Cooking
Wine Spectator
Canary Islands Vintners Fight Back Against Phylloxera
A dreaded vineyard pest is threatening 500 years of traditional viticulture in the Canary Islands. Grape-growers recently discovered the first-ever confirmed cases of phylloxera on the volcanic archipelago. Vineyards in three towns on Tenerife, the largest and most populous of the islands, tested positive for the root louse, leaving winemakers and officials on edge as a response is organized.
1 min |
November 15, 2025
Wine Spectator
TOO HOT TO HANDLE
Even Napa's top producers struggled in the scorching 2022 vintage for Cabernet
10+ min |
November 15, 2025
Wine Spectator
Regina King Creates a Tribute to Her Son With a New Wine Project
Actor, director and executive producer Regina King has been a major player in film and television for four decades, including her roles in Ray, Jerry Maguire and as Sharon Rivers in If Beale Street Could Talk, which won her the 2019 Academy Award for Best Supporting Actress. In her latest film, she plays a New York City cop in director Darren Aronofsky’s Caught Stealing. Now she’s adding vintner to her resume as she launches her wine label, MianU, beginning with an orange wine sourced from California’s Mendocino County. Pronounced “me and you,” it represents making a connection through shared experiences, she says.
2 min |
November 15, 2025
Wine Spectator
Gigondas Blanc: Exciting and New
There are fewer things more change-resistant than French wine appellation laws. It took the winegrowers in Southern Rhône's Gigondas region more than a decade of lobbying to secure the right to produce white wines that could bear the name of their esteemed cru. Finally, the Gigondas blancs, which debuted with the 2023 vintage, are making their way to the market.
2 min |
November 15, 2025
Wine Spectator
OPUS ONE 1979-2023
A 45-vintage vertical tasting shows the evolution of a California first-growth
9 min |
November 15, 2025
Wine Spectator
NAPA CABERNET 2015: Ten Years After
While shy of a classic rating, the vintage offers plenty of solid Cabernets still packed with fruit
3 min |
November 15, 2025
Wine Spectator
Napa's Dominus Buys Yountville Ranch Vineyard
Dominus Estate, the Napa Valley winery owned by Bordeaux’s Christian Moueix, has purchased the 86-acre Yountville Ranch vineyard from Markham Vineyards, next door to Dominus’ Napanook vineyard. Neither party disclosed a purchase price.
1 min |
November 15, 2025
Wine Spectator
COMPOSING OPUS ONE
Robert Mondavi and Baron Philippe de Rothschild announced their revolutionary partnership in 1980. Today, a young team led by winemaker Michael Silacci is forging its full identity
10+ min |
November 15, 2025
Wine Spectator
The Last Grape
Often overlooked Rhône red grape Muscardin is gaining attention in California thanks to Paso's Tablas Creek.
3 min |
November 15, 2025
Wine Spectator
DIFFERENT SHADES OF WHITE BURGUNDY
The 2022 vintage is a classic, with the elite wines joined by more affordable versions from nearby terroirs. The early 2023s, meanwhile, make for good drinking in the near-term
7 min |
November 15, 2025
Wine Spectator
The Biggest Mistake With 2022 Cabernet
I generally don't wade into the price argument. But dropping prices on a lesser vintage should have been a no-brainer.
3 min |
November 15, 2025
Wine Spectator
French Wineries Confront U.S. Tariffs
Wine’s taste may be bottled poetry, but its mathematics are often merciless. The U.S. government has implemented 15% tariffs on all European Union wines. Add on a 15% decline in the dollar vs. the euro since January, and French wines are potentially 30% more expensive the moment they arrive on American shores, and their importers need to pay the customs duties. French winemakers—from small wineries to large négociants, from Champagne to Roussillon—are having to calculate whether they can stay afloat with this new math.
2 min |
November 15, 2025
Wine Spectator
Trading Up on New Zealand
Distinctive wines and producers' green mindset fuel consumer appeal for the top bottlings
3 min |
November 15, 2025
Wine Spectator
A Generational Transition at FARELLA VINEYARD
The family estate helped put the Coombsville AVA on the map, but the future could be complicated
7 min |
November 15, 2025
Wine Spectator
A Taste of the European Blues
Strong, salty blue cheeses with plenty of bitterness and peppery bite are easy to find. Sorting through the many options to identify those capable of achieving delectable balance by orchestrating multiple intriguing flavors and aromas—from sweet and fruity to nutty, yeasty and chocolaty—can be more of a challenge.
2 min |
November 15, 2025
Wine Spectator
COOMBSVILLE
AVA SPOTLIGHT
3 min |
November 15, 2025
Wine Spectator
SENSES: IN THE HEART OF WEST SONOMA COAST
A trio of childhood friends are making outstanding Pinots from top vineyards
5 min |
September 30, 2025
Wine Spectator
PINOT NOIR ASCENDANT
THE LATE-RUNNING 2023 VINTAGE DELIVERS AGEWORTHY WINES AT THE HEIGHT OF QUALITY
10+ min |
September 30, 2025
Wine Spectator
COBB WINES: COASTLANDS VINEYARD AND BEYOND
Embracing his parents' dream, winemaker Ross Cobb has elevated their project in West Sonoma Coast
6 min |
September 30, 2025
Wine Spectator
Lawsuit May Stymie Trump’s Trade War
A federal court ruled May 28 that President Donald J. Trump had overstepped his authority when he imposed sweeping tariffs of 10% on nearly every nation in the world, potentially raising the price of every imported bottle of wine in American stores and restaurants.
2 min |
September 30, 2025
Wine Spectator
Auction Napa Valley Raises $6.5 Million for Local Youth
By the time the final gavel fell at the 45th edition of Auction Napa Valley, the event had raised $6.5 million for Napa nonprofits that support after-school and summer programs for children. It was a dramatic finish to a weekend of celebration involving dinners with vintners, tastings of yet-to-be-released wines and bidding on unique bottles and lavish travel experiences.
2 min |
September 30, 2025
Wine Spectator
ICONIC FOOD & WINE OF ITALY
SIGNATURE DISHES AND WINES TO MATCH FROM 20 REGIONS
8 min |
September 30, 2025
Wine Spectator
Nicolas Joly and His Loire Valley Wines Remain Outspoken
Nicolas Joly prescribes a simple test to determine whether a wine is “alive.” Leave the bottle open for weeks and taste it every few days or so. If the wine remains unchanged or even improves over time, it is a “true, alive” wine. If not, the wine will become oxidized in a day. “When a wine has received life properly in the vineyard, then oxidation has no power,” Joly says. “We can taste when a wine’s energy has been destroyed by bad farming and then someone used enology in the cellar to ‘create’ the wine.”
2 min |
September 30, 2025
Wine Spectator
AVA SPOTLIGHT: ANDERSON VALLEY
While the Sonoma Coast is currently receiving the most attention for Pinot Noir, there are other AVAs in California producing quality versions. Notable among them is Anderson Valley.
2 min |
September 30, 2025
Wine Spectator
Frescobaldi in Oregon
Napa Valley was the first place Lamberto Frescobaldi considered when his family's wine company, Italy's Marchesi Frescobaldi, went winery shopping in the United States. Frescobaldi studied viticulture and enology at University of California, Davis, in the 1980s, just as Napa was booming. It was an exciting time in California wine and Frescobaldi wanted to be part of it.
3 min |
September 30, 2025
Wine Spectator
Timorasso Stands the Test of Time
Five years ago I wrote about the resurgence of Timorasso (“The Return of a Piedmont Original, columns, Nov. 30, 2020), a traditional Piedmont white grape variety from the hills of the Colli Tortonesi. Thanks to the efforts of local vintner Walter Massa, along with Elisa Semino of La Colombera and others, Timorasso is not only thriving; it has attracted a number of investors from nearby Langhe.
3 min |
September 30, 2025
Wine Spectator
A Sharp Lookout
To those of us who harbor fond memories of Cracker Barrel on Triscuits during cocktail hour at grandma's house, the taste of sharpness is quite familiar. For some (yours truly included), it's enough to trigger a Proustian madeleine moment.
4 min |
September 30, 2025
Wine Spectator
Austrian Excellence
The 2023 Rieslings and Grüner Veltliners hit the sweet spot between ripeness and elegance
5 min |
September 30, 2025
Wine Spectator
The Many Faces of Piedmont's Barbera
Barbera is one of the most historic grape varieties of Piedmont.
2 min |
September 30, 2025
Wine Spectator
Counterfeit Crusader Auctions Cellar
William “Bill” Koch, who amassed a 43,000-bottle cellar of rare wines and launched a crusade of litigation to stamp out sales of counterfeits, consigned nearly 7,800 bottles from his collection to Christie’s, which conducted a three-day auction of the wines in June. The sale raised $28.8 million. The top lot was a methuselah (equal to eight 750ml bottles) of Domaine de la Romanée-Conti Romanée-Conti 1999, which brought in $275,000.
3 min |