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To all Wine Exchangers, South side in the house! Montalcino’s southsiders are an important collection of wineries.  This group of neighbors just a couple kilometers south of downtown Montalcino includes Lisini, Gaja’s Pieve Santa Restituta, Il Poggione and…Ciacci Piccolomoni. Just a 1/4 mile north of these guys you have Pian dell’Orino, Biondi Santi and Le […]

To all Wine Exchangers, The story of Gerard Bertrand reads almost like a script.  Born of a wine family, Gerard’s father George introduced him to his first harvest at Domaine de Villemajou at Boutenac in Corbières at age 10.  Young Gerard later went on to achieve some fame as a professional rugby player.  In 1984, […]

To all Wine Exchangers, It’s June! Ah, summer is just around the corner and, with summer, comes…. Rosé! Yes, June 1st, to us anyway, is the official start of pink wine season, though we’re seeing more and more early releases heading our way each year as the multitude of new producers on the Rosé scene […]

To all Wine Exchangers, “Winemaker Matt Dees appears to really be hitting his stride with this new project . . . All of these wines merit serious attention.”- Antonio Galloni, Vinous Media This quote was from a couple of years ago.  But, as time has passed, it has proven to be prophetic.  It wasn’t like Galloni […]

To all Wine Exchangers, A remarkable deal on one of the undisputed Kings of Cava! The house of Gramona has been making Champagne-styled sparkling cava since the late 1800’s. It’s a good story.  Just as in Rioja, the area of Penedes, just south of Barcelona, enjoyed ‘gold fever’ level success in the 1860’s-1880’s as the […]

To all Wine Exchangers, Considering we're in the throes of 2016 Bordeaux Futures, we have been champing at the bit to offer you something really big that is actually, physically here in our warehouse. Done.  After fulfilling all our pre-arrival commitments on the near-perfect 97-point 2012 Chateau Pape Clement, we discovered we still have some cases […]

To all Wine Exchangers, OK, here you go, your first ‘poster child’ for Tuscany’s sunny, perfect 2015 vintage. After the horror that was 2014, the 2015 harvest had winemakers and vine growers literally dancing in the streets. Lots of sun, not too hot, basically these cats could go out and pick their fruit any time […]

To all Wine Exchangers, Some of you may remember this missive on the remarkable 2009 Clarendelle Bordeaux we sold a couple of years ago: A value-priced 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 […]

To all Wine Exchangers, Back when we started selling Chateauneuf in earnest in the early 90s, most domains only bottled a single wine.  But due to the media attention that was lavished upon a few estates that did produce a specialty cuvee, there has been a rather significant proliferation of them over the last couple […]

To all Wine Exchangers, The Vidal y Vidal Verdejo 2015 is a unique situation that presents this rather ubiquitous (in Spain) and often undistinguished varietal as a legitimate contender for your house white.  There are a lot of examples of Verdejo that are just plain and one-dimensional and others that, while they have fruit, can take on […]