Slideshows

Those who contend that Chardonnay grown in the sacred precincts of Chablis and the Côte de Beaune makes the best white wine on the planet can certainly find plenty of liquid evidence to support their argument. The soils of Burgundy, after all, have nurtured white wines of renown since the age of Charlemagne. These campaigners, […]

The Haag family, which practices its craft in Germany’s Middle Mosel region, enjoys a reputation for producing white wines of the highest quality with astonishing consistency. Their dependability, however, is explained in part by the fact that they have worked this land for more than four centuries. The Fritz Haag 2011 Riesling Auslese Goldkapsel Mosel […]

An immodestly brilliant Pomerol… The first test of a truly great man is his humility,” asserted the English art critic and social theorist John Ruskin, whose contemporaries were unlikely to have accused him of possessing an undue measure of this virtue. Hardly a subject existed on which Ruskin did not hold an opinion that could […]

When most wine collectors think of Australia, they think of Penfolds; and when they ponder Penfolds, their thoughts ineluctably drift toward Grange, the label’s flagship wine, which emphasizes Shiraz and was first produced commercially in 1952. Like Grange, Bin 707—which debuted with the 1964 vintage—is sourced from multiple vineyards in multiple regions that include Adelaide […]

Some years ago, the tide of opinion turned against Merlot after a scene in the film Sideways convinced audiences that well-tutored palates avoid this varietal. Today, Syrah has met a similar fate, falling out of favor with U.S. consumers. Yet, just as many of the world’s most captivating reds are produced from Merlot—Château Pétrus and […]

A white wine with heart. Many wineries in California include the word family on their labels—a descriptor intended to suggest not only that the contents of the bottle are the result of a multigenerational labor of love but also that future generations will heed the call of the vine. In many instances, the families in […]

Never has necessity given birth to more arresting offspring than in Portugal’s Douro Valley, where production of fortified wines is capped by government regulators to ensure that the supply of port does not exceed global demand. The portion of each harvest that does not make the cut for Portugal’s best-known bottlings is diverted into table […]

For some, viticulture is a career of choice, while for others it is a calling. One suspects that Dick Erath falls into the latter category. After experimenting with making his own wine at home, Erath, an engineer by training, enrolled in courses at the University of California, Davis. Not long thereafter, he moved his family […]

At gatherings where more than two oenophiles are present, the question inevitably arises—in one form or another—of which wine is a given grape fancier’s favorite. Though responses to this query are as varied as the varietals themselves, among the cognoscenti, Nebbiolo always figures prominently. The reason for this is simple: Just as certain gemstones reflect […]