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Vinous Table: La Maison d’Estournel, Bordeaux, France
Vinous Table, France: Bordeaux
, Aug 2026
Where do you stay in Bordeaux? It’s one of the questions I am asked most often. La Maison d’Estournel has become one of my favorite stops over the last few years. This small, cozy country manor transformed into a hotel offers outstanding hospitality, exceptional food and wine, proximity to châteaux and the modern amenities that international travelers demand.
Chianti Classico: Looking Up
Italy: Tuscany, featured
, Aug 2026
After three very tough vintages, things are looking up in Chianti Classico. The young 2025s hold significant promise, while 2024 is revealing itself to be surprisingly good in spots, despite some inconsistency. That’s a big improvement over 2023 and 2022, when so many producers were impacted by severe weather events that dramatically lowered production and negatively impacted quality. I continue to be impressed with a general trend of increasing quality.
2025 Rheinhessen-Nahe and Mittelrhein: Opulence, Clarity and Sweet Marvels
Germany, featured
, Aug 2026
The 2025 growing season was marked by evenness: no frost, hail only in tiny pockets, warmth without heat spikes and sufficient rain. This spelled fast-advancing ripeness and an early harvest, which was punctuated by rain for some. The resulting wines are fruit-laden and opulent, but beautifully contoured because acids remained stable. Lovers of sweet wines will find alluring higher Riesling Prädikate in 2025, while the 2024 Pinot Noirs drive home that Germany can and does excel with Spätburgunder.
Cellar Favorite: 2013 Keller Riesling Westhofener Kirchspiel Grosses Gewächs
cellar favorite, Cellar Favorites, Germany
, Aug 2026
Pure and deeply mineral, the 2013 Riesling Westhofener Kirchspiel Grosses Gewächs is drinking beautifully today and should deliver for the next five years.
Vinous Table: The Inn at Pound Ridge by Jean-Georges, Pound Ridge, New York
Vinous Table
, Aug 2026
The Inn at Pound Ridge by Jean-Georges is a jewel of a restaurant in one of the prettiest and most quaint towns in New York’s Westchester County. The Inn has become a family favorite. Food, wine and service are all superb, and yet the casual setting makes the Inn extremely versatile for anything from a family gathering to a date night.
Vatan Sancerre Clos La Néore: 2005-2022
France: Loire, Verticals & Retrospectives, featured
, Aug 2026
Mention Clos La Néore and oenophiles’ ears immediately perk up. One of the world’s rarest and most distinctive whites, Clos La Néore represents the pinnacle of artisan farming and winemaking. This vertical spanning thirteen vintages back to 2005 showed Clos La Néore in many facets, from wines driven by steely minerality to those marked by textural richness and weight. With one or two exceptions, the wines were superb.
Sancerre: An Undulating Landscape
France: Loire, featured
, Aug 2026
The only thing that growers in Sancerre and Pouilly-Fumé can rely upon seems to be unpredictability. There is no longer such a thing as a normal growing season. Two thousand twenty-five marked yet another set of contrasting conditions to the past two vintages, creating a vastly different style of wines from those of previous years.
Cellar Favorite: 1945 Mouton Rothschild
cellar favorite, Cellar Favorites, France: Bordeaux
, Aug 2026
The 1945 Mouton Rothschild is possibly the finest, most profound example that I have encountered of this monumental Pauillac.
Vinous Table: La Fontaine De Mars, Paris, France
France, Vinous Table
, Aug 2026
Readers in search of a classic bistro on Paris’s Left Bank will want to check out La Fontaine De Mars. Located near the Eiffel Tower, La Fontaine De Mars opened in 1908 and offers a super-classic old Paris vibe.
The Original Napa Valley Icon: Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon S.L.V.
napa, Verticals & Retrospectives, featured, United States: California
, Aug 2026
Fifty years ago, Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars’ 1973 Cabernet Sauvignon Stag’s Leap Vineyards bested some of France’s best-known wines at an unassuming blind tasting. That tasting, chronicled as the Judgment of Paris, became a cultural phenomenon that changed the wine world. On the eve of the 50th anniversary of this momentous occasion, Vinous was thrilled to host a deep retrospective of the estate’s Cabernet Sauvignon S.L.V. going back to the 1973.