Two distinctive portfolios from one distinctive wine importer/distributor:
WineWise: Wines from France, Spain, Portugal, and Greece selected by Hiram Simon and Brian Greenwood.
The Vienna Wine Company: Wines from Germany, Austria, and Champagne selected by Terry Theise.
Trade tastings: Our annual Champagne tastings with growers will take place on October 17, 2011 in Los Angeles and October 18, 2011 in San Francisco. Please save the date. We will send details closer to the date of the event. To receive information about these and future tastings, contact Hiram Simon.
Greek vineyards: This article by Konstantinos Lazarakis MW is as elegant and clear an exposition as we have seen on what makes Greece so special.
Austrian rieslings in the news: In the May 9, 2011 New York Times Eric Asimov reviewed 2009, 2008, and 2007 Austrian rieslings: "As for the three from 2009 in our Top 10, they come from Nikolaihof, Nigl and Bründlmayer, three of Austria’s top producers, and while they all appropriately reflected their vintage, they were each nonetheless complete, balanced wines, unlike some of the ’09s that we rejected."
2010 German vintage report: Terry Theise holds forth in his inimitable fashion on the inimitable 2010 vintage in Germany., a.k.a. the "WTF?!?!" vintage.
R. López de Heredia in the news: In the September 2010 issue of The Rosengarten Report, David Rosengarten explains why López de Heredia is his favorite winery in the world (pages 35-41 of the PDF). The article also includes tasting notes on about 20 wines.