A Love Letter to the Loire

I have long been a fan of Loire wines, well before I became the buyer for the category at K&L. The crisp, mineral-driven Sauvignon Blancs of Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé were among the first wines I drank, even before I joined the wine industry. Back then, Pouilly-Fumé was the region to watch, driven by the cult producer Didier Dagueneau and the vibrant, smoky whites produced there. Sancerre was still a few years away from becoming the ubiquitous wine you now see on restaurant menus around the world.

Fresh Finds from Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa

This month, we'll take a tour of some of my favorite wine regions in the Southern Hemisphere, and there's much to be excited about. From the Chardonnays and Pinot Noirs of Australia and New Zealand to the iconic Marlborough Sauvignon Blancs that helped redefine the variety, there's something here for every kind of wine drinker.

Elegance Reimagined: Chardonnay and Pinot Noir from Australia and New Zealand

If you had to choose grape varieties to define New Zealand and Australia, they would surely be Sauvignon Blanc and Shiraz, respectively. And with good reason, since both countries have made an indelible mark upon on the wine world with those varieties. In recent years, however, Burgundy enthusiasts increasingly have been turning to the Southern Hemisphere to explore new styles of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. With such a wide range of climates and regions across the two countries, there is a style to suit every palate.

Domestic Wines to Know

February offers a fresh look at the depth and range of American wine, and this month’s domestic lineup at K&L shows just how compelling and approachable the category has become. From sharply priced, high-scoring Napa Valley Cabernet to small-production Oregon Pinot Noir and Chardonnay with a real sense of place, these bottles highlight the sweet spot where pedigree meets value. We’ve also taken on one of our favorite challenges: just how well can you drink for under $30? Very well, as it turns out. Alongside those everyday standouts, you’ll find a selection of luxurious 97–100-point whites and reds suited for collectors and special occasions alike. Whether you’re refilling the cellar, discovering new producers, or hunting for benchmark bottles without benchmark prices, this newsletter will guide the way. And don’t miss our upcoming in-store tastings and events, where many of these wines come to life in the glass.

How Well Can You Drink For Under $30?

As the Domestic Wine Buyer at K&L the part of my job that takes up the vast majority of my time and effort is making sure we have a best-in-class selection of wines that over-deliver on value for money. I taste hundreds of wines every week, travel to wine regions to seek out new talent, and work with dozens of suppliers to try and find you the very best deals in wine, and to do so without cutting corners on quality, and still focusing on small production, artisanal wines.

Holocene: Oregon Pinot Noir and Chardonnay for the Ages

The Holocene wines are some of the most exciting wines I’ve seen out of Oregon in the past few years. They’re very small production wines, typically only a few hundred cases of each bottling. The wines are made with precision and poise but without too much winemaking input. Native yeasts, minimal intervention, modest use of oak. The purity of all the wines is compelling, as is their vibrancy and transparent sense of place.

Champagne Pinot Noir Madness!

An entire third of the Champagne region is planted to Pinot Noir, yet 100% Pinot Noir Blanc de Noirs is a relative rarity—especially compared to Blanc de Bancs, even though Chardonnay represents less than a quarter of plantations in the region. Here are some of our favorites:

What's New in Burgundy

This week’s newsletter covers the full spectrum of what’s exciting right now, including a once-in-a-century Chablis collaboration celebrating La Chablisienne’s 100th anniversary and a deep look at the expressive, mineral-driven 2024 white Burgundy vintage. You’ll find standout values from Chablis and Pouilly-Fuissé, a focused selection of collectible benchmarks for the cellar, and details on our all-store White Burgundy tasting this Saturday, where we’ll preview the 2024 vintage side by side with a mature counterpoint. Whether you’re buying for tonight, the next decade, or tasting to learn, this edition is built to guide you through Burgundy’s most compelling releases right now.

Restocking the Cellar for the New Year

The end of the year is often when some of the best bottles get opened, and January is when the cellar shows the impact. This selection of old and rare wines and spirits is designed to restock cellars with bottles chosen for how they age, not just how they impress on release, including mature classics, proven benchmarks, and younger wines with decades ahead of them. You will find fully mature icons alongside bottles selected for long-term aging. For collectors looking beyond current inventory, our wine auctions and spirits auctions remain two of the strongest sources for rare, older bottles and singular releases that rarely reappear once they are gone.

December Newsletter: Our Exclusive Private Labels

Our new private label programs represent some of the most exciting, high-value bottles on our shelves. Sourced directly by our buyers and crafted in partnership with top producers based on relationships spanning decades, they deliver serious quality at incredible prices. This week, we’re spotlighting giftable Discovery Series wines, in-stock Anonymous selections, K&L Scotch exclusives, a new Rhône wine, a preview of our new Maison 76 project, and where to taste these wines in-store with Somm Services.

Anonymous Wine Co. Delivers Gifts with Intrigue and Incredible Value

With the huge amount of trust and recognition K&L has built over 50 years in the business, plus my own deep personal connections to great producers across California and beyond, I strongly believe that the sky is the limit for what we can achieve with this range of wines.

What I'm Excited About This Week: Absolutely Beautiful Burgundy

We just had another fantastic tasting from Alex Pross, and I really loved the heck out of it. It was all reds from Burgundy, which typically means all Pinot Noir, and this was no exception. I have written before about how much I enjoy tasting a lot of something all at once, and this lineup showcased to me the beauty of this format. We tasted 22 wines, and all of them were unique with their own personalities. Sure, they were all Pinot Noir, but like all truly elegant and luxurious things it's the nuance that makes all the difference. The regional similarities were ultimately trumped by each wine’s more individual qualities.

K&L Wine Merchants

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