Wine Enthusiast Magazine

Wine Enthusiast Magazine is one of the most respected and quoted authorities in the world of wine and spirits. We feature the hottest trends in everything related to wine. Our seasoned editors do the work for you, with over 700 expert ratings and reviews in each issue. Plus, in-depth features on all aspects of cocktails, spirits, beer, inventive wine and food pairings, trendy recipes, savvy travel features, and more.

Wine Enthusiast Masthead • VOLUME 36, NUMBER 2

Publisher's Letter: Nobody Puts Chardonnay in a Corner • How did the variety become the poster child for “drink like nobody’s watching?”

Out and About: Wine Star Awards

Soundbites

Chardonnay: It's for Cocktails, Too • You’re not seeing things.

An AI Chatbot Wrote These Reviews • spirits reviewer Kara Newman vs. the robots

Pairology: Red Hot • BESIDES BEING A TREMENDOUSLY TRENDY RESTAURANT INGREDIENT that improves almost anything it touches, gochujang is a gift to home cooks of all skill sets. The Korean fermented paste of (mostly) sun-dried chilies and glutinous rice has all the complexity of seasoning pastes that take dozens of ingredients and hours to make. It’s indispensable not just in Korean cuisine but anywhere you want its spicy-sweet-salty character and umami depth: roast chicken, pork ribs, steak skewers, fried rice, dipping sauces, slaws, soups and stews. The powerful, concentrated flavors demand pairings with personality.

Rooted in the Past, Planting for the Future • New Mexico’s Mimbres Valley AVA is home to fine wine and holy water.

Traminette • This hardy hybrid grape can weather everything from extreme cold to hot, humid summers.

Recipe of the Month: Devilishly Charming • Have some sympathy and some taste for these takes on a classic.

Cocktail of the Month: Hop to It • This savory and sophisticated non-alcoholic sipper will put a spring in your step.

The Italian Gin Renaissance • The boot’s relationship with the spirit goes way, way back—and here it comes again.

Q&A: Bottles With the Beard • James Harden is playing the wine game to win.

To Butter or Not to Butter? • We can probably all agree that cool-climate versions, like many white Burgundies, need malolactic conversion (ML) to balance their enamel-shredding acidity—and this is where Chardonnay may shine brightest. But it’s when the volume gets turned up on the ML in other growing conditions (a key factor in that infamous butteriness) that things become controversial. We asked two members of the WE team to each pick a side: Pass the popcorn or no-malo for life?

Vintage Vantage: Oaky Origins • Oak trees from the Forest of Tronçais have sailed from France and circled the globe. Established by Jean-Baptiste Colbert, minister of Louis XIV, in the 1600s to provide timber to build boats for the French Navy, it is now a national forest. Besides being distinguished by protected oaks hundreds of years old (such as Chêne Carré seen here), the forest is a source for cooperages making barrels for some of the finest wines of Bordeaux and prized for aging Cognac.

The Chardonnay Way • If you didn’t know that the wine reviews you read in these pages are just the tip of the iceberg of all the bottles we blind tasted and rated for the issue, well, now you do. Flip to page 83 to read hundreds of them and find thousands more on our website.

Wine Column: Diurnal Doubletalk • Does debate over whose is bigger have anything to do with wine quality?

How’d That Get in There? • Exploring Chardonnay’s more … unusual … wine descriptors

Say Ciao to Italian Chardonnay • In a country known for native grape varieties, Chardonnay often takes a back seat—but it shouldn’t.

Old Vines, Fresh Potential • Once pulled to make way for Chardonnay, Argentine...