Pinot Noir

A Secret to Quality and Value? Top Notch Bourgogne-Passetoutgrains!

Within the dazzling diversity of Bourgogne red wines, discovering quality and value doesn’t have to be an insurmountable challenge. Easy-drinking gems are readily available at terrific prices. You just have to do a little digging with an open mind and palate. Consider, for example, high quality Bourgogne-Passetoutgrain red wines. GENERIC BOURGOGNE-PASSETOUTGRAINS Bourgogne-Passetoutgrains (pronounced “Boor–gawn–Pass–too–gran”) typically

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Delightful Southern Burgundy Surprise! Awesome Red Wines From the Mâconnais

In the search for quality and value with Burgundy red wines, keeping an open mind often brings pleasant surprises. Consider the red wines of talented winegrowers Céline and Laurent Tripoz from the southern Burgundy region of Mâconnais. Notwithstanding the Mâconnais’ reputation for offering seas of white wines, Céline and Laurent also produce three delicious and

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Friends Sharing Tips on Good Reads and Good Wines

The Covid-19 pandemic has provided at least one saving grace: more time to drink delicious wines and to read good books. Since the “lock down” started, I’ve traded reading and drinking recommendations with lots of friends, My wine industry colleague and fellow Pittsburgh native, Jess Peters, made the terrific recommendation of reading Mark Whitaker’s “Smoketown: 

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Dave’s Wine Tips: Drinking Gueguen Bourgogne Rosé Pinot Noir For Refreshment

For crisp, refreshing rosés, images of sunny southern France come readily to mind. The region’s wealth of familiar choices include Provence’s “pink” wines and Tavel’s delicious, full flavored dark rosés. But believe it or not, winegrowers far to the north in Burgundy also offer mighty tasty, thirst-quenching rosés. Consider, for example the 2019 Domaine Céline

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Dave’s Wine Tips: Shrewd Buying Delivers Burgundies With Quality and Value.

When you love drinking red burgundies, giving up is just not option. Abiding passion must be served. Yet over the last decade as prices on even village wines have escalated to $60 or more per bottle, popular producers’ wines have sadly slipped out of reach in recent vintages. When you’re feeling the disappointment, just remember

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Wine of the Weekend: Nicolas Rossignol’s 2015 Bourgogne Rouge Cuvée L’Héritière

It certainly comes as no secret that steadily growing global demand for red Burgundies over the last two decades has narrowed the possibilities for discovering “good values.” Wines from top producers command hundreds of dollars per bottle. So it’s reassuring to taste a wine like Nicolas Rossignol’s marvelous 2015 Bourgogne Rouge Cuvée L’Héritière and realize that

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Winegrower Christian Binner and the Pleasures of Alsace Pinot Noir

An anonymous brick warehouse somewhere on the outer reaches of Flatbush Avenue in Brooklyn, New York might seem an unlikely place to discover distinctive Alsace Pinot Noir wines. But when Isabelle Legeron, M.W.’s “2017 RAW WINE” Fair took place in the warehouse, talented Alsace grower Christian Binner’s reds provided a highlight as one hundred fifty producers

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Restaurants “Vantre” in Paris and “Le Terroir” in Burgundy Deliver Memorable Moments

When visiting Paris and Burgundy, two of France’s most popular destinations, we all share a burning question. Where can I eat and drink well and memorably without breaking the bank? In Paris, the relatively new Vantre offers an intriguing option, and in Burgundy, Restaurant Le Terroir in Santenay provides a reliably charming choice. Vantre occupies

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