WINES

Polished to Perfection, From the Best Materials When Manager Andrew Elder poured us a glass of the rare Iwate Meijo Oshu No Ryu Junmai Daiginjo at Jônt, the MICHELIN two-star restaurant in Washington, DC, he told us we were in for a treat. There,...

A Favorite of MICHELIN-Starred Hotspots Two years ago, we spent more than 10 months in hot pursuit of the award-winning HEAVENSAKE Junmai Daiginjo Yamaguchi. When we finally offered it to our members, it became our single bestselling sake of all time. We’re now thrilled...

The Bottle That Will Change Your Mind About Sake When it comes to the Imayo Tsukasa Black sake—a crystalline expression of Japan’s finest terroir—superlatives are the only way to describe it. This is a gorgeous, modern sake that will change how you think about...

Compelling Niigata Sake, First time in the US! Let us tell you this: If you aren’t drinking sake, start now. The best sakes deliver all of the aromatic complexity, sophistication, and terroir of the world's best wines, and deserve to be enjoyed in the...

Sherry's Secret Rival We don't blame wine aficionados visiting Andalucia for sipping sherry day and night, but when we’re in southern Spain, we like to head inland to Montilla-Moriles to indulge in the sherry-style wines there. The top ones rival the finest of Jeréz...

Wine Advocate: "A Powerful Beauty" We send out offers each year for well over a thousand wines, but when it comes to stratospheric quality for the price, none of them may be a greater deal than the 2019 Quinta do Noval Vintage Port. This...

Too Good to Save for Last A prominent French winemaker once told us the biggest mistake wine buyers make in drinking after-dinner wines is… …drinking them after dinner. “Why would you save what is probably your most complex, aromatically intense wine of the night...

Every Sip Is a Decadent Celebration Oremus, the Hungarian estate of the legendary Vega Sicilia—widely regarded as Spain’s greatest winery—produces Tokaji wines that are pure luxury epitomized—and 2008 was among the best vintages in the region’s long, regal history. One of the world’s finest...

Sauternes Class Is in Session If you had to put your money on one guy to take home the FIRST Best-in-Show trophy for Sauternes in the 18-year history of Decanter’s World Wine Awards, it would be Jean-Christophe Barbe.    Barbe is the proprietor of Château Laville,...

Napoleon Refused All Else There’s history. Then there’s legend. Many of the world’s most legendary wines can boast an impressive roster of admirers. But few can match the list of fans that Klein Constatia’s Vin de Constance—one of the world’s greatest sweet wines—has amassed...

Champagne Coup for One Custom Pallet If you aren’t familiar with the name Brugnon, that’s because the fruits of the family’s labor have long gone into prestigious bottles with “Krug” and other renowned Champagne houses on the labels. But every bubbly lover should be...

The Thrill of Discovery It wasn’t long into our tasting with Fabien Grumier that we realized we hadn’t just found a phenomenal producer—we’d stumbled upon one of the greatest secrets in Champagne. Tipped off to the winery by a friend—a Master of Wine who...

The Wine Titans’ Must-Have Champagne Many Champagne houses make rosé—but only one Champagne house defines it. Billecart-Salmon’s Brut Rosé is lauded from just about every corner of the wine world. You can order a glass or bottle at practically every top MICHELIN-starred restaurant.  We...

Unbelievable Cava Bargain The NV Masia Salat Organic Cava is a phenomenal Spanish sparkler that blows away the competition. We would know—we taste loads of Cava, but almost never offer it because we so rarely find bottles that meet our standards.  This one does:...

How to Stop Worrying and Trust John’s Taste John is usually right, and he knows it. A sommelier at a hip New York restaurant, he presides over a wine program with a fleet of Zaltos and a flotilla of quadruple-digit Burgundies. He’s exceptionally discerning, and is...

If Hermès Made a $19 Bag, We’d Buy It Overseen by Aubert de Villaine and Jacques Seysses of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti and Domaine Dujac, the Domaine de Triennes Rosé shows the outrageous attention to detail that both partners are known for—except this time,...

Mother-Daughter Team’s Provence-Inspired Rosé For decades now, wine lovers have looked straight to the sea-sprayed coast of Provence for the ultimate in divine, elegant, mouthwatering rosé. That’s where the mother-daughter team of Melinda Kearney and Michèle Ouellet found inspiration for one of our favorite...

A Pinot Rosé of True Pedigree Stéphane Vivier is one of Northern California’s true Pinot superstars: He was tapped by Aubert de Villaine of Burgundy’s iconic Domaine de la Romanée-Conti to head up his personal California outpost, Hyde de Villaine. Over his career, Vivier...

An Under-$20 Champagne Challenger Faire la Fête Brut burst on the scene when it made Robb Report’s list of 20 Best Wines under $100. But by then, we’d been crushing this bubbly for years. Master Sommelier Peter Neptune called Faire la Fête “as good or...

Needle-in-the-Haystack Rosé The market is flush with affordable rosé—but getting your hands on the 2022 L’Ostal Rosé is like finding the proverbial needle in the haystack. Backed by 100-point pedigree and shaped by the finest terroir in southern France’s Minervois region, it’s a KNOCKOUT...