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Editor's Note
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Fined & Filtered:
Take a sommelier's
holiday in San Francisco and Chicago
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Year's Best Chardonnay
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Critic's Picks:
Best Values
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Books: Gerald Asher
on The House of Mondavi
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Peter Liem on Santorini
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Short Finish
Vin de Prey by David Darlington
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| Tastings |
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New Flash from the Old World Overview by Phillipe Newlin
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American Chardonnay tasted 215, reviewed 44
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Bordeaux 2004
tasted 205, reviewed 87
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Tuscan Reds
tasted 170, reviewed 60
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Castilla y León
tasted 165, reviewed 71
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American New Releases tasted 425, reviewed 93
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Imported New Releases tasted 454, reviewed 141
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 • The Best New Sommeliers
Move over top chef: Today's sommeliers are no longer just the go-to person for choosing the right wine with a meal.
They're now firmly at the center of any fine-dining experience. They're also highly visible stars in a field that's increasingly competitive. W&S
tallied the votes of more than 230 wine professionals from America's top restaurants to find this year's Best New Sommeliers. These five young,
up-and-coming sommeliers perform with the expertise, dedication and passion of professionals at the top of their game. We're proud to
present America's next sommelier superstars.
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 • Fresh Pacific Chardonnay
When David and Marie Hirsch arrived at Prune,
on East First Street in New York, the restaurant was nearly empty. The East Villagers who pack the place at night hadn't yet heard that it was open for lunch. The basement delivery door was open wide,
blocking the entrance, so the couple rapped on one of the floor-to-ceiling café windows, and the chef let them in. They were seated at a table in the front when they spotted me pacing the sidewalk. Marie opened the window at their table and
offered a hand as I climbed up.
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 • Bordeaux: The New Collectibles
If you have been dismayed to see the prices of top Bordeaux châteaux spiraling out of your budget with the 2005 vintage, it may
be time to look farther afield and find other Bordeaux wines to collect. There are still undervalued properties producing pedigree wines that will hold their
value and quality for decades.
This buying opportunity has been created by the increasing polarization of the top Bordeaux estates. Today, there are a handful of blue-chip wines that are
fashionable to collect. No new player in the Bordeaux game would dream of putting a cellar together that did not include the first growths and coveted right-bank
estates—and it is chiefly because of the large number of new players that prices have risen so much in the last few years. These blue-chip wines are being
produced in ever smaller quantities (most of the first growths use less than half their total production in their “grand vin” or flagship wine) and when
demand outstrips supply, prices escalate.
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 • Pinot Noir for Bullfighters
After hundreds of miles of plateau where summers bake the earth, Castilla y León ends in Bierzo,
at the foothills of the Sierra Cantabria. Galicia and the Atlantic Ocean lie beyond. The wines of Bierzo reflect this transition
in mencía, a grape variety that spreads west into Green Spain.
The road to Santiago de Compostela runs through Bierzo, a route that Christian pilgrims have walked for centuries.
Locals believe those pilgrims brought mencía from northern Europe, though its exact origin remains unknown. At the
beginning of 2000, in the early days of mencía's renaissance, growers thought it was related to cabernet franc, but DNA
studies have since ruled that out. Whatever it may be, it settled here long ago. It's not unusual to find plots of mencía
vines more than 100 years old, and growers say it's always been the dominant red variety around olla berziana (“the pot” ),
as the locals call the area.
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 • Canada's Golden Mile
Climate change is shifting the world's viticultural map. In Europe and North America, the frontiers of vine growing are
moving ever northward. Beyond the developments in Washington's Columbia Valley, there's a red-wine revolution underway across the border in western
Canada's Okanagan Valley.
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