Elegant Cool-Climate Wines from Australia's Yarra Valley

The first stop on my wine tour across Victoria was the Yarra Valley, located just an hour outside of Melbourne. The Yarra is a picturesque region where the suburban outskirts of the city give way to rolling green hills dotted with sheep and cattle. Creeks and rivers meander across the landscape, collared by eucalyptus and underbrush. The landscape features a blend of rural communities and opulent country estates with the occasional quaint, main-street towns that serve as centers for the winemaking communities.

Beyond Yellow Tail: The New Australian Wine

This June, I got to experience the incredible diversity and quality of Australian wine firsthand. Spending two weeks in Australia, I managed to visit with 80 producers across Victoria and South Australia, tasting hundreds of wines and meeting the incredible people who craft them. Many of these producers have all the drive, attention to detail, and raw talent that you’d find anywhere in Burgundy, Napa, or Piedmont. So why does Australian wine make up less than 1% of the wines that we sell here at K&L?

LGBTQ Winemaker Spotlight: Terah Bajjalieh

Terah Bajjalieh of Terah Wine Co. is a queer woman of color who owns and operates one of the coolest natural wine companies in California right now. She has had a long and distinguished career, working 13 consecutive harvests around the world to hone her craft. She first started making wine in a friend’s garage, before starting Terah Wine Co. She only works with organic and biodynamic vineyards and focuses on a minimal intervention winemaking style.

The Annual Champagne Summit Dinner Sparkles with Billecart's Brightest

Earlier this week, the K&L Champagne team kicked off our annual staff summit with a dinner hosted by Billecart-Salmon. It has become a welcome tradition to start off our yearly survey of all the grande marque producers with a sushi dinner at my place featuring the wines of this great house. Christian Esser, who just returned from a visit to Billecart, and Eric Lecours presented the wines and treated Scott Beckerley, Michael Benoit, Philip Roufail, Will Langhi, Cinnamon and me to a great spread from Kanpai sushi in Palo Alto.

Interested in Maximizing Your Wine Cellar’s Potential? Start Here.

K&L Auctions is one of the most user-friendly and dynamic places to sell, reshape, and add to your collection. We offer market-low fees, up-to-the-minute online inventory, motivated customers from around the world, and a team of passionate experts to assist you in achieving maximum success. While we have our teams at the ready to talk you through current trends ([email protected]), we also wanted to share a snapshot of where the auction market stands this summer.

The Majestic Wines of Domaine Weinbach

Few wineries have a history as long and as storied as Domaine Weinbach, which can trace its origins back to vines that were planted on the property in the 9th century. It was eventually established as a winery in 1612 by the Capuchin friars. Named after a stream that runs through the property, it was purchased in 1898 by the Faller Family, which still runs it today. Since 2016 Catherine Faller has run the estate with the help of her two sons Eddy and Theo, employing both organic and biodynamic farming practices. The wines of Domaine Weinbach are wonderful representations of Alsace with a focus on purity, balance, and elegance. Weinbach consistently ranks among the top two to three producers in all of Alsace.

2022 Max Ferdinand Richter Wines

Traditionally some of the first wines we receive from each new German vintage release are the wines of Max Ferdinand Richter. We eagerly await these wines as they are always great barometers of the quality of the vintage. I am happy to report that the wines of Max Ferdinand Richter are once again great—and with critical scores from both Mosel Fine Wines and the Wine Advocate, the critics agree. Even more importantly, these are some of the most economical offerings around. We have a wonderful selection that goes from Kabinett all the way to Auslese.

The Artistry of Charles Baur

It is truly a shame that Alsace gets overlooked when discussing the best white wine values in the world. Alsace may not beat their chest and scream from the mountain tops that they are the epicenter of white wine values, but there truly are some great wines that are priced incredibly well. Charles Baur is easily one of my favorite producers just based on the breadth of great white wines he produces across the aromatic spectrum. With a string of strong vintages, Charles Baur has stacked one great wine value after another. Regardless of vintage we have the right wine at the right price for you to explore the wonders of Alsace.

News from Austria: Allram’s Amazing 2021s

Austria is at a watershed moment, and 2021 looks to be one of the greatest vintages they have produced in the last 40+ years—that’s on top of a string of vintages that run from good-to-better-to-great! Most exciting are the incredible wines coming to us from Weingut Allram, one of our Direct Import producers who offers price-to-quality ratio that is insanely good.

Back on Our Shelves: Champagne Boulard-Baquaire

This past May I had the chance to drive all the way up to the very top of Champagne to the village of Cormicy. I was there to visit Christophe Boulard at Champagne Boulard-Baquaire, and it had been too long since I had seen him and visited the winery. Now, his wines have just come back in stock, and I would like to share their story with you.

A Much-Awaited New Cuvée from Ruinart

This Wednesday I was invited to dinner at Selby’s by Louise Bryden, head of research and development and part of the winemaking team at Champagne Ruinart. She is touring the West Coast for the release of the Ruinart Blanc Singulier Brut Nature, the first new cuvée to be released by Ruinart since the non-vintage blanc de blancs over 20 years ago. It was a fantastic evening, and we were even served by the Ruinart Challenge winner—Lindsey Young from Selby’s—who had taken the prize that very morning in San Francisco!

Fèlsina's Soulful Chianti Classico

I think it took me at least two years to figure out the proper pronunciation for this winery, it’s [FEL-zina], so don’t feel bad if you didn’t have it correct. I was with Giuseppe Mazzocolin, the then manager of the winery and son-in-law of the owner. Giuseppe had a background in classics—not winemaking or anything to do with it—but he nonetheless jumped in to help resurrect the winery. The Poggiali Family purchased the property in 1966 and began renovating it. In the late 1970s Giuseppe arrived and changed the game.

K&L Wine Merchants

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