Tabla de contenidos para October 31, 2023 en Wine Spectator

Visit WineSpectator.com/103123 to find links to all of the following resources. FREE RESOURCES FOR ALL WINESPECTATOR.COM READERS WINE SPECTATOR’S VIDEO CONTEST Our readers have shared their wine stories in Wine Spectator’s 17th annual short film contest. Now it’s time for you to pick the winner, who will get a pair of passes to our spectacular Wine Experience weekend in New York. Voting on the finalists will be open from Sept. 18 to midnight, Sept. 24, and this year’s winner will be revealed Sept. 27. Watch the finalists at WineSpectator.com/videovoting and pick your favorite! FOLLOW WINE SPECTATOR ON THREADS Join the conversation to discover new wines, get etiquette advice, share tips and more. Download the app and follow us @Wine_Spectator. WHAT AM I TASTING? Test your tasting skills in our mystery wine game. Every…

Leaders in European wine continue to see potential in Oregon’s Willamette Valley. On July 24, executives of Italy’s Marchesi Frescobaldi announced that the company signed an agreement to purchase Oregon’s Domaine Roy & Fils. The price was not disclosed. The Dundee Hills estate, which includes almost 40 acres of vineyards planted to Pinot Noir and Chardonnay, is Marchesi Frescobaldi’s first U.S. winery. “We want to send a message to the largest wine market, the United States, that we don’t just want to sell wines there but also produce them there,” said Marchesi Frescobaldi president Lamberto Frescobaldi. “We had the opportunity and I said to myself, ‘Life is moving too fast, so let’s do it.’” Domaine Roy & Fils was founded in 2012 by Marc-André Roy and Jared Etzel; their fathers…

Alexandre de Lur Saluces, who spent 36 years managing Château d’Yquem and was a global ambassador for the iconic Sauternes estate, died July 24. He was 89. During his decades at the helm of Yquem, he guarded the property with a passionate commitment to maintaining the highest level of quality. De Lur Saluces’ legacy was built over 55 years, first and foremost at Château d’Yquem, but also at his family’s Château de Fargues in Sauternes. His family roots in Sauternes stretch back half a millennium, to the late 1400s. His uncle, Marquis Bertrand de Lur Saluces, who is credited with helping establish the Sauternes appellation, bought Château d’Yquem after World War I. In 1966, Bertrand designated Alexandre to help him manage Château d’Yquem. Alexandre officially took over the winery upon…

There are as many opinions about what makes a winery beautiful as there are wineries. But whether your personal taste favors the traditional or avant-garde, the quaint or magnificent, we can all agree that wineries rank among some of the most striking and iconic structures ever built. In reality, a winery can function perfectly fine while looking like nothing more than a warehouse or an oil refinery—and some do. But in these pages we highlight a few wineries that capture the imagination. More than just places to crush and ferment grapes, they are tributes to generations of vintners, celebrations of the earth, destinations for hospitality, and monuments to the wonder of wine. Winemaking likely originated earlier than 6,000 BC, in the Caucasus. At the site of the oldest known winery,…

Maison Pommery conjures fairy tales, its blue-grey facade punctuated by red bricks and topped by lace cutout crenellations and spiring turrets and towers. But the dungeon of this castle is 11 miles of chalk caves, or crayères—used for aging the house’s Champagne—located 100 feet below the surface and only accessed from the maison’s interior by a grand, 116-step staircase. Louise Pommery purchased the 120-acre estate in Reims in 1868, first transforming the underground Gallo-Roman chalk quarries into aging caves before building the elaborate winery facility above. Patroning the arts, the property incorporates diverse art on the grounds as well as in the winery and caves, including bas-relief sculptures by Gustave Navlet, an immense, decorated wine barrel by master woodworker Emile Gallé and an annual contemporary art exhibition housed in the…

Horace Chase was living large when he commissioned stonemason Mathias Vandeleur to construct a 10,000-square-foot English Renaissance-style estate home in 1890, complete with turret. It was the perfect venue for hosting lavish parties for the San Francisco society scene, who delighted in rumors of ghosts and mummies within the castle’s walls. Even the government wanted in, setting up a U.S. Post Office in the manor’s basement (which was also home to a swanky billiard saloon). But by the late 1950s, Stags’ Leap Manor was in disrepair. Carl Doumani bought the property in 1970 and embarked on a nine-year restoration project, returning the Manor House to its original grandeur, including its classic representations of 1890s Arts & Craft movement carpentry and stained glass. LOCATION NAPA, CALIFORNIA MANOR HOUSE CONSTRUCTED 1890 DETAILS ▸ WINERY…

Jutting from its steep Colchagua Valley hillside, Clos Apalta’s façade appears ominously primed to defend itself with its towering beams of native red-toned Chilean raulí wood. Those 24 slats, resembling barrel staves reaching skyward, represent the number of months required to make Clos Apalta’s signature cuvée. The estate vineyards and valley below can be viewed from within the timber bird’s nest, either through tall windows or atop the winery’s living roof. The wholly gravity-fed winery comprises seven underground floors descending more than 100 feet into the granite below. LOCATION COLCHAGUA VALLEY, CHILE YEAR 2005 DETAILS ▸ WINERY FOUNDED: 1994 ▸ ARCHITECT: Roberto Benavente Riquelme ▸ WINERY OWNER: Charles de Bournet Marnier Lapostolle ▸ WEBSITE: www.closapalta.com ▸ VISITING: Tours, Tastings, Dining and Lodging TOP RECENT RELEASE Clos Apalta Apalta 2019 | 95 | $160…

THE panoply of new releases from Tuscany strikes a deep vein of quality, with a trio of potentially stellar vintages on offer. Marked by periods of both dryness and rain, the generally warmer 2021, 2020 and 2019 harvests give fans of Tuscan wines plenty of opportunities for exploration, whether you’re looking for designated areas such as Chianti Classico, Montepulciano and Bolgheri or seeking out the region’s many super Tuscans. The 2021 and 2019 vintages were more regular in terms of their growing conditions, meaning cold winters, warm summers, welltimed rain and a significant contrast between daytime and nighttime temperatures leading up to harvest. The 2020 vintage was more of an outlier, with its spring frost and earlier harvest, resulting in bottlings that Castello di Ama co-owner and winemaker Marco Pallanti…

BY THE NUMBERS The Oct. 31 Buying Guide features 37 classic wines and more than 450 outstanding wines from among reviews of nearly 550 new releases. Members can access tasting notes and scores for those wines, along with hundreds of additional wines reviewed since our last issue, using the Wine Ratings search at WineSpectator.com.…

For decades, studies have linked light and moderate drinking to improved cardiovascular health. Modest amounts of alcohol have been found to increase HDL cholesterol (the “good” kind) and inhibit the formation of blood clots that can cause heart attack and stroke. But a recent study published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology suggests we’ve been missing a crucial piece of the scientific puzzle: Maybe it’s all in our minds. Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital have found that drinking lowers stress signaling in the brain—particularly in the amygdala—which is a key driver of cardiovascular problems. The study found that light or moderate drinking was associated with a 21.4% reduced risk of major adverse cardiovascular events when compared with no or minimal drinking. Although previous research has described how…

Presiding atop a hill, Castello Banfi is an iconic sight in southern Montalcino. It’s also a blend of Tuscan history and American marketing. Originally known as Castello di Poggio alle Mura, it was a fortress on the border of Siena and Florence. Parts of the stone keep date to the 9th century, with major additions made in the 12th and 15th centuries, when the courtyard and surrounding arches were added. A hamlet of stone buildings was constructed in the 17th century. New York’s Mariani family acquired the castle and nearly 7,000 acres in the 1970s, and today the hamlet is a luxury hotel with two restaurants. The castle hosts tastings and a jazz festival and includes a glass museum. LOCATION TUSCANY, ITALY POGGIO ALLE MURA CASTLE 9TH CENTUR DETAILS ▸ WINERY FOUNDED:…

Napa’s Opus One turned heads with the opening of its 70,000-square-foot winery in 1990. The low-slung, modernist-meets-neoclassical, gravity-flow winery evokes a Parisian toll house upon approach, with a courtyard shaded by Italian olive trees. The famed partnership between Robert Mondavi and Bordeaux’s Baron Philippe de Rothschild turned to architect Scott Johnson for its statement winery; he employed Texas limestone cladding, weathered California redwood and Italian olive trees in achieving Opus One’s distinct aesthetic. Johnson returned for the recent hospitality center renovation, featuring Solnhofen limestone floors, rough-sawn exposed hemlock beams, floor-to-ceiling windows and private tasting salons. LOCATION NAPA, CALIFORNIA NEW WINERY COMPLETED 1991 DETAILS ▸ WINERY FOUNDED: 1978 ▸ ARCHITECT: Scott Johnson of Johnson Fain ▸ WINERY OWNER: Constellation Brands and Baron Philippe de Rothschild S.A. ▸ WEBSITE: opusonewinery.com ▸ VISITING: Tours and tastings…

Marqués de Riscal’s City of Wine is a dramatic visual blend of the past and present in Rioja. The muted local sandstone construction of the original 1860 bodega is juxtaposed by architect Frank Gehry’s towering, curving creation, which enrobes Marqués de Riscal’s 34,000-square-foot luxury hotel, restaurants from chef Francis Paniego, and a Caudalie Vinothérapie spa. Riscal’s iridescent, undulating titanium- and steel-paneled cascading roof evokes the flowing skirts of a Spanish flamenco dancer, and the views from within are equally inspiring. Riscal owner José Luis Muguiro invested roughly $10 million in the project in 2006, and it now draws tens of thousands of visitors each year from around the world. LOCATION RIOJA, SPAIN CITY OF WINE 2006 DETAILS ▸ WINERY FOUNDED: 1858 ▸ ARCHITECT: Frank Gehry ▸ WINERY OWNER: José Luís Muguiro Jr.…

“AS an industry, we are getting older, more wise and generally better at what we do,” says Cloudy Bay technical director Jim White, speaking for a range of wineries across New Zealand. Although the country has seen its share of challenges in recent years, New Zealand remains a top source for both quality and consistency—no doubt a result of the experience and wisdom that has caught White’s attention. New Zealand is a fascinating wine region. In just a few decades, this small island nation at the bottom of the world has become one of the most important suppliers of wines to the United States, while also changing the global conversation about Sauvignon Blanc. That doesn’t mean, though, that this growth has come without any setbacks. Recent vintages are a case…

The battle over whether American consumers should be able to order wine from merchants from outside their home states is reving up, as multiple cases go before federal judges. Advocates for fewer restrictions on shipping hope the U.S. Supreme Court will agree to hear a challenge to such bans, while opponents are lobbying state governments to further restrict shipping and crack down on those who violate existing laws. In Ohio, the U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals has reversed an earlier decision from a District Court and is remanding the case back to that lower court for further deliberation. In July 2020, Ohioan wine consumer Kenneth Miller and Chicago-based alcohol retailer House of Glunz brought the case against Ohio officials. Under current law, Ohio allows in-state wine retailers to ship…

In June, Constellation Brands announced it had acquired luxury Napa Valley wine brand Domaine Curry for an undisclosed price. The boutique brand will join The Prisoner Wine Company’s house of labels, part of Constellation’s luxury-focused Aspira portfolio. Domaine Curry does not own any vineyards or a physical winery, but it’s a brand with an impressive record of attracting younger, more diverse consumers to luxury wine. Curry was founded by actress and cookbook author Ayesha Curry, wife of NBA star Stephen Curry, and her sister-in-law Sydel Curry-Lee, a mental health advocate and the wife of Phoenix Suns guard Damion Lee. They have been making 5,000 cases per year in partnership with Coup de Foudre Napa Valley. “Our ambition is to think differently about who is a luxury wine consumer,” Bukky Ekundayo,…

Perhaps no estate symbolizes Bordeaux’s grandeur more so than Château Margaux. A tree-lined driveway leads to a massive wrought-iron gate and a gorgeous neo-Palladian château. The house was the vision of Margaux’s owner in the early 1800s, Bertrand Douat, Marquis de la Colonilla, who commissioned local architect Louis Combes to build a new château with two-story columns, inspired by the Parthenon, and a “village” surrounding it, complete with a cooperage and cellars. Current owner Corinne Mentzelopoulos added to the architectural pedigree in 2015, commissioning architect Norman Foster to build a state-of-the-art chai. The red-tiled roof and overall shape match the existing cellars, but the glass walls allow visitors to see a modern, lightfilled space lined with steel vats. LOCATION BORDEAUX, FRANCE CHÂTEAU MARGAUX COMPLETED 1812 DETAILS ▸ ESTATE FOUNDED: 16th century ▸…

Built to rival the beauty of the great châteaus of Europe, Inglenook is a proud Napa Valley standard-bearer. Finnish fur trader Gustave Niebaum bought the property in 1879 and dreamed big, hiring architect William Mooser and engineer Hamden McIntyre to build a state-ofthe-art, 39,000-square-foot stone winery. Among its innovations were a gravity-flow production design, grape-sorting tables, Napa’s first bottling line and an early form of rebar taken from San Francisco cable-car lines. Famed film director Francis Ford Coppola bought part of the original property in 1975, reuniting it with the château in 1995, which Coppola fully restored, along with the addition of a courtyard fountain. A 23,000-squarefoot subterranean winemaking facility was completed in 2022. LOCATION NAPA, CALIFORNIA CHÂTEAU COMPLETED 1887 DETAILS ▸ WINERY FOUNDED: 1879 ▸ ARCHITECT: William Mooser ▸ ENGINEER: Hamden…

Nicolás Catena wanted a winery befitting Mendoza’s mountainous desert, and he traveled the world in search of architectural inspiration. A visit to Tikal, Guatemala, gave him the answer: a Mayan-style pyramid. The Yucatán is far removed from Mendoza, but Catena felt a spiritual connection to its people, citing similar goals of excellence in science, art and culture. The winery was constructed using native Andean materials wherever possible, including travertine marble and poplar. At the pyramid’s center, a staircase rises into a glass cupola and terrace offering 360 degree views of the vineyards and the Andes. LOCATION MENDOZA, ARGENTINA YEAR 2001 DETAILS ▸ WINERY FOUNDED: 1902 ▸ ARCHITECT: Pablo Sánchez Elía ▸ WINERY OWNER: Nicolás Catena ▸ WEBSITE: catenazapata.com ▸ VISITING: Tours, tastings and dining TOP RECENT RELEASE Bodega Catena Zapata Malbec Mendoza Adrianna…

Founder Jean-Jacques Ducasse began acquiring what is now Bordeaux’s Château Cheval-Blanc in 1832, intent on building a grand estate, and his single-spired Renaissance Revival château remains a shining example of its era. But in 2011, Château Cheval-Blanc, with architect Christian de Portzamparc strode confidently into the future with the much-anticipated opening of the “Cellar Under the Hill.” The estate’s $18.5 million, 65,000-square-foot state-of-the-art winemaking facility is a minimalist ultra-modern chai with massive, windowless curvilinear concrete walls that appear from some angles to balance on the narrowest of planes. Its interior, however, is bathed in natural light thanks to ample skylights on the green living rooftop, which itself serves as a belvedere to the original château. LOCATION BORDEAUX, FRANCE CELLAR UNDER THE HILL BUILT 2011 DETAILS ▸ WINERY FOUNDED: 1832 ▸ CHÂTEAU…

As the world of wine continues to expand, it is increasingly rare for a single name to be virtually synonymous with a region. Mastroberardino in southern Italy’s Campania region is one of these singularities, a leader for the area and a go- to name for wine lovers seeking examples of Campania’s signature red wine from the Taurasi appellation. “We’re trying to tell a story of one century in our region,” says Piero Mastroberardino, who helms the family winery today, as we prepared to sample 20 bottlings of Mastroberardino Taurasi in a non-blind tasting conducted at New York’s Ai Fiori restaurant this past winter. “I’ve never put so many vintages from the period before the war together in one vertical,” adds Mastroberardino of the tasting, which encompassed vintages from 1928 through…