Category: Boutique Wines

Vinography Unboxed: Week of 9/10/23
This week included a rockstar white wine from Bedrock Wine Company, run by Morgan Twain-Peterson, the son of pioneering Zinfandel

Ultramarine: California’s First Cult Sparkling Wine
How exclusive is Ultramarine, the single-vineyard sparkling wine made by winemaker Michael Cruse? Well, the wine was first released in

Tasting California’s Geekiest Vineyard
Psychologists analysing paratroopers divide them into three different categories: ‘courageous’, ‘fearless’ and ‘over-confident’. It’s not clear which of these would

Napa’s Best Cabernet: Tasting the Superb 2021 Vintage at Premiere Napa Valley
Some people run marathons. Me? I taste 150 or so Cabernets before lunch. That’s the way I like to describe

The Way of Granite: Gideon Beinstock and the Wines of Clos Saron
In the most famous wine regions of the world, a tourist wandering the nicely manicured rows of vines that lead

The Emotion of Savennières: The Wines of Thibaud Boudignon
Winemaker Thibaud Boudignon looks me straight in the eye and says, “I want fresh vitality in my wines and an

Carved From the Mountain: The Wines of WeatherEye Vineyard
Mark my words: the greatest wines Washington State has ever produced will come from one of the most ambitious vineyard

Vinography Unboxed: Week of 6/19/22
Hello and welcome to my weekly dig through the pile of wine samples that show up asking to be tasted.

A Boatload of Flavor: Tasting Some Smaller Loire Producers
A couple of weeks ago I resumed something that has been a regular periodic activity of mine for more than

Bottles of Dear Old Blighty: A Deep Tasting of English Wine
For the longest time, my British friends have been bragging about their wines. Not the wines they’ve been drinking, mind

Vinography Unboxed: Week of 1/9/22
Hello and welcome to my weekly dig through the pile of wine samples that show up asking to be tasted.

Armenian Apex: The Wines of Zorah
When I first wrote about the wines of Zorah in 2013, most people had never heard of wine from Armenia.

Tasting Natural Beauty: The Wines of Rippon
When I was first learning the little bit of Japanese that I speak, I was interested in adjectives. Maybe it’s

Poised for Greatness: Tasting The Evolution of Anderson Valley
Given all the fuss that has been made about Pinot Noir in the post-Sideways era, you would think that Mendocino’s

When Stones Speak: The Wines of Domaine des Ardoisières
Some truly great wines sneak up on you, sip after sip, taste after taste—deepening, resonating, and ultimately resolving into your

The Soul of Refinement: Recent & Upcoming Releases from Corison Winery, Napa
There most definitely was a time, not so long ago, when you couldn’t begin an article about one of Napa’s

The Forest Dreams of the Savoie Vine: The Wines of Domaine Curtet
Can you taste integrity? Spend enough time thinking and talking about wine, especially great wine, and inevitably you have to

Three Men, One Shovel: The Single-Vineyard Cabernets of La Pelle
Earlier this year, I wrote up an extensive report on many of the new (to me) producers of Napa Valley

Cold Soul, Warm Heart: The Wines of Alma Fria
There’s one type of article I write here on Vinography that produces equal parts exhilaration and anxiety: when I decide