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To all Wine Exchangers, We’ve been trying to tell you. South America is ‘blowing up’ and officially a ‘thing’. The wines we have been tasting, drinking and selling have been super-impressive and continue to shine, today’s offering being just the latest of what will be many more examples to come. You have to start paying […]

To all Wine Exchangers, Loving this. For fans of mature, drinkable Burgundy from great vintages at reasonable prices the scenario does not get much better than this. What folks have to understand is the rarity of this situation. It’s almost never that we see a top producer in Burgundy come up with a steady stream […]

To all Wine Exchangers, According to most accounts, this time verbalized by Wine Advocate’s Monica Larner, “Giancarlo Pacenti is one of the most detailed-minded growers in the appellation.”  His old vines were largely planted between 1967 and 1972, and he has holdings in the cooler northern quadrant of the appellation.  This enables him to make […]

To all Wine Exchangers, “I struggle to think of another portfolio that encompasses anywhere close to this level of value, and the average quality to price (QPR) for these wines is just hard to believe.” – Jeb Dunnuck, RobertParker.com When it rains… I feel like we should start up some kind of Lafage-of-the-Month club the […]

To all Wine Exchangers, Are you kidding?  Just when you thought things couldn’t get any worse, it happens again. No we aren’t talking about the Presidential campaign.  We are talking about Argentina sending in another value producer that makes our home grown bargain brands look feeble.  This time, its Vaglio.   Fortunately for Brand California, with […]

To all Wine Exchangers, This is a difficult story to tell, though definitely worth it in the end.  It all starts with one of the lesser known cult classics of Rioja, Artadi.  If you were a hardcore fan of Spanish wines and followed the rise of a number of new labels that came to America […]

To all Wine Exchangers, We’ve told the story of Dave Corey before.  He is one of those wine-geek types that seems always intrigued by the next challenge and the opportunity to tinker with something new.  He works with a variety of terroirs in the Santa Barbara area for his wines and is also a consultant […]

From the time anyone starts to get interested in wine, the subject of aging is an adjunct.  From the poetic, to the practical, there is a certain romance to the variation on the phrase ‘fine old wine’.  References to aging wine abound throughout literature, verse, and of course among wine geeks.  The platitudes suggest that […]

To all Wine Exchangers, As we mentioned a month or so ago, our love affair with these distinctive whites began some time in the '90s, but a few defining events happened since then. In 2002, this iconic estate was purchased by the Hwang family. The quality, however, remained consistent (or even ticked upwards a bit) […]

To all Wine Exchangers, Let me tell you about Petrolo. It’s one of Tuscany’s best estates. But it’s not a Chianti, and it’s not a Brunello and it’s not a Vino Nobile. It’s ‘just’ a Tuscan red. But that’s like saying LeBron James is ‘just’ a basketball player. Proprietor Luca Sanjust took a chance when […]