All Things Bordeaux

Bordeaux grapes have traveled farther, and adapted more brilliantly, than any varieties in the world. Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Malbec, Petit Verdot, and Sauvignon Blanc have taken root in new landscapes, absorbing local character while retaining the structure and poise that define their origins. This month, we look at how these grapes express themselves from the Gironde to the Andes, from Napa Valley to the Tuscan coast, and beyond. Along the way, our buyers highlight the benchmark wines, the unexpected values, and the producers shaping the next generation of Bordeaux-inspired winemaking.

Holiday Gift Guide

This year’s K&L Holiday Gift Guide showcases the bottles our buyers are most excited to give (and to receive). Below you’ll find Champagne benchmarks, hand-selected Domestic gems, top-flight Tuscan classics, and versatile Loire Valley wines, plus upcoming in-store events and our Thanksgiving Pairing Guide. Consider this your roadmap to the most compelling gifts of the season.

October’s Italian Treasures: Brunello, Barolo, and Beyond

Italy never stops inspiring us. From mountain-grown Nebbiolo to the volcanic slopes of Sicily and the storied hills of Montalcino, each bottle tells a story of land, family, and tradition carried forward with passion. This month’s newsletter brings you everything from the unbeatable value of our new K&L Discovery Series arrivals to the unforgettable personality of Natalino Crognaletti and the reborn legacy of Giovinco. We're also featuring the soulful community of San Polino and a rare lineup of world-class collectibles like Masseto, Valdicava, and Castello di Ama.

San Polino: A Story of People and Nature in Montalcino

The San Polino estate exists as a living community that weaves together vines with forests as well as people and animals with unseen life connections. The terroir at this place represents both harvest seasons and the family bond that connects them to their ancestral land. During the early 1990s Luigi “Gigi” Fabbro and Katia Nussbaum discovered the forgotten 600-year-old olive trees which clung to sunbaked rocky slopes in the abandoned homestead of San Polino. No water. No electricity. But also: no chemicals, no scars, no interruptions. Just pure, untouched nature. And that is exactly what they were looking for.

My Favorite Rebel: The Unforgettable Wines of Natalino Crognaletti

Every wine buyer has a handful of producers that are more than just names in a portfolio. They are benchmarks, inspirations, and personal favorites. For me, one of those producers has always been Fattoria San Lorenzo. To put it simply, these are some of the most soulful and alive wines being made in Italy today, and they come from the heart and hands of a true force of nature: Natalino Crognaletti.

Giovinco: A Century-Old Legacy Reborn in Sicily

Here at K&L, we are constantly searching for producers who offer a true sense of place, whose wines tell the story of a family and a specific piece of earth. Today, we are thrilled to introduce you to Giovinco—a name that embodies both a deep respect for tradition and a dynamic vision for the future of Sicilian wine. This is a story that stretches from the historic, sun-drenched vineyards of Sambuca di Sicilia to the electric, volcanic slopes of Mount Etna.

Giuseppe Quintarelli – A Legacy Bottled in Time

During the last hundred years the Quintarelli family has established its reputation through their estate located on the eastern slope of the Negrar Valley in the middle of Valpolicella. Silvio Quintarelli established the winery in 1924. It was his son, Giuseppe, also known as Bepi, however, who helped the winery achieve worldwide recognition. The winery has maintained its dedication to traditional methods and patient winemaking since Silvio’s era, but Bepi’s influence is incalculable. His manual label writing became an unmistakable signature for the brand, showing what a labor of love each and every bottle is. Combined with his use of ten-year Slavonian-oak barrel aging, Bepi developed a signature Amarone style that established itself as the reference point for many Italian winemakers.

What I'm Excited About This Week: Easy Summertime Italian Wines

This week Orazio Campoli, our Vinum Italicum Magister, introduced us to a beautiful array of very seasonally relevant wines. All of our buyers do such a great job at putting together these lineups for us week after week, often with little themes or goals in mind. This lineup had a lot of wines that have been in our Italian Wine Club, which means that for any Wine Club member, you get a discount on them. These are all reasonably priced wines, and each one that I've featured for you here overdelivers when it comes to a price/quality ratio. There's just so many wines that we carry, and we keep bringing in new products every single day, so it's easy for some of these to get lost—but they're just exceptional and deserve your attention.

Newsletter: Wines of the Mediterranean

Salt, stone, and sun. This issue channels the Mediterranean’s clean lines—precise rosé, sea-sprayed whites, volcanic reds, and traditional-method sparklers—handpicked by Keith, Rachael, and Orazio. Smart values to cellar pieces, all built for warm-weather tables.

Ronchi di Cialla Is Launching a Schioppettino Revival

Wine producers exist in two categories: those who follow market trends and those who protect their land by making wine while preserving natural heritage. Ronchi di Cialla represents the most authentic embodiment of this latter spirit.

Open Cellar: A New Way to Taste at K&L

Have you ever wondered what a bottle of 2003 Lafite Rothschild, Pauillac $1049.99 100WA 98JS 97WE 96WS tastes like? At nearly $1,100 per bottle, only a fortunate few have the means to purchase a First Growth Bordeaux—let alone a perfectly stored, 22-year-old bottle. But at K&L, we believe wine is for everyone; it’s meant to be enjoyed, explored, and shared. That’s why we created a new way for you to experience the world of wine in our stores—through the lens of our new automated WineEmotion machines. This new program features 16 rotating selections available by the 1- or 2-ounce pour, all priced to make the world of high-end, collectible wines accessible to all.

Flavio Roddolo – The Hermit of Monforte

There is a lot to say about this small producer. It is the definition of eclectic and out of the ordinary; the wines are usually hard to find, and, in fact, they are regularly kind of smuggled into the U.S. The winery doesn’t have a ordinary distribution network like the rest of the producers that you see on the shelves in the U.S. Rather, Flavio Roddolo avoids trends and stays isolated in his dedication to vine cultivation in his homeland of Monforte D’Alba. He farms, he ferments, he bottles—he does everything himself. The production is tiny, tiny—they are even hard to find if you ever go in the Langhe. No marketing, no consultants, no shortcuts. His approach involves time along with traditional methods—that is it.

K&L Wine Merchants

www.klwines.com