Uncategorized

To all Wine Exchangers, “What a total thrill it is to taste these 2012s from Elio Grasso. This was a tasting I did not want to end. Gianluca Grasso made two of the most captivating 2012 Barolos I have tasted so far…Grasso’s 2012 Barolos are rich, sumptuous and head-spinning in their total beauty…There seems to […]

To all Wine Exchangers, Michel Chapoutier’s Roussillon project, Bila-Haut, was a pleasant surprise when it first started, producing compelling wines that delivered well above their modest prices. But hey, we figured with Chapoutier involved it would likely be solid at least, right?  Funny thing is, experience tells us that a lot of labels start by […]

To all Wine Exchangers, I just finished writing a piece on the Bilbros of Marietta who have made their bones from blended, non-vintage reds, and we are big fans of Champagne and understand the process and reason for multi-vintage blending.  There are exceptions to every rule.  But with all due respect to some of our […]

To all Wine Exchangers, This wine is so stealth, not even the winery that makes it acknowledges its production. This is like some serious ‘spy’ stuff. Confidential. Top Secret. Or so it seems. Ever hear of Feytit-Lagrave? Us neither, until it was presented to us on one of our Bordeaux excursions. It may be the […]

To all Wine Exchangers, It’s Silver Oak week again! Silver Oak’s 2012 Alexander Valley bottling was just released this past weekend at their winery in Sonoma and it’s once again a star of the vintage. Big changes have been afoot at Silver Oak over the last several years and this 2012 Alexander Valley bottling shows […]

To all Wine Exchangers, It’s only fair to admit that we don’t devote a lot of time to California Chardonnay, other than trying to get the best stuff we can get our hands on.  For us, though, it’s like milk, butter and eggs in the grocery store (or quinoa, yogurt, and granola at one of […]

To all Wine Exchangers, “One of the wines of the vintage.”- James Suckling And for good reason. The Ciacci Piccolomini d’Aragona Brunello di Montalcino 2011 is not your typical Brunello this time around. In 2011, the winery decided not to make their more prestigious Pianrosso bottling, putting all the best parcels from their property into […]

To all Wine Exchangers, I just realized that I hadn’t had the chance to talk a lot about my most recent trip abroad. In June I had the chance to go Down Under, back to Australia. I hadn’t been there since 2003 and was looking to get a feel for what has transpired in Australia […]

To all Wine Exchangers, I’d have to think about it a bit, but the first Albariño we sold back in the days (the 1993 Martin Codax I believe?) was revelatory. First, there was the whole “white wine from Spain?” thing. Isn’t Spain too hot? Well, we learned about ‘green Spain’, the area of Spain above […]

To all Wine Exchangers, Prior to our last trip to Bordeaux, we asked all of our suppliers in Bordeaux that worked with older vintage wines to come up with their best shot and send samples for a tasting we organized on the final day of our stay. The parameters were: great petit chateau from top […]