Wine Spectator February 29, 2020

FREE RESOURCES FOR ALL OUR WINESPECTATOR.COM READERS TOP STORIES OF 2019 The most popular articles, Q&As, Tasting Highlights, videos and Unfiltered items of 2019. Find out what you missed! EMAIL NEWSLETTERS Keep on top of our world of coverage with our free email newsletters. Sips & Tips features a top value Wine of the Week. The twice-monthly Collecting letter highlights collectibles and cellar-worthy wines. Our Private Guide to Dining spotlights dining news and great restaurant wine programs, and Unfiltered brings you our irreverent takes on wine in culture, sports and politics. WINE SPECTATOR VIDEO Watch all our wine tips, winemaker inter-views and tastings on your desktop, laptop, tablet or phone. Don’t miss these clips: Wine Star Spotlight: Tim and Carissa Mondavi of Continuum Estate Continuum’s father-daughter team, part of Napa Valley’s legendary winemaking family,…

We have long said that Wine Spectator is not so much in the publishing business as in the education business. Our goal is to in-form our readers about the world of wine, to help them develop their tastes and to guide them to wines they may enjoy. We have never been in the business of selling wine. That pol-icy—along with our blind-tasting methodology—is how we maintain our independence and objectivity. However, readers often ask, “How can we find the wines you review?” Unfortunately, there is no one easy answer. Wines are agricultural products, each vintage in limited supply, and their distribution can be spotty. There’s no guarantee that any given wine will be available from any given source. Still, there are strategies that wine lovers can use to maximize their chances of finding…

The Toll of Tariffs I do not think that wine lovers have been sufficiently warned of our president’s punitive tax increase on French, German and Spanish wines, with potentially worse [to come]. A conflict between the U.S. and the EU over multi-national aircraft subsidies is being used to target small family businesses across the U.S. and Europe. Generations of families on both sides of the Atlantic have spent their lives growing, vinifying and promoting this very spe-cial beverage, and now, while stock markets soar and CEOs make record-breaking sala-ries, we will see families lose their historical vineyards and small import companies go out of business. A bottle of wine that cost $20 now costs $25, and if these new proposed tariffs are put into place, it will cost $38. This will affect all…

As European vintners graple with U.S. tariffs of 25% on many wines, they now face another potential hurdle. The Office of the U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) has announced that it is considering new, higher tariffs on European foods, including all wines. Those tariffs could be imposed after Jan. 13 and could be as high as 100%. “I’m freaking out. And I don’t normally freak out,” said one wine importer who asked not to be identified. “We were planning to hire new people. That could be shelved and we could potentially have to consider layoffs.” The proposed tariffs are the latest salvo in the U.S. government’s fight with the European Union over support for airplane manufacturers Airbus and Boeing. On Oct. 2, the World Trade Organization (WTO) gave the U.S. the green light…

What do the best wines in the world offer? Quality, value, complexity, singularity and, most of all, diversity. American consumers drank more than 330 million cases of wine last year, and though growth in consumption has slowed, people are trying an increasing variety of wines and spending more But in this incredibly heterogeneous wine world, how does one go about finding the standouts? Wine Spectator is here to help. Our editors reviewed more than 15,000 new releases in independent blind tastings in 2019, as well as hundreds more wines as barrel samplings and in retrospective flights of older vintages. Due to a spate of strong vintages in multiple regions, quality continues to tick upward. Of the new releases we reviewed in 2019, approximately 46% earned outstanding scores of 90 to 94 points.…

Jan. 31 – Feb. 28, 2019 Insider knowledge abounds in this diverse compendium of our editors’ musings on wine and food culture. Plus, a roundup of outstanding values from across the globe. May 31, 2019 San Francisco possesses a rich history of groundbreaking women chefs, with established masters and bold upstarts defining the vibrant Bay Area culinary scene. July 31, 2019 Sonoma emerges as America’s leading source of Chardonnay, channelling Burgundian elegance and California gusto. Chef Michael White shares an Italian-American menu. Oct. 15, 2019 California Pinot Noir is rapidly becoming America’s favorite red wine, as complex, site-specific versions blossom along the coast. Spanish bottlings triumph. Nov. 30, 2019 The Rhône’s Jean-Louis Chave honors his family’s deep roots in the region while exploring new frontiers of grape-growing. Somms dish on their holiday traditions. March 31, 2019 Bordeaux achieves a classic crop…