Wine Spectator June 30, 2018

Visit WineSpectator.com/063018 to find links to all of the following resources. FREE RESOURCES FOR ALL OUR WINESPECTATOR.COM READERS WINE SPECTATOR’S 12TH ANNUAL VIDEO CONTEST Share your wine story to compete for great prizes! Submit your shorts to Wine Spectator’s annual Video Contest and you could win tickets to our spectacular Wine Experience weekend or a Grand Tasting. Entry deadline is Monday, Aug. 20. Check out the rules and previous years’ finalists online. OUTDOOR ENTERTAINING It’s time to take your parties to the backyard, beach or park, and some of the country’s best chefs are here to help. We share their cooking tips and delicious make-at-home summer recipes along with great value wine matches chosen by our editors. WINE SPECTATOR VIDEO Watch all our wine tips, winemaker interviews and tastings on your desktop, laptop, tablet…

Suddenly, pink is the color to drink. In wineshops, on restaurant wine lists, at gatherings large and small, rosé reigns. The boom has been so powerful that Americans are now drinking 20 percent of the world’s production of rosé. And in France, consumers now drink more rosé than white wine. This is not rosé’s first time in the spotlight, of course. Those of us of a certain age will remember the popularity of Portugal imports Lancer’s and Mateus in the 1970s. And who could forget the California White Zinfandel craze of the 1980s? Today, France’s Provence is leading the parade, and producers around the world are falling into line to offer their own versions of the dry, crisp, fruity wines that have long been popular on the Riviera. Nearly every country has…

RALLYING FOR RIOJA Readers respond to contributing editor Matt Kramer’s column “Is Rioja Today’s Most Overlooked (and Underappreciated) Wine?” (online, March 20). It was high time someone wrote on the sublime wines of Rioja. I would have been more direct to the point that there are decidedly modern and traditional styles in the region. The modernists are perhaps best represented by the Eguren wineries—Sierra Cantabria, Viñedos de Páganos, San Vicente—and the traditionals by the sublime López de Heredia, Muga and Cune. I had a 1947 Bosconia on a visit to López de Heredia that could have fooled me for a wine 20 years younger. The modernists, on the other hand, produce wines with much more intensity. It is indeed a most fascinating and underappreciated denomination well worth more interest than it currently…

Heitz Cellars, a dominant producer in Napa Valley during its formative years and a champion of single-vineyard wines, has been sold by its owners to Gaylon M. Lawrence Jr., whose family owns one of America’s largest agricultural companies. The sale includes the winery and tasting room, the brand and 425 acres of vineyards. The purchase price was not disclosed. “We feel this is the right time for us to pass this rich legacy to another family,” said Kathleen Heitz-Myers, the winery’s chief operating officer. “When we met with Gaylon, it seemed a perfect match. In the wine business we are all farmers, and with the Lawrence family’s history in agriculture, we feel Heitz Cellars will be in good hands.” Lawrence, who lives in Memphis, Tenn., is new to the world of wine.…

South African vintners estimate that 2018 is the smallest vintage they have harvested in 13 years, due to a multiyear drought. Stringent water management rules have imposed tight limits on irrigation. That has mostly hurt the country’s large bulk-wine industry, which accounts for about 60 percent of wine exports. But it’s also challenging small vintners who produce high quality wine, forcing them to adapt to a changing climate. South Africa has always experienced cycles of drought, but the difference now is that water resources and infrastructure are under increased pressure due to a rapidly expanding region that has seen significant population growth and economic development. South Africa Wine Industry Information & Systems, an industry nonprofit, has predicted that the drought conditions will result in 2018 being the smallest crop since 2005. On…

Tell us how wine won your heart and submit your video to Wine Spectator’s 12th Annual Video Contest. Anyone can enter—whether you are a wine lover, work in the wine or restaurant industry, or are a student of film, culinary arts or viticulture and enology. (You just need to be 21 or older.) The theme for 2018’s contest is “How Wine Won My Heart.” The final video must be two minutes or less. Get all the rules and submit your video to us online by Monday, Aug. 20. The winning video will be screened at the 2018 New York Wine Experience in October. The other finalists’ videos will be showcased on WineSpectator.com and Wine Spectator’s social media accounts. The winner will receive two full passes to the 2018 New York Wine…