Wine

Napa Valley winemaking iconoclast and Massican winery founder Dan Petroski pulls no punches in this hard look at the wine industry’s newest obstacles and trends. Host James Molesworth and Wine Spectator contributing editor Suzanne Mustacich look at the 2020 Bordeaux vintage and speak with Château Pichon Comtesse de Lalande director Nicolas Glumineau and CVBG president

Having been closed for several months, chef Michael Mina’s Wine Spectator Best of Award of Excellence–winning Stripsteak in Las Vegas reopened Dec. 30 at the Mandalay Bay Resort & Casino, with a revamped menu and a new design. “We opened Stripsteak 17 years ago. In fact, it was my very first steakhouse!” Mina, the founder

A state of emergency was declared in southern Chile’s bucolic Ñuble and BioBio regions this morning as wildfires rage out of control, worsened by strong winds. The blazes broke out in Concepcion province after a record heatwave. At least four people are dead. The National Service for Disaster Prevention and Response reported 39 separate fires

Giuseppe Benanti, a forerunner for the rebirth of Sicily’s now thriving wine scene on Mount Etna, died Feb. 1. He was 78. “Pippo Benanti was a charismatic, visionary and ambitious winegrower,” said Alberto Aiello Graci, owner-winemaker of Graci winery. “He helped to set a glorious path for the wines of Etna, believing in their value from

Donald Hess, a businessman, art collector and a vintner on four continents, died at the age of 86 in Bern, Switzerland, on Jan. 30. Born in Switzerland in a family of brewers, Hess built a successful mineral water company before entering the wine industry in 1978 by purchasing 700 acres of vineyards in Napa Valley’s

Christian Moueix is the kind of man who has annual rainfall statistics memorized. “In Bordeaux, the average is 38 inches, with much less variation than Napa,” he detailed. “The past 25 years in Napa range from 8 to 63 inches.” It’s important for vintners—and not just Moueix, whose 134-acre Napa Valley property Napanook Vineyard is

Straight Talk kicks off 2023 with a star-studded trip to France’s Rhône Valley, a closer look at Port with two of the region’s biggest names, and Wine Spectator’s Value Wine of the Year for 2022. Host James Molesworth and senior editor Kristen Bieler share tales of their recent trip to France’s Rhône Valley, and we’re joined

With the opening of MaMou near New Orleans’ historic Louis Armstrong Park, wine lovers have a new go-to spot in the Lower French Quarter’s vibrant dining scene. Since November, the restaurant has been serving classic continental cuisine with local flair, true to executive chef Tom Branighan’s southern Louisiana roots. Branighan looks to provide a taste

Giving a big boost to the eco-friendly and socially conscious farming approach known as regenerative agriculture, Mendocino County-based Bonterra Organic Estates is releasing a new tier of wines, its first bearing the Regenerative Organic Certified (ROC) logo. The company, which changed its name from Fetzer last year, is the largest vineyard holder to date to

Michael Martini, who was born into a Napa Valley wine dynasty and followed in the winemaking footsteps of his father and grandfather, died Tuesday after a brief battle with lung cancer. He was 73. Martini retired from Louis M. Martini winery in 2015, after 40 years of making wine for his family. Late last year,

In December, the team at Wine Spectator Award of Excellence winner Little Saint announced that co-owners Laurie and Jeff Ubben would take full control of the plant-based, farm-to-table restaurant in downtown Healdsburg, Calif. Philanthropists and owners of DuMol Winery, the Ubbens opened Little Saint in 2022, in a partnership with Kyle and Katina Connaughton, co-owners

After years of drought, much of California has been hammered with snow and rain since New Year’s Eve, including heavy precipitation from back-to-back strong “atmospheric rivers”, and reports of floods, fallen trees, high winds, power outages, evacuations, sink holes and mudslides. So far, 17 deaths have been attributed to the weather in the Golden State. While several

New York City’s popular Restaurant Week is returning from Jan. 17 until Feb. 12 for its fourth annual “Winter Outing,” a way to lure visitors and locals out and about in the chilly weather even after the holiday season has ended. The event spotlights more than 460 restaurants from all over Gotham, including 57 Wine Spectator

The past 12 months have largely been a time of evolution for the wine and hospitality industries, as they push towards a post-pandemic recovery while trying to gain a better understanding of new consumers and wine’s place in everyday life. Some of the most famous and reliable family-owned wine brands have changed hands, driven by

Luciano Sandrone, a vintner who was part of a movement to elevate quality in Barolo for more than four decades, died yesterday after a lengthy battle with cancer. He was 76. Sandrone built his wine business from a tiny 2.5-acre parcel in the appellation of Cannubi to 67 acres stretching from Barolo to Serralunga d’Alba

On a sunny afternoon last December, a middle-aged woman angrily walked out of 88-year-old Sherry-Lehmann, once the royalty of Manhattan wine and spirits stores. “I was shopping for a gift bottle of tequila for my boss,” the woman said, as she waited to cross Park Avenue. “But the salesperson tells me there’s only one bottle

As we prepare to ring in 2023, Wine Spectator‘s editors are taking a moment to toast the wine industry pioneers, innovators, leaders and chroniclers we lost this year, among them one of our dearest friends. This year we said goodbye to California Pinot Noir pioneer and Calera founder Josh Jensen, charismatic Château Léoville Barton owner

Economists are uncertain if 2023 will deliver a full recession to the U.S. economy or simply a slowdown, thanks to stubborn inflation, rising interest rates and the continued impact of the war in Ukraine and the pandemic. A lot of household net worth has been wiped out in the past 12 months, between the stock

Expanding its global portfolio, Tao Group Hospitality opened a new restaurant on Dec. 6 at the Moxy Lower East Side hotel in New York City: Sake No Hana, a lively spot for contemporary Japanese cuisine. A reinvention of the original Sake No Hana in London (which closed in 2021), it joins more than 70 Tao

While our most-popular videos of 2021 highlighted the itch to get together after being cooped up during the pandemic, 2022’s videos were a return to the basics of wine enjoyment. Refreshing summer cocktails for poolside imbibing, tours of the grand estates of Bordeaux and classic wine-and-cheese pairings all appealed to our viewers, as did a