Innehållsförteckning för July 2015 från Wine Spectator

Thank you for shining a spotlight on one of the most misunderstood and perhaps unappreciated grapes in the marketplace. I am a Sauvignon Blanc devotee and believe the variety is capable of expressing itself beautifully in many growing conditions. I think it is odd that the wine doesn’t command a higher price point. There seems to be a glass ceiling at $30, which is obviously great for the consumer but makes it tough for growers and wineries to make the math pencil out. I am positive you would see the quality and diversity of Sauvignon Blanc increase if vintners knew they could get the same return on planting that variety as opposed to Cabernet or Chardonnay. Brian Brown Templeton, Calif. have long been a big fan of Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé…

NOT JUST PORT Ever since Portugal’s Douro region began producing dry table wines, the country’s star has been rising. These reds and whites, mostly blends based on local varieties, deliver both quality and value. QUINTA DO CRASTO Douro Superior 2012 (93, $30) Plush, refined; raspberry tart, red plum, cherry pastry, cardamom, savory spice QUINTA DO CRASTO Douro 2013 (91, $20) Slate, mineral, black currant, dried berry, raspberry ganache, black olive; powerful DUORUM Douro 2013 (91, $20) Delicate, taut; violet, plum, red berry, mineral, shiso leaf QUINTA DO PASSADOURO Douro 2012 (91, $25) Raspberry, sandalwood, plum tart, boysenberry, hot stone, spice; elegant, pure REAL COMPANHIA VELHA Douro Porca de Murca Red Reserva 2011 (91, $18) Rich; dark plum, dried beef, cocoa powder, mint, mineral ROZÈS Douro Terras do Grifo Red 2012…

No matter how relaxed we are, our palates remain on the job. We pay attention to what we’re drinking. Wine lovers can be as lazy and laidback during the warmer months as beer drinkers, lemonade sippers or any other bunch of summertime imbibers. Yet we have one big difference: No matter how relaxed we are, our palates remain on the job. A subpar wine registers in a single sip, never mind whether you’re at a picnic table, a summer soirée or a backyard barbecue. Call it the curse of the perpetual palate. You can’t turn it off. (Actually, you can, but it requires an almost stoic indifference to suffering.) Now, few of us like to admit this publicly. We prefer to think of ourselves as regular sorts who just happen…

Good wine can hold its own against Floyd May-weather Jr. and Roger Goodell. Wine Spectator’s Grand Tour made three stops in 2015: Chicago on April 30, Las Vegas on May 2 and Dallas on May 8. The event faced some stiff competition on the first two nights: The first round of the NFL draft was being held in Chicago, and Las Vegas hosted the hotly anticipated fight between Floyd May-weather Jr. and Manny Pacquiao. For enophiles, though, the choice between sports and wine was easy. At the Mirage in Las Vegas, rivers of people flooded through the casino, then divided into two streams: one to theaters to watch the fight on closed-circuit screens, the other to a ballroom filled with tastings from 228 top wineries from around the world. The…

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED 95 Bomb Pinot Noir Willamette Valley 2012 $50 OREGON A supple, expressive, multilayered and harmonious red, this teems with ripe currant, plum and blueberry fruit. COLLECTIBLE 94 Antinori Toscana Solaia 2011 $325 ITALY This rich, bright red displays plum, blackberry, boysenberry, leather and spice flavors, allied to a dense structure. SMART BUY 90 Forstreiter Gruner Veltliner Qualitatswein Trocken Kremstal Kremser Kogl 2013 $13 AUSTRIA Shows good structure to the spiced flavors of ripe pear, apple tart and melon, lengthening out midpalate. BEST VALUE 88 Chateau St. Jean Fume Blanc Sonoma County 2013 $12 CALIFORNIA A whiff of toast mingles with lemon verbena and green apple notes, leading to a big mouthful of juicy citrus flavors. IN THIS ISSUE’S BUYING GUIDE You ‘ll find 17 classic wines and nearly…

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. 95 Bomb Pinot Noir Willamette Valley 2012 $50 OREGON Supple, expressive, multilayered and harmonious, this teems with ripe currant, plum and blueberry fruit, weaving in espresso, cream and nutmeg notes as the finish expands against polished tannins. Drink now through 2022. 248 cases made.—H.S. 94 Barone Ricasoli Toscana Casalferro 2011 $65 ITALY Pure black cherry and raspberry flavors are countered by accents of sweet spice and tobacco. The tannins dominate the finish, which is long and mouthwatering. Needs air, so decant now or cellar. Merlot. Best from 2017 through 2024. 27,000 cases made.—B.S. 94 Bookwalter Conflict Conner-Lee Vineyard Columbia Valley 2012 $60 WASHINGTON A supple, plush…

Applause for Coppola I drank my first Rubicon wine in 2006; it was a 2003 Cask Cabernet. Immediately fell in love with it. Did some research and started following the Coppola story from there. I have vertical collections of Casks and Rubicons from 2003 to present, and both age very well, especially the Rubicon. I was really excited and pleased with your article on Coppola (cover, June 15), as I always deal with uninformed people who when they see a bottle of Inglenook Cabernet in my cellar wonder why it’s not in a jug or box, or why I would have any in the cellar at all. I hope [Coppola] is able to be successful in bringing back the great name, and I truly respect the affection and commitment he…

Growing up in San Francisco in the 1960s, Phil Coturri read Jack Kerouac, listened to the Grateful Dead, smoked a little weed and, like many in his generation, ran away from the city for a life in the country. “To live off the land, isn’t that a hippie’s dream?” Coturri says. “That’s how I got involved growing grapes.” Now 62, Coturri certainly looks the part of the aging hippie, with his laid-back fashion sense, ponytail and scraggly beard. But he’s anything but a slacker. Instead, he’s become the go-to vineyard manager for organic and biodynamic farming in Napa and Sonoma. His client list includes winemakers Andy Erickson, Morgan Twain-Peterson, Bob Levy at Harlan Estate, Richard Arrowood and Araujo Estate since it came under the ownership of Château Latour’s Pinault family.…

PIMM’S CUP 1 part Pimm’s No. 1 Cup 3 parts lemon-lime soda Mix ingredients in a highball glass over ice. Garnish with mint, cucumber, orange and strawberry. The quintessential drink of the English summer is as elusive as the season it serves. Each year Pimm’s Cup appears as a coolant for watching such rarefied sporting events as grass-court tennis and five-day-long rowing competitions. As quickly as it emerges, it vanishes for the rest of the year. The drink’s history is vague, and its taxonomy difficult to define. It’s the rare premixed bar tincture at which serious mixologists don’t reflexively sniff. The name on the label is indistinguishable from the cocktail it goes into, and that cocktail’s recipe is the source of endless argument. The one clear thing about this fruity,…

The elements that defined the greatest wines in the past will continue to do so in the future. That won’t change. A friend uncorked a 2005 La Tâche recently for his 60th birthday. It was a singular moment— his first La Tâche. The wine performed perfectly, showing La Tâche’s vibrant, ethereal, earth-scented raspberry charisma and Domaine de la Romanée-Conti’s house style of understated elegance. It gained nuance and delicacy, changing ever so slowly, the way a chameleon changes colors. What makes La Tâche so special goes beyond what it offers in the glass. It is its pedigree. This celebrated 15-acre grand cru in the heart of Burgundy’s Côte de Nuits is a monopole, which means it has just one owner. Most of Burgundy’s vineyards are carved up into tiny slices,…

Vinho Verde covers 86,000 acres—about 15 percent—of Portugal’s wine grape plantings. Historically, the region produced slightly fizzy, light whites that ranged in quality from insipid to inoffensive. But many vintners have recently reorganized their vineyards for quality by dramatically reducing yields and modernizing cultivation techniques. Many large brands now offer versions that are crisp, clean and refreshing and whose combination of citrus and green apple flavors make them fine aperitifs. Vinho Verde is a green, well-watered region that stretches north from Porto to the Spanish border, where wines made from the Albariño grape in the Rías Baixas appellation have leapt to prominence. Today, the best wines on the Portuguese side of the border are increasingly being made from Alvarinho (as Albariño is called in Portuguese) as well. It’s a mountainous…

A vintage with verve. That’s what sets apart the 2013 harvest for California Chardonnay. Typically one of the Golden State’s steadiest and most reliable wines year in, year out, Chardonnay delivers not only another strong vintage with 2013, but a highly distinctive one as well. The reason is phenolics. This group of com-pounds, which are part of the same chemical family as tannins, impart a pithy citrus or Asian pear skin texture, and California winemakers say they figure strongly in the 2013 Chardonnays. Certainly the qualities attributed to phenolics are evident in many of the wines. This is a good marker for ageability and a useful indicator in deciding whether to cellar. Chardonnays age very well for three to five years, and the wines’ edgier traits become rounder and smoother…

This Buying Guide contains ratings of new releases from around the world and the results of special tastings reported on in greater depth elsewhere in the issue. Complete tasting notes are provided for all new releases scoring 85 or more points (on the Wine Spectator 100-point scale, explained below); notes for wines scoring 84 points or less are included at the discretion of the taster. Additional reviews appear 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. If no reviewer’s initials appear, the wine was tasted by a panel of Wine Spectator editors. James Laube California Harvey Steiman Australia, Oregon, Washington Thomas Matthews Spain Kim Marcus Argentina, Austria, Chile, Germany, Portugal Bruce…

ARGENTINA Malbec & Blends 91 Altocedro Malbec La Consulta Reserva 2013 $34 Big and rich-tasting, with concentrated flavors of dark plum, dried blackberry and dark currant, flanked by luscious Asian spice notes. Very creamy as well, offering a plush, open-textured finish of dark chocolate and mo-cha. Drink now through 2022. 750 cases imported.—K.M. 90 Altos Las Hormigas Malbec Mendoza Paraje Altamira 2013 $45 Offers a rich, fruity aroma, with luscious flavors of raspberry ganache, wild plum and red currant. Plush midpalate, delivering a creamy finish that offers plenty of milk chocolate notes. Drink now through 2018. 460 cases made.—K.M. 90 Piattelli Malbec Cafayate Valley Reserve 2013 $17 A refined style, this red offers lively acidity behind the flavors of dried berry, cherry and pomegranate. This features zesty minerality and…

Don’t judge a wine by its label. In the U.S., many specific-sounding terms are in fact meaningless, and even terms regulated by the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) can allow considerable wiggle room. And you might be surprised which kinds of label art the TTB deems outrageous enough to reject. DR. VINNY Dear Dr. Vinny, I was under the impression that Sherry could only come from an area of Spain, just like Champagne can only come from that region of France. Please enlighten me. —Elio, Canada Dear Elio, You’re correct that most of the world agrees that Sherry comes from Spain ex-clusively, just as Champagne should only refer to sparkling wines from the Cham-pagne region of France. Sherry is made pri-marily from Palomino grapes from the Jerez…