This year’s K&L Holiday Gift Guide showcases the bottles our buyers are most excited to give (and to receive). Below you’ll find Champagne benchmarks, hand-selected Domestic gems, top-flight Tuscan classics, and versatile Loire Valley wines, plus upcoming in-store events and our Thanksgiving Pairing Guide. Consider this your roadmap to the most compelling gifts of the season.
Read MorePure class in a bottle, the Héritage is tête de cuvée quality that will go head-to-head with most anything double its price.
Read MoreIf you’re seeking the best of grower Champagne–inspired bubbles, look no further than the fascinating and truly excellent wines of BXT. I’ve written about these brilliant wines at length before, but here’s a quick recap. BXT (that stands for Bubbles by Tom) is a tiny project that comes to you from the aptly named “Crusher District” in the industrial part of south Napa. Proprietor Tom Sherwood has a day job in Napa making mostly big, powerful Napa Cabs. His wife Brittany is the longtime winemaker at Napa icon Heitz Cellars. So, in his spare time (ha ha), Tom decided to start a very small brand focused on extremely limited-production, entirely hand-made, traditional-method sparkling wines.
Read MoreOne of our great long-standing Direct Import partners is Famille Antech. Proprietor and sixth-generation winemaker Françoise Antech-Gazeau has been a dear friend for many years, and her son Baptiste joined the winery a few years ago. There have been some great initiatives at the winery over the last couple of years that are now coming to fruition.
Read MoreSchramsberg is a winery with a long and lofty reputation for top-quality sparkling wines, and I’m pleased to say that the wines more than live up to the legacy and hype! The history of the winery dates back to 1862 when Jacob Schram first bought the parcel of land on Diamond Mountain. In 1870 Schram enlisted the help of Chinese workers who had just completed the Transcontinental Railroad one year earlier to use their tunneling expertise to hand-dig Napa Valley’s first-ever wine caves. Now under the ownership of the Davies family since 1965, this winery is one of the stalwarts of the region. The wines are consistently delicious, and very well priced given the quality.
Read MoreOne of the great benefits of working at the best wine shop in the city is pairing gorgeous wines with their perfect partner! I want to thank our SF sales team for using their taste buds extraordinaire in creating an impressive and delectable lineup of holiday cheese and wine pairings for our 2nd Annual Big Cheese competition. Our team made their selections based on a process that considered each cheese's unique flavors and textures and how they complemented our wines.
Read MoreAs an Italian I know Christmas is more than a holiday; it's time to come together, share stories, and enjoy incredible food and wine. In Italy, we take our celebrations very seriously, and the heart of every event is always the dining table. From north to south, each region has its own unique traditions, but one thing is universal: wine is always the guest of honor. This year I've selected some of the best Italian wines to bring a little bit of my homeland to your holiday festivities. Let's make this Christmas a true Festa Italiana!
Read MoreWhen it comes to finding the perfect gift, a truly exceptional bottle is often the way to go. While we take great care every day to ensure that everything we bring in meets the highest standards, these are some of the wines I would go to first. Each one is sure to make a memorable impression and offer an experience that will be appreciated by any wine lover.
Read MoreRyan Moses is one of the quiet forces behind the scenes that makes the wheels turn at K&L… For this year’s Holiday Buying Guide, we got his insight into collectible holiday wine gifts, big and small.
Read MoreIf my memory serves me correctly, we are approaching our 20th year since initiating our very successful small-estate Champagne import program, care of Gary Westby! It was an immediate hit, and to this day it still surprises me how well the wines beautifully balance high quality and extreme value. As many of our long-time customers know, the nonvintage bottling from Champagne Ariston Aspasie was our first direct import for this program. Paul Vincent Aristan and his wife Caroline have been with us from the start.
Read MoreToday's Newsletter is the final installment of 2022, and we're ringing out the year with a bang. Our buyers have all pitched in to compile a wide-ranging selection of holiday winners for every palate, price tier, and festive occasion. Without further ado, we'd like to wish you Happy Holidays and all the best over the next few weeks and into the New Year.
Read MoreIn this week’s newsletter, Buyer Gary Westby brings you all of the fan-favorites: Franck Bonville’s exquisite Grand Cru Chardonnay from the Côtes de Blancs; the meticulously crafted, micro-produced wines from Alexandre Le Brun; the Grand Marque elegance of Billecart-Salmon; the party-in-a-bottle of Baron-Fuenté. These are producers we’ve stocked on our shelves for decades because they are hands down some of the best in the biz, and thanks to our long-term relationships, we’ve got the best prices you’ll find anywhere. We love Champagne season and can’t wait to share these wines with you!
Read More
