Innehållsförteckning för November 15, 2019 från Wine Spectator

ARGENTINA 92 Corazon del Sol Cabernet Sauvignon-Cabernet Franc Los Chacayes Revana Vineyard 2016 $85 Pure-tasting, with intense minerality to the dark currant, cherry tart and damson plum flavors that feature slate and spice notes. Hints of dried green herbs show on the focused finished. Cabernet Sauvignon and Cabernet Franc. Drink now through 2025. 160 cases made, 120 cases imported.—K.M. 91 Tapiz Selección de Barricas San Pablo Single Vineyard Uco Valley 2014 $30 Inky and densely packed, with concentrated kirsch, dark plum and Asian spice flavors that are supported by medium-grained tannins. The grippy finish features dried fig and chocolate notes. Cabernet Sauvignon, Malbec, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Syrah. Drink now through 2025. 2,000 cases imported.—K.M. 91 Bodega Vistalba Malbec-Cabernet Sauvignon Mendoza Corte C 2017 $17 See Smart Buys, page 131.…

If you love California Cabernet Sauvignon, then clear some space in your cellar for the 2016 vintage. Rating a classic 98 points on our 100-point scale, it’s a benchmark year of stunning wines that will drink well in their youth and develop gracefully for decades. Senior editor James Molesworth, our lead taster on the cate-gory, reviewed more than 300 2016s in official blind tastings during the past year and rated nearly 250 wines as outstanding or classic on the Wine Spectator 100-point scale. He also re-viewed almost 300 Cabernets from other vintages, where he found additional terrific bottles. (You’ll find tasting notes for the top Cabs beginning on page 60, and a complete list of scores and prices for all wines reviewed beginning on page 73.) Napa Valley, the epicenter…

Nothing against apple pie, but come on: Chocolate chip cookies are the quintessential American treat. Apple pie might conjure happy Sunday afternoons at Gram’s, but chocolate chip cookies evoke stretching on tiptoes to get the cookie jar. Plus, anything eaten with your hands is just better. They’re also one of the first foods kids get to help make, because they’re so easy. But just because they’re easy doesn’t mean you can’t make them better than the ones you made with Mom. (My mother, a single parent of four boys, doubled all ingredients except the chips to stretch the recipe. I get it, but I don’t do that.) I bake a sheet of cookies for my family pretty much every night. Between the four of us, they get eaten. I highly…

Quintessential France This group of French reds and whites hails from a range of denominations, from the Rhône Valley to the Loire Valley to Beaujolais, offering distinctive styles from around the country. All the wines here are terrific values for their appellations. DOMAINE DE LA CHARBONNIÈRE Châteauneuf-du-Pape 2016 (94, $40) Dense, ripe; steeped cur-rant, fig, boysenberry, dark earth, tobacco, cocoa FRANÇOIS PINON Vouvray Silex Noir 2017 (94, $30) Lemon zest, green plum, quince, wet stone, sel gris; silky, precise DOMAINE SANTA DUC Gigondas Aux Lieux-Dits 2017 (93, $32) Pretty, fresh; red currant, damson plum, raspberry coulis, floral, mineral BERNARD BAUDRY Chinon 2017 (92, $24) Dark cherry, cola, tobacco, bay leaf, black pepper; vibrant, harmonious CATHERINE & PIERRE BRETON Bourgueil Trinch! 2017 (92, $27) Firm, lively; black currant, espresso, tobacco, spice…

One of the best parts of my job is to visit the place where the grapes for a wine originate, see how they are grown and how winemakers and their vine-yard managers ensure that the best fruit is harvested. If that happens, most winemakers will frankly tell you that their goal in the cellar is not to screw up the bounty that nature has provided. I jump at the chance to take a vineyard tour, and it doesn’t hurt that most high quality wines come from stunningly beautiful locales. So it was that I found myself recently in Northern California’s Alexander Valley at the vineyards of Stonestreet, part of the Jackson Family Wine group. Stonestreet was the middle name of JFW’s late founder, Jess Jackson, the vintner who brought you…

OLD-SCHOOL CABERNET The Farella family planted some of Coombsville’s first vines, and they’re still at it It’s not difficult to get a clear picture of the Coombsville appellation’s recent history. But where did it begin? With Frank Farella, for one. Farella bought his property, nestled at the base of the Vaca Mountains on the east side of what is now the Coombsville AVA, in 1977. One of the last parcels sold off from the massive Nathan Coombs Estate, the former cow pastures didn’t hold any grapevines. But they did have the volcanic gravel and loam soils that seem to beg for Cabernet Sauvignon. As Farella toiled to plant his vineyard—to Cabernet, Chardon-nay, Merlot, Sauvignon Blanc and other varieties—his son Tom worked alongside him, clearing brush when he wasn’t busy with…

Perfect Petit My wife and I decided on a Sunday lunch at the Rye Street Tavern in Baltimore to find a pairing for a grilled mahi sandwich and a crab Cobb salad. I was drawn to the 2016 Michael Shaps Petit Manseng. Like most folks with a modest understanding of wine, I was intrigued. Although I’d heard of the varietal, I was not familiar with a single bottling. Very chuffed with my selection I spent the afternoon ferreting out more information about this grape. Fast forward one week and my wife hands me the Sept. 30 issue of Wine Spectator. There on the last page is none other than the very same 2016 Michael Shaps Petit Manseng, but this time paired with gnudi (A Perfect Match). It’s these chance connections…

Suave, sophisticated and multifaceted, the bloomy rinds are the most quintessentially French of all cheese types. Brie and Camembert, two national icons, march at the head of the category. Considered the queen of French cheeses, Brie is the older of the two, but Camembert is more symbolic. Its creation myth evokes di-vine inspiration and national pride: In 1791, Marie Harel, a farmhouse wife, is said to have given refuge to a Catholic priest so he could avoid the revolutionary guillotine; in thanks he gave her the recipe. The bloomies’ velvety white coating of ripening mold lends them a wide variety of aromas and flavors, from a lip-smackingly sour and/or bittersweet bite to sweet fruity, round nutty and umami-laden mushroom flavors; yeasty fermentation and animalistic (or “barnyardy”) funk; and vegetal notes…

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED 94 John Duval Plexus Red Barossa Valley 2017 $40 AUSTRALIA Vibrant, with blackberry, blueberry and spiced plum flavors that are fresh, plump and generous at the core. Impressively elegant and seamless. Shiraz, Grenache and Mourvèdre. COLLECTIBLE 97 M. Chapoutier Ermitage Le Pavillon 2016 $505 FRANCE Smoldering black tea, bay leaf and tobacco hints swirl around gently mulled black cherry and blackberry fruit flavors, ending with singed mesquite and sassafras notes. SMART BUY 91 Margerum Sauvignon Blanc Happy Canyon of Santa Barbara Sybarite 2018 $21 CALIFORNIA Intense and vibrant, this white delivers a mouth watering mix of lime, white grapefruit and lemon sherbet flavors, set on a light and crisp frame. Impressively precise and focused. BEST VALUE 89 Terra Santa Ile de Beauté White 2018 $15 FRANCE Fresh, with…

For a wine region, being located in the backyard of a global capital has both positives and drawbacks. Italy’s Lazio is a prime example. Its wines have quenched Roman thirsts for thousands of years, but it is largely unknown elsewhere in the world. This summer, I visited Rome with my husband and his children, and while they were visiting the Vatican, I decided to explore the vineyards. Lazio is startlingly close by. During most of my visits, I had a good view of the dome of St. Peter’s Basilica as we walked through the vineyards. Frascati, the primary white wine area, is within half an hour’s drive of the Colosseum. Lazio produces about half the wine volume of Tuscany each year—a considerable amount of wine—but area producers typically export only…

If you want to understand how Georg Riedel became the world’s leading maker of fine wineglasses, watch him order at a restaurant. • On a recent sunny afternoon in Scottsdale, Ariz., Riedel sits down for lunch outside and orders a bottle of Schramsberg, one of Caifornia’s top sparkling wines. He has some instructions for the sommelier: He wants large Riedel glasses—not flutes; he’d like a small bucket of ice cubes so that he and his dining companions can add ice to their glasses if needed; and he insists that the bottle be placed in a large bucket filled with half water, half ice, just high enough to completely cover the remaining wine inside. Turning to his tablemates, he smiles and acknowledges that he is being high-maintenance. “But how is the…

In 1965, Renato Ratti left Brazil, where he had been working for drinks giant Cinzano, and returned home to Italy’s Piedmont region. It was time to dedicate his efforts to Barolo. Ratti had already started the wheels turning. Legendary vintner Bruno Giacosa had been bottling wines made for Ratti, aged in barrels he provided. And in 1964, with the help of his former classmate and good friend Gigi Rosso and Giacosa, Ratti had bought the historic abbey in the hamlet of Annunziata, just down the hill from La Morra. But when Ratti bottled his first vintage, the 1965, he called it Marcenasco Antiche Cantine della Abbazia dell’Annunziata. “Barolo” was not even on the label. That would change—and along with it, Piedmont’s destiny. Though Ratti was born and grew up in…

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); notes for wines scoring 84 points or less are included at the discretion of the taster. 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. James Laube California Thomas Matthews Spain Kim Marcus California Chardonnay, Merlot and Pinot Noir, Argentina, Chile Bruce Sanderson Burgundy, Piedmont, Tuscany James Molesworth California Cabernet Sauvignon, Bordeaux, Rhône Valley, Port MaryAnn Worobiec California Sauvignon Blanc and other whites, Australia, New Zealand Alison Napjus…

CALIFORNIA Merlot & Blends 94 Behrens Family Saint Helen Napa Valley 2015 $125 Very plush, filled with intense notes of Asian spice to the concentrated dark plum, blackberry and boysenberry flavors. Creamy richness shows mid palate, with a long, caressing finish that offers luscious chocolate mousse details. Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Cabernet Sauvignon. Drink now through 2024. 138 cases made.—K.M. 93 Kenzo Murasaki Napa Valley 2016 $280 A svelte red, with powerful flavors of dark plum, dried berry, olive and dark currant, supported by grippy tannins. Smoky accents are joined by baker’s chocolate and savory notes on the richly spiced finish. Merlot blend. Drink now through 2027. 330 cases made.—K.M. 92 Chimney Rock Elevage Stags Leap District 2016 $110 Pure, focused and powerful, with intense cocoa powder accents to the…

Katie Button was well on her way to an academic career in neuroscience when she realized she was miserable. She had been laboring for years under the logic that “you just keep studying, and eventually you’ll be so overqualified that you’ll have a job and everything will be fine.” But on the precipice of beginning a Ph.D. program with the National Institutes of Health, Button’s dissatisfaction bubbled over and she quit. The daughter of a caterer, she was drawn to food service and landed a front-of-house job at Minibar, José Andrés’ Wine Spectator Award of Excellence–winning temple to molecular gastronomy. That begat a second gig, with Ferran Adrià at his avant garde destination El Bulli in Catalonia. “I suddenly got exposed to a whole world where food meets science, and…