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Vinous Table: Caffé Toscanini, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Vinous Table, Netherlands
, Mar 2024
Toscanini should be high on the list for any Italian epicures or oenophiles. The lively atmosphere is worth the entry price alone. Speaking to Pacenti later, he explained how regulars tend to come on Friday night and how customers are exacting in their demands with respect to seasoning, consistency of pasta and so on. At Toscanini, this is no problem. It is all part of the service. Factor a wine list that is so chock full of gems that I considered putting in a request to swap Bordeaux for Italy (only joking). Then you understand why this restaurant has been part of Amsterdam’s dining scene for almost four decades.
Merci, Monsieur Amiot: Clos des Lambrays 1923-2021
France: Burgundy, Verticals & Retrospectives, featured
, Mar 2024
Behind every label of an iconic wine lie nameless men and women whose combined talent and labor led to its creation. This vertical of Clos des Lambrays is dedicated to Etienne Amiot, a predecessor of Jacques Devauges, who oversaw the creation of these sublime wines.
Cellar Favorite: 1971 Staatsweingut Eltville Rauenthaler Langenstück Riesling Spätlese
Cellar Favorites, Germany, cellar favorite
, Mar 2024
My adoration for any bottle of wine born the same year as myself is well-known. I sound like a broken record proselytizing the 1971 vintage. But then a bottle sashays along and vindicates my opinion, reconfirming that this is such a trove of outstanding bottles, arguably none more so than Germany.
Cellar Favorite: 1948 Coufran
Cellar Favorites, France: Bordeaux, cellar favorite
, Mar 2024
I do not wish to sound like a broken record, but allow me to reiterate the most sage advice I will ever dispense on old bottles of wine. Provenance is key. Perhaps even more than producer or vineyard, how that bottle has lived its life determines how it will show once released from incarceration.
Cellar Favorite: 1973 La Fleur-Pétrus
Cellar Favorites, France: Bordeaux, cellar favorite
, Feb 2024
The latest in the series of “Don’t dismiss a poor vintage ‘til you’ve tasted it first” is a bottle of 1973 La Fleur-Pétrus that was poured blind at the excellent Lorne restaurant in London in January. Several years earlier, at the inaugural “Grouse Club”, Lord Bruce had left us dumbfounded by a 1973 La Fleur-Pétrus from his legendary cellar. This bottle left us equally lost for words.
2+2=5: Bordeaux 2021 In Bottle
France: Bordeaux, featured
, Feb 2024
Bordeaux winemakers endured a tumultuous season in 2021. It is easy to say that the wines are inferior as a result. But years of experience have taught me that is not necessarily true. Wine can defy logic, as if two plus two equals five. Keep an open mind, and you’ll find pleasant surprises.
Nature Rules/Nature’s Rules: DRC 2021 In Bottle
France: Burgundy, featured
, Feb 2024
The travails of the 2021 vintage in Burgundy spared no one, not even the most illustrious domaine of them all. At the end of the day, Nature rules. So, how did the team at Domaine de la Romanée-Conti fare, and how are the resulting wines?
Vinous Table: Zoldering, Amsterdam, Netherlands
Vinous Table, Netherlands
, Feb 2024
It had taken five years since opening for me to dine at Zoldering, and it lived up to expectations. Zoldering is really everything you could want in a restaurant unless you crave a luxurious setting or boundary-busting cooking. It’s not that kind of place. This is where you come to meet friends, chill out, drink great wines and eat delicious, well-executed food that you will want to eat again.
Come On Aline: Château Coutet 1943-2017
Verticals & Retrospectives, France: Bordeaux, featured
, Feb 2024
Château Coutet has been revered as one of Sauternes/Barsac’s most prestigious sweet wines for decades. This article delves into its long history, but as we discover, under the indefatigable Aline Baly, Coutet is an estate that constantly looks to the future.
Cellar Favorite: 1982 Pol Roger Brut Cuvée Sir Winston Churchill
Cellar Favorites, France: Champagne, cellar favorite
, Feb 2024
Our greatest Prime Minister, after Liz Truss, had impeccable taste in Champagne. Though I must drink far less bubbly than Sir Winston Churchill, which is probably why, like most people, I have always enjoyed the cuvée created in his honor. As the story goes, the PM met Odette Pol Roger in 1944 at the British Embassy in Paris, and their families struck up a close friendship.