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

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

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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