K&L Wine Merchants - Giovanni Bueno Reviews

Review Date: 05-10-2022

Often imitated, seldom replicated, and in this day and age when little is left that you can rely on, Billecart Salmon Rose is the old friend you can trust. Made with a nearly traditional blend of champagne's greatest grapes, this wine pulses with life and makes a heady companion to poached salmon, grilled langoustine or even a rich and fatty tuna tartare.

Price: $94.99

Billecart-Salmon "Le Réserve" Champagne

Review Date: 05-10-2022

The classic, hard to get these days and even harder to put down once you've popped that top and gotten it into a glass. Fresh, with hints of flowers, stone fruit and a gentle yeasty scrumptiousness that has you crying out for more. Please come down and get some before it all disappears again.

Price: $64.99

Pierre Mineral Brut Rosé Champagne

Review Date: 05-10-2022

Bursting with pomegranate, cherry and petunia sweetened air, this is an exemplary Rose champagne. You know a K&L direct import when you see a wine that should cost way more but there it is, right within budget. You'll love what this wine brings to your next fish dinner, or next cheese-filled book club meeting.

Price: $49.99

Ariston Aspasie "Cépages d'Antan" Brut Champagne

Review Date: 02-05-2022

This is not just a wine for the wine nerd. Cepages d'Antan could very well be portal from the past into the future of Champagne, using once forgotten about grapes native to Champagne. Cloy and veiled initially, this wine really starts to open up with air, so if you're not one to decant Champagne, try it out with this special blend. You will be rewarded with a bouquet of different citrus from a touch of mandarin peel, to plucky lemon and even some buddha's hand? Then the butter cracker comes through and the extended lees pays off as swirls of heady savory herbs come into the finish. Who knows if climate change means we move back to some of these forgotten varietals, but at least you'll know what everyone had been missing when we get there.

Price: $119.99

Egrot Extra Brut Champagne

Review Date: 02-05-2022

What's not to love about extra brut Champagne? Imagine a wine maker who knows that they have delicious fruit and they take that fruit and make a delicious wine, and then they have such confidence with that wine that they bottle it with just a whisper of lifting dosage. Egrot's Extra Brut has a beautiful minerality to it, and a hint of salinity as if it was plucked from the sea. The finish is brisk and almost stern, but more like the love of a Grandmother who knows what's best for you. Bruised cherry, fatty Marcona almonds and a doughy savory character speak to the mastery of lees contact that Elisabeth Goutourbe likely has written into her DNA.

Price: $39.99

W.B. Saffell Limited Edition Batch #1 107 Proof Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey (375ml)

Review Date: 02-01-2022

Andrew and David do a great job of delivering you the heady nuances of this whiskey--I'm just here to hype. This bourbon is everything you want in an American whiskey, leaping across the room from any glass it's poured into to smack you with deep caramel notes and fragrant earth and spice. Even taking small tasting sips like we do at work, this whiskey lingers on your senses, creating a cacophony of smells and flavors that will be sure to delight even the casual lover of whiskey. If you've already got a bottle of this, grab another, you never know when you might run out.

Price: $49.99

2009 Meyney, St-Estèphe

Review Date: 11-21-2021

Big, complex and richly oaked. If this wine could be described in action: You are eating chocolate covered cherries in a hilly, heavily wooded forest, and suddenly you see a fox dash across your path that pulls you like a magnet down the hill, but suddenly you are tumbling instead of chasing and your body kicks up mounds of wet earth and when you finally reach the bottom you are unharmed and the fox is licking at your hands inviting you to take another drink of this fantastic wine. Age this wine, drink this wine now, pair it with rich fatty foods and you'll be as happy as a fox.

Price: $99.99

VN: 94

JS: 93

RP: 92

Damien Hugot Grand Cru Brut Blanc de Blancs Champagne

Review Date: 08-14-2021

What a fantastic wine! It’s an attractive, medium-intensity yellow color that bounces with life when you pour it into a glass. Loaded with ripe yellow pear, vibrant golden apples, and lemon confit on the nose, your mind will want to wrap itself up into a scarf and dream of autumn with red and yellow leaves dancing in a swirling breeze. Biscuit, buttered baguette, and fresh-from-the-oven brioche round out the lees characteristic of this wine made by a family whose savvy has been passed down by 25 generations. The acid, marled with limestone and finesse, is balanced and nuanced, creating a beautifully refreshing wine. You’ll want it by itself and for apéritif with some potted meats, mousses, and cheese. Or you’ll want to pop it open just after you’ve taken that roasted pork leg out of the oven, crispy skin snapping and crackling at the table.

Price: $42.99

Chartogne-Taillet "Sainte Anne" Champagne

Review Date: 07-21-2021

You aren’t going to find many centuries-old-families that plow their ancestral fields by horse in Champagne; the Chartogne-Taillet family respects the ancient terroir of Merfy (7 km north of Reims) as religiously as the Benedictine monks did back in the 7th century when the old lieu dits were first sanctified into history. The Sainte Anne bottling captures all of the nuances and variety in the different vineyards that winemaker Alexandre Chartogne obsesses over. When you pour it into a glass, the bubbles burst forth in a flurry of metallic almond colored clouds. Notes of bruised orchard fruit and gentle macadamia nut leap out of the glass. The beautiful velvety mousse comes at you with bright raspberry and ripe strawberry and a clean and juicy finish. For balance and complexity, Alexandre mixes in some reserve wine to give this wine the round smooth taste that you can talk about for days and days. Who better to celebrate these days than a winemaker in Champagne that lives and breathes terroir.

Price: $69.99

VN: 92

JG: 91

Ariston Aspasie "Réserve" Brut Champagne

Review Date: 12-20-2020

My wife and I drink a bottle of Champagne every Friday, we call it Champagne Friday. It’s been running strong for almost a year now and I am amazed that we haven’t gotten around to Ariston Aspasie Réserve. The price wrongly directed me to think that this wine would ride the middle of the road in terms of quality and taste and I’m always happy to admit I’m wrong when the reward is this good. In the bright and sultry nose it’s all lemon peel, pretty orange flowers, toasted almonds, flaky croissant and a hint of orchard fruit demonstrating the power of this 40/30/30 ratio of Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier. You can really taste the zippy, zingy and punchy flavor of the exceptionally well grown cool climate grapes and world class wine making facilities. We enjoyed our bottle with a succulent and fatty pork chop--not too intensely flavored but rich in flavor and the biting acid of this wine really helped to make the flavors sing---but aperitif and after dinner cheese would also make this sing.

Price: $37.99

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