Innehållsförteckning för December 15, 2015 från Wine Spectator

HOW TO GET IT 1 American Stonecraft food slabs $32–$190, www.americanstonecraft.com 2 Biltsharp paring knife $270, www.biltsharp.com 3 Rösle voided-blade cheese knife $40, www.surlatable.com 4 Boska Dutch cheese knife $60, www.boska.com Fine cheese is a great choice during the holiday season, both as a separate course in a special meal or as part of a buffet for a larger party. And the tools and accessories to enhance its presentation make excellent gifts for your favorite cheese lovers. “What we’re selling is not just cheese knives or boards,” explains Boska Holland Cheesewares CEO Martijn Bos, whose great-grandfather Willem was a blacksmith who began supplying tools to cheese professionals in the Gouda region in 1896. “It’s an experience, it’s a fun evening.” In cheese presentation, we start from the bottom up, which…

Will the baby boomers be replenished by an equally large group that’s equally willing to buy $100 Cabernets? One of the benefits of keeping one eye on history is that you discover, more often than not, that the handwringers and doomsayers are usually wrong. That’s not always true, of course, as the maxim “Even a stopped clock is right twice a day” applies. Still, we see misplaced negativity applied to wine regularly. Remember how, in the 1980s, we were supposed to be entering a wine-destroying era of “neo-Prohibitionism”? It never happened. (The doomsayers had it wrong. It wasn’t about alcohol; it was about larger public health and safety issues such as fetal alcohol syndrome and drunk driving.) Prior to that, in the 1970s, various pundits asserted that America would never…

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,…

Sparkling wine sales are surging in the United States. Last year marked the sixth consecutive annual increase, according to Impact, a sister publication of Wine Spectator, and our nation is on track to drink more than 17 million cases in 2015. That’s a lot of bubbles. While the most rapid growth has come from Italy’s Prosecco category, Champagne has also seen sales rise. Americans consumed 1.3 million cases of France’s premium bubbly in 2014. And traditionally, this time of year is Champagne’s moment to shine. If you’re going to splurge on Champagne for your holiday festivities, don’t miss senior editor Alison Napjus’ tasting report, beginning on page 71: Napjus, our lead taster on European sparkling wines, has reviewed more than 400 Champagnes, representing 138 wineries and including almost 20 new…

WASHINGTON GEMS A few of these wines from Washington may be on the pricier side of affordability, but the two K Syrah bottlings deserve attention for their quality-to-price ratios, as it’s rare to find such highly rated wines at these prices. Overall, this group shows the success of Washington producers with a number of different grape varieties. K Syrah Walla Walla Valley Morrison Lane 2012 (96, $45) Powerful, harmonious; plum, blackberry, mineral K Syrah Wahluke Slope The Deal Sundance 2012 (94, $35) Roasted meat, green olive, currant, plum, spice; plush, expressive OS Cabernet Franc Yakima Valley Sonas 2013 (92, $25) Dense, supple; black cherry, blackberry, chocolate, floral ASHAN Chardonnay Columbia Valley Barrel Fermented 2014 (91, $25) Fresh, tangy; juicy pear, grapefruit SNOQUALMIE Cabernet Sauvignon Columbia Valley Reserve 2012 (91, $20)…

A remarkable diversity plays out in the wines of South Africa’s annual Cape Winemakers Guild auction. I taste a lot of wines every year. There are the few thousand wines I review formally for Wine Spectator, plus the countless others I taste for personal edification and delight. But few tastings are as outright fun as my annual survey of South Africa’s Cape Winemakers Guild (CWG) auction wines. The CWG is a group of 46 winemakers who put selected wines on auction every fall. The wines are not commercial releases but rather oneoffs, specially selected lots culled from the winery’s regular production, or more experimental stuff. Production levels are usually small—just a barrel here and there. Most of the wines are snapped up by South African buyers, so few of them…

France’s Champagne region continues to be the world’s premier source for sparkling wine. In terms of overall quality, Champagne is typically a step ahead of bubblies from other quarters. • In order to retain its position of global leadership amid impressive growth elsewhere, producers in Champagne acknowledge the need to do more than simply maintain quality. They also need to continuously up their game to secure their advantage. “We don’t rest on our laurels,” says Raymond Ringeval, export director at Champagne Palmer. “We’re always trying to make it better.” It’s a mentality that’s common among many of the wine world’s best producers. Today in Champagne, this thinking manifests itself through innovative new bottlings, more emphasis on quality vineyard sources and even greater precision to Champagne’s already complex production process. This…

ARGENTINA Malbec & Blends 90 Jean Bousquet Malbec Tupungato Valley Grande Reserve 2012 $25 Lush and full of rich dark plum and dried raspberry flavors that are minerally and fresh-tasting. Richly spiced, with a powerful structure and loads of spicy details, followed by a juicy finish. Drink now through 2020. 10,000 cases made.—K.M. 90 TriVento Malbec Lujan de Cuyo Eolo 2012 $79 A rich, juicy red, with notes of hot stone to the brambly mix of plum and cherry flavors. Very creamy midpalate, presenting a plush, chocolate- and spiced-filled finish. Drink now through 2018. 1,000 cases made.—K.M. 88 Jean Bousquet Ameri Tupungato 2011 $35 A zesty red, with notes of white pepper to the focused flavors of dried raspberry and red currant. The creamy finish features chocolate and mocha accents.…

OFF THE GRID Readers respond to Matt Kramer’s classification of “Under the Radar” wines (“The World’s Largest Category of Fine Wines?” online, Oct. 6). Kramer says UTR wines come from unsung zones within successful regions, are made by producers who are not yet stars and would be recommended by other vintners in the area. I will go to the Finger Lakes: Heart & Hands for stunning Pinot Noir, Hermann J. Wiemer for Riesling, and Ravines and Damiani for just about any wine they make. Jeremy Matouk Port of Spain, Trinidad [On our annual visit] to Napa/Sonoma we try to find outstanding “off-the-beaten-path wineries” (our definition of UTR). In 2008, we visited Benovia in Santa Rosa; if you enjoy Chardonnays and Pinots in a Burgundian style, this will be right up…

BRANDY CRUSTA 2 oz. Armagnac or Cognac ½ oz. lemon juice ½ oz. orange Curacao (or substitute triple sec) 2 dashes maraschino liqueur 2 dashes bitters Granulated sugar and lemon peel (for garnish) Rim a wine goblet with granulated sugar and encircle the inside of the rim with the peel of the entire lemon. Stir remaining ingredients with ice. Strain into goblet. The recent rebirth of cocktail culture has meant a boon for a diverse range of spirit categories as they find their way into a parade of inventions. Such liquors as rye whiskey and gin have even made a resurgence after years of popular decline. Oddly, one drink that hasn’t enjoyed such a comeback is brandy, a spirit that has been part of sophisticated mixology since before the invention…

Clear information is more vital than ever. Yet most labels tell us as little as possible about what’s in the bottle. If you’re befuddled by wine labels (and who isn’t at times?), you have to wonder why vintners don’t tell us more about their wine than they do. This issue becomes more pressing as a greater number of wines enter the U.S. market and the chance for confusion grows. Information is the link between those who sell wine and those who buy it. Wine labels have become more transparent. You can tell more about a wine today from its label than you used to. But labels could be even more helpful, both for consumers who want to learn about what they’re drinking and for vintners who want consumers to understand…

In 1995, Ehren Jordan was essentially broke, but the taste of a Marcassin Chardonnay inspired him to purchase land on the craggy, remote Sonoma Coast. This impulsive, risky decision changed the course of his career in wine. Then 28, Jordan had a part-time job pruning vineyards for Helen Turley and John Wetlaufer, who had just launched their famed Marcassin label. “I tasted the 1994 Marcassin Estate Chardonnay three, four weeks after harvest,” Jordan recalls. “The wines weren’t done done, but they were done enough to be able to taste.” The nascent wine exploded with fig, pear and anise, its minerality and richness in pulsing tension. “The light went on in my head,” Jordan says. Trained by his real estate broker mother and developer father to know a deal when he…

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 K Syrah Walla Walla Valley Rock Garden 2012 $60 WASHINGTON Dense, rich, ripe and expressive, offering a feast of plum and black currant flavors, with ripe pear, honey and floral overtones as the minerally finish wells up with intensity and harmony. Shows tremendous presence and depth. Best from 2017 through 2025. 348 cases made.—H.S. 95 Bergstrom Pinot Noir Ribbon Ridge Le Pre Du Col Vineyard 2013 $60 OREGON Supple, seductive and distinctive for its pure blueberry fruit, shaded with white pepper, pear skin and floral character. The flavors dance merrily into the long, deftly balanced finish. Offers presence and intensity without extra weight. Drink now…

It’s entertaining season—time to put your hosting skills to the test. Wine service is the name of the game, but it raises some important questions: What’s the right temperature? What’s the right glass? How do I get this bottle open?! Let us school you. DR. VINNY Dear Dr. Vinny, What’s the best way to quickly chill a bottle of bubbly? And how cold should it be? —Danielle, New York Dear Danielle, You might be surprised, but it’s not the freezer. Thanks to physics— namely thermal conductivity—a bottle of bubbly will cool down much faster in cold water than in cold air. Find a container that you can properly submerge most of a bottle of bubbly in. (A sink can work in a pinch.) Surround the bottle with ice and water…