Wine Spectator March 31, 2017

ItalyVisit www.winespectator.com/033117 to find links to all of the following resources. Free resources for all our WineSpectator.com readers: WINE & HEALTH TIPS In “Hot Topics in Health,” we share the past year’s biggest news and most provocative questions regarding moderate drinking and its role in brain health, aging, diabetes, cancer and more. Keep on top of the latest research through our regular Health News reports, ask questions in Wine & Health Q&A and sign up for Wine & Healthy Living, our free twice-monthly e-mail newsletter. NEED-TO-KNOW NEWS For wine lovers and the trade, our website is the place to go to find out which big-name wineries have been sold, the possible impact of Brexit on the wine mar-ket, who is being prosecuted for counterfeiting or other wine fraud, and much more. Keep up…

Americans are curious and rest-less people, and American wine-lovers are no exception. We eagerly try new wines, from new grapes and new regions, and if we like them, we make their fortunes. Malbec from Argentina. Rosé from Provence. Pinot Noir from California. And remember Shiraz from Australia? However, we are also quickly bored. When a wine becomes predictable or too familiar, we don’t hesitate to move on. Remember Shiraz from Australia? More than most countries, Australia has seen the upside and the downside of America’s en-gagement with wine. In 1980, Australian wine didn’t register in the U.S. import figures. By 2005, it had a 28 percent share, behind only Ita-ly’s 31 percent. The Yellow Tail brand, launched in 2000, surged to 8.5 million cases in 2010. Then the tide turned. Not so much…

One and Only I enjoyed the letter from Nicholas Dulmovic about Ronald Reagan’s appreciation of great wine (Feedback, Dec. 31, 2016). In the letter, Mr. Dulmovic speculated that the president had other bottles of 1911 Château Margaux aside from the one he served for his and Nancy’s 40th wed-ding anniversary. My wife and I know how President Reagan got that bottle; we doubt he had an-other one. On a private tour of Bordeaux in the early ’90s, we visited Margaux for a tast-ing. Our guide, an American wine broker and judge who was married to a Frenchman from Bordeaux, was a friend of the Château Margaux mar-keting director. During the tasting, we had an interesting discussion about the winery’s extensive library. As one of several examples, the market-ing director told us that…

Strolling the streets of Paris, it’s easy to see that natural wine is a growing phenomenon. Wine bars and shops carrying only natural wines have pro-liferated, with enthusiastic support from sommeliers, millennials and urban profes-sionals—customers many winemakers covet. But now the French government is asking a question that the natural-wine movement has never fully answered: What does “natural” mean? “What does the consumer perceive with re-gard to these words?” asks Eric Rosaz, manager of the wine sector for the INAO, the French authority that oversees the country’s more than 350 wine appellations. “Is it the same thing as the winemaker? Can we codify the word ‘nature’ or ‘natural’? Should we?” There is no legal definition for natural wine, and no definition agreed upon by its proponents. It is entirely unregulated. That means consum-ers…

A merican businessman Stan Kroenke, who owns Screaming Eagle, Jonata and The Hilt vine-yards in California, as well as sev-eral sports franchises, has bought a majority stake in Burgundy winery Domaine Bon-neau du Martray, for an undisclosed price. Bonneau du Martray, whose cellars are in Pernand-Vergelesses, has been in the Le Bault de la Morinière family since the French Revolution. The current genera-tion is led by four brothers, including estate manager Jean-Charles Le Bault de la Morinière. The family will remain part-ners in the domaine. “It’s really two fami-lies getting together,” said Armand de Maigret, who manages Kroenke’s wine properties and will oversee production at Bonneau du Martray. “The plan is for me to be the leader and to learn as much as I can from Jean-Charles. It’s a fantastic property,…

Debbie Lewis, Napa Star Debbie Lewis, cofounder of Napa Valley’s Lewis Cel-lars, died Jan. 4 after a year-long battle with cancer. She was 72. Just a month earlier, Lewis Cellars’ 2013 Cabernet Sauvignon was named Wine Spectator’s 2016 Wine of the Year. “Debbie was the rock, the steady hand of our family and of Lewis Cellars,” said her husband, Randy. “There would be no Lewis Cellars without Debbie. She quietly worked to make Lewis Cel-lars the best it could be, inspiring us all to do the same.” Born and raised in Northern California, Lewis taught kin-dergarten before tapping a longtime interest in wine, working in retail sales and co-managing a wine bar. She met Randy Lewis, then an up-and-coming race car driver, at a wine-tasting group in the late 1970s. After they mar-ried,…