Browse using the new Vinous website now. Launch →
2025 Rheingau & Pfalz: Energy, Ripeness, Brilliance and Speed
Germany, featured
, Aug 2026
With its combination of warmth and sufficient moisture, the 2025 growing season yielded brilliant and juicy Rieslings full of energy and ripeness. Yields were low across the board, prompting fast-advancing ripening and turbo harvests. The Pfalz almost universally delivered juicy, brilliant wines. The Rheingau is a little patchier but holds many sweet (and dry) surprises. The 2024 Pinot Noirs are pictures of elegance.
Vintage Port: The 2024 Declaration
featured, Fortified Wines & Spirits, Portugal
, Sep 2026
The 2024 vintage marks the first General Declaration of Vintage Port since 2017, bringing an end to the longest gap between Declarations since the 1940s. Does that mean a special vintage in the Douro? You bet!
Cellar Favorite: 2017 & 2018 Soldera – Case Basse Toscana Sangiovese
cellar favorite, Cellar Favorites, Italy: Tuscany
, Aug 2026
I was thrilled to share the 2017 and 2018 Soldera – Case Basse Toscana Sangiovese with a group of fellow wine lovers recently. As it turns out, we tasted the 2017 almost ten years to the day after I tasted the wine as a young, fermenting must, which brought back so many memories.
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.