In Today’s Newsletter:

Alzinger: Hidden Star of the Wachau

Two Exceptional Bordeaux Values
L’Hêtre & Saint Jacques de Siran

Smart Buys from the Rhône
$25 – $35

Oregon’s Best Value?
Biggio Hamina’s Site-Expressive Pinot Noir

Collector’s Corner #1
Duval-Leroy’s Rare Femme de Champagne

Collector’s Corner #2
Four 100-Point Bordeaux Reds

 

Alzinger: Hidden Star of the Wachau

The beauty of Austria is something to experience, but there is one area that truly stands out, both for its charm and the amazing wine: the Wachau. This is where you’ll find legends like F.X Pichler and Weingut Knoll within strolling distance of one another. And there is little doubt that having Knoll across the street, creating one of the most iconic white wines in the world, inspired a young Leo Alzinger.

In Today’s Newsletter:

Classics from Chinon
New Wines from Bernard Baudry

Vocoret’s Delicious (and Affordable) Chablis

The Loire’s Best Natural Wine?
Phillipe Tessier

Spring Arrivals from Bordeaux
Including Cos d’Estournel’s 100-Point 2016

Recently Reduced Pricing
Guímaro’s World-Class Spanish Reds

Exceptional Rhône Values
All Under $25

Collector’s Corner
Oddero’s Majestic Barolo

 

Classics from Chinon

New Wines from Bernard Baudry

“One of Chinon’s classic, benchmark producers, Bernard Baudry, somewhat surprisingly, only purchased his first two hectares in 1975. Now comprising 32 hectares, the estate is run by his son Matthieu, who joined his father in 2000. Organic since 2006, the Baudrys remain traditionalists, and are blessed with a diversity of terroir surrounding their village of Cravant-les-Coteaux: five vineyard sites variously endowed with clay limestone, sandy limestone, silex and gravel.

In This Newsletter:

Vajra’s Classic Piedmont
Restocked

New Wines from Etna’s Benanti
Arriving Friday

Staff Favorite Rosés

Tuscany
Top 10 Under $100

Collector’s Corner
Hubert Lignier’s Iconic 2017s

Vajra’s Classic Piedmont

Restocked

G.D. Vajra remains one of our favorite producers in the Piedmont. Responsible for some of our finest Barolos, from top to bottom Vajra’s wines are excellent. These include an array of the best values coming out of Piedmont today. At all price points they are reference point wines that others are judged against.

The estate has always been good, but seems to have reached another level over the last decade. Delicious, attractively priced, and organically cultivated, anyone serious about their Piedmontese drinking ought to be stocking up.

New Arrivals, in Stock Now:

G.D.

In Today’s Newsletter:

Featured New Arrival
Schäfer-Fröhlich’s Breathtaking 2018s

Subscriber Special
Raymond Usseglio’s Elite Châteauneuf-du-Pape

Château Beauséjour
Standout Back-Vintage Bordeaux

An Oregon Icon
Cristom’s 2017 Single Vineyards

Shrewd Brunello Buys
All $44 – $49

Collector’s Corner
Charlopin’s Coveted Grand Crus Burgundy

 

Featured New Arrival

Schäfer-Fröhlich’s Breathtaking 2018s

“Tim Fröhlich has made breathtakingly beautiful wines in 2018. As I mentioned in the introductory section on the vintage, Tim’s approach to the heat and drought of 2018 was quite similar to that of Klaus-Peter Keller, Julian Haart and others who realized brilliant success in this vintage, as he approached his farming in 2018 with an eye towards slowing down the accumulation of sugars in the grapes….Tim also did not use grapes from his youngest vines in any of the estate wines this year, and in general, each of his bottlings has a higher average age of vines in 2018 than in any previous vintage.