Innholdsfortegnelse for July 31, 2017 i Wine Spectator

It may seem incongruous to see a poster from the Belle Epoque on the cover of a wine magazine. But we did it for two reasons. First, we are fascinated by the bittersweet nocturnal world of 19th-century Paris, with its nightclubs, can-can dancers and fashionable customers, portrayed in the work Moulin Rouge, a masterpiece by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec from 1891. Second, we think that wine collecting, the subject of our cover story this issue, can inspire the same passion as collecting great art, and that it requires similar skills and expertise. In the package beginning on page 40, you’ll meet serious collectors from around the country and learn how their tastes shaped their collections. You’ll peek inside their beautiful cel-lars and get tips on how they designed and built ideal…

Homemade pizza is great for entertaining. Assembling and bak-ing is fun and dramatic, and guests get customized pies. You can make sauce from tomatoes you grew and sprinkle your fresh basil on top at the end. But the screamingly hot oven required for great pizza can make the pizzaiolo disheveled, and the mess, which has a play-with-your-food appeal during the making, is a bother to clean. Is there an easier way? Outdoor wood-burning ovens have been the envy of home pizza makers for a while now, but out of reach (and beyond sense, really) for most of us. Until recently, they resembled permanent custom out-door fireplaces and required a lot of wood to come to temperature, plus a lot of guests to make them worthwhile. More affordable, por-table and efficient…

Tasting 1997 Vintage Port This chart lists the top-scoring Vintage Ports in James Molesworth’s blind tasting of 25 wines. WineSpectator.com members can access complete reviews at www.winespectator.com/1997portretro. Port, a fortified sweet wine, takes a long time to mature in bottle. While most age-worthy dry reds, such as Bordeaux, start to show signs of development at age 10, Vintage Ports typically need 20 years before they begin to reveal themselves. With that in mind, now seemed like the perfect moment to look back on the 1997 vintage as it hits its second decade. After reviewing more than two dozen 1997 Vintage Ports in blind tastings, it’s clear that the vintage is easily living up to its initial promise. When the wines were released, Wine Spectator praised their rich, chewy, almost throw-back…

KRAMERROME—The elderly prince was indisputably eccentric. Of course, if he wasn’t of the highest reaches of Italian aris-tocracy, possessed of landed wealth and a lineage dating back 1,000 years, truf-fled with a couple of popes, he might be characterized slightly differently. Alberico Boncompagni Ludovisi, prince of Venosa, didn’t care if he ever sold his wine. Called Fiorano, it came from a tiny vineyard on a much larger wheat-growing estate located just barely outside of Rome. And when he did bother to sell his wine, it was a one-way strada. You asked for what you wanted; he gave you what he chose. The red Fiorano, first made after he inherited in 1946 the estate called Tenuta di Fiorano, was improbably created from Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, varieties rare in Italy at…

MARK DiPIPPA LOCATION: Huntington, N.Y OCCUPATION: Advertising executive and television-show creator NUMBER OF BOTTLES: 750 FAVORITE PRODUCERS: Caymus, Quintarell NOTABLE WINES: Pol Roger Reserve Champagne (salmanazar); Ornellaia 1999 (double magnum); Castello Banfi Centine 2006 (methuselah); Château Haut-Brion 1995 (magnum); Château Lafite Rothschild 1995; Château Latour 1999; Château Margaux 1999 It starts small. A couple of bottles stowed in a kitchen rack; a case for your birthday; maybe a splurge on an auction trophy. You taste with friends, broaden your palate, find yourself drawn to specific regions and producers. Before you know it, a closet is overflowing, but your collection is just getting started. Dina Given, a writer and health-care executive living in Leba-non, N.J.—“farm-and-horse country,” she says—began acquiring well-rated yet affordable wines in the mid-2000s, including a par-ticularly memorable Schild…

This Buying Guide contains ratings of new releases from around the world and the results of special tastings reported on in greater depth elsewhere in the issue. Complete tasting notes are provided for all new releases scoring 85 or more points (on the Wine Spectator 100-point scale, explained below); notes for wines scoring 84 points or less are included at the discretion of the taster. Additional reviews appear on our website, www.winespectator.com. Each review carries the initials of the Wine Spectator editor who blind-tasted and scored the wine and wrote the review, based on the regional specializations indicated below. If no reviewer’s initials appear, the wine was tasted by a panel of Wine Spectator editors. James Laube California Harvey Steiman At large Thomas Matthews Spain Kim Marcus Argentina, California, Chile…

89 Château du Domaine de L’Église Pomerol 2014 $86 Offers a solid fleshy feel, with a core of warmed plum and crushed blackberry fruit flavors, backed by alluring black tea, cinnamon and anise notes. Drink now through 2020. 1,500 cases made.—J.M. 89 Jean Gautreau Haut-Médoc 2014 $43 Shows a slightly burly frame of licorice root and tobacco leaf, matched by a solid core of currant and black cherry fruit. Offers a grippy edge through the finish, with a tug of char-coal at the end. Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot. Best from 2018 through 2024. 375 cases made.—J.M. 88 Château Batailley Pauillac Lions de Batail-ley 2014 $59 Solid, with a tangy iron note running from the start through the core of black currant and bit-ter cherry fruit. Ends with a light graphite…

89 Pear Valley Albarino Paso Robles Pear Valley Vineyard 2015 $21 This white has an elegant mix of ripe melon, honeycomb, pear and citrus flavors, with a thread of juicy acidity keeping the flavors light and refreshing. A note of lime zest lingers. Drink now. 200 cases made.—M.W. 87 Marimar Estate Albarino Russian River Valley Don Miguel Vineyard 2015 $35 Flavors of yellow apple, pear and lime zest are crisp and bright, with a juicy finish and accents of orange blossom. Drink now. 450 cases made.—M.W. 87 PasoPort Wine Company Albarino Edna Valley Per Caso 2015 $28 Offers juicy melon and Meyer lemon flavors on a medium body, with floral and herbal tea accents and a refreshing finish. Drink now. 200 cases made.—M.W. 86 Tangent Albarino Edna Valley Paragon Vineyard…

Cheering Chile I read with interest Kim Mar-cus’ report on Chilean wine (“Chilean Momentum”) in the May 31 edition. Despite frequent coverage by Wine Spectator and others, the wines continue to be hidden gems for many wine lovers here in the U.S. My wife and I discovered the wonder of Chilean wine almost by accident. During a visit to the country’s capital of Santiago, we took an ex-cursion to the nearby Casa-blanca and San Antonio val-leys to explore the area and do some wine tasting. We were delighted with the hos-pitality that we received and were pleasantly surprised to be introduced to many deli-cious wines that were well-made in a straightforward, appealing style. We quickly added producers such as Kingston Family Vineyards, Viña Casa Marin and Ma-tetic Vineyards to our…

Sarah Marquis, half of one of Australia’s best-known wine partnerships, has acquired a controlling share of the winery Mollydooker from her ex-husband, Sparky Marquis. The transfer was finalized April 28. After their separation in late 2015, Sparky, 51, managed the company through 2016. When he offered to buy out Sarah’s share of the company, he gave her the choice to buy him out under the same terms. She agreed to purchase it as part of court proceedings related to their divorce. Although Sparky was the more visible face of Mollydooker, Sarah was involved in all aspects of the business. The company bottled 82,000 cases of wine in 2016. It sells more than half its produc-tion in the United States. Total sales, including Australia and exports, totaled $10.5 million in 2016.…

VINTAGE VINO The 2015 vintage in Italy yielded high quality across the board. The proof is in this list of value wines from Tuscany and Piedmont, in-cluding fine examples of Dolcetto d’Alba, Rosso di Montepulciano and Toscana IGT. CAMPO AL MARE Bolgheri 2015 (93, $30) Lush, vibrant; plum, floral, spice, iron CA’VIOLA Dolcetto d’Alba Vilot 2015 (92, $20) Blackberry, plum, pomegranate, graphite; elegant, seamless ROCCA DI FRASSINELLO Maremma Toscana Poggio alla Guardia 2015 (92, $24) Graphite, pepper, sanguine, plum, tobacco, spice, beefy CAVALLOTTO Dolcetto d’Alba Vigna Scot 2015 (91, $18) Racy; black cherry, blackberry, violet, mineral, chalky CERETTO Dolcetto d’Alba Rossana 2015 (91, $20) Blackberry, blueberry, violet, mineral; pure, harmonious GIGI ROSSO Diano d’Alba Sorì del Monco-lombetto 2015 (91, $19) Dense, muscular; blackberry, plum, pomegranate LA BRACCESCA Rosso di Montepulciano…

Most of France was under an icy spell when I arrived in Chablis on Jan.18. The gray stone buildings of Burgundy seemed even starker in winter’s chilly grip, but the mood was convivial as I joined about two dozen members of the Union des Grands Crus de Cha-blis for the group’s annual tasting, this year of the 2015 vintage. The atmosphere was that of a small-town community meeting, the wine-makers greeting one another as they entered, the small talk interspersed with salutations of “Bonne année.” Af-ter a welcome from Domaine Laroche general manager Thierry Bellicaud, we got down to work, the room turning hushed until a latecomer elicited friendly heckling for his tardiness. The wines, 38 in total, broken into three flights, were tasted blind. Some had been bottled, but…

CHRISTIAN NAVARRO WALLY’S WINE & SPIRITS After 25 years at Wally’s Wine & Spirits, Christian Navarro has more than a few stories to tell. Navarro first joined the team on Westwood Boulevard in Los An-geles sweeping the floor; today, he’s co-owner, managing partner and chief wine taster, and helms the company’s flagship location in Beverly Hills. Wally’s clientele has included actors such as Jack Nicholson, Tom Cruise and Robert De Niro, as well as former president Bill Clinton, and Navarro has person-ally attended to the wine-collecting interests of these and other celebrities. —S.F WINE SPECTATOR: What advice would you give to wine collectors, especially those just getting started? CHRISTIAN NAVARRO: When people start collecting, there’s a lot of excitement, and people want to obtain things as quickly as possible. So…

California Zinfandel continues a run of high quality vintages, with great options coming from around the state. The suc-cess of the 2014s and early-arriving 2015s is all the more impressive because of the rarity of consecutively outstand-ing vintages for the grape, which is more susceptible than most to variations in the growing season. Since my last report on the category (“Zinfandel Riches,” June 30, 2016), I have blind-tasted almost 350 Zinfandels in our Napa office, a third of which scored an outstanding 90 points or higher on the Wine Spectator 100-point scale. Overall, the 2014 vintage earns a rating of 94 points in Sonoma and 93 points in Napa. (A free alphabetical list of scores and prices for all wines tasted is available at www.winespectator.com/073117.) The list of top-scoring Zins tends to…

AGAPANTHUS Winemaking couple Alyson and Richard McDonald met while working har-vest in Napa in 2009. Later, they moved to Australia, Richard’s homeland, and founded Agapanthus in 2013, using grapes from some of Barossa’s oldest vineyards. “Our winemaking is a modern style of Barossa Shiraz,” explains Alyson. “We allow the true spirit and flavor of the fruit to come through. We have minimal intervention.” They named their label after the Agapanthus flower, which was in full bloom during their wedding. 90 Agapanthus Shiraz Barossa Valley 2014 $70 90 Agapanthus Shiraz Barossa Valley 2013 $70 ALPHA CRUCIS/WITS END Labeled as Chalk Hill in Australia, these wines are bottled under Alpha Crucis and Wits End for sale in the U.S. to avoid confusion with the Califor-nia brand Chalk Hill. This McLaren Vale winery…

92Rapaura Springs Sauvignon Blanc Marl-borough 2016 $15 NEW ZEALAND Lip-smacking and juicy, offering mango, lemon and pineapple accents that are bold and energetic. Finishes crisp and bright, with plenty of vibrancy. Drink now. 90,000 cases made.—M.W. 89d’Arenberg Shiraz McLaren Vale The Stump Jump 2014 $13 AUSTRALIA Raspberry and mat-cha green tea flavors are fresh and vibrant, showing a juicy side, with details of spice and red licorice. Harmonious on the finish, where the tannins provide a little traction. Drink now. 9,000 cases imported.—M.W. 8814 Hands Riesling Washington 2015 $10 WASHINGTON This zesty white offers easy- going lemon and peach flavors. Drink now. 20,000 cases made.—T.F. 86Adega Cooperativa de Borba Alentejo 2015 $8 PORTUGAL Ripe currant and boysenberry notes are flanked with savory touches of underbrush and peppercorn in this crisp,…

93 A.J. Adam Riesling Kabinett Mosel Häs’chen 2015 $35 See Highly Recommended, page 111. 93 Selbach-Oster Riesling Kabinett Halb-trocken Mosel Zeltinger Himmelreich 2015 $20 Pungent, with aromas of slate and ripe orchard fruit, this sleek white displays complex flavors of flowers, peach, quince and slate. A hint of chive works into the mix as this remains persistent on the finish. Drink now through 2024. 140 cases imported.—B.S. 92 Spreitzer Riesling Kabinett Rheingau Oestricher Lenchen 2015 $20 A broad, powerful kabinett, boasting apple, lemon, brown spice and mineral aromas and flavors. The vibrant structure keeps this fo-cused and balanced. Fine length. Best from 2020 through 2033. 100 cases imported.—B.S. 91 Franz Künstler Riesling Kabinett Trocken Rheingau Kirchenstück 2015 $30 This is rich and evokes apricot, mango and orange flavors, with an…

89 Grapes of Roth Merlot Long Island 2013 $44 Ripe, with alluring raspberry and blackberry fruit melded with dried anise, singed vanilla and black tea notes. Shows a bit of heft from the toasty side but stays graceful overall. Drink now through 2018. 329 cases made.—J.M. 88 Millbrook Chardonnay Hudson River Region Proprietor’s Special Reserve 2015 $25 This has a streamlined core of pear and green apple fruit, backed with light hazelnut and butter notes on the finish. This is why people like Chardonnay. Drink now. 1,172 cases made.—J.M. 87 Millbrook Cabernet Franc Hudson River Region Block Three East 2014 $45 This red is bright and direct, with red currant and bitter cherry fruit, lined with a subtle tobacco note. Light, but with good energy. Drink now. 199 cases made.—J.M.…

DR. VINNYDr. Dear Dr. Vinny, I’m afraid to drink the wines I’ve collected. Is it normal to worry that my wines need to be saved for just the right age and special moment? —Claude C., Racine, Wisc. Dear Claude, I remember a point in my wine-loving life where I had collected some important bottles of wine but wasn’t comfortable opening any of them. They all seemed too special, too valu-able, or not yet ready. I would catalog them, dust them, show them off, but opening them felt impossible. I remember that what broke that spell was a friend who needed some cheering, so I brought over one of my treasures, and we had a night that we’ll remember for the rest of our lives. First, I want to encourage you…

JAMES BOYCE GALLEY & GARDENBIRMINGHAM, ALA. RECOMMENDED WINES CHEF’S PICK: Feudi di San Gregorio Falanghina Sannio 2015WINE SPECTATOR ALTERNATES: Botter Falanghina Beneventano Gran Passione 2014 (89, $13) St.-Michael-Eppan Pinot Grigio Alto Adige 2015 (88, $19) While traveling through Italy’s southern coast a few years ago, James Boyce took a bite of seafood risotto festooned with gently wilted broccoli raab. Its presence re-calibrated the dish for him. “Not many peo-ple think about put-ting that in, because of the texture difference,” he says. “But it bal-ances everything.” He pauses, then adds, “And it looks cool, color-wise.” Boyce came up during the 1980s, under the tutelage of Daniel Boulud at Le Cirque, Sirio Maccioni’s icon of upper-crust New York din-ing. He continued on to high-wattage hotel restaurants in Las Vegas, Arizona and Califor-nia…

Angelo Gaja is the latest vintner to feel the pull of southern Italy. The emerging region of Mount Etna has at-tracted winemakers and investors from across Sicily and broader Europe, but none bigger than Gaja, whose as-yet-unnamed project has the potential to point the wine scene there in new directions. Etna has no peers in Italy, and Gaja few anywhere. Gaja’s foray into Etna is a joint venture with local producer Alberto Graci. The partnership, announced this spring, is one of the strongest endorsements to date for this nascent region. Their purchase includes 51 acres on the volcano’s southwest face, 27 of them currently planted to the indigenous Carricante and Nerello Mascalese. Plans are to add vineyards and eventually build a winery. (For more news-related coverage of the venture, see…

Los Angeles restaurants set trends. They have been ahead of the curve on the national swing toward shareable-plates menus. They raised the bar on refined food in casual surroundings. And they celebrate cuisine that embraces Asian ingredients and techniques within a Western style. • On a February visit to L.A. I explored three examples of what makes the city’s din-ing so dynamic. The range is impressive. There’s an ambitious redux of an iconic midcentury place popular with Hollywood movers and shakers. A TV chef from Australia developed a rollicking meat-centric restaurant and butcher shop. And a casual, creative take on South-east Asian dishes comes from a chef steeped in Eastern and West-ern cultures. The ambience at Polo Lounge, the Beverly Hills Hotel’s restau-rant since 1941, evokes supper clubs in old…

92Antinori Bolgheri Tenuta Guado al Tasso Il Bruciato 2015 $31 ITALY This is dark but not brooding, with a burst of ripe black currant and black cherry fruit shaded by licorice, spice and mint. Features grip and a lingering finish. Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Syrah. Drink now through 2020. 15,000 cases imported.—B.S. 92Luigi Einaudi Dogliani 2015 $16 ITALY A beam of bracing acidity at the core of this intense, saturated red helps delineate the blackberry, boysenberry, blueberry and graphite flavors. This has grip and complex-ity, but just needs a little time. Best from 2018 through 2024. 9,000 cases made.—B.S. 92Schild Shiraz Barossa Valley 2015 $20 AUSTRALIA The toasted herb notes are distinctive, offering rosemary and bay leaf accents to the dried cherry and blackberry core, with accents of fresh orange…

ARGENTINA Red 92 Achával-Ferrer Malbec Mendoza Finca Altamira 2014 $150 Ripe and juicy, this provides concentrated flavors of kirsch, blackberry and boysenberry that are loaded with rich spicy notes. Chocolate mousse details ooze on the exuberantly fruity finish. Drink now through 2022. 1,500 cases made.—K.M. 92 Cheval des Andes Mendoza 2013 $110 Offers a rich, loamy aroma, with flavors to match, along with plenty of roasted plum and dark cherry elements. Well-structured, showing mocha notes on the dense fin-ish. Malbec, Cabernet Sauvignon and Petit Verdot. Drink now through 2021. 1,300 cases imported.—K.M. 90 Achával-Ferrer Malbec Mendoza Finca Bella Vista 2014 $140 This robust red is full of red and dark plum and dried cherry flavors. Green olive notes show midpalate, with a lithe finish that offers minerally and light smoky…

92 Insight Pinot Noir Marlborough Single Vineyard 2015 $30 Tangy and bright, featuring fresh raspberry and cherry flavors up front, with notes of white chocolate, loam and forest floor shining through on the complex finish. Polished tannins. Drink now through 2027. 2,000 cases made.—M.W. 92 Spy Valley Pinot Noir Marlborough 2014 $30 Polished and juicy, with red licorice and bright raspberry flavors up front. Hints of pepper and white truffle add an aromatic punch, but the focus comes back to the fresh, vibrant fruit notes on the finish. Drink now through 2028. 7,100 cases made.—M.W. 92 Two Rivers Pinot Noir Marlborough Tributary 2015 $24 Fragrant, with up-front notes of clove and rose petal giving way to beautiful purity and fresh flavors of cranberry and cherry at the core. Cinnamon, pine…