But wait! ‘Value’ and ‘Chablis’ are rarely uttered in the same sentence these days, especially with the designation ‘Premier Cru’ on the label! Va de Vey is much smaller than its better-known 1er Cru...
Historically one never turned to the Macon for rich, character-filled white Burgundies. They looked further up the Cotes to find them. But a new generation of vintner and a little help from a changing climate has turned appellations like...
An while we’re talking value and climate change, how about Remoissenet’s very impressive Bourgogne Aligote for under $25! You might know this venerable property run by Pierre Rovani as having one of the deepest cellars of old wine in...
Let’s take it up a one more notch, shall we, and visit the Cotes de Nuits appellation of Morey-Saint-Denis where 90% of the production is beautiful Pinot Noir. The under-six hectares of Chardonnay scattered around the appellation, though, are...
This is the first appearance of Gosset’s Blanc de Blancs in our annual Champagne fest and it was a real stunner; with an ethereal quality, delicate minty spice and extremely fine bubble and texture. **** JR- Wow. This was the Champagne...
All three of the Billecart Salmon wines were spectacular, beginning with this Blanc de Blancs cuvee. Pure, lush fruit with brilliant freshness and youthful vivacity. Simply gorgeous! ****JR- The Billecart wines were, across the broad,...
This has jumped to the top of must-drink white for Thanksgiving! - JR Over the years, we have felt obliged to tell our customers that the white wine grape of Burgundy was Chardonnay. And it is. Except, that is, for a smattering of Pinot Blanc in the...
2022 Tansy Fiano, Bowland Vineyard, Russian River Valley
Believe it or not, there were some good things that emerged from COVID as well as the myriad bad. Take Tansy Wines. It was because of the pandemic that local...
2020 Skerk Carso Ograde Venezia-Giulia Bianco
‘Orange,’ you groan. ‘Not an orange wine!’ Yes. Drink it. It’s good, and good for you! You told me you wanted to experiment once in a while, and this November is your month to...
Go east from Piemonte until you can go east no more and you’ll find the ancient and indigenous Friulano grape thriving on either side of Italy’s border with Slovenia. This fresh, herbal white has all the acidity you need to cut through...
The hillside vineyards of Caluso, right on the border between Piemonte and Valle d’Aosta, seem to defy gravity, perilously clinging to terraces built during Roman times. It’s a stunning vista you almost have to see to believe. ...
When it comes to California Chardonnay, there are many who it do it well, but the list of those who do it exceptionally well is a lot shorter. These are winemakers who can translate California’s best sites into wines with transparency and...
We remember our first meeting with Randy and (the late) Debbie Lewis. It was at a party at their home on the peninsula to debut their (I think it was….) 1992 Lewis Reserve Cabernet, a cuvee made with under the Miner Family label. Randy...
The wines of Seresin are a real blast from our past because during the heyday of New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc, several decades ago, we, like so many of our customers, fell in love with these distinctive whites, especially those from the Marlborough...
Location, location, location! We discovered not too long ago that Sonoma-Cutrer’s top-quality Russian River Ranches cuvee is largely sourced from the Chardonnay vines planted on either side of the driveway that runs up to the hill to the very...
What do you do when your spouse insists on great White Burgundy but you’re too cheap to spend an arm and a leg to keep peace in the family? The obvious answer is to buy Macon Village and lie about the price. With a wine like the 2022...
Here’s a bold move by PRIMA’s Minister of Value; recommending a white Burgundy as a mid-tier wine because, as you well know, good Burgundy doesn’t come cheap. This is a wonderful, oak-aged Chardonnay, made by a small, family-owned...
2022 Deltetto Langhe Rosato 'Suasi'
Susasi means, in the Piemontese dialect, ‘chosen’ and every year the Deltettos choose a tiny bit of Nebbiolo from their vineyards in Roero to harvest a bit earlier in the season in order to fashion...
I’ve always thought that a good Roero Arneis is a wine best left unadorned: Let the pure fruit and lovely acidity do the talking and you’ll have a wine that says everything about its origins, tastes great and can even last in the cellar...
All Arneis wines are not created equal, especially now that this grape, once seemingly destined for extinction, has become, by far, the most popular and most-produced white wine made in the Langhe region of Piemonte. People, I guess, forgot that...
JR- 42 months on the lees added a lot of extra complexity and texture to really a beautiful wine. Compact Asian pear, a hint of brioche and a lemon drop finish! Serious juice. ***(*)
2020 Chateau Quinault L'Enclos Saint-Emilion Grand Cru Classe HALF BOTTLE
We first became familiar with Quinault L’Enclos back just after the 1998 vintage, a fabulous one in Saint-Emilion, while we were still selling ‘Futures’ of...
Wine Advocate: The 2021 Chardonnay Isobel Charles Heintz Vineyard is the 20th bottling of a Heintz Vineyard Chardonnay at DuMOL. It was harvested September 25-27, matured in larger barrels and finished with six months in stainless steel. "There are very...
Wine Advocate: The 2021 Chardonnay Chloe is scented of white peach, jasmine, meringue and toasted almonds with flinty streaks. The light-bodied palate has a gently grippy texture and refreshing acidity to balance its concentrated core of spicy stone...
Bargemone is among the foremost estates of the Coteaux d’Aix appellation of Provence. A benchmark producer of the delicious, dry rosé for which Provence is famous. Bargemone Rosé is a harmonious blend of Grenache, Cinsault, and...
You saw the big bottle offer we sent out two weeks ago and I’m thrilled to see that a lot of you will be opening very large bottles of this Rose this summer! We took and double magnum to a wedding party and it was gone in about 30...
Proceeding to still wines and looking to start with a light, crisp white wine, there is no better choice than the Cantina Valle Isarco Pinot Grigio, a house favorite and a frequent by the glass pour in PRIMA Ristorante’s heyday.
2022 Caveau Savoyard Savoie Apremont DOP
If you’ve been deep into the alpine foothills that comprise the Savoie region in the southeastern corner of France, you can relate to just how the crisp, minerally wines there taste of the high altitude...
Pronounced var-renne, this cuvée comes from roughly six acres on the plain, where the heavier clay soils give more spice and structure to the wine. The vines are mature, averaging 45-years; the wine ferments in steel and undergoes around 14 months...
Even while Pinot Noir from Oregon was catching the imagination of wine lovers everywhere 25 years ago, Chardonnay from the northwest was proving to be a very hard sell. Even when they were good- and that wasn’t too often back then- customers...
2021 Weingut Wohlmuth Sauvignon Blanc Ried Hochsteinriegl Grosse STK $52.99 per bottle with shipping included on 6 bottles or more By the now, after three wildly popular offers of the Wohlmuth Sauvignons over the past two years, we...
Longtime Vietti winemaker Luca Currado is a pretty passionate guy, and it really didn’t take much to get him wound up. But listening to him speak about his project out in the Colli Tortonesi would get even the most cynical wine guy...
2020 Louis Jadot 'Domaine Gagey' Santenay Clos Des Gatsulards Pinot Noir
This gorgeous Santenay actually hit our radar screen a few years ago when we auditioned the 2012 for inclusion in a Louis Jadot dinner. It turned out to be the hit of the evening...
Wait,’ you ask. ‘What the heck am I going to do with a three-liter bottle of Rose?’ Use your imagination! As proven under laboratory conditions, all you really need is 10 fun-loving over 21-year old friends to absolutely...
Marsannay-la-Cote is the northernmost appellation in the Cotes de Nuits and, as also its coolest spot temperature-wise, a beneficiary rather than a victim of the recent string of warm to hot vintages in Burgundy. Back in the old days, even the best...
There’s something about that Fevre name! This branch of the first family of Chablis, that of William’s cousin Nathalie who, for many years, was the winemaker at the famous La Chablisienne , and husband Gilles, whose father and...
Belgians in Barbaresco? Yes! And for over a hundred and fifty years, too. Gioacchino De Forville moved his family into the town of Barbaresco from Wallonia in present day Belgium in 1860, settling in a small house with a cellar just...
Jeb Dunnuck: An even split of Grenache and Mourvèdre brought up mostly in tank (20% in demi-muids), the 2019 Châteauneuf Du Pape Les Hesperides is a dense, meaty, powerful wine offering a monster bouquet of black cherry and blackberry fruits...
While not every dry pink wine from Bandol has it, the best are instantly identifiable by a distincitve aromatic profile that features exuberant wild strawberry and lantana flower intermingled with white pepper spice, subtle rose petal and...
This wine is crafted from 100% Assyrtiko grapes carefully selected from specific vineyard blocks on the beautiful Santorini island. The vines, aged 60 years, are nurtured to perfection. After fermentation, the wine undergoes batonnage in stainless...
2020 Domaine Michel Magnien Gevrey-Chambertin Les Seuvrees
We at PRIMA continue to wage our small war against overpriced Burgundy. It’s more, actually, a sort of guerrilla skirmish where we taste with and then convince various importers to...
2019 Domaine Masson-Blondelet Pouilly Fume "D'Or et Diamant"
As every lover of the crisp, mineral driven Sauvignons of the Loire Valley already all-too-well knows, the 2020 and, especially, the 2021 harvests were nearly decimated by...
2020 Domaine Masson-Blondelet Pouilly Fume "Les Pierres de Pierre
As every lover of the crisp, mineral driven Sauvignons of the Loire Valley already all-too-well knows, the 2020 and, especially, the 2021 harvests were nearly decimated by...
2019 Domaine Henri Clerc Saint Romain Blanc
As the climate changes and the summers get warmer and warmer, Saint-Romaine is one of those appellation in the Cotes d’Or of Burgundy you’ll be hearing more about. The very highest altitude...
$59.99 with shipping included on 6 bottles or more
And now for something completely different! Andy Smith, is a veteran winemaker of Scottish descent with a resume that includes working for several producers in Burgundy before coming to...
Simple is sometimes (well, a lot of the time) better. Sure, we love our Chardonnay when it gets super concentrated and ripe in the vineyard, gets fermented on its natural yeast, sits on its lees, gets stirred around and has a nice long stay in a...
You can practically hear the sea gulls swirling overhead when you pull the cork on this…..Giorgio Rivetti’s foray into western Tuscany has been the source of several stunning wines starting with, of course, his impressive and top-value...
2022 Isabelle Garrault Sancerre Blanc ‘Les Grands Monts’ How sad it has been to be without delicious, mineral-driven Sancerre Blanc these past few months. It’s such an important staple in any wine fridge and we love to...