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Knebel: Lower Mosel Speaks

Weingut Knebel is situated in what is considered the Lower Mosel's best village, Winningen. It is also happens to be one of the warmest areas in the Mosel and therefore the style at Knebel (especially for the dry wines) is muscular and powerful, while (almost miraculously) elegant.

Knebel

Ulli Stein: Rebel of the Mosel

The steeply terraced and visually stunning vineyards of the Lower Mosel don't offer an easy life to those who tend them. They are laborious and costly to work and their obscurity means the grapes they produce often fetch a low price.

More work, less pay. This cruel formula often results in

Far Too Beautiful: 2004 Bea Sagrantino

"At their best these are finessed expressive wines of the highest level in a style that recalls the Brunellos of Gianfranco Soldera or the Barolos of Giuseppe Rinaldi, to name just two producers with a similar aesthetic.." - Antonio Galloni, Wine Advocate 

Random Germans + Austrians at Seasonal

What can I say, I LOVE Austrian wine. Just such a whacky lineup of really profound, kooky wines, everything showing great. We were hosted by Wolfgang and Eddie at Seasonal, a new Austrian restaurant on 58th Street in Midtown that deserves some serious attention. Sophisticated, pure food with cont

2004 Ferrando Carema Etichetta Bianca

The Barolo-like Ballerina at Less than Half the Price!

"When I am asked which wine would I choose were I to be restricted to a single one, my answer is: Carema." - Neal Rosenthal

Strong words from legend-importer Neal Rosenthal (above), especially

Toni Bodenstein's Prager: High-Altitude Aristocrats

How many winemakers do you know would plant a high-altitude site even when everyone in the region warns against it?

How many winemakers do you know work painstakingly h

Willi Schaefer Steal - 2007 Estate Riesling

After a painful two-year drought, Schaefer's insider's secret, his QbA Estate Riesling, is back in a BIG WAY. This is probably the best Estate bottling that Willi and Christoph Schaefer have ever put together, just another golden coin from the bounty of 2007 in Germany.

Solaris 2006 Chardonnay

Let's propose a wine truism: Most bottles that cost under $10, taste like bottles that cost under $5. Sure, you're not spending much, but you actually get less than what you're paying for.

It's the rare inversion of this truism that makes our offer a "Back Up the Truck" free-for

Winter Mixed Case

Assembling a Crush mixed case is no casual affair. Trying to strike a balance between the wines, the prices and their appropriateness for the season has been the cause of many disagreements. But I think we've come up with the most balanced mixed case in terms of style and price.

Chevillon Vaucrains: Star of the Vintage and a Big, Brooding Burgundy

There's always some buzz around the Burgundy vintage prior to the "official" reports and scores. Certain themes come up again and again: Rousseau made great wines. Freddie Mugnier really hit it out of the ballpark. Aubert (de Villaine of DRC) thinks the Grands Echezeaux is phenomenal this year (a

Schafer-Frohlich: Boy Wonder in the Nahe

Tim Frohlich, the 30-something ultra-cool winemaker, may well be a genius. He has what Rudi Wiest calls "the touch." Unlike most winemakers in Germany, he did not study at Geisenheim; instead, at the tender age of 21, after only an an internship, he simply told his parents (his mother was making the wines at the time) that he was ready to take over the estate. And so he did.

2002 Taittinger Comtes de Champagne Rose

The 2002 Taittinger Comtes de Champagne Rose presents what I believe is the greatest vintage rose Champagne deal that I've seen in my 20+ years of collecting. This wine is packed with incredibly rich and mineral-nuanced Pinot Noir fruit while exuding an energy that makes it feel almost

2004 Fevre Chablis Grand Cru Vaudesir - Robert Schagrin's Wine of the Year

If the past couple of years have been all about the great vintage releases of Burgundy, Champagne and the Piedmont, 2008 has been different (that's probably an understatement). There have been few "golden vintages," aside from 2007 in Germany, and so I've been spending a lot of time going

2006 Bize Savigny-les-Beaune Aux Vergelesses - Ian's Wines of the Year

I'm biased. What can I say, for me red Burgundy represents the holy grail.

I believe it's the most ethereal, most elegant, most beguiling wine out there. There's a twisted part of my soul (or is it the good part of my soul?) that only, only wants to drink red Burgundy and s

2005 Palari Faro -Tom's Wine of the Year!

The methods I use to determine my "Wine of the Year" have nothing to do with point scores or detailed comparisons of every wine I've tasted over the last 12 months. No, my metrics are much more simple and visceral! Previously I've used the "Gulp-ability Factor" a

Chateau Chalon, Vin Jaune and Cotes du Jura

"The charm of the Jura and its wines come from the sense that time has grown genuinely mossy and amnesiac here. Small vineyards, old vines, curious grape varieties seen and tasted nowhere else, vinification methods that would be regarded as obtuse or mad by the oenological conformists who pas

2004 and 2005 Macle Cotes du Jura - Joe and Stephen's Wine(s) of the Year!

You should be both alarmed and invigorated by the fact that the bottle(s) Joe and I picked as our "Wines of the Year" are unquestionably some of the strangest, most curious and unforgettable wines you will ever put in your mouth, period.

No, you probably d

The 2008 Crush Wines of the Year

When national publications name their "Wines of the Year," they are limited by many factors - the biggest of which is the wine's availability. It doesn't make sense for them to drive the public into a frenzy over a bottle of wine that is hardly available.

As a small independent reta

Moric Blaufrankisch: Austria vs. Burgundy

"Elegant Blaufrankisch" Sort of a jarring combination of words, isn't it? Austria's Blaufrankisch grape and the wines that it makes can fall under a number of descriptors. They can be broad and powerful, juicy, rustic and rugged. The best of them can be lots of fun to drink, but "elegant" is a word that would be used sparingly in regard to many of these wines.

The Greatest Monprivato?

"...Barolo Monprivato in particular remains a steal relative to other world-class wines. Monprivato is one of the handful of Italian wines that can hold its own with the best being made anywhere in the world."
- Wine Advocate

Mauro Mascarello's Monprivato is one of the

Rebel with a Riesling: Value of a Vintage?

Germany is full of world-famous terroirs. Palmberg-Terrassen may not be world-famous, but it is one of the most soulful vineyards in Germany and in 2007 produced an incredible value of a Riesling. Consider the following details:

- This vineyard is full of 50- to 80-year-old ungrafted vines

Tuthilltown Spirits - A Shot of Kentucky in New York State

In the tiny town of Gardiner, nestled deep inside New York's picturesque Hudson Valley, the Tuthilltown Spirits distillery has captured the attention of the whiskey world. Tuthilltown is the first and only distillery to produce whiskey in New York State since Prohibition, but their production is