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Staff Favorites - Alex Leonardini

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Reviews

Bonnaire "Tradition L'Espirit Du Temps" Champagne

Review Date: 04-16-2026

The Bonnaire "Tradition L'Espirit du Temps" Champagne is fantastic value from a long-established producer in Cramant. The wine is composed of 50% Chardonnay from Cramant Grand Cru, 30% Pinot Noir from Bergères-les-Vertus 1er Cru and 20% Meunier from Fossoy, in the Marne Valley. The wine is rounded and creamy, with wonderful texture from an ultra-fine bead, and has notes of fresh pear, pastry dough, and crisp apple. The first time we've featured this producer in our club and an excellent addition.

Price: $39.99

Wine Club

$34.99

Dérot-Delugny "Milieu Naturel" Blanc de Noirs Brut

Review Date: 04-09-2026

The Derot Delugny Milieu Naturel Blanc de Noirs is more about its pinpoint-perfect texture than it is about any individual flavor profile. 100% Meunier from the oldest grower-producer in this region, the wine is seductively silky, with fine, shiny bubbles and a broad, mouth-filling texture. Neither rich and heavy nor lean and acid-driven, it is layered with juicy pear, golden apple, and French baguette with a hint of raspberry trailing into the silky, creamy finish. This may be one of the most texturally appealing Champagnes I've ever had the pleasure of tasting, and I can't wait to have more.

Price: $39.99

2022 Matthiasson Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon

Review Date: 02-17-2026

The 2022 Matthiasson Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon is a wine that harkens back to the Napa Valley of old and perfectly encapsulates everything that Napa wine should be. The structure is silky yet lithe, fresh acidity and fine-grained tannins balancing on a pinpoint. Then there's the palette of aromas and flavors, kaleidoscopic in their interlacing breadth. Black cherry, cassis, violet, fresh herbs, anise seed, graphite, eucalyptus--the list goes on and on. This is one of the most complex and focused wines I've ever had the pleasure of tasting. No cellar is complete without it.

Price: $79.95

DC: 99

Damien Hugot "Hommage 1921" Extra Brut Champagne

Review Date: 02-06-2026

The Damien Hugot “Hommage 1920” is perhaps the mostly subtly seductive wine in the line-up. The nose is more restrained, wafting hints of yuzu, apple, and salty ocean air lifting from the glass in slow, lazy pulses. It isn’t shy, exactly, just quietly reserved, hinting at an underlying complexity without needing to show off. The palate is similarly focused, with sea salt, oyster shell, zested yuzu, peach skin, and toasted almond all tracing a linear path across the palate into a precise, mineral finish. This is a bottle that demands you take your time, slowly unpacking all it has to offer. Really impressive.

Price: $49.99

Damien Hugot Extra Brut Blanc de Blancs Grand Cru

Review Date: 02-06-2026

A slightly leaner yet notably more fruit-driven sibling to the Grand Cru Brut Blanc de Blancs, the Extra Brut bottling shows layers of red and green apple, baked pear, white peach, and jasmine. All the minerality, toast, freshly baked brioche, and leesy richness of the Brut is present as well, and the finish is noticeably chalkier, but the extra fruit profile leads this to be perhaps the more approachable of the two bottlings in this batch. I suppose the only way to know is to try both, preferably side-by-side.

Price: $49.99

Damien Hugot Grand Cru Brut Blanc de Blancs Champagne

Review Date: 02-06-2026

It’s no secret that Damien Hugot is one of my favorite Champagne producers around, and the entry-priced Grand Cru Brut Blanc de Blancs exemplifies the level of balance and complexity managed by this small grower at an absurdly reasonable price. Pear and green apple electrify the palate, paving the way for intense oyster shell and sea salt minerality to flood the gates. Then, just when you think you’ve figured the wine out, locking it away it in the “lean, mean Champagne” box, it expands with spicy ginger, delicate white flowers, and toasted brioche. The finish is long and spiraling, forging ahead with ripe, almost juicy pear and apple, guided by chalky minerality, and held aloft by alternating waves of freshness and richness. This is a Champagne that refuses to be categorized, daring instead to do it all. And it does it all supremely well.

Price: $42.99

Lehmann "Jamesse Prestige" Grand Champagne Mouth-Blown Wine Glass #45

Review Date: 10-22-2025

I get it, you want the best. Well, here it is. The Lehmann "Jamesse Prestige" are ultralight, ultra-thin, and ultra sleek. All mouth-blown in Europe, this is next-level stemware that makes any occasion special. There is no next step, no higher rung, no mountain peak. You can pay more for other high-end Champagne stems if you like, but this is as good as Champagne glassware gets.

Price: $44.99

Lehmann "Jamesse Reference" Grand Champagne Ultralight Glass #40 (we can only ship in 6-packs)

Review Date: 10-22-2025

We've been carrying the Lehmann "Jamesse" Champagne glasses at K&L for quite some time, but it wasn't until I spent several days drinking out of them in Reims and Epernay that I truly fell in love with the shape and style. Visit Champagne and these are the glasses that you will find in almost every winery, Champagne bar, and restaurant in the region, and for good reason. Flutes are far too narrow to allow the lifted aromatics of Champagne to truly soar, and standard wine glasses allow the bubbles to dissipate far too quickly. The Lehmann "Jamesse" glasses give you the best of both worlds, and the "Ultralight Glass 40" is beautifully thin yet affordable enough that I actually use them rather than leaving them tucked away for fear of breakage. Bringing out these glasses truly elevates every bottle.

Price: $19.99

2017 Launois "Helia" Grand Cru Brut Blanc de Blancs Champagne

Review Date: 10-15-2025

The 2017 Launois "Helia" Blanc de Blancs, which in past vintages would have been bottled as the Special Club offering, lives among the best Champagnes in the store. Crisp green apple and lemon curd harmonize with richer roasted hazelnut and baked sourdough flavors, while the zippy acidity and soft texture find perfect cohesion. If you, like me, have bottles of Launois' Special Club bottlings tucked away for future consumption, the 2017 "Helia" has more than earned its place in the stash.

Price: $79.99

Krug "Grande Cuvée" 172ème Édition Brut Champagne

Review Date: 08-30-2024

Krug "Grande Cuvee" in almost any edition is a wine so electrifyingly good and kaleidoscopically complex that it's almost difficult to review. The 172Eme, based on the 2016 vintage rather than the warmer, more opulent 2015 base of the previous edition, includes a whopping 42% reserve wines from as far back as 1998. The result is simultaneously tightly wound and incredibly expansive, with a sphere of toasty brioche, roasted nuts, frangipane, and ground nutmeg barely containing the wine's reverberating core of lemon drizzle and green apple. The crackling acidity cracks through, carrying the flavors through a long, fractal-like finish. I find few wines in these upper cost echelons to be worth the money, but Krug, and especially the Krug 172Eme, is one of the very few worth saving up for. The wine just doesn't let up, and it certainly never disappoints.

Price: $259.99

A. Bergère Brut Origine Champagne

Review Date: 06-20-2024

The A. Bergere "Origine" Brut Champagne may be new to the shelves of K&L, but the Bergere family has been fastidiously tending vines on the slopes of the Valee du Petit Morin since 1849 and making their own Champagne since 1949. The wine is composed of 70% Chardonnay, 20% Pinot Noir, and 10% Meunier, all of which is fermented in barrel with reserve wine making up 30% of the final product. The result is a wine of dual personalities: succulent, unctuous texture and dry, mineral-driven freshness. There's so much weight and leesy, toasty delight through the midpalate, but the wine manages to finish with an almost chalky minerality, balancing the best of both worlds. This one is well worth trying for yourself.

Price: $54.99

2021 Burn Cottage "Sauvage Vineyard" Pinot Noir Bannockburn Central Otago

Review Date: 03-14-2024

The 2021 Burn Cottage "Sauvage Vineyard" Pinot Noir is as pretty and elegant and complex as they come. The nose isn't so much explosive as it is pervasively intense and nuanced, with each smell offering a new layer of aromas. First, crushed rose and gardenia petals that are followed by a layer of graphite and pencil shavings. Then, red cherry is followed closely by sea brine until bright, ripe strawberries and a touch of peppercorn take the lead. The palate is magnetic, bringing all the florals and fruits and minerals from the nose together in a seamless and never-ending spiral of complex beauty. This is a wine structured for aging, but with so much happening now and soft enough tannins that it isn't required for optimal enjoyment. This isn't bargain wine, but there are few Pinot Noirs as staggeringly thought provoking as this, and the few there are cost far, far more.

Price: $74.99

More Favorites

Alex Leonardini is also a fan of the following items. To become a fan of Alex Leonardini, click here to join Alex Leonardini's Personal Sommelier Service.

2021 Hendry "Estate" Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon ($59.95)

2023 Method Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon ($22.95)

2021 Filomena "Massa Vineyard" Carmel Valley Cabernet Sauvignon ($12.99)

2022 Cobb "H. Klopp Vineyard" Sonoma Coast Chardonnay ($43.99)

2021 Cobb "Doc's Ranch Vineyard" Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir ($69.95)

2022 Storrs "Christie Vineyard" Santa Cruz Mountains Chardonnay ($29.95)

2023 Eric Kent "Sascha Marie - Roberts Road Vineyard" Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir ($21.99)

2023 STiRM "Gimelli Vineyard" Cienega Valley Chardonnay ($19.95)

2023 Domaine Frederic Esmonin Gevrey-Chambertin ($54.99)

2016 Les Pagodes de Cos, St-Estèphe ($64.99)

2009 Coufran, Haut-Médoc ($24.99)

2024 Farella "Estate" Coombsville Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc ($24.95)

2014 Farella "Estate" Coombsville Merlot (Winery Direct Library Release) ($39.95)