Indholdsfortegnelse for October 31, 2015 i Wine Spectator

Visit www.winespectator.com/103115 to find links to all of the following resources. Free resources for all of our WineSpectator.com readers: DAILY WINE PICKS Great wine finds, in three price ranges, six days a week. Check our site daily for the latest picks or follow them on our Twitter feed, via @winespectator.com. NEW YORK WINE EXPERIENCE Join us Oct. 22 to 24 for this year’s great lineup of tastings and seminars. Our full cov-erage of the event will bring the world’s best winemakers and chefs to you with photos, articles and videos. Relive your fa-vorite moments or catch up on what you missed. WHAT AM I TASTING? Test your tasting skills in our mystery wine game. Every two weeks, we post a real Wine Specta-tor tasting note, with clues from the color,…

Chef-restaurateur Charlie Palmer added Harvest Inn to his burgeoning hospitality empire last year. The 40-year-old luxury hotel has 74 rooms on 8 redwood-forested acres at the south end of St. Helena, in Napa Valley. A revamp in May added a 110-seat restaurant. Helmed by Levi Medick, of the estimable Restaurant 1833 in Monterey, Harvest Table looks to be a star in the making; on a recent visit, the coastal California ingredients pulsed with life, and flavors shone brightly, striking a balance that cozied up to wines of all stripes. An appetizer of crispy braised pork head was served with a classic sauce gribiche whose pick-les tamed the meat’s richness. Succulent pan-roasted wild king salmon was pink in the center, exactly as requested, and Castelvetrano olives and shellfish broth kept the…

Andrea Illy holds a spoonful of dark liquid to his lips and slurps it in one quick shot. A moment later, after a ritual spitting, he notes, “It’s the terroir that makes a difference in what is expressed.” ■ Illy, 51, the high-octane president of Illycaffè, is explaining the nuances of coffee aromas and chemistry in the testing laboratory at the company’s roasting plant and corporate headquarters in Trieste, Italy. With focused intensity, he examines each of the nine arabica coffee components in Illy’s signature single blend. Local climate and soils, shade from plants, and varying altitudes influence the beans and the final product—from the intense cocoa and slightly bitter flavors of Brazilian arabica to its aromatic Ethiopian counterpart. “We get more linalool from Costa Rica,” Illy says of the…

VOLPAIA IS ONE OF THOSE SEDUCTIVE TUSCAN PLACES THAT TEMPTS people into quitting their jobs and uprooting their lives. The hilltop town sits nearly 2,000 feet above sea level, looking over Chianti Classico, reachable only by a narrow road that climbs through sunbathed vines, olive trees and cypresses. A relic of the 12th century, the old village is home to fewer than 60 people, living behind walls that Siena’s medieval soldiers found intimidating and modern visitors find charming. On a sunny but cool morning, just a few tourists are walking on the old stone streets, soaking in the fresh air and historic charm, never suspecting that one of Tuscany’s best wines is coursing through steel pipes beneath their feet. Volpaia’s chief commercial enterprise is Castello di Volpaia, a winery that…

Italy’s star continues to rise in the wine world, and Puglia, the area encompassing the heel of the Italian boot, is providing some of the fuel for liftoff. Puglia’s past focused on large volumes of bulk wine, but its future looks increasingly bright. Producers are upgrading and investing in vineyards and winery infrastructure, and embracing new philosophies and techniques. “It’s a turning point for the wines of Puglia,” says Vito Palumbo, export manager for Tormaresca winery, the southern outpost of Tuscany’s Antinori family. “We’ve always been great farmers. What we were missing was a winemaking history, but we were also missing new ideas, new technology.” In the past year, I have reviewed more than 150 wines from Puglia in official blind tastings at Wine Spectator’s New York office. On a…

Americans mostly love Italy, and wine lovers probably more than most. Whether we’re talking about the fashion, the food, or the diverse and delicious wines, there’s something compelling about Italian style. In this issue, you’ll find an in-depth profile of Illy, a family enterprise that embodies the best of Italian style. This third-generation company began as a cof-fee roaster and shipper after World War I, and has since expanded to chocolate, tea and wine. In their coffee business, the Illys combine a high quality product with artful marketing and presenta-tion. They are dedicated to finding the best and most distinctive beans and processing them with the most advanced technology to ensure that the coffee you drink meets their very high standards. They have also engaged artists and the best contemporary…

Describing Jayson Woodbridge requires a thesaurus. Passionate is a good word, along with driven, charismatic and hedonistic. You could add exacting, arrogant and volatile. Woodbridge is happy to paint a target on his chest and dare you to shoot if he’s trying to make a point. And he’s always trying to make a point. “I had cancer when I was 18, and I don’t view the world the same way as everyone else. I want to make sure everything I do is the top of the game,” says Woodbridge, 51. He’s had high-profile run-ins with neighbors as well as county officials over the years over the construction of his underground winery outside St. Helena. “I’m not known as a diplomat in this valley. I’ve told more than a few people…

New Zealand wines continue to surge in popularity in the United States, where record-breaking sales are a clear sign of this island country’s burgeoning reputation. The U.S. has just overtaken Australia to become the largest export market for New Zealand wines by value. It seems that wine lovers can’t get enough of these wines, particularly the zingy Sauvignon Blancs that have become the country’s trademark varietal. In 2014, Kiwi wine exports to the States jumped by 19.3 percent from the previous year, to 5.67 million cases, concluding a three-year period that saw exports rise 55 percent, according to Impact Databank, a sister publication of Wine Spectator. Looking ahead, New Zealand winemakers plan to improve on their strengths while also diversifying their offerings. Since my previous report (“New Zealand Spreads Its…

BY THE NUMBERS The Oct. 31 Buying Guide features 14 classic wines and more than 350 outstanding wines from among reviews of nearly 675 new releases. Members can access tasting notes and scores for those wines, along with more than 650 additional wines reviewed since our last issue, using the Wine Ratings search at WineSpectator.com.…

PASTA E FAGIOLI MADE SIMPLE Bring two cups of dried beans covered by water to a simmer. Sauté some big matchsticks of pancetta, then set aside. In their fat (plus olive oil if needed) cook diced onion, celery, garlic and carrot until soft. If you have any Parmigiano-Reggiano rinds in the fridge, toss them in too. Add a bit of tomato paste and pepper flakes at this point if desired. (Start a pound of pasta cooking.) Add a few cups of bean broth and a sprig or two of rosemary; cook until it begins to reduce. Add the cooked beans and pasta, salt and pepper, and toss over heat for a few minutes to bring it all together. Adjust for desired soupiness and seasoning. Serve in bowls and top with…

Known to his fans as the Maltese Tenor, Joseph Calleja performs the arias of Mozart, Verdi and Puc-cini in the world’s most hallowed op-era houses. Over the past four years, amid taking the stage at the likes of London’s Covent Garden and New York’s Metropolitan Opera, Calleja, 37, built a house of his own, in Mel-lieha, a coastal town in his native Malta. Built around an interior court-yard, the multistory house sits on a ridge overlooking a nature preserve and the Mediterranean Sea. Calleja’s private quarters are on the top two floors, where his collection of Grand Cru Bordeaux resides in a 400-square-foot cellar next to his office. Custom mahogany shelves hold more than 4,000 bottles, including cases of Château Figeac back to the 1960s, decade-long verticals of Châ-teaus Angélus,…

It’s a great time to be a fan of Tuscan wine, whether you are enthralled with the native Sangiovese grape or a devotee of the super Tuscan–inspired blends that rely on international varieties such as Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. Tuscany, with its complex array of picture-perfect landscapes, diverse soil types and varying climates, provides ideal conditions for both styles of wines. With recent releases spanning vintages from 2014 to 2009, plus a smattering of older years, Tuscany offers wines that are ready to drink now as well as bottles to cellar for future enjoyment. Its vibrant whites are mainly from 2014, while 2010 is the current release for Brunello di Montalcino, with earlier harvests comprising the region’s big reds and its heady dessert wines known as Vin Santo. Vintages are…

A BRIEF HISTORY Winemaking in New Zealand may be a relatively recent development, but its history goes back further than generally recognized. Early pioneers saw the country’s potential, and their influence is still felt today. Missionaries introduced grapes to New Zealand in the early 1800s to supply sacramental wines. Mission Estate Winery in Hawkes Bay—considered the oldest winery in New Zealand—is descended from the first vineyard in the region, originally established in 1851 by Catholic priests. The first commercial wine venture dates back to 1863, when Charles Levet, an English coppersmith, planted 7 acres and made a living making and selling wine to other settlers. It was also at this time that the South Island’s Central Otago region became a magnet for gold miners, about a decade after California’s own…