‘Tis the season to throw some meat on the grill, break out some magnums, and gather the staff around ye olde parking lot. After a few strange years of no-to-minimal socializing (something we K&Lers do best), we’re finally able to gather again to break bread and enjoy good drink (another thing we do best).
Read MoreLast summer, Ralph Sands, K&L Bordeaux specialist, checked an item off his bucket list with an in-depth visit to famed Calera winery, located on Mt. Harlan in San Benito County. We are ecstatic at K&L to be able to offer a library of 40+ years of vintages in an acquisition of a lifetime. Now is a perfect time to line your cellar with these incomparable testaments to California vinous history.
Read MoreToday's Newsletter takes us to two of the world's most traditional yet dynamic wine countries—Spain and Portugal. K&L buyer Kirk Walker brings his trademark indefatigable enthusiasm for these inimitable wines and producers in this highlight tutorial of his favorite current releases.
Read MoreThis June, I traveled back to Champagne to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Champagne Launois. It was an honor to be invited. The party was unforgettable, hosted by no less than four generations of the family at their beautiful château just outside of Mesnil. There we spent the afternoon tasting, eating, and drinking… a six hour Champenois lunch!
Read MoreUsually, when I arrive in Brouillet, we do an extensive vin clair tasting of the last year’s harvest together. Since there was no 2021 to taste, Paul announced that instead we would do a retrospective of better years… And what a lineup he poured! This tasting was a true career highlight for me—each wine was great, and fabulous proof of the longevity that the great terroir of Brouillet is capable of producing in its wines.
Read MoreLast week, we were honored to host the Union des Grands Crus tasting of the 2019 Bordeaux vintage at the Metreon in San Francisco. We have been hosting this event since 2005, when our co-owner and Bordeaux evangelist Clyde Beffa Jr helped lobby to have two tastings in California, with K&L covering SF and Wally’s covering LA. Last Wednesday, after a two-year pause for the pandemic—as well as a reschedule this year for same—Bordeaux producers and enthusiasts alike came together, finally, to revel in the 2019 vintage.
Read MoreThe relationship between Calera and K&L is long and deep. In 1975 when the late Josh Jensen planted his first vines in the rugged limestone soils of Mt. Harlan, the idea of K&L was also taking root in the minds of our founders Clyde Beffa and Todd Zucker… Fast forward to March of 2022 when I was told that K&L was going to be offered access to these library wines—an opportunity that I was obviously never going to pass up! However, the sheer scale of the library didn’t hit home until I was in possession of a somewhat overwhelming spreadsheet of wines going back five decades!
Read MoreAt the end of May, I was lucky enough to be hosted at Champagne Billecart-Salmon in Mareuil by none other than cellarmaster Florent Nys. We have known each other for many years, but I hadn’t had the chance to sit down with him since before the pandemic. He invited me into the new reception area at Billecart, and poured quite the tasting.
Read MoreToday’s Loire Valley Newsletter starts with a few personal favorites of our intrepid Loire Buyer Keith Mabry, followed by an introduction to one of the great unsung heroes of the Chenin Blanc varietal—Domaine de la Taille Aux Loups. Next we dig a little deeper into the Loire's most famous region, Sancerre, by highlighting three under-the-radar stunners that provide everything Sancerre fans love about the appellation. The Loire's red wines get their due praise as Keith takes us through Cabernet Franc stunners that offer world-class appeal for simply unbeatable prices, and we round out the journey with thrilling examples of what the Loire arguably does better than anywhere else—provide exceptional wine drinking experiences for a mere song.
Read MoreToday's Newsletter spans the length and breadth of the world's greatest wine region (and the foundation of K&L's business) with a stellar run of hand-picked favorites from our intrepid Bordeaux team, followed by recaps of the back-to-back outstanding 2019 and 2020 vintages.
Read MoreToday I traveled to the very far south of Champagne, in the Aube department to visit my friend Vivien Lamoureux at Champagne J.J. Lamoureux in the beautiful village of Les Riceys. This is the southern tip of Champagne and only three short miles from the departmental border with Burgundy. Here the soil is not the pure white chalk of the Marne area, but rather nearly the same Kimmeridgian clay as in Chablis. Notably, Pinot Noir is king in this area, as Chardonnay buds too early and is at high risk for frost on all but the steepest and most perfectly east-facing sites.
Read MoreMy new French phrase for my first week in Champagne is “la montre est bonne,” an expression that means “everything looks good right now” for a good vintage in 2022. After the disastrously low yields of 2021, the generous set on the vines now is a site for sore eyes. The vineyards in Champagne are far ahead of schedule, with flowering happening as I type in many places, and the flowers are already here in Sacy, where I took the picture below. A big harvest would do a lot to stabilize Champagne, because currently stocks are low due to a big increase in global demand, the horribly short 2021 harvest, and the self-inflicted wound of tight yield limits in 2020.
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