Today, it’s widely known that some of the best Syrah and Grenache on the planet come from Rhône, but do we really understand why? This line of inquiry led us, meaning Keith and I, to create Rhône School, your biweekly-ish dive into the Rhône, region by region, rock by rock, with a blog-toothed comb. First stop: St-Joseph.
Read MoreWhen I walked into Keith’s house last week, I was greeted by a merry group of K&Lers and friends, and two long tables set with rustic red-checked covers. There was a luscious, savory aroma intertwining the conversations, and a glass in each person’s hand. For tonight was Cassoulet night, night of the rich bean-and-meat stew from the Languedoc, named after the casserole pot it’s cooked in.
Read MoreOnce a month, in our Redwood City store, one of our buyers will host an after-hours tasting for the staff. This special, late night tasting allows us to sit down together, enjoy a little food, and dive deeper into a region or selection of wines. This week, with our Rhone tasting coming up tomorrow, our buyer Keith Mabry took us on a tour of the Rhone, sharing stories and details (and even soil samples!) from the regions of Côtes du Rhône, Châteuneuf-du-Pape, Côte Rôtie, Cornas and Hermitage.
Read MoreThe Super Bowl is coming up this weekend, and LA is playing in it for the first time since the Rams came back to town. Though I’m not much of a football fan, I am a fan of LA, so I thought it’d be great to mark the occasion with another thing I am a fan of—food. And what better, more perfect Super Bowl food is there than chili?
Read MoreWe’re still tasting our way through the bounty of Southern Rhône from the heralded 2016 vintage, and boy are the wines good. In Jeb Dunnuck’s words: “The 2016 vintage was truly extraordinary for the Southern Rhône and is a vintage that readers should buy with abandon. This is the greatest young vintage from the Southern Rhône Valley I’ve ever tasted, both in terms of quality as well as consistency… In fact, it’s difficult to find a truly bad wine in 2016.” From what I can tell so far, I can’t argue with him. And thanks to our Direct Import program, there are some great values on our shelves to boot.
Read MoreA big boat just landed in California, carrying some wines we’re pretty jazzed about—all hailing from Rhône’s phenomenal 2016 vintage. Both Northern and Southern Rhône knocked it out of the park in 2016. We’re excited through and through for this vintage, and wines from La Ferme du Mont in Châteauneuf-du-Pape are topping our list of what to open first.
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