While tasting thousands of wines a year, we’ve come across a few that are truly exceptional. In honor of our 50th anniversary, we’ve put together a series of Grand Tastings across our California stores. Each one takes a different angle on what has mattered to K&L over 50 years: wines that earned perfect scores, the great whites, bottles with real age on them, and the names that define their regions.
Read MoreTom Zacharia grew up on the sales floor of his family’s store, Zachys, and spent years at Gallo and back at Zachys before joining K&L as our Burgundy buyer. He talks about the bottle that changed how he thinks about Champagne, how he hunts for Burgundy value, and where newcomers should start.
Read MoreOn October 25, 2026, K&L Wine Merchants hosted a sold-out Grand Opening Tasting at its New York store, 270 Madison Avenue at 39th Street. Guests tasted wines from Italy, France, Spain, Argentina, Australia, and California in the first K&L store outside California. Thank you to everyone who came, and to the many more who joined the waitlist.
Read MoreCharly-sur-Marne is closer to Paris than Reims, over the line in the Aisne, where Meunier is king. Baron-Fuente stacks its Quinconce en quinconce for seven years before disgorgement, and the Grande Reserve is 60% Meunier at a price that reads like a mistake.
Read MoreNo grape suits a holiday table like Pinot Meunier, and Jean-Baptiste Gilbert-Jacquesson has built four cuvees around it in the Marne. The 100% Meunier Tradition starts at $29.99; the Prestige draws on a solera running back to the 2000s.
Read MoreThe Hugot family planted vines in Champagne in 1660 and waited 261 years to put their name on a bottle. Damien is the 25th generation, farming 20 acres of Grand Cru Chardonnay in Chouilly and Cramant, with a 2016 mono cru to finish.
Read MoreBillecart-Salmon dates to 1818 and seven generations. Scott Beckerley on the lower-dosage Le Rosé and the oak-fermented Sous Bois.
Read MoreMaxime Toubart held his 2008 Héritage 16 years on the lees before release. Just 5,000 bottles from the cold microclimate of Le Breuil. $59.99.
Read MoreCampbeltown had 30 distilleries in the 1880s and has three today. Stephanie Manning drove the length of Kintyre, a day after Storm Amy, to taste through casks at Glen Scotia. She came back with a 10-year first-fill Oloroso hogshead and an argument for very long fermentations.
Read MoreOur first small-batch rye came from an unlikely mash bill: 51% rye, 49% barley. It has the spice of an American rye and the stone fruit characteristics of a Speyside. Stephanie Manning on the five barrels, the Madeira finish, and why 111 proof was the right strength.
Read MoreTwo vintages into a Direct Import relationship with one of the great singular producers of Crozes-Hermitage, organic since 2007. Keith Mabry on five wines: the estate Crozes, the 60-year-old vines behind Le Rouvre, a new Blanc, the first St-Joseph Yann Chave has ever made, and the Hermitage.
Read MoreGrenache may lead the conversation in Châteauneuf-du-Pape, but plot selection, soils and winemaking take these wines in very different directions. Keith Mabry on three of them: the translucent Grenache of Piedlong, Isabel Ferrando's precision, and Beaucastel's Mourvèdre-heavy 2023.
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