Today's Newsletter takes us back to Burgundy with K&L buyer Alex Pross. We kick things off with a survey of Alex's personal favorite value buys that may have gone under most radars, until now. While Burgundy may seem like a price-prohibitive hunting ground for many wine lovers, these selections disprove that perception by offering world-class winemaking craftsmanship and terroir expression for prices that invite any and all Burgundy fans to the table.
Read MoreToday's Newsletter takes us on a triumphant return to one of our all-time favorite regions, France's Rhône Valley. After three long years, K&L buyer Keith Mabry hit the wine road to check in on some of our longtime direct-import partners, and he was thrilled to find them producing some of their best wines ever. A hand-picked trio of overperforming stars leads things off, followed by showcase profiles of DI standouts Fondrèche, Clos de la Bonnette, and Guy Farge. Finally, a jaw-dropping line-up from the universally acclaimed 2019 Châteauneuf vintage highlights the incomparable collectible value that this treasured region offers. With breadth and depth that few other regions can match, the Rhône Valley truly offers something for any and all wine lovers.
Read MoreLast night, Clément Calleja of Champagne Billecart-Salmon kicked off our annual staff Champagne Summit with a big bang. He hosted a comprehensive tasting of their line paired with sushi from Kanpai at Cinnamon’s and my home in Menlo Park. The wines were unforgettable.
Read MoreAlexandre Le Brun is the smallest producer that we work with in Champagne. He has just seven acres and sells three-quarters of his production to Champagne Bollinger. He keeps the remaining quarter for himself, creating incredible wines of depth, concentration, and finesse in a 16th-century cellar underneath his ancestral home. Of this tiny production, he makes just one press load—and not every year—of his Révélation Blanc de Meunier. For those of you who tasted the 2009 or the 2012, the wine needs little introduction: it is flat out one of the best wines that we have in stock, regardless of price.
Read MoreThis Friday, Cinnamon and I enjoyed our traditional steak and claret dinner with a bottle of the 2000 Château Camensac Haut Médoc—on Clyde’s recommendation. As usual, his advice was golden, and the wine was magnificent with the food. For the first time, we had a Denver Steak from Five Mary’s Farms, a cut from under the front shoulder blade of the cow, which Cinnamon cooked on our charcoal hibachi. This flat cut cooks up like a skirt steak but is tender like a New York and very flavorful. It was a good night!
Read MoreThis June, I traveled back to Champagne to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Champagne Launois. It was an honor to be invited. The party was unforgettable, hosted by no less than four generations of the family at their beautiful château just outside of Mesnil. There we spent the afternoon tasting, eating, and drinking… a six hour Champenois lunch!
Read MoreUsually, when I arrive in Brouillet, we do an extensive vin clair tasting of the last year’s harvest together. Since there was no 2021 to taste, Paul announced that instead we would do a retrospective of better years… And what a lineup he poured! This tasting was a true career highlight for me—each wine was great, and fabulous proof of the longevity that the great terroir of Brouillet is capable of producing in its wines.
Read MoreLast week, we were honored to host the Union des Grands Crus tasting of the 2019 Bordeaux vintage at the Metreon in San Francisco. We have been hosting this event since 2005, when our co-owner and Bordeaux evangelist Clyde Beffa Jr helped lobby to have two tastings in California, with K&L covering SF and Wally’s covering LA. Last Wednesday, after a two-year pause for the pandemic—as well as a reschedule this year for same—Bordeaux producers and enthusiasts alike came together, finally, to revel in the 2019 vintage.
Read MoreAt the end of May, I was lucky enough to be hosted at Champagne Billecart-Salmon in Mareuil by none other than cellarmaster Florent Nys. We have known each other for many years, but I hadn’t had the chance to sit down with him since before the pandemic. He invited me into the new reception area at Billecart, and poured quite the tasting.
Read MoreToday’s Loire Valley Newsletter starts with a few personal favorites of our intrepid Loire Buyer Keith Mabry, followed by an introduction to one of the great unsung heroes of the Chenin Blanc varietal—Domaine de la Taille Aux Loups. Next we dig a little deeper into the Loire's most famous region, Sancerre, by highlighting three under-the-radar stunners that provide everything Sancerre fans love about the appellation. The Loire's red wines get their due praise as Keith takes us through Cabernet Franc stunners that offer world-class appeal for simply unbeatable prices, and we round out the journey with thrilling examples of what the Loire arguably does better than anywhere else—provide exceptional wine drinking experiences for a mere song.
Read MoreToday's Newsletter spans the length and breadth of the world's greatest wine region (and the foundation of K&L's business) with a stellar run of hand-picked favorites from our intrepid Bordeaux team, followed by recaps of the back-to-back outstanding 2019 and 2020 vintages.
Read MoreToday I traveled to the very far south of Champagne, in the Aube department to visit my friend Vivien Lamoureux at Champagne J.J. Lamoureux in the beautiful village of Les Riceys. This is the southern tip of Champagne and only three short miles from the departmental border with Burgundy. Here the soil is not the pure white chalk of the Marne area, but rather nearly the same Kimmeridgian clay as in Chablis. Notably, Pinot Noir is king in this area, as Chardonnay buds too early and is at high risk for frost on all but the steepest and most perfectly east-facing sites.
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