Robert Taylor

2 months ago | winespectator.com | Robert Taylor

The season 3 premiere episode of Wine Spectator's Straight Talk podcast debuts with Occidental winemaker Catherine Kistler, who grew up with an in-house wine legend: California Chardonnay icon and also her dad, Steve. But Catherine came home to make Pinot Noir in 2017, and the father-daughter team landed at No. 2 on Wine Spectator's 2023 Top 10 Wines of the Year. "In California we're always self-conscious of being young compared to the Old World," she tells host James Molesworth.

Dec 30, 2024 | winespectator.com | Robert Taylor

2025 is only moments away, but before we flip the calendar, Wine Spectator's editors would like to remember the wine industry pioneers, innovators and history makers we lost this year. In 2024, we said goodbye to longtime California wine industry leaders Warren Winiarski, Jan Shrem and Eleanor Coppola, as well as architect Howard Backen, who helped define the very look of Napa Valley.

Oct 21, 2024 | winespectator.com | Robert Taylor

Clos Apalta is part of the Chilean wine empire founded in 1994 by Cyril de Bournet and Alexandra Marnier-Lapostolle, of the French family that created the Cognac-based Grand Marnier orange liqueur in the 19th century. For more than a decade now, their son Charles de Bournet has overseen Viña Lapostolle operations, including the flagship Clos Apalta estate and its century-old Cabernet Sauvignon and Carmenère vines. “2024 marks 30 years of adventure in Chile [for the family].

Oct 8, 2024 | winespectator.com | Robert Taylor |MaryAnn Worobiec

Comedian and actor Cedric the Entertainer didn’t grow up around wine. But he did grow up around books—lots of them—thanks to his mother, Rosetta Boyce Kyles, a longtime educator and well-regarded literacy specialist in St. Louis. But Kyles, who passed in 2015, did always enjoy a glass of red wine at the end of a long day, to “toast a glass with a touch of class,” as Cedric says she loved to say.

Oct 1, 2024 | winespectator.com | Robert Taylor

Harvest 2024 is in full swing in California wine country. It's the busiest time of year, and Napa Cabernet superstar Thomas Rivers Brown took a break to tell Wine Spectator's Straight Talk podcast host James Molesworth about the realities—and rigors—of harvest season. Brown also shares his “Ziploc baggy mini-maceration method” for determining when a vineyard parcel is ready to be picked.