Restaurants: dinner at La Trompette, Chiswick, with three interesting wines
Website: https://www.latrompette.co.uk/ La Trompette is one of my favourite restaurants in London. Tucked away in Chiswick, it has an upmarket
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Napa
Highlights: Quintessa 2021 Napa, California
Website: https://www.quintessa.com/ Quintessa make just one red each year from its 135 acres of vines in Rutherford. There’s no second
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Visiting Mayacamas, who are making stunning, ageworthy mountain wines in Napa’s Mt. Veeder
Website: https://www.mayacamas.com/ Mayacamas, which is translated as call of the mountain lion, is one of Napa’s true star wineries, making
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Favia: Andy and Annie’s boutique Napa wine operation has taken a step forward with the purchase of a significant Oakville vineyard site, and the 2021s impress
Website: https://www.faviawines.com/ Annie and Andy Erickson founded Favia in 2003. I caught up with them at a dinner in the
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Highlights: Beaulieu Vineyard Georges de Latour Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon 2021 Napa Valley, California
This is a Napa Classic. Beaulieu Vineyards are now owned by an Australian company (Treasury Wine Estates) but they have
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The wines of Louis M Martini, California
Website: https://www.louismartini.com/ Louis Martini established the winery named after him in 1933, just after the repeal of prohibition. He’d established
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Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, some of the world’s most expensive grapes
Grape prices are really interesting. They vary quite a lot, dependent on region, variety, health of the grapes, the vineyard
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The wines of Château Montelena, Napa, California
Website: https://montelena.com/ Historic Napa winery Chateau Montelena dates back to 1882. This is when Alfred L. Tubbs planted the vineyard
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Highlights: Smith-Madrone Cabernet Sauvignon 2015 Napa Valley
This is brilliant. Napa is often knocked for its excess: Cabernet Sauvignon wines made from grapes picked too late, spoofed
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TOR: high-end Cabernet from Napa
Tor Kenward spent 27 years with Beringer. When he retired in 2001, he set up his own winery, TOR Wines,
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