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“Viña Ijalba” Those words had been following us around Rioja like a strange echo. Their name surfaced in nearly every cellar we went to—yet the estate remained mysterious. It didn’t take long before we gave in to temptation and scheduled a visit.  And we were blown away. Viña Ijalba is one of the vanguard producers…

Our friend, a 100-point star who spent 20 years at Robert Mondavi Winery, had it all: a mid-Valley winery whose triple-digit wines sell like clockwork to a loyal mailing list, a bustling tasting room packed with tourists and locals alike, and a network of vineyards that supplied him with the finest fruit from the top…

The Amarone category is synonymous with ripe power, massive structure, and the kind of drama and flavor intensity that only the Italians can produce. And single-vineyard expressions take all of that to the next level.  Not only are these some of the biggest wines on the planet, they also transmit a sense of the Valpolicella…

We had to slip past eager importers and sommeliers at Vinitaly to get our first taste of Baracchi’s O’Lillo years ago. We locked it in that day—and it’s a good thing we did, because a few weeks later, James Suckling sent cost-minded Italian collectors into a frenzy when he made O’Lillo his top-rated bargain of…

“In my estimation, Marco Bacci’s Castello di Bossi delivers one of the absolute best expressions of Chianti Classico from the Castelnuovo Berardenga,” Wine Advocate has declared, praising the estate’s soil composition as “what sets Castello di Bossi apart.” Bacci acquired the 14th-century estate in 1980, eventually hiring superstar enologist Alberto Antonini to run the show….

When you’re having lunch at Restaurant Le Trivalou, within the medieval walls of Carcassonne, there’s one thing you must order: a bubbling bowl of cassoulet, replete with crisp duck legs and sausage.  Wine, well, that’s a tougher choice. Faced with too many options from Languedoc villages like Corbières and Minervois—two hotbeds of outstanding values that…

Robert Parker said Château de Fieuzal “represents a very good buy, especially in the great vintages.” And 2020 was a vintage to remember.  It took off like a teenage TikToker in a McLaren: A warm, wet winter led into a wild spring, with frost scares and mildew mayhem keeping things a little more interesting than…

Sourced largely from La Crau—the vineyard famous for producing Vieux Télégraphe—as well as the adjoining Bois Senechal and Nalys’s prime parcel in the center of the Châteauneuf AOC, the 2020 Château de Nalys Saintes Pierres is a wine that Wine Spectator called “alluring” in their 94-point review. It’s full and velvety, lush and intense, with…

There’s a reason Château Minuty can be found on countless wine lists at the world’s top French restaurants. With its sun-kissed vibrancy, crystal-clear red fruit purity, incredible subtlety and delicate floral complexity…In short, historic Minuty sets the standard for rosé worldwide.  We’ve been fans for decades (more on that later), which is why we’re thrilled…

Succulent and aromatic, with a wonderful mineral streak coursing through the finish, the 2020 Château Saint Florin is the Bordeaux Blanc we’re always hoping to find when we sit down at a café off the quai in Bordeaux—and one we expect to pay about €10 per glass for when we find it.  But here, this…