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2 months ago | 
newwinereview.com | Jason Jacobeit |Clara Dalzell |Susannah Skiver Barton
Over lunch some years back, my late friend and Evening Land Vineyards founder Mark Tarlov traced wine’s enduring appeal to its being “adjacent to everything everyone wants to do with their lives.” This thought has compassed my understanding of wine’s resonances ever since. No other human pursuit of which I am aware credibly claims such precise and varied points of access to something much larger than mere pleasure—something that might be called human fulfillment.
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Jan 16, 2025 | 
newwinereview.com | Jason Wilson |Susannah Skiver Barton |Alissa Bica |Clara Dalzell
When it comes to famed natural wine regions, most people will rattle off places like the Loire Valley or Beaujolais in France, Burgenland in Austria, Australia’s Adelaide Hills, or perhaps Catalonia in Spain. For whatever reason, Italy comes up much less in natural wine chatter. Part of that is because Italians were somewhat slower to embrace the natural wine movement—well behind the French, in particular. That is not to say that Italy doesn’t have famous natural wine superstars.
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Jan 14, 2025 | 
newwinereview.com | Alissa Bica |Susannah Skiver Barton |Clara Dalzell
Winemakers who make unexpected choices have always intrigued me, so it’s great to see a smattering of wines made from Italian, French, Spanish, and Portuguese varieties emerging across California. These wines, produced in very small quantities at micro-wineries, aren’t handled with loads of oak or overly-ripe fruit; they have distinct personalities with lively energy and lower alcohol.
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Dec 7, 2024 | 
newwinereview.com | Sheila Marikar |Clara Dalzell |Jason Wilson
Here’s what’s happening on the wine internet this week:🎥 Hollywood somms on holiday drinking and gifting. 🧐 The world’s best Cognacs. 👏 96% of all vineyard land in Beaujolais is dedicated to Gamay. Here are 13 of the most interesting bottles (made by women!) that come from all those grapes. 2️⃣ “Aligoté is forever consigned to being Burgundy’s ’second’ white grape.” That’s led to a new generation of winemakers who are now working with it in fascinating and adventurous ways.
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Dec 5, 2024 | 
newwinereview.com | Sheila Marikar |Clara Dalzell |Jason Wilson |Susannah Skiver Barton
You could call Sonoma Napa’s best kept secret. Separated from its more famous sister by the Mayacamas mountain range, the Sonoma Valley offers world-class hotels, restaurants, and wine—the main reason you’re here, presumably—without the pomp and circumstance that reigns in certain parts of the more rarified valley to the east. Sonoma’s less crowded. Sonoma is often cheaper. Sonoma is home to a Snoopy-bedecked airport so charming and convenient, it ought to win an award.
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Dec 4, 2024 | 
newwinereview.com | Clara Dalzell |Jason Wilson |Susannah Skiver Barton
No other region can claim such a high concentration of a single grape variety than Beaujolais. Gamay Noir takes up 96 percent of the vineyard land. (Chardonnay makes up the rest.) Within that homogeny, though, is a world of variation, in both quality and flavor profiles. Thousands of little decisions make up the infinite differences. Beaujolais is the Skittles of wine: in it, it’s possible to find every flavor of the rainbow.
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Dec 3, 2024 | 
newwinereview.com | Jason Wilson |Susannah Skiver Barton |Clara Dalzell
When people talk about brandy, a famous line from Samuel Johnson is often quoted: “Claret is the liquor for boys; port for men; but he who aspires to be a hero must drink brandy.” Well, by Dr. Johnson’s definition, America is sorely lacking in heroism. With brandy, the concept of blending is the most difficult for Americans to wrap their minds around. In the world of craft spirits—particularly whiskey—the master distiller is the protagonist, the hero of the story.
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Dec 3, 2024 | 
newwinereview.com | Susannah Skiver Barton |Clara Dalzell |Alexandra McInnis
The frenzy of holiday whiskey purchasing reaches a fever pitch this month, as people buy bottles for parties and presents and—let’s be real here— themselves. If you’re looking for gift recommendations, let us direct you here for whiskey, and here for wine. But if you’re focused on trying something new, keep reading.
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Nov 27, 2024 | 
newwinereview.com | Clara Dalzell |Alexandra McInnis |Patrick Comiskey
Even if you’re a wine nerd, holiday wine gifts can prove surprisingly daunting. It’s weirdly pressurized: you want to give people something extraordinary, something that delights them, broadens their understanding of wine and, of course, reflects well on you. But the thing with gifts is that you don’t often know the palate of who you’re buying for. You don’t know the wines that some of your friends drink. Or you just want something fancy to impress your boss.
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Nov 25, 2024 | 
newwinereview.com | Patrick Comiskey |Sheila Marikar |Clara Dalzell |Jason Wilson
Critics are paid for pronouncements, so here we go: the 2023 vintage in the Napa Valley looks like one of the finest in decades. The wines are not yet released. Many are not even out of barrel. But already the vintage is garnering praise verging on hyperbole.
