Founded in 1818 this house is most famous for this wine. 92 points Wine Enthusiast: "A bone-dry but delicious wine, with red fruits and a beautiful onion-skin colour that just hints at rosé. Lovely acidity completes the serious and highly enjoyable wine." 91 points Stephen Tanzer.

If you like Champagne at all, you'll love this one. It is elegant and focused with a fine perlage, light salmon color, creamy texture and lingering finish. The house is now headed by Francois Billecart, the seventh generation of family owners.

Francois maintains scrupulous standards for his Champagnes, a follower of his forebears' motto: "Tradition is meaningless without great quality." The house style is light and elegant, with emphasis on finesse rather than power. Clean, crisp acidity is a hallmark of Billecart-Salmon. The secret for this is that about 8% still red Pinot Noir from their own vineyard in Mareuil sur Ay is added to the blend, making for a very elegant and subtle wine.

This wine comes from the Soares family’s amazing estate that is run by Luis Duarte, Portugal’s best winemaker.

It is one of the best estates in the Alentejo region in Portugal, which has seen some heavy investment in the last decade or so.

Dynamic young vintner making weighty, sensational Nahe-like porphyry-wines, already among the very best in Rheinhessen, and certain to be THE next superstar-estate in the region.

The estate is 12.5 hectares, in the western-most district of Rheinhessen, near Bernhard. Soils vary, but there’s a significant vein of porphyry like the great soils of the Nahe (which is just a hop skip & jump over the hill), and there are times I think the world’s greatest rieslings grow on volcanic soil in general and porphyry in particular. And young Mr. Wagner has baskets of various soils in his tasting room, and has all his riesling-comprising 50% of his vineyards planted on porphyry.

The land is steeper here than in much of the Rheinhessen, and Wagner does 95% of his harvest by hand. Most musts are clarified by gravity, though some are fermented as-is. His basic-quality wines are made in stainless steel, but like many young vintners he’s leaning toward more old oak for the top rieslings. Similarly he ferments with cultured yeasts for the basic wines and with natural yeasts for the best rieslings. Most wines sit on the gross lees till February. All of this reveals a characteristic degree of thoughtfulness and flexibility for a young quality-minded vintner.

Ruinart is Champagne’s oldest house, with a history that dates back to 1729. The wines are quite well-known around the world, where the estate is making an effort to re-establish its presence. Today the wines are made under the guidance of Chef de Caves Frederic Panaiotis, who clearly has an outsize passion for these Champagnes as well as the house’s rich heritage.

Although Ruinart is best known for their vintage Blanc de Blancs, the Rose is perhaps even more fascinating, particularly after a few years in bottle, which in important vintages allows for the Pinot Noir to speak with great eloquence.

The Ruinart wines tend to be medium in body and are made with levels of dosage that are closer to the high end of the spectrum. Although the back labels show codes which can be tracked to disgorgement dates, it would be nice to see Ruinart provide disgorgement dates for its wines