Probably one of the most exciting parts of being the wine buyer for Spain and Portugal is being the person in charge of the Port, Sherry, and Madeira selections! While you can certainly enjoy these wines year-round, there’s just something about the approach of autumn that makes me want to reach for a glass of Madeira or a chilled Sherry. With cooler nights approaching, this is the perfect time to stock up on fortified wines, especially the richer styles. They’re lovely wines to have on hand for dinner parties, as an accompaniment to a cheese platter or for after-dinner sipping, or just as a treat on a quiet night in.
When imagining Spain and Portugal, hot and arid landscapes often come to mind, with golden rolling hills dotted with gnarled old vines. The far northwestern corner of Spain, however, often referred to as “Green Spain,” defies this stereotype. Likewise, across the Miño River (or Minho River, depending on what language you’re speaking) in northern Portugal, the wine regions are defined by a cool, coastal climate with ample rainfall.
Rioja is one of the most historic—and dynamic—wine regions, beloved by collectors around the world. This year marks the 100th anniversary of the formal establishment of the appellation, which has continued to evolve in recent years with exciting new projects and ventures. In many ways, modern-day Rioja is where the past, the present, and the future come together in dynamic fashion.
A recent K&L staff trip to Napa Valley saw the NorCal sales team explore the cooler parts of the region with a day in Carneros and Coombsville, two of the southernmost sub-AVAs of Napa, with lots of moderating influence from the nearby San Pablo Bay. We started off the day with an incredible 8:30am visit with Steve Matthiasson at his Cressida Vineyard in the upper Carneros, right at the foot of the Mayacamas range as it descends towards the bay. The weather in Carneros behaved perfectly with thick morning fog slowly receding back to the bay as our crew walked up into the vineyard with the first patches of blue sky being revealed.
My picks for the week highlight the cool factor in what we bring in as well as some great value. We started with a ready-to-drink infused gin drink called Sweet Gwendoline Fig And Wine Infused French Gin $36.99. It was super tasty and a nice start to the whole thing.
September brings another packed lineup of news and offers from K&L: our Top Ten Picks of the month, a tariff update and what it means for our customers, the much-anticipated 2020 Brunello arrivals, a standout Compass Box three-pack, and new Discovery Series arrivals. Here’s everything you’ll want to know this month.
There are few moments more rewarding than opening a bottle that outperforms its price tag—when structure, provenance, and vintage align to deliver something that resonates deeper than expected. We live for those moments. And with that pursuit in mind, we’re proud to introduce a new chapter at K&L: the Discovery Series.
Compass Box and K&L have always had a special relationship. Since the inception of this special brand 25 years ago, we've seen eye to eye on every aspect of this business. It wasn't until 2011 that we were able to connect with legendary whiskymaker John Glasser about the potential to do an exclusive for K&L. We had access to anything back then, but one trophy alluded K&L and exclusive Compass Box. That was until 2015 when John Glaser invited our spirits buying team to select an exclusive blend from their stocks, a now legendary blend of old peated malt and a sherry aged malt—5th and Harrison was born. Now 10 years later, we were honored and surprised when James Saxon, Compass Box Master Blender, agreed to build a special batch just for us once again. We had a recipe that we loved, old peat and heavy sherry, but could they pull it off? Of course they did!
Some folks tell you, “If you’ve seen one distillery, you’ve seen them all.” I, for one, couldn’t disagree more. The equipment may look similar, but each place has its own heartbeat. The first time I drove to Four Roses, the sunny, Spanish mission-style buildings made me think I’d taken a wrong turn into California.
The wines that I'm most excited about this week are all wines that tell me a story with every sip—be it the story of the vintage, the land, the people, or our relationships—it's all something of interest. The story of the wine makes it that much more special. We have new Discovery Series wines, and they're just absolutely mind-blowing Crazy Eddie deals that we're just casually dropping. Both of the new K&L Discovery Series St-Emilion wines—2005 K&L Discovery Series Bordeaux, St-Emilion (Elsewhere $40) $19.99and 2009 K&L Discovery Series Bordeaux, St-Emilion (Elsewhere $40) $14.99—are outstanding, showing incredibly well even though they're pretty much fresh out of the container from France.
Bordeaux is having a moment. Between the precision of 2022, the ripe classicism of 2019, and the structure of 2016, there’s never been a better time to buy smart—whether you’re building a cellar, restocking weeknight staples, or hunting blue-chip collectibles. In this guide, Bordeaux Buyer Ryan Moses highlights where value lives today, introduces the K&L Discovery Series, spotlights top in-stock 2022s, and curates age-worthy picks for the long haul—then invites you to a high-energy, side-by-side tasting: a rare chance to experience world-class producers and vintages in one sitting.
One of the quiet reasons the fine wine world is struggling is that there are simply too many great wines. This may sound counterintuitive, but the more I think about it, the clearer it becomes: so many bottles now overdeliver at their price point that some of the traditional powerhouses feel less essential. Plenty of cult labels, lacking true scarcity, raised their prices dramatically over the past decade—while some deserved the acclaim and rewards, others pushed their customers to look elsewhere. And that “elsewhere” has gotten so good, it’s hard to go back.
