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To all Wine Exchangers, Unbelievable stuff here. This is a winery that is already one of the hottest in Portugal and they’ve kicked their unparalleled quality up yet another notch. Quinta do Crasto has what we would consider the longest track record for quality reds in the Douro. I enjoyed having the opportunity to get […]

To all Wine Exchangers, “Angelo Gaja and his family have released two masterpieces from their Montalcino cellars. These are amazing wines that stand out in a blind tasting thanks to their infinite extract, density and all-round excellence.” – Monica Larner, eRobertParker.com Did you know that Angelo Gaja makes Brunello? Many of you may be familiar […]

To all Wine Exchangers, What kind of circus is this? There’s been more twists and turns to the saga of Three Rings than we could possibly follow but we’ll try to lay things out best we can. The 3 Rings label was started in 2004 by three of my friends, Grateful Palate founder Dan Philips, […]

To all Wine Exchangers, We’re still trying to figure this whole Evening Land thing out. From what we can tell this popular, quality-obsessed operation is giving up the ghost in California and France and centralizing their efforts on their Seven Springs Vineyard in Oregon. I gotta admit, it was pretty crazy/ambitious making that many wines […]

To all Wine Exchangers, How’s this for a bold statement? Galardi’s Terra di Lavoro is the greatest wine produced in southern Italy. Boom. There, I said it. Now, when I’m talking south, I’m talking south of Rome. That leaves Tuscany in the ‘north’ as well as a nice chunk of Umbria and Lazio. Still, ‘southern […]

To all Wine Exchangers,   The St. Julien ‘Super’ 2nd Growth Chateau Ducru Beaucaillou has a special place in my heart. It was one of the first wines I spent more than $50 on when I bought the 1985 a long, long time ago.  That was a big deal! Even though I tried to hang on to it, eventually I popped […]

To all Wine Exchangers, You may not think so, but New Zealand is actually a pretty big place. It looks deceptively small on all those maps, but in fact the country is about the same size as our original 13 colonies, or pretty much most of the eastern seaboard. When it comes to grape-growing, think […]

To all Wine Exchangers, Today’s exercise in wine sales involves a great price on what might be called a ‘house wine’ from one of Chateauneuf’s greatest producers, Paul Avril, who makes one of the region’s benchmark wines, Clos des Papes. How big a deal is Clos des Papes?  Well, the wine has averaged over 96 […]

To all Wine Exchangers, ”Two thousand ten has turned out to be a superb vintage for Brunello di Montalcino” – Antonio Galloni, Vinous Media “The 2010 vintage is a new benchmark for Tuscany’s icon wine, producing reds with wonderful intensity, structure, and energy.” – James Suckling, jamessuckling.com “These are certainly the highest scores I have […]

To all Wine Exchangers, Contrary to popular belief, not all Argentinean Malbecs are the same. The top wines express another level of richness and complexity that one doesn’t find in the ‘fighting varietal’ $10-$15 price level of tank-farm Malbecs. There’s a reason you’re paying $40+ for that bottle…because it’s better. So what if we were […]