In Bordeaux, Merlot is prized for its soft core—a plushness right in the middle of the flavor that gives wines like St-Emilions and Pomerols their richness. Merlot in California can be like that too. The following content is accessible for members only, please sign in.

I’ve always loved this winery’s name—Résonance. To resonate is to deeply connect with something. The following content is accessible for members only, please sign in.

Sometimes you just need a really good white wine under $20. The following content is accessible for members only, please sign in.

In a recent tasting of more than 70 northern California Chardonnays, this one from Scribe was the mostThe following content is accessible for members only, please sign in.

When I first met John Duval he was the head winemaker at Penfolds and making Grange, Australia’s best known wine. That was quite a while ago, before his “retirement” when he quietly created John Duval Wines. The following content is accessible for members only, please sign in.

I meant it when, earlier this fall, I said that this wine (100 points) will blow your mind.The following content is accessible for members only, please sign in.

I’ve always thought of great Chardonnay as a winter white—mouthfilling, rich, and rightThe following content is accessible for members only, please sign in.

One of the biggest misconceptions about California Pinot Noir is that it’s categoricallyThe following content is accessible for members only, please sign in.

A roast of beef, a leg of lamb, the Christmas turkey…to drink this Cornas with meat isThe following content is accessible for members only, please sign in.

At some point this fall, you just might need a really special gift. Something thatThe following content is accessible for members only, please sign in.

This 100-point wine is the best Pinot Gris I’ve ever tasted. Luxurious and languorous,The following content is accessible for members only, please sign in.

I love it when a sparkling wine is laser tight—when it’s like an athlete whose everyThe following content is accessible for members only, please sign in.

I’m a fall cook, and that changes everything when it comes to wine. Slowly braised roastsThe following content is accessible for members only, please sign in.

The brash, bring-it-on name of this Italian white wine makes lots of people smile. And the name canThe following content is accessible for members only, please sign in.

This Cabernet is Chimney Rock’s 40^th vintage in the Stags Leap District—the tinyThe following content is accessible for members only, please sign in.

I admit to tasting this wine well before I grabbed the bottle out The following content is accessible for members only, please sign in.

Pure tasting and very fresh, Tablas Creek’s Vermentino has a wonderful “aliveness” on the palate.The following content is accessible for members only, please sign in.

Big Table Farm, a winery and working farm, makes some of the best artisanal ChardonnaysThe following content is accessible for members only, please sign in.

Drinking this Loire white from the village of Savennières, an image flashed across my mind—an image The following content is accessible for members only, please sign in.

In some places, the “voice of the land” is loud and the “heartbeat,” strong.The following content is accessible for members only, please sign in.

Once a wine is in your mouth, the flavors have a flow as one sensory impression flows into the next.The following content is accessible for members only, please sign in.

I love the indigenous Sicilian white grape Grillo. It’s bright, lively, snappy,The following content is accessible for members only, please sign in.

OMG is this red good! The flavors are firing on all cylinders: raspberries,The following content is accessible for members only, please sign in.

Every now and then a producer comes along who can coax out all kinds of thingsThe following content is accessible for members only, please sign in.

Such is the popularity of Provençal rosé, that it’s easy to forget (or not realize)  that Provence makes some The following content is accessible for members only, please sign in.

Don’t be fooled by the striking magenta color of the ancient Italian red grape Frappato.The following content is accessible for members only, please sign in.

This is one of the best California sparkling wines I’ve ever tasted.The following content is accessible for members only, please sign in.

Sicily is one of the most beautiful and intriguing islands in the Mediterranean,The following content is accessible for members only, please sign in.

For more than a century, northern Portugal’s white wines (especially Vinho Verdes)The following content is accessible for members only, please sign in.

If ever there was a Champagne that exuded the beauty of Summer, The following content is accessible for members only, please sign in.

Morgan has been making well-priced wines on the Central Coast of CaliforniaThe following content is accessible for members only, please sign in.

Big Table Farm, one of the top small wine producers in Oregon, has a way of making elegant,The following content is accessible for members only, please sign in.

Great Riojas have a deep earthiness that can seem almost primordial.The following content is accessible for members only, please sign in.

Here’s the first really good rosé we’ve tasted this year—and it’s an irresistible deal The following content is accessible for members only, please sign in.

Compared to polished, aristocratic Bordeaux and sensual Burgundy,The following content is accessible for members only, please sign in.

Big, impressive Cabernets like this almost always cost twice as much as this does,The following content is accessible for members only, please sign in.

One of the tip-offs to a really good wine is to look on the back label and see who imports it.The following content is accessible for members only, please sign in.

Alfred Gratien’s dry Brut rosé is Springtime in a glass.The following content is accessible for members only, please sign in.

Chianti Classico wines that are designated “Gran Selezione” are the region’s “Grand Crus.” The following content is accessible for members only, please sign in.

What Burgundy is to Chardonnay (the best place in the world for the grape),The following content is accessible for members only, please sign in.

Among the great wines few wine drinkers will ever enjoy: the top white Burgundies,The following content is accessible for members only, please sign in.

VIK is one of the best Cabernet Francs I’ve ever tasted and certainly one of theThe following content is accessible for members only, please sign in.

This is the first time I’ve ever written a Wine to Know that isn’t actually a wine.The following content is accessible for members only, please sign in.

I LOVE it when a wine tastes like it costs a whole lot more than it does.The following content is accessible for members only, please sign in.

You might say this wine is back to the future.The following content is accessible for members only, please sign in.

I can’t believe this Bordeaux costs $89. Admittedly, any wine that’s over $50 isn’t cheap.The following content is accessible for members only, please sign in.

I’m thinking: Valentine’s Day. Not just with Mr. or Ms.The following content is accessible for members only, please sign in.