaud believed the terroir was ideal, offering cool nights, lots of fog from the nearby Pacific Ocean and well-drained clay and gravel soils. Now, as the winery marks its 40th anniversary, it’s clear Anderson Valley was a wise choice. Roederer Estate is arguably the best and most consistent sparkling wine producer on the West Coast, and I say that…

While celebrity sponsorship of products is nothing new, the spirits world has seen a spike in household names endorsing tequila. The likes of George Clooney, LeBron James, Dwayne “The Rock” Johnson, Justin Timberlake—and many other famous faces—are all trying their hand at Mexico’s national spirit. It’s easy to assume this is just an all-star cast shilling mediocre product. But rest assured, we’ve come a long way from Margaritaville: The quality is high. Tequila has been around for centuries but only boomed relatively recently. Market figures from Impact Databank show a soaring growth in the tequila industry over the past 30-plus years. In 1987, the spirit represented a mere 4 million cases among United States liquor imports. By 2007, that figure ballooned to 11 million cases. And in 2021, tequila was…

AUSTRALIA Red 94 John Duval Shiraz Barossa Entity 2020 $40 This polished red shows some restraint to the ripe, dense, velvety core of blueberry, huckleberry and dark chocolate, with a note of malty Assam black tea. Fresh green dried herbal notes and a hint of black olive linger on the long, expressive finish. Drink now through 2035. 2,400 cases imported.—M.W. 94 Giant Steps Pinot Noir Yarra Valley 2021 $40 See Highly Recommended, page 99. 93 Mollydooker Shiraz McLaren Vale Blue Eyed Boy 2020 $60 Appealingly dense and toothsome, offering dark chocolate–covered açaí berry and pomegranate flavors, with notes of palo santo, wild blueberry and vanilla anglaise. A touch of French press coffee lingers on the finish. Drink now through 2030. 6,502 cases made, 2,387 cases imported.—M.W. 92 Mollydooker Shiraz McLaren Vale…

To Infinity and Beyond Thank you for including the Infinity leather shop in “101 Things We Love About Italy” (cover, April 30). My wife and I discovered Infinity about 15 years ago on our first trip to Florence. You describe the atmosphere and the goods beautifully. We have stopped by Infinity on every trip to Florence since. We enjoy the Balenciaga-style bag; man-bag; red, white and green bag; notepad and more that we have purchased over the years. We also enjoy our conversations with the proprietress and her son. Just down the street is a lovely enoteca with a pizza oven behind the bar. On a chilly, rainy afternoon we savored our wine and hot, fresh pizza after securing our latest acquisitions from Infinity. Thank you for a wonderful slice…

Home chefs have long been daunted by the specter of the deflated soufflé, an enduring trope featured in TV shows and movies throughout the 20th century. As it turns out, like the unlikelihood of getting struck by a falling piano or stepping into quicksand, it’s not much of a real threat. In fact, not only is the soufflé a delightfully simple and versatile dish—comprising just five everyday ingredients—but, with a few basic pieces of equipment and sound techniques, success is virtually guaranteed. For the secrets to flawless execution, we turned to chef Guy Savoy, one of the leading lights of nouvelle cuisine for the better part of four decades. Savoy’s culinary career was inspired by his mother, who transformed her café in the town of Bourgoin-Jallieu, about 35 miles southeast…

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED 94 GIANT STEPS Pinot Noir Yarra Valley 2021 $40 AUSTRALIA A stunning version, with terrific focus and intensity to the core of Earl Grey tea, cherry, raspberry and white pepper flavors. Notes of clove and green cardamom linger on the finish. COLLECTIBLE 98 CAVALLOTTO Barolo Bricco Boschis Vigna San Giuseppe Riserva 2016 $252 ITALY This red features a beam of pure cherry and rose flavors, backed by notes of strawberry, currant, iron and tobacco. Firm and dry, with ripeness midpalate, this combines finesse and intensity. SMART BUY 91 LUKE Syrah Wahluke Slope 2019 $25 WASHINGTON This Syrah is easygoing yet offers plenty of personality, delivering lively flavors of black cherry, grilled herbs and spice that finish with ripe, zesty tannins. BEST VALUE 89 CASAS DEL BOSQUE Sauvignon Blanc…

A trip to Italy conjures visions of steaming bowls of pasta coated in a delectable sauce, accompanied by a robust glass of red wine. And while the dream of perfect pasta with fine wine is readily met in restaurants throughout the boot, many Italian establishments offer much more. The pinnacle of Italian dining today includes classically trained chefs offering beautifully plated dishes of both traditional recipes and those with influences from around the globe. Guests enjoy sumptuous dining rooms and elegant service. And as always in Italy, wine and food go hand in hand. Historically most of the country’s wine lists focused primarily on local producers, without offerings from many other parts of Italy or the world. And while there’s something to be said for the joys of eating and…

Highly Recommended The issue’s most impressive wines. Includes top-scorers and wines that represent optimal purchases based on their combination of score, price and availability. 97 Barone Ricasoli Chianti Classico Colledilà Gran Selezione 2019 $85 ITALY Distinctly savory, this red delivers grassy, thyme and menthol aromas and flavors allied to notes of cherry, strawberry and loam. Angular and dense, with the fruit component emerging with air, this is long, complex and deftly balanced, revealing an aftertaste of cherry, berry, mineral and herbal accents. Best from 2025 through 2043. 1,000 cases made, 60 cases imported.—B.S. 96 Fattoria Le Pupille Toscana Saffredi 2019 $100 ITALY A deep, polished red, whose black currant, blackberry, plum, violet and oak spice aromas and flavors mesh well with the dense structure, showing terrific length. Very focused and balanced, this…