Staff Tastings

Pop, fizz, clink! 2008 may not have been a great year for the financial sector, but when it comes to Champagne, 2008 was firing on all cylinders! All eyes are on 2008 Champagne as it has become the most sought-after vintage since the epic 1996 vintage, and the demand has been off the charts! The buzz in the industry about the this vintage is to buy as much as you can find. The overall popularity of top vintage Champagne is growing, and the 2008s are ones you don’t want to miss. We’ve seen ’08 releases from top Champagne houses like Billecart Salmon, Dom Perignon, Bollinger,

Summer is now behind us, and fall is in full swing, which means shorter days, cool temperatures, crisp breezes and falling leaves are the norm. It’s the season for football, pumpkin spice everything and the time of year when we wine lovers move to more seasonally appropriate wines. We’re sharing a few seasonal staples that we’ll be sipping on during the transition from warm weather to cool days.

Roussanne
Fall isn’t just for red wines. We love enjoying a full-boded white wine, such as Roussanne, as the temperatures cool. You’ll find this varietal most often in the Rhone region, but you can also find it in California. We recommend 2016 Alban Vineyards Roussanne from California, which has been called “one of the standout expressions of Roussanne in California…” (Jeb Dunnuck). This bottle will cost you less than $50 and leave you smiling on a cool autumn day. 93 points.

Brunello di Montalcino is one of Italy’s most well-known red wines and is also one of the best values you can find in the world of wine. If you’re looking for a wine that will over-deliver for the price, Brunello is your answer! It comes from central Italy in the vineyards surrounding the town of Montalcino. While wines have been produced in Italy for a few thousand years, Brunello is a relatively modern wine in comparison.

Brunellos are 100% Sangiovese and must be aged for five years prior to release. Full-bodied, Brunellos are long-lived, packed with red fruit and the right balance of acidity and smooth tannins.

All bottles we’re featuring below come from superstar winemakers, have high scores from great vintages and are priced under $50. It's hard to find this level of price to points ratio in any other region! These wines drink great today and will cruise for the next 10 years. Take advantage of the low prices now!

2012 La Ra

Fire up the grill! There’s just a couple weeks of summer left, so get outside and enjoy the last days for backyard cookouts and burgers. We're sharing five terrific wines to serve with your favorite burger just like the way you like it! Starting at only $27.95, these wines will provide a fantastic pairing experience whether you’re serving up a classic or are trying something new and different.

2015 Stonestreet Cabernet Sauvignon – this wine is a hidden Cali gem that we love! Grown in the Alexander Valley, the 2015 Stonestreet Cabernet Estate has a score of 92 points and is priced at only $27.95. It’s such a deal when it comes to California Cabernet. This estate was established in 1995 by Jess Stonestreet Jackson and Barbara Banke, and his son and daughter-in-law now run the estate.

Many of you are already familiar with Waterstone Cabernet Sauvignon. Over the past decade, Waterstone Winery has built a reputation for its top quality Napa Valley Cabernets. Part of what makes Waterstone so special is that its wines taste like Cali-Cult wines without the Cali-Cult prices, impressing wine aficionados as well as those just discovering the world of wine.  

We were first introduced to this winery several years ago, and 2001 was the first vintage we sold. Waterstone has been a best-selling wine at Sokolin, year after year.

The 2015 vintage ($33.95 / btl) is now in stock, and they hit it out of the park with this vintage, which was an outstanding one for Napa Valley. The same remains true in this vintage as in previous vintages of Waterstone - this wine tastes like it costs 3-4x the price!

2015 Waterstone Cabernet Sauvignon is Bordeaux-like on the nose with

Wine lovers seem to love to Rosé All Day, especially millennials, and Rosé has taken the wine world by storm. It’s now said to be the fastest growing wine category in America. Its popularity has resulted in phrases like “Rosé All Day” and “Yes Way, Rosé.” There are nearly 3 million pictures on Instagram tagged #rosé. The right marketing and branding, coupled with attractive packaging and influencer associations came together to further propel an already hugely popular wine into a stratospheric level. Another influence in its rise came from celebrities joining the movement and producing their own Rosés, including Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie and Bon Jovi.

Beyond that though, there’s a big reason that it’s so popular, and that’s because it’s delicious and so versatile! Rosés can be enjoyed with a variety of food, making it a perfect choice to pour during summer days. It’s great

As you know, red Burgundy is skyrocketing in price, but more recently, the top white Burgundy producers have taken note and are starting to raise prices just because their red counterparts are. Nowhere is this more evident than in Corton Charlemagne where just a few years ago, most bottles were priced around $80-125. Now, many wines start at $140 and go to thousands for the top ones like Coche Dury.

I see this trend continuing and wouldn't be surprised if many of the wines you’ve known and loved are $400 bottles in the next few years. Are they worth it? I'll let the market figure that out, but I want to share with you a Corton Charlemagne producer who hasn’t raised prices, yet the quality keeps ticking up. That producer is Louis Latour, consistently one of our top-selling producers of Corton Charlemagne, year after year. The Latour family has been producing wines for over 200 years. Louis Latour is my perpetual favorite because it stands tall to other

Robert Parker announced his retirement from The Wine Advocate last week, marking the end of a 40 year career. What does this mean for the fine wine business?

Today, it's easy to forget just how big Parker's contributions to both the wine consumer and the wine industry really were, but let's look back to 1978 when it all began. 

1) Parker created the 100 point rating system, which was revolutionary, and with it, increased global interest in wine.

2) Parker was the first critic to expand upon Emile Peynaud's "The Taste of Wine: The Art and Science of Wine Appreciation" in a way that gave depth, clarity and life to wine reviews in a way that increased overall interest and access to learning about wine for the general public.

3) He was the first to do a non-advertising based, unbiased subscription model that followed his Ralph Nader like zeal to out corruption and give

Our team recently traveled to Bordeaux for the 2018 En Primeur campaign and spent days tasting barrel samples at many top chateaux. They tasted over 100 wines on both the Left Bank and Right Bank and reported back with the following information:

Team 1:

2018 was an unusual vintage to say the least. The entire region experienced an unprecedented amount of rainfall through the spring months until mid-July. The rain caused headaches for many producers as they fought diligently to protect their vines from mildew. Several chateaux lost a significant portion of their crop to mildew causing overall production numbers to be historically low. It was a very odd feeling to walk through the barrel rooms of Pontet Canet and Palmer and see the cellars nearly empty.

But after the rains stopped in July, the region experienced very even temperatures and very little rain through the end of the summer, which allowed the remaining

Nothing goes better together than wine and cheese, but not every cheese pairs with every wine. Impress your friends at your next get together by doing the perfect cheese and wine spread.

Pairing Tips:

Always taste the wine before you taste the cheese. Cheese has a much bigger impact on the flavors and aromas in wine than the other way around.

You want to make sure the texture of the cheese and the wine are compatible. If the cheese is heavy, it is less likely to go with a light wine since the wine will get overpowered by the strong cheese.

Hard cheeses, like cheddar, go best with oaky wines.

Note on soft cheeses, like Brie, the rind can affect the taste of the wine. Try tasting with and without the rind to see if you enjoy one more than the other.

Avoid salty cheeses all together as it can clash too harshly with the wine.

In order to get the full flavors from cheese and white wines, the cheese should be served at room temperature