This is an interesting selection of wines from DO Ribera del Duero. First are the wines of Dominio del Soto. This is a winery owned by Northern Rhône biggie, M. Chapoutier. Because of the recent tasting, they asked me if I’d be interested in tasting these as well, which naturally, I was. They’re overall quite classic in style and they’re not coloring outside the lines, ultimately sticking to the standard aging classifications for the wines. Their Crianza was, interestingly, the stand out wine from the group, out-scoring the Reserva but […] For full access, please log in or purchase a subscript ..read more

Several years ago, I was attending the press dinner for the Grands Jours de Bourgogne and somehow ended up seated next to a high-level director for one of the largest negociants in Burgundy. I would say that it was an interesting conversation, but it mainly consisted of my eating dinner while he shat upon all other wines of the world that weren’t French which… was quite French in its own regards. The sole item of actual interest to me in this was a lengthy diatribe that rose and fell between […] For full access, please log in or purchase a subscription ..read more

All of these wines were tasted in situ at the wineries between the 23-24 March, 2024. Please read the Regional Report for additional context ..read more

Or how we’ll learn to stop worrying and embrace the change News in wine hasn’t been good as of late as even people who don’t follow the wine scene have probably heard that sales are down and people are drinking less wine. It’s understandably-easy to run around with a sky-is-falling mentality with unpleasant figures of a 2-4% decline. What’s really crucial of course is to look to larger trends as while humanity has overall been drinking less wine in recent years, does the big dip in 2023 signify a larger change? After all, there are those who believe that sales in 2024 will ultimately go back u ..read more

I recently caught up with the wines of the Penedès region via a tasting focused upon the “native/traditional” varieties of the region which is out today and features more than 100 wines. Penedès is and has been in a state of flux. In some way this is great, as seen in the creation of whole Vi de Mas system, or the recuperation of older varieties or all wines needing to be certified as organic from 2025 onwards. Still needing a bit of work is the fact that some quite key […] For full access, please log in or purchase a subscription ..read more

These wines were tasted blind on 24 April 2024 at the offices of DO Penedès in Vilafranca del Penedès. They were grouped by colors and tasted in order of vintages, youngest to oldest in non-blind conditions. The wines of the new winery, Cisteller were tasted previously. There also exist the wines of l'Enclòs de Peralba and Enric Soler which were tasted in situ at the wineries. Neither of these wineries certify their wines within the DO but have been included here as they are very much part of the region. Please read the full Regional Report ..read more

These are a selection of the current releases from Domaine Lafage, one of the motors that makes the Roussillon region go. And note that they’ve been ‘retconned’ back into the larger Roussillon report that came out in February. Lafage has a very large portfolio of wines (at least 25 by my count) and each one is a really solid representation of its appellation within the Roussillon region. In fact, I usually say that if people want to understand the differences of Roussillon, they should taste the offer from Lafage. Lafage […] For full access, please log in or purchase a subscription ..read more

People are often of the opinion that the concept of assigning a score to a wine is at best a parlor trick and at worst, utter bullshit. How can something that’s supposed to be “alive” be graded? Is there such a thing as a baseline when this is in theory a completely moving target? I get why people ask these questions given that there are a great many randos blasting 95+ points out of a nail gun to draw attention to themselves. Or then there are wine awards that just […] For full access, please log in or purchase a subscription ..read more

And so arrives the newest release of the Slow Wine Guide USA 2024. For those unfamiliar with the whole "Slow" brand, to rewind a bit, Slow Food was founded in 1986 by Carlo Petrini to promote sustainable food as an alternative to "fast" food. It seems like the work is never-ending on that front, but interestingly, the wine component of the movement started earlier than the food portion with a "Friends of Barolo" association being formed in 1982 that would essentially morph into the various facets seen today. You can view the entire Slow History if you'd like as it meanders a bit with a version ..read more

Here are the current releases for Bodegas Laus, a winery which I was first introduced to for the last DO Somontano report. While they have one aged, ‘Crianza’ wine, the main speciality of the winery is producing young, direct wines that are ready for market very soon after the previous harvest which works as something of a counter to the parent winery of Enate who look to more aged wines. But youthful is what we see here with this batch all coming from 2023. Do keep in mind that these […] For full access, please log in or purchase a subscription ..read more