The Latest / Wine 101

Few things are as exciting as realizing you are experiencing an undiscovered phenomenon. Like your cousin who was playing Nirvana tapes before they hit the radio, or the line cook flipping burgers next to Danny Meyer. You vibrate with the energy of the thing, you can’t wait for it to infect everyone else. You start passing out cassette tapes and inviting your friends out to dinner.

Today, that’s me and Burgenland.

Beaujolais has been one of our favorites since we opened Flatiron. There’s probably no region that we, the Flatiron staff, drink more regularly.  This blog shares all the reasons we love Beaujolais wine and why you should too!

With such diversity it can be hard to summarize the region’s wine style. But to us, the heart of the matter is that Lower Austria gives us authentic wines. And best of all, they do this at incredibly fair prices.

Monforte shines through its sheer diversity. 

It does have quite a bit of limestone in its soils, but less than Serralunga, and in general the soil types, altitudes and orientations are as mixed up in Monforte as in any other village. 

It’s an exciting time to discover the wines of Austria. The dynamic styles produced by the technically proficient graduates of the Klosterneuburg juxtapose the experimental natural winemakers breaking the mold in every region.

I adore Castiglione di Falletto because it is balanced.  The best wines possess a regalness and composure that is only possible when you stray from the opposite ends of a spectrum and wander towards the happy middle.  

Here you have wines that do have intense structure and aromas – of course, as this is Barolo! – but also poise. 

These vineyards only make up about 10% of the DOC Barolo, but they make a far larger percentage of the best known wine, and 100% of the village is entitled to produce Nebbiolo called Barolo.

La Morra is a very important village! And not just because it’s charming to visit and has a number of top producers and vineyard sites. 

It’s also important because it produces a lot of wine! Look at any map of Barolo’s villages and  you’ll see that La Morra is a giant blob taking over the entire northwest corner of the area. This blob produces around 25% of all Barolo.

In the wine world, people are often reluctant to pick favorites, especially in print. But I’m going to do it anyway: I declare that Barolo is the greatest wine of Italy. I love many wines from all over Italy, but I have picked a favorite, and it is Barolo.

Sancerre's soils are one of the keys to its amazing wines, and Oxfordian Limestone is one of the more common its three super-special soils. Click here for a guide!

Whatever your reason for shopping online, we think it is time to update the wine buying advice to an increasingly virtual world. So here are my five tips on how to shop for wines online. 

There is no extra fee or charge for consultation, no lengthy quizzes or interrogations of your taste. In fact, buying a case of wine this way is probably the easiest approach to finding new wines that you’ll love.