Wine & Spirits - April 2013 - (Page 79)

APRIL 2013 TASTINGS Dining Advice If there’s one thing sommeliers wish diners were drinking more of, it’s Loire wines. “It’s such a dynamic region,” Amy Goldberger at SF’s Fifth Floor said when we interviewed her for our Annual Restaurant Poll. “You can really get everything you want, from cool mineral and acid-driven whites to sparkling wines to deep reds. I’ve fallen in love with so many styles of wine from that region—even weird, ageable Muscadets and dessert wines from Vouvray.” If you want to drink more Loire, your six-page shopping list starts on page 106. Of course, there are plenty of other sommelier favorites in this issue, like Austrian grüner veltliner and white Burgundy. And there are wines we wish would turn up on more wine lists—like Quinta de Pellada’s Reserve from Portugal’s Dão (p. 127), a white so compelling we grabbed the open bottle out of the tasting kitchen on our way to dinner at Amáli in NYC. Normally, however, we don’t bring wines to restaurants; it’s more fun, we think, to pour over someone else’s list, looking for something new. We hope you have the same feeling of discovery as you flip through these pages, checking in on new releases from classic names like Biondi-Santi, Hirsch, Fèvre and Drouhin, and discovering new ones—names such as Di Filippo in Umbria’s Montefalco or Shai Cellars in Santa Ynez. As always, we selected these wines with the help of leading sommeliers and retail buyers, including Rebecca Banks of Balthazar, Patrick Cappiello of The New York Palace Hotel, Jill Roberts of The Marrow and Jeff Taylor from Eleven Madison Park, all of whom tasted with us in NYC. In San Francisco, Chris Baggetta of Quince, Ian Becker of Arlequin Wine Merchant, Gianpaolo Paterlini of Acquerello and John Vuong of Ame were a few of the tasters who joined us to vet the US wines. For details on our blind-tasting process, turn to page 92, and for access to our online database of all wines tasted and all wines reviewed, visit wineandspiritsmagazine.com. YEAR’S BEST 80 US Pinot Noir tasted 93 top wines 128 best buys 47 242 top wines 56 best buys 38 top wines 26 best buys 21 221 top wines 52 best buys 11 282 top wines 52 best buys 41 top wines 52 best buys 29 Austria tasted 99 830 Portuguese Reds tasted 174 102 White Burgundy tasted 106 Loire tasted 112 Tuscan Reds tasted 425 New Releases 118 US New Releases tasted 304 top wines 35 best buys 29 123 International New Releases tasted 268 top wines 45 best buys 24 2,746 top wines 446 best buys 240 Total tasted WINE & SPIRITS APRIL 2013 79 http://www.wineandspiritsmagazine.com

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Wine & Spirits - April 2013

Wine & Spirits - April 2013
Editor’s Note
Happenings
Contents
Fined & Filtered The Digital List
Cognac: The New Wave
The Funky Bits: Alice Feiring on terroir expression in Comté
Pouilly-Fuissé Premier Cru
Pinot Noir’s Nerve Center
Where Tuscany Meets Liguria
Insider Chianti
Where to Eat & Drink in New York
24th Annual Restaurant Poll
Introduction
US Pinot Noir
Austria
Portugul Reds
White Burgundy
Loire
Tuscan Reds
US New Releases
Imported New Releases
Extreme Values

Wine & Spirits - April 2013