Uncategorized

To all Wine Exchangers, Most of you probably haven’t thought of New Zealand as a hotbed for smashing, world-class Chardonnay. And you’d more than likely be correct. However, there is one producer in particular, who is so great, so supernal, so off-the-charts better than anyone else, it’s not even fair. Who am I waxing about? Kumeu River. Kumeu’s partner/winemaker […]

To all Wine Exchangers, A few months back we traveled to San Francisco for one of the most significant events of the wine trade’s season, the Eric Solomon Annual Portfolio Tasting.   For those of you that may not know, Eric is one of the most progressive importers working in America today. His ‘power’ brands are […]

To all Wine Exchangers, This was one of those visits I had been personally chomping at the bit to take ever since Steve Z. had the chance to visit this bastion of bang-for-the-buck Tempranillo a half dozen years ago. Steve spoke of a ghost town, essentially a village (named Quintanamanvirgo) with about 100 or so […]

To all Wine Exchangers, I must say, this one as a little bit shocking. Now granted, James Suckling’s on-the-ground correspondent, Nick Stock, has had more experience with the Pinot Noirs of New Zealand then just about anyone else. But wow, this score is huge. What was that all about? The number’s almost comical. But then […]

To all Wine Exchangers, Why do you buy Bordeaux Futures? Well, first, you want to secure the desired blue-chip wines from any one particular vintage. Second, everyone wants to make a little scratch on the deal, right? We cut a few points, and you get to put a wine in your cellar that, in theory, […]

To all Wine Exchangers, Since that Talosa Vino Nobile Riserva 2010 sold out in a few hours, we figured some of you might still be ‘jonesing’, so here you go, a wicked-good follow-up to last week’s sell-out. Many of you recognize the faces above.  The effect is more Pavlovian at this point.  You see these […]

To all Wine Exchangers, Farming Sauvignon Blanc in New Zealand is no picnic. While the country doesn’t seem to suffer from the radical vintage swings of ‘continental climate’ places like France’s Loire Valley, the marginal climate can lead to many wines that can be slightly under-ripe and/or ‘leafy’.   However, as with most top marginal climate […]

To all Wine Exchangers, Since the whole category of Italian wines encompasses a remarkably broad spectrum, we get questions at all levels from basic stuff to complex analysis of regions or producers.  Italian wines are a lot more difficult to master for most folks.  But one of the persistent requests from customers we receive is […]

So we were sitting around the other day thinking about what we could do to give people useful wine and food pairing suggestions.  Having written pieces like this before, we know the breadth of the subject is daunting because there are so many possibilities.  All the world’s foods with all of the possible pairing selections […]

To all Wine Exchangers, History of Vino Nobile today? Nope, don’t think so. We’re short on time and this deal is hot. The basics: Vino Nobile di Montepulciano is produced primarily from Sangiovese, which is known in the Tuscan town of Montepulciano as Prugnolo Gentile. It has nothing to do with the Montepulciano in Montepulciano […]