Wine

Sotheby’s is going to France. The longtime auctioneer, one of the leading players in collectible wine and spirits sales, announced it will soon open new offices in Beaune and Bordeaux to meet European demand and increase efficiency. The French offices will be the fourth major wine hub for the auction house, which already hosts sales

In 2019, a paper published in The Lancet made headlines when researchers questioned wine’s protective effects against heart disease and instead found that any level of alcohol consumption increased blood pressure and the possibility of heart attack or stroke. But two London-based professors recently took a deeper dive into those claims, and found that the

Should wine lovers have the right to buy wine from retailers in other states? The U.S. Supreme Court announced today that it won’t decide—at least not in this session—declining to hear Sarasota Wine Market v. Schmitt. A Supreme Court decision on the case, which challenged Missouri’s law prohibiting out-of-state wine retailers from shipping orders to

Brad Pitt and the Perrin family have new partners. Angelina Jolie has sold her 50 percent stake in Château Miraval to Tenute del Mondo, a subsidiary of the Stoli Group, for an undisclosed sum. That makes the drinks group partners with Jolie’s ex-husband on the Provençal rosé winery. Miraval has been a blockbuster since the

The restaurant industry in the U.S. and around the world has suffered a shock over the past year and a half, with the pandemic presenting unprecedented challenges to operators across the business. Within that context, few people are better positioned to weigh in on the future of restaurants than chef José Andrés, whose ThinkFoodGroup has

After more than a year and a half, Blue Hill at Stone Barns, the Wine Spectator Grand Award winner in Pocantico Hills, N.Y., will resume service Oct. 7. The news comes at the end of the six-month chefs-in-residence program showcasing everything from upscale Chilean cuisine to more casual menus with barbecue and wood-fired pizza. The

The worst-case scenario was a 50 percent tariff on bottled wine. That’s what most insiders in the Australian wine industry were thinking in fall 2020 after tensions spiked between the Chinese and Australian governments over the origins of COVID-19 and Australia’s ban on Huawei’s 5G network. Once again, it looked like the wine community was

After going virtual in 2020, the Sonoma County Wine Auction took in $1.7 million in a downsized, in-person event over the Sept. 16–18 weekend. One of the top charity auctions in California wine country, the auction has raised $39 million since its inception. “It’s great to see everyone in person instead of a computer screen,”

As the NBA season kicks off next week, Brooklyn Nets coach and kosher vintner Amar’e Stoudemire is setting high expectations for the games ahead. The former All-Star with the Phoenix Suns and New York Knicks says he now analyzes the game differently and had to learn a lot about how to manage players. It’s the

New Orleans restaurateurs felt a mix of relief and despair after Hurricane Ida passed through the city, devastating southern Louisiana and causing widespread damage from the Gulf of Mexico to New England. The city’s protective levee system held during what was the biggest storm to come so close since Hurricane Katrina made landfall 16 years

For the past 25 years, Sonoma State University’s Wine Business Institute has provided an educational foundation to its students while helping bolster the industry with its new trailblazers. The institute kicked off its 25th academic year with a virtual conversation with Wine Spectator Napa bureau chief and senior editor Kim Marcus, moderated by Wine Business

Earlier this year, charity wine auctions were optimistic about weathering the pandemic this fall. While the Delta variant has made their efforts more challenging, many are finding ways to raise funds for worthy causes. In Napa Valley, the Harvest Stomp wine auction hit its highest total ever, raising $2.7 million for the Napa Valley Grapegrowers

Wine Spectator Grand Award winner Canlis in Seattle welcomed a new team member this month: Linda Milagros Violago, the first woman to run the wine program since the restaurant opened in 1950. Violago succeeds Nelson Daquip, who departed in June 2021 to move to Los Angeles, where he has taken a sommelier position at Best

What happens when you try to act like a sommelier? For Wine Spectator‘s 15th annual Video Contest, Italian winery Caviro brought together Italian wine professionals and a comedian to show what happens when we attempt to seem like an expert instead of just being ourselves. Following last year’s “Wine at Home” theme, this year’s contest

Domaine Clarence Dillon (DCD), the family firm that owns Château Haut-Brion and La Mission Haut-Brion, has acquired St.-Emilion Grand Cru Classé Château Grand-Pontet from the Pourquet-Bécot family for an undisclosed sum. Prince Robert de Luxembourg, DCD chairman, tells Wine Spectator that the property will be combined with Château Quintus, giving DCD one of St.-Emilion’s largest

Marchesi di Frescobaldi has added another estate to its Tuscany portfolio, buying Corte alla Flora in Montepulciano. The purchase price was not disclosed. The owner, Sergio Cragnotti, a businessman from Rome and former owner of the Società Sportiva Lazio, the most famous soccer team in Lazio, decided to retire and contacted Marchesi de’ Frescobaldi president

When it comes to his wine brand, NBA star and vintner CJ McCollum and his wife, Elise, came to play. The couple have purchased a 318-acre property, located in Oregon’s Yamhill-Carlton appellation, for the Portland Trail Blazer’s McCollum Heritage 91 wine label. The purchase price and identity of the seller were not disclosed. The deal

The Wine Spectator Scholarship Foundation is donating $10 million to expand and update the teaching facilities of Napa Valley College (NVC) and its Viticulture, Wine and Technology (VWT) program. Marvin R. Shanken, editor and publisher of Wine Spectator, announced the donation this morning, as part of the Scholarship Foundation’s efforts to help educate the next

After a devasting wildfire swept through the Var region in Provence, vintners have returned to their estates to survey the damage and proceed with the 2021 harvest where possible. While the majority of the burned landscape—18,000 acres in total—was forest in the Plaine des Maures nature reserve, local wine officials estimate that over 3,000 vineyard

French-Swiss real-estate investor Jacky Lorenzetti has purchased Bordeaux’s Château Lafon-Rochet from the Tesseron family for an undisclosed sum. The St.-Estèphe fourth-growth is Lorenzetti’s fourth classified growth in Bordeaux’s Médoc region. “When you have already invested in St.-Estèphe and Pauillac, and a bank offers you an opportunity to buy an estate like Lafon-Rochet, you don’t say

From local grocery stores in Maine to giant wine retailers in Los Angeles, Kendall-Jackson wines can be found on shelves across the country. That makes Jackson Family Wines’ proprietor and chairman Barbara Banke an influential figure in a rapidly changing industry. Banke took over Jackson Family’s enormous range of wines after her husband, founder Jess

Following his February departure from Wine Spectator Grand Award winner Canlis, Seattle chef Brady Williams will open his own restaurant in the city’s White Center neighborhood Sept. 9. Called Tomo, it will feature à-la-carte weekend lunches and prix-fixe dinner menus of five courses for $68, including a vegetarian option. The cuisine carries a similar ethos

What does your gut say about your heart? According to new research, nutritional scientists found that the trillions of microbes that live in our digestive tract, collectively known as the gut microbiome, are partly responsible for the association between moderate wine consumption and lower blood pressure. Although previous studies have shown the benefits of a

Paso Robles-based Justin Vineyards and Winery is acquiring Napa’s Lewis Cellars, Wine Spectator has learned. The price was not disclosed. The deal includes the brand, winery and inventory. Justin, owned by the Resnick family’s Wonderful Company, a large farming firm that owns brands like Fiji Water and Pom Wonderful, will provide a marketing and sales

When it comes to wine, very few can match DLynn Proctor‘s experience and style. The veteran sommelier and director of Napa’s Fantesca Estate & Winery is perhaps best recognized for his appearance in the Somm films and his work as associate producer on Netflix’s feature film Uncorked. But his 20-year career includes leadership roles with

A little over a week after a United Nations panel issued a stark report on the rapid pace of climate change, one of the world’s most influential wine companies, California-based Jackson Family Wines, announced a 10-year plan to help fight climate change and pursue other broad environmental and social responsibility goals. It’s one of the

A cozy new wine bar is now open in Los Angeles’ Beverly Grove neighborhood. Melanie Wine Bar debuted Aug. 17 from Andy Paxson and Dave Gibbs, the restaurateurs behind Wine Spectator Award of Excellence winner Sushi Note in Sherman Oaks, Calif. The owners previously had a different restaurant in the space called Simple Things, but

A devastating wildfire has swept through parts of the Var region in Provence, leaving winegrowers reeling from the loss of buildings, equipment and grapes just days before the 2021 harvest. “It’s been annus horribilis for French winegrowers. We’ve had frost, we’ve had hail and now wildfires,” Eric Pastorino, president of the regional trade group Conseil

Becky Wasserman, founder of Le Serbet and Becky Wasserman & Co., died Aug. 20 of a respiratory illness. She had suffered from chronic obstructive pulmonary disease for several years, according to her family. She was 84. An innovator and entrepreneur, Wasserman championed small growers from around France, but particularly Burgundy, where she lived beginning in

Big bids were at the center of the V Foundation Wine Celebration this past weekend. The 23rd annual event grabbed a spot as one of the top charity wine auctions in the country, raising $12 million for the V Foundation for Cancer Research. The V Foundation, started in 1993 by late North Carolina State University