According to Wine Spectator, Archery Summit is “the Rolls Royce of Oregon pinot noir”.  Everything about this winery oozes luxury, from the elegent-but-somewhat-understated labels to the estate’s property perched atop a crest in Dundee Hills.
After tasting many of the best Oregon pinots on a recent trip to the Williamette Valley, this wine was head and shoulders above the crowd.  What makes Oregon pinot so appealing to us (and particularly this wine) is the wonderful middle ground it strikes between Old World and New World styles.  The Arcus Estate has lots …

Once you get the pronunciation down (harsh-lev-aloo), you’ll be buying this wine every chance you get.  Typically this grape, which is indigenous to Hungary, is a vital component in Tokaji wines – both sweet and dry.  However, on a recent trip to Budapest and numerous wine tastings, our favorite example of this grape comes from the Lake Balaton region of Somlo.
The best versions of this wine (two of which are tied for our favorite wines this year) taste like a mythical love-child of dry Germany riesling and Chablis.  Weird, right? …

Last year, Lily at Dandelion Wines in Greenpoint, Brooklyn turned us on to our #1 (Terre Nerre) and #3 (Marcel Lapierre) favorite wines (high-five!)… Le Verre des Poetes is a wine that Lily introduced us to earlier in the year that we fell in love with.
Domaine de Montrieux is located in the Loire Valley, one of our favorite regions for interesting red wines.  Le Verre des Poetes (or “the poet’s glass”) is made from 100% pineau d’aunis, a somewhat unheralded varietal typically relegated to blending grape status.  This wine has …

Let’s just get something straight right up front – Domenico Clerico makes absolutely ridiculous Barolo.  We had the chance to taste their $80-$100 bottles of Pajana and Ciabot Mentin Ginestra from 2007 and either one of those could have been on our list of top wines of the year.  But somehow, what stuck out in a line-up full of amazing wines, was the “simple” barbera from Domenico Clerico for around $20.
It doesn’t have the layers of complexity that the nebbiolo-based Barolo wines have, but it has lush fruit aromas and …

We first tasted Patrick Piuze wines last year in the form of his Montee de Tonnerre (which, incidentally, is our favorite premier cru Chablis).  What stood out was its lazer focus, intense minerality and depth of citrus flavors.  Of course, at $50 per bottle, you’d kind of expect a decent wine.
So when we saw his entry level 2010 Petit Chablis priced at less than half that, we decided to give it a try without expecting much.  What impressed us the most is how much the style of the wine remained …

Is this the kind of wine you open after getting home late from work on a Wednesday night and eating grilled cheese for dinner?   Probably not.  But it should be… and if you lived in Vienna, it might be.
We celebrated the purchase of our first apartment with this bottle.  Not because it is extravagently expensive or because it received 100 points from any particular publication.  We celebrated with this bottle because aged Austrian riesling in the United States is difficult to find and has an incredibly special uniqueness.
It was paired with a …

What more can we say about Roland Velich and his wines from Burgenland?  His objective is simple: to express the uniqueness of different parcels of land through a single varietal – blaufrankisch.  There are a number of amazing single vineyard Moric wines, but somehow the character, personality and essence of blaufrankisch seems best captured in the reserve wine.
You might struggle to find this particular wine and end up trying something else.  It’s won’t be the same.  Yes – there are a number of quality blaufrankisch wines being made in Austria …

Beaujolais has gone through a quiet revolution in the US over the past few years.  The infanticide committed at Beaujolais Nouveau parties across the country is slowly being replaced by cautiously curious shoppers inquiring about Crus like Morgon and Fleurie with a few years of bottle age.
Spending $25 on a bottle of beaujolais is not for everyone, but then again Daniel Bouland’s wines aren’t your average swill either.  His wines are really more comparable to a super delicate Saint-Joseph, with refined fresh fruits, an earthy underbelly and perfect balance.  The …

A few years ago on a trip to Auxerre, we had the privilege of tasting chablis in the cellar of Domain Brocard.  We were captivated by nearly all the wines, but ended up buying a few bottles of Les Preuses thinking to ourselves how difficult it is to find these wines outside France.
Fast forward to 2010 and New York City was teeming with magnums of 2004 Brocard Vieilles Vignes (“old vines”) wines.  Whether it was at Union Square Wines who was selling it at $40 per magnum or Wine Warehouse …

For those people living in the NYC metro area, there is still a glimmer of hope in finding this bottle.  For everyone else, we apologize ahead of time because you will likely never see this wine.
Long Island merlot is almost as fickle as the 2011 Dow Jones.  By and large, the quality has steadily been going up and most producers are capable of delivering an excellent wines at a fair price.  However, some have tried to run before walking ($100+ over-extracted monsters) and others have simply not been able to survive (R.I.P. …