Wine Spectator September 30, 2022

Visit WineSpectator.com/093022 to find links to all of the following resources. FREE RESOURCES FOR ALL WINESPECTATOR.COM READERS WINE SPECTATOR’S VIDEO CONTEST Share your wine story to compete for great prizes! Submit your short film to Wine Spectator’s 16th annual video contest and you could win tickets to our spectacular Wine Experience weekend or a Grand Tasting. Entry deadline is Monday, Aug. 29. Check out the rules and previous years’ finalists online. LABOR DAY CELEBRATIONS We’ve recruited leading chefs and cookbook authors to share their favorite end-of-summer recipes. Plus, Wine Spectator editors pick well-priced, highly rated wines to enjoy over the long weekend. NEED-TO-KNOW NEWS For both consumers and the trade, WineSpectator.com is the place to go to find out which big-name wineries have been sold, how tariffs might impact your wine choices, the latest…

I have been a huge fan of California Pinot Noir for many years, but even I am surprised at how winemakers continue to raise the bar on quality while also advancing diversity. The proliferation of new wineries and limited-production bottlings makes it difficult to keep up. Senior editor and lead taster on the wines James Molesworth has literally hit the ground running for his first-ever report on these wines, traversing the region and assembling an impressive list of high-scoring 2019 Pinots from among more than 340 wines blind-tasted from the vintage. This both delights and frustrates me, as I’ve yet to try many of these wines and they can be challenging to find on the East Coast, either at retail or in restaurants. It presents a real roadblock in my expanding…

To Infinity and Beyond Thank you for including the Infinity leather shop in “101 Things We Love About Italy” (cover, April 30). My wife and I discovered Infinity about 15 years ago on our first trip to Florence. You describe the atmosphere and the goods beautifully. We have stopped by Infinity on every trip to Florence since. We enjoy the Balenciaga-style bag; man-bag; red, white and green bag; notepad and more that we have purchased over the years. We also enjoy our conversations with the proprietress and her son. Just down the street is a lovely enoteca with a pizza oven behind the bar. On a chilly, rainy afternoon we savored our wine and hot, fresh pizza after securing our latest acquisitions from Infinity. Thank you for a wonderful slice of bella Italia. M.…

Now In Our IGTV Archives JUNE 29 Nicole Hitchcock, winemaker, J Vineyards & Winery JUNE 22 Luca and Elena Currado, Vietti Winery JUNE 16 Louis Barruol, owner and winemaker, Château de St.-Cosme JUNE 8 Dave Phinney, winemaker, Orin Swift Cellars JUNE 1 The Chicks, music band and founders of Gaslighter Wine Co. MAY 18 Gianluca Bisol, president, Bisol Winery MAY 11 Ikimi Dubose-Woodson, co-founder, The Roots Fund MAY 4 Drew Bledsoe, founder and owner, Bledsoe Wine Estates APRIL 27 Samantha Rudd, owner, Rudd Estate APRIL 20 Giovanni Mazzei, export director, Castello di Fonterutoli WATCH ON INSTAGRAM Scan the QR code to start watching on our IGTV channel, or visit instagram.com/wine_spectator/channel…

American consumers have a thirst for bubbly—sales of sparkling wine from numerous regions continue to be one of the strongest-growing categories in the U.S. market. And while French Champagne and Italian Prosecco are well-known success stories, Spanish Cava emerged as a winner in 2021; shipments to the United States skyrocketed, ending the year at a record 1.98 million cases, according to the Consejo Regulador del Cava, an impressive 40% increase from 2020. Cava has long waited in the wings of the sparkling wine world. Produced using the same traditional method as Champagne, Cava was the first sparkling wine to introduce and use the gyropalette, a machine that reproduced the labor-intensive and costly riddling process of traditional method production. Cava producers passed those savings along, with many situating themselves in the value segment…

Wine Spectator is pleased to announce the promotion of Mitch Frank to senior editor. Frank joined Wine Spectator as associate editor in 2005 and in his current position as news editor he is in charge of reporting breaking news for both print and digital. In this role, Frank delivers timely news on wine as it relates to health, celebrity, crime, business, philanthropy and more. Prior to joining Wine Spectator, Frank spent eight years with Time magazine, where he covered U.S. politics and global affairs as a Nation reporter. Frank will retain primary responsibility for Wine Spectator’s news coverage, while the addition of the senior editor title will better reflect his many other contributions to the publication. Among his cover stories for the magazine, Frank has chronicled the ascent of businessman Gaylon…