Back in the bad old days, around a decade ago, most of Chile’s cabernet sauvignon-based wines were best known for being cheap. There’s no question that Chile has the climate, soil, winemaking know-how and capital to make serious wines, but the industry, as a rule, tended to play it safe until just a few years ago. More emphasis was placed on making mass-market wines than bottles with real character, much less regional identity. And even the best wines tended to incite shrugs of indifference from demanding, spoiled-for-choice American buyers who had easy access to wines from Bordeaux, California, Washington and Australia. READ MORE »
In the course of my exhaustive tastings this spring of new wines from California, I’ve been thrilled to bring a few really good ones to your attention that are priced in the moderate $20 to $25 range. And there will be more to come. To a jaded drinker such as myself, finding characterful California wine at this price level is rare, especially considering that I enjoy easy access to varietally accurate, complex and concentrated wine from Southern France, Italy, South Africa, Argentina and elsewhere. READ MORE »
By all accounts, syrah remains tricky to sell—first because there’s not enough intense, vibrant, varietally expressive wine available in the market for less than twenty bucks. Another problem is that this dark-skinned variety comes in a range of styles, and the typical consumer is not normally willing to make a serious financial investment in a bottle of wine that might as well be labeled with a question mark. READ MORE »
Chenin blanc, an unusually versatile white grape native to France’s Loire Valley, produces everything from bone-dry sparkling and still wines to outrageously sweet and unctuous dessert versions from late-picked grapes rich in noble rot. What most Loire Valley versions have in common, besides notes of flowers, honey, minerals and damp straw, is penetrating acidity: these rigorous, bracing wines are typically tough going in their youth but age at a leisurely pace. READ MORE »
