Wine Spectator November 15, 2022

FREE RESOURCES FOR ALL WINESPECTATOR.COM READERS ALPHABETICAL GUIDE TO CALIFORNIA CABERNET This year’s annual report takes in more than 800 wines, focusing on the classic-scoring 2019 and 2018 vintages. For a complete list of scores and prices for all wines tasted, go to WineSpectator.com/CabernetAlpha111522. TOP 100 WINES OF THE YEAR On Nov. 7, we begin unveiling the Top 10 Wines of 2022—complete with videos, tasting notes and more—culminating with the Wine of the Year on Nov. 11 and the complete Top 100 list on Nov. 14. Don’t miss the year’s most exciting wines! WHAT AM I TASTING? Test your tasting skills in our mystery wine game. Evevry two weeks, we post a tasting note with clues from the color, aromas, flavors and structure. Then, you guess the variety, region, appellation and age of…

My passion for wine collecting began with Napa Cabernets from the 1974 vintage. I was so struck by their rich flavors yet subtle style that I began to aggressively seek them out. The challenge in those early years was that production was quite limited and distribution outside Northern California was small. Retailers in the New York area didn’t typically carry California Cabernets in the 1970s and ’80s. As an example, in 1976 I walked into a retail wineshop in the New York suburbs and asked if they had any Charles Krug Cabernet 1974. The store owner looked at me aghast. He told me he had one case in the basement. I asked why it wasn’t on the shelf and he told me he can’t sell it but had been forced to…

How Legends Are Made I want to commend Mary-Ann Worobiec for her recent story including Dick Graff (“Legends of California Chardonnay,” cover, July 31). Worobiec’s summary of Graff’s contributions to California wine was both specific and accurate. I admire her reporting and Rich Boer’s contribution. I would like to add that Dick’s first vintage was in 1966 (I still have a bottle of Pinot Noir). The birds got the 1967 and 1968 vintages, but his 1969 vintage was legendary. Dick and I were business partners for over 27 years. I only wish that there had been more. In 2014, I established the Woodward/Graff Wine Foundation Endowment at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo. It awards scholarships to wine business students. Phil WoodwardSonoma, Calif. NY State of Mind I loved reading your article about New York’s East…

Wine investment funds are having a moment—again. After the collapse of several such funds a decade ago, triggered by the Chinese retreat from the luxury wine market, they are again coming on strong. While their methods differ, all wine funds promote a common message: It’s smart to augment your traditional portfolio of stocks and bonds with an alternative investment in ageworthy wine. “You are looking for a low-volatility asset that is uncorrelated to the rest of the economy, and that’s what wine is,” said Tom Gearing, co-founder of London-based wine investment fund Cult Wines. When the stock market plunged in 2008, investment grade wine prices barely budged. So far in 2022, wine is again ignoring stocks: the Livex 1000, a composite of the most widely traded investment-grade wines, is up 8.6%,…

On Aug. 14, a violent storm and small tornado hit the French town of Bédarrides, with 120mph wind gusts and hailstones inflicting damage in vineyards along the eastern side of Châteauneuf-du-Pape. According to local vignerons, the primary impact was felt in La Crau, the famed vineyard in the southeast of the appellation; wineries such as Vieux Télégraphe, Château La Nerthe, Château de Nalys, Domaine La Boutinière and Guillaume Gonnet source fruit from this lieu-dit for their top cuvées. “We estimate that we have lost today between 70% to 90% of the grapes in our Vieux Télégraphe plots,” says Daniel Brunier, head of his namesake family’s estate. Brunier describes the vineyard—where his family has grown grapes since 1890—as “completely shredded; not a leaf is left. Only a few partially bruised grapes remain…

Eight years after it was first discovered in the U.S., in Pennsylvania, the spotted lanternfly (SLF), a mothlike insect from southern China, has spread to at least 12 states. Vintners in the Eastern U.S. are already dealing with damage to vines, while West Coast vintners are nervous; one study has projected that the insect will reach California by 2027. A relatively slow traveler but prolific breeder, SLF (Lycorma delicatula) is not really a fly. It’s more of a hopper that leaps from destination to destination. It doesn’t eat vines, but uses its proboscis to reach the sweet sap inside, drinking its contents and leaving behind a sticky waste that coats the plant, disrupting photosynthesis and attracting mold. The insect also threatens trees such as almond, apple, cherry, walnut and pine.…