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To all Best Winers, I guess the first question here is what’s the big deal about a Crémant de Bourgogne? Crémant de Bourgogne is, to put it basically, sparkling wine from the Burgundy region of France, produced in the classic Methode Champenoise style, exactly like the wines of Champagne. With that in mind, it begs […]

To all Best Winers, Clarendon Hills proprietor Roman Bratasiuk doesn’t speak very much. He lets his wines do his talking for him. Or should we say, shouting? Clarendon Hills wines are unique. Nothing else tastes like them. Don’t try to group these into the ‘Aussie fruit bomb’ category, because they’re not. They also aren’t in […]

To all Best Winers, We sat on it. Seriously, we know how finicky these wines from Priorat can be, especially after they’ve just arrived from their trans-Atlantic journey. Yes, travel shock is real and yes it does impact both young and old wines (but that’s a story for another day). But we knew when we […]

To all Best Winers, It's last call on the greatest Crozes Hermitage ever produced. I’m not kidding. Jaboulet’s 2009 Crozes Hermitage Domaine Thalabert is more than likely the finest red wine ever produced in Crozes Hermitage. Chapoutier has come close. As has Jaboulet itself. The 1990 Domaine Thalabert Crozes was my benchmark wine from the […]

To all Best Winers, Here comes Kerner. A lot of times it’s not about the grape, or the place. It’s about the place and the grape. Alto Adige + Kerner = Wow This once-forgotten grape, a crossing of Riesling and Schiava created in Germany to anchor some disease-free, heavy-yielding vineyards to produce a bunch of […]

To all Best Winers, You know greatness when you taste it. I can honestly say that several of the finest wine drinking experiences I’ve had in my life have been from Domaine Pegau. Their 1981 Chateauneuf, consumed in 1992, showed me just how awesome older Chateauneuf could be, and fired my interest in the genre, […]

To all Best Winers, It’s always good getting back with old friends. Tolaini is a label I hadn’t seen in a couple of years. I sold a ton of their fabulous 2007’s, which were quite possibly two of the finest deals in Tuscan wine I had ever tasted. Well, that is, until Tolaini’s 2009’s. Good […]

To all Best Winers, “Simply put, 2010 is the greatest young Barolo vintage I have tasted in 18 years of visiting the region and a lifetime of buying, cellaring and drinking these wines.” – Antonio Galloni That is the boldest of comments coming from the man many believe to be the preeminent Italian wine critic […]

To all Best Winers, Sometimes we have to remember that we are in the wine business. Crazy as it sounds, everyone along the way needs to make money doing this thing. It’s the nature of the beast. Thus, it is occasionally up to the wineries to find a way to make their customers more money […]

To all Best Winers, Jon and Elizabeth Bowen’s booth was literally our first stop on the first day of the Vinisud wine show we attended last year. Elizabeth was downright pleasant, Jon was polite but you could tell he was quickly gauging us, working out in his head if we were going to be right […]