It’s the week of August 10, 2026.  

At my tasting headquarters in Northern California, I was shown this lineup of wines from Alphonse Mellot. I’ve been on a Sancerre kick all summer, and until I tasted these wines, I haven’t really been stopped dead in my tracks. But it happened here. Reviews will post on TastingPanelMag.com, soon.

There isn’t one wine that isn’t phenomenal here, but there is one wine that is absolute perfection. And if you’ve got a good enough sense of humor, I’ll tell you this, so you can figure it out: The right twisting of existing words could turn the label into a phrase that would surely be something uttered out of Will Ferrell’s mouth. 

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DID YOU HEAR: Jonathan Cristaldi takes on the elevated role of Chief Wine Critic for The Tasting Panel Magazine and Somm Journal, moving up the masthead from Editor-at-Large, a role he served in for over a decade.

Some changes are coming to C&Co. as we begin publishing reviews in Tasting Panel print and online, and transition this site into the realm of Video Podcasting. Great things are coming for subscribers. TBA in the coming weeks.