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A 95-pointer under $30, two rare 2009s from Bordeaux's golden value era, and a 2022 Brane-Cantenac that Ryan Moses holds to First Growth standard — the new arrivals worth grabbing first.
A triple-97-pointer under $50, a 99-pointer from Pessac, and the buyer's honest case for why 2022 is the Bordeaux vintage to load up on now. Ryan Moses picks his fights.
Montrose's sister estate has been on a twelve-year climb — and you can taste the whole trajectory for under $40 a bottle. Ryan Moses on the 2014, 2020, and 2022 Tronquoy.
A few months back, an old friend in the wine business turned me on to the wines of Two Mountain. Previously unknown to me, I trusted his palate and sent a request for samples to the winery. Shortly afterward, I tasted through the range and was immediately impressed by both the quality and the exceptional value for money.
While the primary focus of my trip to Washington was Walla Walla, I decided to extend my visit and check out a vineyard I’ve wanted to see for many years: WeatherEye. As I’ve explained in a previous newsletter, this incredible site on the upper slopes and ridgeline of Red Mountain is one of the most exciting vineyard developments of the past decade anywhere in the USA. Seeing it with my own eyes was truly mind-blowing.
While technically sitting just across the state line in northern Oregon, the Rocks District of Milton-Freewater is a sub-AVA of Walla Walla that produces some of the most distinctive wines in the world. That’s not an exaggeration. The wines from the Rocks District are so incredibly distinctive that the expression of place is often more recognizable than the grape variety itself.
While it was a lot of fun exploring wines from new producers on the trip, it was equally rewarding to revisit some old favorites and taste new releases from iconic wineries that helped elevate Washington wine onto the world stage in the first place. Here are a few of the crème de la crème wines I was lucky enough to taste—and secure small allocations of for our shelves.
Last month I went on an incredible trip to Washington wine country in search of a deeper understanding of the wines coming from Walla Walla and beyond. It was my first time back since before the pandemic, and the trip was long overdue. Four days were packed with insightful vineyard walks, winery visits, large-scale tastings, and more intimate dinners with library wines. It was a wonderful opportunity to check in on some old favorites while also seeking out new producers pushing the boundaries of the current Washington wine scene.
Friday night SOS: a text from K&L colleague Dejah Overby: a photo of a massive wolf spider camped out in her bathroom. I knew the right move was to help a good friend out. I drove over and captured the spider for her. On my way out the door, Dejah handed me a bottle of red as a reward, one our colleagues had been raving about and calling a killer deal. That got my attention…
Kerry Kennell’s Club Italiano picks: a bracing, flinty Vespaiolo grown on volcanic soil in Breganze—from a grape named for the wasps that swarm it—and a pale, atmospheric Langhe Nebbiolo from Treiso, in the heart of Barbaresco.
With warm weather still ahead, nothing refreshes like Champagne. Our shelves run the range — from the casual Maison 76 Côte des Blancs Grand Cru to the mineral-driven 2017 Launois "Helia" Grand Cru Brut to the brioche richness of 2014 Taittinger "Comtes de Champagne" — plus the sub-$30 Baron-Fuenté "Grande Réserve" Brut, real Champagne at generic-sparkling-wine pricing. For special occasions or your cellar, we've got Krug and Cristal too. Late-summer meals are made for Champagne — the right bottle turns dinner into an occasion. A toast to you!
Editor Kerry Kennell on why she joined K&L's Champagne Club — and tasting notes on this month's two shipment wines, each $10 off for members.
With the success of our Maison 76 Côte des Blancs Grand Cru Blanc de Blancs Champagne $44.99, which is in stock now, I spent some time on my last trip to Champagne bolstering our selection in this range. If any of the following interest you, I would suggest putting yourself on the waiting list now by following the links. We have good quantity coming on all of them, but last year our first batch of the Maison 76 was the fastest-selling Champagne we have ever had!
Here's the math on summer: more bottles opened, more people showing up, same budget you had in June. So this week we kept things mostly under $20, added a few wines Keith Mabry can't stop drinking, plus the chillable reds on rotation at Chez Ryan Woodhouse. (There's also one splurge at the bottom, because rules are made to be broken...at least once.)
Chillable reds have been very much in vogue over the past couple of years. These light, bright, crushable wines are often quite translucent in the glass and drink beautifully at cool cellar temperature, around 55-60°F, or even properly chilled like a white or rosé, closer to 45-50°F.
For fifty years, K&L has been in the business of finding the best wine and spirits for the best prices. We've built deep relationships across the industry, and that's been the secret ingredient in the K&L sauce. In the 80s, co-founder Clyde Beffa realized that some of his friends in California had made more wine than they could sell; he could buy the juice at a discount and pass along the savings to the customers—as long as he didn't reveal his sources. Thus Kalinda was born, and we started our foray into private labels. Since then, we've expanded to a family of them: Bordeaux and Italy bottled under our Discovery Series; French country wines blended as Rendez-Vous; a Grand Cru Champagne bottled for us as Maison 76; California wineries we can't name under the Anonymous Wine Collective; and casks we picked ourselves in Scotland and Kentucky. Every bottle below exists because a K&L buyer stood in a cellar and said yes.
K&L Spirits Buyer David Othenin-Girard rounds up his spirits picks for beating the summer heat: rum royalty, a tequila innovator, a mystery malt, and the best spritzes to keep cool.
Thompson Bros' Mystery Malt series is exactly what it sounds like: a US-exclusive blend of single malt Scotch drawn from twenty different distilleries, with the true contents revealed only on labels hidden under the capsule, cork, and neck. Non-chill filtered and naturally colored, it may haze slightly at low temperatures — a sign of authenticity, not a flaw. Each 6-pack case includes 6 different bottles, and each full pack carries a similar value — new-wave single casks sitting alongside very old single malts from established names. There's no better way to organize a blind tasting than a full case.
What do K&L customers actually drink? This is it. The twenty wines that outsold everything else in the first half of 2026 — from a $9.99 Vinho Verde to a 2006 Santa Cruz Mountains library Cabernet — ranked by bottles sold, with no scores and no spin. Alongside them: ten July staff picks including the second wine of Sassicaia and a $17.99 Crémant that drinks well above its price, plus eight summer whites and rosés every one under $35. Fifty years in, this is still the best list we publish.
Like Helen of Troy, Sigalas is the wine that launched a thousand ships — mostly ships headed to Santorini. Sigalas remains one of the benchmark producers on the island, and the quality has always been superb. The 2025 vintage saw devastatingly low yields, but we were fortunate to secure a healthy allocation thanks to our long-standing relationship with the importer.
Assyrtiko has rightly earned its place as the ambassador of Greek white wine, the grape most people reach for first when they start exploring what the country has to offer. But Greece's story doesn't end there — it's a nation with dozens of indigenous varieties, many found nowhere else on earth, each one shaped by the wildly different terroirs it grows in, from volcanic islands to limestone mountains to high-altitude mainland plateaus.
If you've never tasted Xinomavro, the easiest shorthand is to call it Greece's answer to Nebbiolo — and there's real truth to that comparison. Break down the grape's name and you'll find a clue as to why: xino means "acid," and mavro means "black," a fitting description for a wine defined by high acidity, dark color, and firm, structured tannin.
Assyrtiko, though native to Santorini and long associated with the islands of the Aegean, has migrated to the mainland and taken quite a hold. The grape has some incredible properties that make it ideal for experimentation. For one, it's remarkably hearty and drought-resistant — a great candidate when considering varieties to plant in non-native regions.
Perhaps in honor of Christopher Nolan's new Odyssey film, but mostly because there are few wines as singular as those of Yiannis Economou, these are wines absolutely worth the journey.
The best summer wines don't ask much of you. They ask to be cold, to be opened without ceremony, and to disappear faster than you planned. From Chablis to the Salnés Valley to the Sonoma Coast, here are eight bottles we'll be drinking until the fog rolls back in—every one under $35, most well under.
From a $19.99 Mâcon-Fuissé to Le Montrachet itself: K&L Burgundy buyer Alex Pross presents six white Burgundy producers to buy right now — Decanter's Best in Show value from Château Vitallis, 2024 Billaud Chablis, and fiercely allocated Morey, Colin, Lamy, and Sauzet.
Ramonet, PYCM, Paul Pillot, Lafon, Leflaive—and Sauzet. K&L Burgundy buyer Alex Pross counts Domaine Etienne Sauzet among white Burgundy's truly transcendental producers, and the 2024s are proof: from village Puligny at $129.99 through seven 1er Crus to Le Montrachet itself. All pre-arrival.
Should you come across an offering for them, don't hesitate," says Allen Meadows of the 2023 Hubert Lamy wines. K&L Burgundy buyer Alex Pross on securing an allocation of Olivier Lamy's fiercely contested St-Aubin, Chassagne, and Puligny whites—all pre-arrival, from $89.99.
