In great wine, as in love, you never forget your first: "It was a 1967 Richebourg from the Domaine de la Romanée-Conti," says Allen Meadows, the founder of Burghound.com. A retired finance executive who divides his time between Southern California and France's Côte d'Or, Meadows launched Burghound.com three years ago to provide village-by-village coverage of Burgundy wines. His 1,500 subscribers pay $110 a year for extensive quarterly reports, which include tasting notes for around 1,000 bottles and cellaring advice for collectors. Recently, Meadows started reviewing high-end Pinot Noirs from California and Oregon, America's answer to Burgundy: Burghound.com's June issue featured results from a blind tasting of 110 bottles (plus a smattering of red Burgundies for comparison). Meadows predicts a bright future for American Pinots. "I served a 1989 Etude blind to a bunch of Burg geeks," Meadows says, "and everyone was seriously impressed."

Published October 2004