Wine Spectator June 15, 2018

FREE RESOURCES FOR ALL OUR WINESPECTATOR.COM READERS PARTY PLANNING Hosting a barbecue bash on Memorial Day? We highlight delicious new recipes to try and point you to great wines for the occasion. Check out our seasonal features for pairing suggestions with well-priced, new-release wines recommended by our editors. WINE SPECTATOR VIDEO Watch all our great wine tips, winemaker interviews and tastings on your desktop, laptop, tablet or phone. Tune in each week for a new mobile-friendly video. Don’t miss these recent favorites: Wine Country Wildfires In these Wine Spectator exclusive videos, we go on location with some of the Napa and Sonoma winemakers affected by the devastating wildfires. A Perfect Match: Black Bass With Oregon Pinot Blanc Find out more about this intriguing pairing—and get the recipe from Durham chef Andrea Reusing. Why Go Biodynamic?…

The wildfires that raced through Northern California last October devastated large tracts of Sonoma and Napa, killing 44 people, burning 240,000 acres and destroying an estimated 8,900 structures, many of them homes. We reported on the devastation in real time on WineSpectator.com, even as some of our editors were forced to evacuate. It was a terrifying time. If there is a consolation to find it’s that in the end, the wine industry, the heart of the region’s culture, was largely spared. Few vineyards were lost, little wine was damaged, and today wine country residents are working together to rebuild their infrastructure and restore their economy. For our cover story, Napa bureau chief Kim Marcus and senior editor MaryAnn Worobiec interviewed vintners, restaurateurs and others who are central to the work of revival.…

Michigan Misfortune “Consumers Caught in Shipping Crossfire” (Grapevine, April 30) gets my blood boiling, especially the statement about Michigan passing a law last year prohibiting out-of-state retailers from shipping wine into our state. I am from Michigan and enjoy ordering any wine I please by simply pulling up a website and ordering it. I was not aware that our state had gone back to the dark ages. I plan to buy and drink zero wine from Michigan until this is changed. I am in several wine clubs as well and hope this won’t affect that either. Jim Hug Brighton, Mich. Mad in Missouri As a purchaser and collector of wines from out of state for over 35 years, I was never concerned that my children were going to buy Château Margaux from an out-of-state retailer because…

Two fraud cases—one in Bordeaux and one in the Southern Rhône—are upsetting France’s wine industry. The case in Bordeaux, where a leading négociant was recently found guilty of fraud, shocked many in the region just as foreign merchants began arriving to preview the 2017 vintage. At an April 5 hearing, Bordeaux’s criminal tribunal found Grands Vins de Gironde (GVG) guilty of wine fraud, fining the company nearly $500,000 (with half the fine suspended). The négociant and bulk-wine bottler, which is owned by the Castéja family, illegally blended wines from prestigious appellations with table wine, and mixed appellation wines, vintages and châteaus. Judge Caroline Baret declared that the investigation revealed that at least 611,900 liters of wine (the equivalent of 68,000 cases) worth $1.6 million were mislabeled during a period from Jan.…

It will likely be the biggest wine movie since Sideways. Netflix announced in March that Parks and Recreation star Amy Poehler will be starring in and directing Wine Country, a tale of friends traveling to Napa Valley. The film will feature a murderers’ row of comedy talent: Fellow Saturday Night Live alums Tina Fey, Maya Rudolph, Rachel Dratch and Ana Gasteyer are all co-starring, with Paula Pell and Emily Spivey as writers. “Wine Country tells the story of old friends who go to Napa for a weekend of wine tastings to celebrate a 50th birthday,” a Netflix representative told Wine Spectator. The film’s announcement came in the form of Poehler iPhone-filming her friends belting out a moving rendition of the Kenny Loggins and Stevie Nicks soft-rock staple “Whenever I Call You…

Robert Haas Robert Haas, wine merchant and co-founder of Tablas Creek Vineyard in Paso Robles, died March 18 at his home. He was 90. Born in Brooklyn, Haas started in wine at an early age, working at his father’s Manhattan wine and spirits retailer, M. Lehmann. In 1950, he began traveling as a buyer; when his father retired in the 1960s, Haas used the connections he’d made to create his own import business. During Haas’ first buying trip to Châteauneuf-du-Pape, he visited Château de Beaucastel and began a relationship with its proprietors, the Perrin family. In 1989, Haas and the Perrins scoured California for limestone soils and a maritime climate similar to Châteauneuf’s. They purchased 120 acres in the western hills of Paso Robles. Rhône grapes were not extensively grown in California at…