Wine Spectator May 31, 2019

FREE RESOURCES FOR ALL OUR WINESPECTATOR.COM READERS MOTHER’S DAY TIPS Planning a big day for Mom? Watch for our annual feature in early May when we’ll talk to a top chef and get a recipe and wine picks. Find more recipes and pairings with our biweekly 8 & $20 feature, showcasing easy-to-prepare weeknight recipes matched to great wines priced at $20 or less. Plus, sign up to receive regular recipe suggestions in our free, weekly Sips & Tips email newsletter. GRAND TOUR This spring, Wine Spectator hits the road with the world’s finest wineries, making stops in Las Vegas (April 27), Chicago (May 2) and Miami (May 10) to pour more than 240 top wines. If you can’t join us this time, check out our coverage of who was there. NEED-TO-KNOW NEWS For…

San Francisco has always nurtured innovation and celebrated difference. From the hippies of Haight-Ashbury in the 1960s to the techies of Silicon Valley in the 1990s, the Bay Area has often led the way in American culture. The city has also had an outsize influence on the country’s culinary scene. The story of how Alice Waters and her pioneering restaurant Chez Panisse helped liberate American dining from European dominance in the 1970s has often been told, including in an insightful 2001 cover story by our own Harvey Steiman. But while Waters was a key figure in the emergence of what became known as California cuisine, she is also part of another wave that is perhaps less well-known: a vibrant community of women chefs that continues to make its own significant impact on…

Corks and Cabs I have a small collection of older California Cabs and Bordeaux from around the year 2000. The Cabs tend to lose their sharpest tannins and are more balanced to my taste. My problem is that I and my friends who also collect wines are rarely able to remove a cork from these older Cabs without the cork breaking. The problem does not happen with Bordeaux of the same age. I have tried multiple cork-removing devices with the same outcome. I wonder if other collectors have experienced this and if there is a reason for the apparent difference in the durability of the corks? U.X. CullumColumbia, S.C. Good Dirt Harvey Steiman’s column Terroir in the New World (March 31) illuminates the delight in identifying terroir in New World wines. My wife and…

To guests walking through vineyards after heavy rains, it’s an odd blue coating on grape leaves. To organic vintners, it’s a necessary evil. To some European regulators, it’s a hazard. Copper sulfate may be ubiquitous, but is it safe for vineyards? A new push by European Union leaders to reduce—and eventually eliminate—the use of copper compounds in agriculture is meeting resistance from organic and biodynamic vintners, who claim the regulations put the future of their operations in jeopardy. Since the 1880s, copper compounds, typically copper sulfate mixed with lime, have been used by grapegrowers to fight fungal and bacterial threats to vines. For organic growers, who cannot use modern fungicide sprays, copper sulfate remains the most effective weapon against downy mildew. But copper is a heavy metal that lingers in soil for…

The Louis Roederer Champagne house is buying Russian River Valley Pinot Noir specialist Merry Edwards Winery. The deal, signed in February, includes the brand and its inventory, as well as the winery and tasting room in Sebastopol and six vineyards totaling 79 acres. The sale price was not disclosed. The founders of the winery, Merry Edwards and her husband, Ken Coopersmith, will stay on for at least a year during the transition period. Edwards is a Sonoma County wine pioneer and one of California’s first female winemakers. Her 28,000-case-per-year brand is known for its structured Pinot Noirs, including notable single-vineyard wines. Edwards also makes a small amount of Chardonnay, as well as a barrel-fermented Sauvignon Blanc. Her wines have made numerous appearances in Wine Spectator’s Top 100 Wines of the Year,…

Some of us love wine so much, we dream about swimming around in a barrel full of the stuff. Certain holiday-spot proprietors are offering an alternative: wine-barrel hotel rooms. The travel trend has been popping up around the world. In Portugal’s Douro Valley, Quinta da Pacheca added 10 giant wine barrels to its lodging offerings in 2017. Located among the vines, each barrel room is outfitted with a double bed and a full bathroom. “They are a real success in the high but also in the low season,” Ricardo Rebelo, a staff member at the hotel, told Wine Spectator. “At this time we are already receiving bookings for 2020.”…