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To all Wine Exchangers, “This exceptional value wine may well be the best deal in Italian wine today.” – Monica Larner, Wine Advocate That pretty resounding statement applied to the 2011 Corvina Scaia from Tenuta Sant’Antonio, an amazing $10 bottle of wine that she rated 90 points. We’re finding out that Monica is pretty stingy […]

To all Wine Exchangers, It’s starting to warm up and that immediately brings thoughts of lighter eats (Thai, Vietnamese, etc.) and a crisp, fruit driven bottle of Riesling.  Yesterday we had a local restaurant’s spicy plum and ginger chicken salad and a bottle of this Von Hovel Riesling Oberemmeler Hutte Spatlese 2011.  The flavor combo […]

To all Wine Exchangers, Roche de Bellene founder Nicolas Potel is the son of Gerard Potel, the former owner of Domaine de la Pousse d’Or in Volnay, one of Burgundy’s finest estates. When the domain was sold in the 90’s Nicolas, with wine coursing through his vines, established his own line of negociant (using purchased […]

To all Wine Exchangers, As is usually the case with the great ones, everyone else around them thought they were crazy. I know for a fact that Olé Imports principals Patrick Mata and Alberto Orte were getting some funny looks from the Riojanos when they were hatching their plan. But the thinking behind this plan […]

To all Wine Exchangers, The Hilt is absolutely crushing it as one of the Santa Rita Hills most exciting new projects is back at it again with a mouthwatering new release. I don’t think even Stan Kroenke, owner of Screaming Eagle and Jonata, as well as Los Angeles’ next NFL team (again) the St. Louis […]

To all Wine Exchangers, As I’ve talked about in these pages before, I’ve definitely got a ‘crush on Dolcetto and, specifically, Dolcetto from Dogliani. For years this was a grape that wallowed in mediocrity. Not even Dolcetto’s very own growers in the Piedmont region of Italy gave the grape its due. Outside of the very […]

To all Wine Exchangers, I love Petite Sirah. Always have. I also love its story. Petite Sirah (or, as it’s technically named, Durif) was this wonderful accident. A ‘love child’, born in the 1860’s after a random ‘cross-pollination’ (if you catch my drift) between Peloursin and Syrah vines housed in the vine nursery of French […]

To all Wine Exchangers, If the temps combined with the glorious sunshine are any indication. Spring has sprung here in SoCal and, with it, comes the first yearnings for white wine. But not just any white wine, let’s celebrate with some seriously tasty white wine. I’m talking Premier Cru White Burgundy level gear at not-so-Premier […]

To all Wine Exchangers, “The Tous Ensemble range delivers outstanding value…” – Antonio Galloni “Readers on a budget should be sure to check out the Tous Ensemble range, as those wines deliver tremendous quality for the money.” – Antonio Galloni Hmmm. I think Galloni digs Copain’s Tous Ensemble wines. And why not? They are terrific […]

To all Wine Exchangers, A $16 red ‘inspired’ and crafted by the team at the prestigious Chateau Haut Brion? Sounds like a pretty good pitch, huh?  Who wouldn’t want to read on about a wine made by one of the world’s greatest Bordeaux estates that sells for well under $20. The Clarendelle label was created […]