Innehållsförteckning för December 15, 2021 från Wine Spectator

Visit WineSpectator.com/121521 to find links to all of the following resources. FREE RESOURCES FOR ALL WINESPECTATOR.COM READERS TOP 100 COUNTDOWN On Nov. 8, we begin unveiling the Top 10 Wines of 2021—with videos, tasting notes and more—culminating with the Wine of the Year on Nov. 12 and the complete Top 100 list on Nov. 15. Don’t miss our coverage of the year’s most exciting wines! STRAIGHT TALK WITH WINE SPECTATOR is an Instagram Live series featuring conversations with wine-and-food newsmakers such as chefs Eric Ripert and Jose Andres, winemakers Andy Erickson and Thomas Rivers Brown, and other industry luminaries. Tune in to Straight Talk on Wine Spectator’s Instagram page and check out the chat schedule at WineSpectator.com/LiveChatCalendar. WINE SPECTATOR IS NOW ON YOUTUBE Watch all our great wine and recipe…

Italy Rising This group of Italian values leads off with two standouts from Chianti Classico, but also includes offerings from Montalcino, Piedmont and Sicily. Ruché is an obscure grape from the Monferrato hills of Piedmont, and Luca Ferraris is one of its champions. FATTORIA MONSANTO Chianti Classico 2019 (93, $20) Pure, defined, harmonious; black cherry, black currant, iron, wild rosemary CASTELLO LA LECCIA Chianti Classico 2019 (92, $21) Black cherry, blackberry, violet, tobacco, earth, spice; vibrant, balanced FEUDI DEL PISCIOTTO Terre Siciliane Missoni 2019 (91, $26) Bay leaf, creme de cassis, Kalamata olive, loam, black tea, spice DAMILANO Barbera d’Asti 2019 (90, $25) High-toned, racy, firm; strawberry, raspberry, almond, iron LA COLOMBINA Rosso di Montalcino 2018 (90, $24) Cherry, strawberry, earth, Tuscan scrub; grainy, balanced, fresh LUCA FERRARIS Ruche di…

One night in 2020, wine consultant and marketer Terra Jane Albee had just put her kids to bed at her home in Napa and opened a bottle of Found Riesling, a new wine project by wife-and-husband Mabel Ojeda and Andy Butler, who are friends of hers. “I just wanted to put wine in my face after a hard day in the pandemic,” Albee admits. “I opened up the Riesling and thought it was going to be an easy thing to drink.” Sipping it, she was more than surprised: She found the wine remarkably delicious, but also found herself bursting into tears. “It was so good. But [I realized], ‘No one is going to drink this wine. It will never get out there.’” Albee knows what an uphill battle it can…

When Gaylon Lawrence Jr. asked Carlton McCoy to take on the job of managing Heitz Cellar, the master sommelier was intrigued, but he also wondered whether the new winery owner was making a mistake. “I sent him a list of all the things I didn’t know how to do,” says McCoy, 37, whose primary wine experience included five years managing the beverage program at Aspen’s The Little Nell, a Wine Spectator Grand Award winner. But Lawrence didn’t care about what McCoy didn’t know. “Ultimately, what [Lawrence] said was that he had faith in my work ethic, my ability to learn fast and my integrity. He said, ‘The other stuff you’ll learn very quickly,’” recounts McCoy. Lawrence was confident that McCoy was up to the task. Mc-Coy had risen from a…

“People say to me ‘Oh, I always wanted to be a chef,’” says Aisha Ibrahim, executive chef at Canlis, a Wine Spectator Grand Award winner in Seattle. “And I’m like, I never wanted to be a chef. My parents would say, ‘Hey, you might want to come in here and pay attention to what we’re doing so that you can do this for your kids someday.’ And I would hear that in one ear and let it go out the other.” Ibrahim was born in the southern Philippines and emigrated to the U.S. with her parents and two brothers in 1992. Her mother (the Zurita after whom this recipe is named) was a physical therapist and found work in rural West Virginia, then developed a business out of that with…

The typical image of Champagne evokes the rich and famous guzzling glasses at ritzy events. But what about the rich and famous brainstorming blending techniques with top vintners in order to create a totally new wine? That’s the case with Fleur de Miraval Brut Rosé Exclusivement NV, a new Champagne owned by Brad Pitt and created in partnership with two superstar equivalents from the wine world: Rodolphe Péters, owner and winemaker of Champagne’s esteemed grower-producer estate Pierre Péters, and winemaker Marc Perrin, who first collaborated with Pitt and then-wife Angelina Jolie to create the successful Château Miraval rosé from Provence and primarily serves as CEO of the Famille Perrin estates, including the Southern Rhône’s venerated Château de Beaucastel. “We’re wine lovers on top of being winemakers,” says Perrin. “We loved…

ARGENTINA Malbec & Blends 95 Matervini Malbec Perdriel Finca 2018 $90See Highly Recommended, page 97. 94 Matervini Malbec Cafayate Valley Alteza 2018 $90 Complex and well-structured, with concentrated dried cherry and plum paste flavors that are loaded with toasty richness. Cappuccino notes midpalate lead to hot stone accents on the lusciously spiced finish. Drink now through 2026. 1,650 cases made, 100 cases imported.—K.M. 94 Matervini Malbec Canota Valley Vina Canota 2018 $50 A sleek red, with dark currant and fresh-crushed plum flavors that are well-structured and filled with minerally freshness. Accents of white pepper midpalate lead to a long, vibrant finish that shows crushed stone and savory accents. Drink now through 2026. 277 cases made, 100 cases imported.—K.M. 93 Corazon del Sol Magma Revana Vineyard Los Chacayes 2018 $45 This…

A lot of successful business people look to Napa Valley when they want to dip their toe into the wine business, but few arrive with a splash in the way of Gaylon Lawrence Jr. In April of 2018, Lawrence inked a deal with the founding family of Heitz Cellar to buy the historic winery, established in 1961. Part of that deal includes long-term grape contracts with Martha’s Vineyard, which provided the fruit for the legendary 1974 Heitz Cabernet (see “The Story of an Iconic Cab,” page 61) and many classic versions since. The purchase of Heitz garnered a lot of attention, but as news editor Mitch Frank reports in our cover story beginning on page 42, it appears to be just the beginning for the newcomer from Nashville. Lawrence may…

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED 93 KEN WRIGHT Pinot Noir Eola-Amity Hills 2019 $35 OREGON Structured and full of tension, this Pinot captures what Eola-Amity is all about, featuring handsome notes of blueberry and dark cherry laced with savory minerality and dusky spices. COLLECTIBLE 95 Pira Chiara Boschis Barolo Mosconi 2017 $160 ITALY Cherry and plum fruit flavors show accents of vanilla, toast, hay, white pepper and tar in this solidly built, expressive Barolo, which offers fine complexity, balance and length. SMART BUY 90 ANTINORI Chardonnay Umbria Bramito della Sala 2020 $22 ITALY A refreshing white that meshes a spine of snappy acidity and a streak of salty mineral with a pleasing range of creamy Honeycrisp apple, orange curd, blanched almond and honeysuckle notes. BEST VALUE 89 FOPPIANO 1896 California 2018 $13 CALIFORNIA…

Joe Heitz was an outstanding winemaker and an outspoken promoter of Napa wine, but he might not have succeeded without Tom and Martha May, the quiet owners of Martha’s Vineyard. When Tom and Martha moved into their new Napa Valley home in 1963, they found two bottles of wine from Heitz Cellar waiting for them—perhaps the most serendipitous housewarming gift in wine history. The young couple had moved up to Napa Valley from Ojai because they were interested in farming and fascinated by the wine scene. They bought 34 acres of land on the western side of Oakville, just where the valley meets the foothills of the Mayacamas. The previous owners, grapegrowers Belle and Barney Rhodes, had left the wines for them. Tom and Martha enjoyed them so much that…

“Growing up, what I remember most is on Sundays for lunch when my mother made Wiener schnitzel,” recalls chef Wolfgang Puck. “I remember the smell of it cooking. She used oil and pork fat to cook it, and we didn’t have veal—we were poor—so we used pork. I loved it so much that I only ate half of it at lunch time and saved the rest for dinner.” The unhappiness in his childhood in rural Austria was mostly at the hands of his abusive stepfather, as he details in the recent documentary Wolfgang, directed by David Gelb (Disney+). In the movie, Puck says, “As a kid, the kitchen was the only place I felt safe.” His mother didn’t cook just at home: “My mother was a cook in a hotel.…

Making wine is always a labor of love, but at Champagne Gonet-Médeville, owners Xavier Gonet and Julie Médeville take this idea to the next level. “We do everything together,” says Médeville of the estate’s Champagne production. “Although sometimes we disagree, of course,” she laughs. The duo met at a wine tasting in Reims in 1993, married a few years later and then began working with Médeville’s parents in Bordeaux. The Médeville family has owned Sauternes’ esteemed Château Gilette since 1710 and more recently the neighboring Château Les Justices estate. It wasn’t until 2000 that the husband-and-wife team ventured to Champagne to establish Gonet-Médeville. They purchased a cellar in Bisseuil and took control of 17 acres of vineyards that historically belonged to Gonet’s large, Champagne-based winemaking family. “Xavier split his part…

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 Matervini Malbec Perdriel Finca 2018 $90 ARGENTINA Well-structured flavors of currant, plum and cherry pastry are refined and powerful, knit by fine-grained tannins. Rich minerality midpalate leads to a lusciously spiced finish that’s filled with accents of coffeeberry and loam. Drink now through 2027. 250 cases made, 120 cases imported.—K.M. 95 Chateau de Nalys Chateauneuf-du-Pape 2018 $105 FRANCE A bright savory note leads off this red, followed quickly by sanguine and bay leaf accents, all melding nicely with the core of steeped blackberry, raspberry and plum fruit flavors as they move through the rich, licorice root–tinged finish. Grenache, Syrah, Mourvèdre, Counoise and Vaccarèse. Best from…

Join a series of Instagram conversations between Wine Spectator editors and respected leaders in the worlds of wine and hospitality, spanning current events, business news and personal thoughts. Now In Our IGTV Archives OCT. 6 Remi Cohen, CEO, Domaine Carneros SEPT. 29 Amar’e Stoudemire, former NBA player and owner of Stoudemire Wines SEPT. 22 Alberto Antonini, consulting enologist and producer SEPT. 15 Valentina Abbona, owner and marketing manager, Marchesi di Barolo SEPT. 8 Tiquette Bramlett, president, Vidon Vineyard SEPT. 1 Barbara Banke, chairman and proprietor, Jackson Family Wines AUG. 25 DLynn Proctor, sommelier and director of Fantesca Estate & Winery AUG. 18 Chris Kajani, winemaker, Bouchaine Vineyards AUG. 11 Christian Moreau, founder, Domaine Christian Moreau Père & Fils AUG. 4 Braithe Tidwell, wine director, Brennan’s Restaurant WATCH ON INSTAGRAM Scan…

Joseph Drouhin’s Beaune Clos des Mouches celebrates its 100th anniversary this year with the release of the house’s flagship 2018 white and red from this iconic premier cru. The parcels in the Clos des Mouches were purchased in 1921 by Maurice Drouhin. In 1918, he had joined the business founded in 1880 by his father, Joseph, with the goal of improving the wines and securing a supply of grapes by acquiring vineyards. The phylloxera scourge, followed by World War I, had left the Clos des Mouches vines in bad shape; they needed replanting. It had been the tradition in Burgundy to co-plant white grape varieties with Pinot Noir and to harvest and ferment them together to add roundness to the red wines. In Clos des Mouches, Drouhin replanted the Pinot…

“I was born and raised on comfort food. We weren’t rich but we lived well,” says Daniel Boulud, chef-owner of seven restaurants in New York City, including Wine Spectator Grand Award winner Daniel, and six more internationally. “We ate comfort food all the time, but great memories of it was on Sunday, because we had more of an elaborate meal.” Boulud grew up on a farm near Lyon, where he lived the seasonality touted by so many these days. When he had ham, it wasn’t from the deli case at the store; it was from pigs they raised and cured at home. To stave off repetition, his mother had “10 ways to cook every vegetable.” One constant was soup: “Every day, we had a soup on the table. And every…

“We talk about this a lot at the restaurants: Comfort food doesn’t have to be a specific dish like meatloaf and mashed potatoes,” says Miami-based chef Michael Schwartz. “It can be whatever triggers a memory. It’s usually childhood memories that give you that comfort. It can be pretty broad, why people are drawn to it, even in restaurants.” This is key to Schwartz’ cooking—you can see it on his menus. He can’t make you your grandmother’s Sunday roast, but can he spark the feeling you get from it? In Schwartz’ food there is some of what has been called Florribean cuisine—south Florida produce, especially fish, combined with Caribbean, Latin and Asian flavors—but it’s more broad too, more inclusive. Not simple but definitely homey, it meets you more than halfway. At…

What’s it like to be a Chardonnay guy in the middle of Pinot Noir country? Ask Arnaud Margaine, owner and winemaker of his family winery in Villers-Marmery, a village where Chardonnay accounts for 98% of the vineyard plantings. The area’s east-facing vineyards with soils dominated by chalk and light clay—optimal conditions for the white grape—mean Villers-Marmery is one of a trio of outlier Chardonnay villages in the heart of Champagne’s Pinot-dominated Montagne de Reims subregion. “But [at A. Margaine,] we’re 90% Chardonnay and 10% Pinot Noir,” says Arnaud’s daughter, Mathilde Margaine, who joined her father for her first harvest in 2018 and today oversees a wide range of winery operations alongside him. Mathilde elaborates that the estate’s 25 acres of vineyards, primarily in Villers-Marmery but with two plots in neighboring…

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. Kim Marcus California Chardonnay, Merlot and Pinot Noir, Argentina, Chile Bruce Sanderson Burgundy, Piedmont, Tuscany, Germany, Austria James Molesworth California Cabernet Sauvignon, Bordeaux, Rhône Valley, Port MaryAnn Worobiec California Sauvignon Blanc and other whites, Australia, New Zealand Alison Napjus Italy, Champagne, Alsace, South…