Cover Story

The Best of San Francisco  San Francisco dining is special for its almost fanatical devotion to ingredients. Nowhere else has the quest for sources percolated through the food culture so thoroughly

• Map and Restaurant Scores at a Glance
• Grand Dining  The restaurants in this category provide inventive cuisine and extensive wine lists in settings that exude luxury  By Harvey Steiman
• Less Lavish, More Relaxed  Six casual dining destinations that offer cozy spaces and great value on food and wine  By Harvey Steiman
• San Francisco Originals  Some distinctive options for neighborhood dining  By Harvey Steiman
• Wine Bars  Proximity to California wine country and an eye to international producers make the city's wine bars popular stops  By Daniel Sogg
• Award-Wining Restaurants  A comprehensive list of all the San Francisco restaurants with Wine Spectator award-winning wine programs  By Daniel Sogg
• Hotels  From charming rooms to lavish suites, the city offers a vast array of lodgings  By Daniel Sogg

• Wine Spectator Online  To find more dining options in San Francisco, use our Restaurant Search, which features more than 3,700 wine-friendly restaurants around the world. See the entire list of the Wine Spectator 2006 award winners

Features

Tasting Report

Australian Reds  Shiraz and Cabernet reach new heights in quality, led by wines from the 2004 vintage  By Harvey Steiman

• Sure Bets  Profiles of 10 Australian wineries that consistently produce outstanding reds

• Wine Spectator Online  Bonus Video: In two tastings, editor at large Harvey Steiman discusses Australian Cabernets and compares high-end and value-priced Shiraz.

Wine

Château Giscours  Amid a bitter legal battle, this third-growth property in Margaux continues to make excellent wines  By Bruce Schoenfeld

Departments

This Issue  By Marvin R. Shanken

Upfront  A labor shortage thwarts Northern California winegrowers; Len Evans, champion of Australian wines, dies; study finds some grapes rich in melatonin

• Wine Spectator Online  Keep up with breaking news about the wine world every day.

Tastes  Six essential spices; Atlas pepper mills; demanding quality coffee at restaurants

• Wine Spectator Online  To learn more about spices and herbs and how they interact with wine, visit our online Encyclopedia of Food.
• To learn more about coffee, visit our online Encyclopedia of Food for coffees from around the world or read Mark Pendergrast's article on how to taste this beverage.

Dining Out: New York  Craftsteak and Le Cirque, two new high-profile ventures presented by veteran restaurateurs   By Thomas Matthews

James Laube  The heat is on

• Wine Spectator Online  James Laube's new blog provides tasting insights, commentary and news from California.

Matt Kramer  Euro-beautiful wines

Inside Wine  Yeast's role in winemaking  By Daniel Sogg

Collecting  Sonoma Showcase turns its focus to wine; Wine Spectator Auction Index posts its largest gain ever

• Wine Spectator Online  Subscribers to Wine Spectator Online can search the site's complete auction database, which tracks prices and performance for more than 15,600 cellar-worthy wines, including the 154 frequently traded collectibles in the Auction Index.

Wine Talk  MSNBC general manager Dan Abrams  By Tim Fish

The Buying Guide

For complete reviews of more than 162,000 wines, use Wine Spectator Online's Wine Ratings Search, where you can sort by region, variety, vintage, price, score and tasting date.

2006 HARVEST  As crush gets underway in the Northern Hemisphere, find out how the vintage is doing in the top wine regions of Europe and the United States. COLLECTING  Discover what your wines are worth in our searchable Auction database, which features updates on prices and performance for more than 15,600 cellar-worthy wines. Plus, get highlights from the latest auctions and find out when the next big sale will be. EDITORS' BLOGS  James Laube, James Molesworth, Harvey Steiman and James Suckling post blog entries several times a week, sharing insights into their latest tastings and their personal experiences with wine. Recent hot topics have included the role of critics, wine pricing and what makes a wine classic. MAGAZINE ARCHIVES  Find the complete text for any Wine Spectator story since 1994 in our Archives section, which is organized by issue.

BONUS VIDEOS  This month, in conjunction with his Australia report, editor at large Harvey Steiman hosts a tasting of the country's big reds: Shiraz and Cabernet. View the video on our Web site or subscribe to Wine Spectator's weekly video Podcast on iTunes QUESTIONS? COMMENTS?  Check out our forums-now featuring a new moderator-where fellow readers share everything from tasting notes to dining tips. DAILY WINE PICKS  Looking for a new bottle to try? Six days a week our editors recommend recently released wines in three price ranges, so there's something for everyone.