Innehållsförteckning för June 15, 2017 från Wine Spectator

Dominic Orsini’s got a pretty sweet gig. He may be a hard-working executive chef, with all the demands and pressures of the job, but he gets to wield his knives smack-dab in the middle of some of America’s finest wine terroir, which also happens to be a wondrous culinary paradise. “It’s an amazing place to come to work,” says Orsini, 43, who’s been at Silver Oak Cellars in Napa Valley since 2008. “I think about that every morning when I wake up.” Tasked with developing recipes to highlight a specific roster of wines, Orsini is a living testament to the old adage that limitations breed creativity. His concoctions are equal parts invention and restraint. They take full advantage of the area’s farm-to-table abundance—the winery has a lovely kitchen garden—and artisan…

DOWN UNDER This group of values from Australia fits the bill for summer. The reds should add a little spice to accompany whatever you’re grilling, while the Rieslings are thirst-quenchers. The Powell & Son Riverside is a GSM blend. POWELL & SON Riverside Barossa 2015 (93, $20) Polished, refined; cherry, raspberry, dried violet, savory, smoke, sarsaparilla HEWITSON Riesling Eden Valley Gun Metal 2016 (92, $19) Peach blossom, lime zest, honeysuckle, ginger; vibrant, elegant CALABRIA Shiraz Barossa Valley Three Bridges 2014 (91, $25) Elegant; cherry, raspberry, nutmeg, sarsaparilla, black tea TAIT Shiraz McLaren Vale The Border Crossing 2014 (91, $23) Violet, plum, floral, white pepper; chewy TORBRECK Shiraz Barossa Valley Wood- cutter’s 2015 (91, $24) Plush; plum, licorice, cigar box, nutmeg, cedar, chai tea ANDREW HARDY Shiraz McLaren Vale Little Ox…

Taken as a group, the 2014 DRC lineup shows the backbone and clarity of this cool, reserved vintage. Domaine de la Romanée-Conti’s lineup of grands crus from 2014 deliver precision on two counts. Considered separately, the wines reveal the charac-ter and pedigree of their sites, a collec-tion of some of the best climats in Bur-gundy’s Côte d’Or. Taken as a group, they show the backbone and clarity of the cool, reserved 2014 vintage. The wines have evolved beautifully since I tasted them as barrel samples in February 2016. More forthcoming in aromas than flavors, they are well-structured, with vivid acidities and assertive, well-proportioned tannins shrouding a core of bright, pure fruit. Showing some reserve, even austerity, yet no signs of reduction, they look set for a long, slow evolution. Aubert…

Agnès Henry’s parents bought Domaine de la Tour du Bon, located 30 miles east of Marseille in Provence, in 1968. It was only meant to be a summer home for the Pari-sians, but the vines on the property caught their interest. The original 3 acres of vineyards pro-gressively grew to 12, planted mainly to Mourvèdre (60 percent), with other red and white local varieties. The soils are a di-verse mix of limestone with red clay, sand and gravel. Henry took over the estate in 1990 and makes between 3,300 and 5,000 cases a year; around half of that produc-tion is rosé. Wine Spectator: What goes into the mak-ing of your rosé? Agnès Henry: It’s always Mourvèdre, Gre-nache and Cinsault, with a majority of Mourvèdre and sometimes a little Clairette. We…

It’s an article of faith for many that good sparkling wine has to be expensive. The cinematic romance historically associated with sipping Champagne or the image of bubbly flowing freely at glamorous parties of the rich and famous may be the cause of this myth, but in the modern wine world it’s simply not true. Today’s wine drinkers are enjoying spar-kling wine regularly, often with meals, and producers around the globe are meeting the category’s surging popularity with greater affordability as well as higher qual-ity. From the United States and Australia, where the serious production of sparkling wine began only in recent decades, to the traditional sparkling-wine appellations of Italy, France and Spain, vintners are mak-ing the investments necessary to ensure quality at lower price points. One key to getting…

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 At large Thomas Matthews Spain Kim Marcus Argentina, California, Chile…

DR. VINNY Dear Dr. Vinny, It’s frowned upon to wear perfume to a wine tasting, right? Yet sometimes when I go to a tasting room, I’m [overwhelmed] by people’s fragrances. What should you do if someone at a tasting is wearing a strong scent? —Aura, Roseville, Calif. Dear Aura, You are absolutely correct that it’s consid-ered inappropriate to wear perfume or co-logne, as well as any hairspray, aftershave or lotion with a strong or lingering odor, at a wine tasting. Why? There’s a strong relationship be-tween what we smell and what we taste. Try this: Pinch your nose shut with your fingers and take a sip of wine. With the wine still in your mouth, unpinch your nose and see how much more of the wine you experience. What you…

E. & J. Gallo, the world’s largest family-owned wine company, continues to see premium wine as the future. The company sealed a deal in March to buy Stagecoach Vineyard, a 1,300-acre site near the area known as Pritchard Hill in Napa Valley. The rocky hillside site has 600 acres planted to vines in an area in-creasingly recognized for producing quality fruit. A purchase price has not been disclosed. “It’s a significant investment for the Gallo fam-ily,” Roger Nabedian, senior vice president and general manager of Gallo’s Premium Wine Divi-sion, told Wine Spectator. “It is exciting that we’re furthering our commitment to quality wine.” Jan Krupp bought the site in 1995, just four years after he shifted his focus from medicine to wine-making. Krupp and his brother Bart spent seven years…

ZACK MILLS WIT & WISDOM BALTIMORE “I knew how to crack crabs be-fore proba-bly most people should,” Zack Mills admits with a laugh. Growing up by Maryland’s Chesa-peake Bay, Mills al-ways had an appetite for the region’s bounty. Crab stew was on offer at just about every area restaurant—typically with proud claims to supremacy. His mother also made a “fabulous” version at home. “It’s just kind of ingrained in us,” he explains, “so when I started cooking for a living, I wanted to develop my own take on it and see if I could just slightly elevate it.” Mills’ riff can be found on the menu of the Four Seasons Baltimore’s Wit & Wisdom, A Tavern by Michael Mina, where, as executive chef, Mills turns out haute Eastern Seaboard tavern…

It’s rare in the U.S. for one person to have worked with one vineyard for as long as Donum’s Anne Moller-Racke. Carneros came to define California’s aspirations to Burgundian excellence in the 1980s, first with Chardonnay, which pro-pelled the era’s white wine boom, and then Pinot Noir. Next came the surge of sparkling wine. The region’s cooler climate attracted investment from Europe. Champagne houses Möet & Chandon (Domaine Chandon) and Tattinger (Domaine Carneros), which had arrived in the ’70s, were joined by Spain’s Gloria Ferrer and Codorníu (Artesa), making Carneros the hub of California bubbly. Chardonnay has never wavered in Carneros. It’s still the region’s kingpin, the ever-popular star, with two of the state’s heavyweights, Kendall-Jackson and Rombauer, settling in with big farming operations. Pinot Noir enjoyed success, but vintners…

2017The Leone de Castris estate in Puglia, founded in 1665, has a rich history—and so does its rosé. The Five Roses bottling was born during World War II in the small village of Salice Salentino. In 1943, American colo-nel Charles Poletti tasted the wine on a visit and advised Piero de Leone de Castris, in charge at the time, to bottle it and export it to the U.S. It was the first Italian rosé to be sold stateside. Piero’s son, Piernicola, has been the man-aging director since the late 1990s. The estate produces 2.5 million cases a year, 650,000 of which are rosé. They make sev-eral bottlings, all with indigenous Puglian grapes. The Five Roses, the flagship rosé, is composed of 90 percent Negroamaro and 10 percent Malvasia Nera di…

Charles Banks, a financial adviser and wine company owner, pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud in a federal courthouse in San Antonio on April 3. He faces up to 20 years in federal prison. The case stems from allegations made by former NBA star Tim Duncan, a longtime Banks client, who says he was duped out of millions of dollars in various investments Banks made on his behalf. In a statement of facts filed March 31, lawyers for Banks admit that he misrepresented the terms of an agreement Duncan signed related to invest-ments in a sports-merchandising company called Gameday Entertainment. “Charles Banks acted with a knowing intent to deceive Tim Duncan,” states the document. Banks, in addition to his finance career, is the founder of Terroir Life, which…

Summer is the perfect time to check out Long Island’s thriving wine scene. If you’re planning a vineyard visit (see “Fresh and Breezy,” page 26), make your way to local dining spots where top-rated wines are accompanied by cuisine that excites and satisfies, such as the three restaurants spotlighted here. For even more great options, see our list of Wine Spectator award–winning restaurants on Long Island’s East End, below. CACI NORTH FORK Website www.cacinorthfork.com SOUTHOLD — Caci has made an impression with locals and visitors alike for its traditional, regionally oriented Italian fare. Among the dishes paying hom-age to chef Marco Pellegrini’s homeland are house-made Um-brian pork sausage (available un-til June 12) and jumbo shrimp with blood-orange sauce (avail-able throughout the summer). Offerings change with each new season, and the formaggi…

There’s only one way for those of us with some wine mileage to stay young and that’s to remain curious. When wine lovers think about age, it’s usually in relation to the wine, not them-selves. Yet your own age so often shapes the nature and quality of your involvement with wine. Especially at the extremes of youth and old age, this influence is inevitable. At one end of the spectrum, you’re so new to wine that every bottle is a first-time experience—and very likely an inexpensive one at that. At the other extreme, you rightly figure that you’re not going to be able to wait 20 years for a wine to fully mature. No sense buying the latest Vintage Port. So how should you approach buying wine if you’re young…

Napa-based Julien Fayard is the winemaker for a handful of brands, including his own rosé-centered Azur. Fayard learned to make rosé at his family’s winery, Château Ste.- Marguerite in Provence. But when it came to his new project in California, he wanted to be clear with his goals. “We decided we are trying to make our own identity. Provence rosés are fresher and lighter, but [in Califor-nia] we can get more texture and structure.” Wine Spectator: What is your approach to making rosé? Julien Fayard: Rosé is very technical. You need to be diligent when you pick, diligent when you transport, diligent when you press. I prefer a lighter color, which means less extraction. You get more elegant, more floral—white flowers and peach, lychee and tropical fruits. We handpick the…

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. 96 Altesino Brunello di Montalcino Our 40th Harvest 2012 $65 ITALY Cherry, leather and iron notes mark this suave, elegant red. A bit reticent now, but the fruit is fresh and long on the finish. The dense tannins leave a mouthcoating impression, but this opens up beautifully over a few hours. Best from 2021 through 2035. 10,000 cases made.—B.S. 96 San Felice Brunello di Montalcino Campo-giovanni 2012 $60 ITALY In a traditional style, featuring beefy tannins and savory earth notes, with a core of leather and cherry flavors. Shows some sweetness mid-palate and picks up energy on the long finish. Hangs to-gether, ending in an uplifting,…

AUSTRALIA Shiraz & Blends 96 Powell & Son Shiraz Barossa Kraehe Marananga 2015 $625 A lush, intriguing mix of wilted rose petal, gingerbread, dark chocolate and toasted caraway seed notes. Polished and velvety, with a core of black cherry and kirsch flavors, persisting on the long and complex finish. Drink now through 2030. 200 cases made.—M.W. 95 Powell & Son Shiraz Eden Valley Loechel 2015 $90 Decadent, with date nut bread, dark choco-late and espresso flavors that are accented with sandal-wood and mahogany aromas. The creamy and plush cherry and plum flavors are extremely generous and expressive on the epic finish. Drink now through 2030. 250 cases made.—M.W. 94 Powell & Son Shiraz Barossa Steinert Flaxman’s 2015 $625 Rich and expressive, with a wild, fresh-turned earth aroma, mingling with smoke…