This is an original line-up of value-driven Chardonnays from River Road Family Vineyards and tea and wine guru Ron Rubin. Alas, the names of the first two wines below are confusing. Names aside, the wines offer a complementary array of Chardonnay styles.
Read MoreEhlers Estate 2020 Sauvignon Blanc - This beauty's aromas are pretty and exotic yet also delicate: a plethora of floral blooms nest with kumquat, pomelo zest and cardamom. The palate has a pleasantly tactile pithiness that, with its medium-plus acidity, nicely corrals its rather full and creamy body - whatever one might assume from the abv. Minerally and lingering on the finish, this wine has oodles of charisma along with rather profound concentration to allow it to age in bottle well for several years.
Read MoreI fell in love with the dry table wines of the Douro in the early aughts, just as I was getting into the wine business. On my first trip to Portugal, I visited the Douro and was lucky enough to visit Quinta do Crasto, whose single vineyard wines I thoroughly admired. If my memory serves me correctly, the Vinha do Ponte and Vinha Santa Teresa wines cost only about $60-70 a bottle at the time. Today they go for over $200 - if you can find them. Here is a selection of more accessibly-priced wines - all from local grapes, including a lovely dry white that offers tremendous value.
Read MoreItalian rosatos are incredibly distinctive in that the vast majority of them come from uniquely Italian varieties. While you might - if you look hard - find a rosato made from Montepulciano made outside "the boot" of Italy, it's unlikely you'll find one made from Negroamaro. Plus, I guarantee you there are none made of Susumaniello or Rondinella. So, pop open a bottle of one - or all - of these and discover a whole new flavor range of rosé wine!
Read MoreIn 2022, Sonoma's iconic Chalk Hill Estate will celebrate 40 years since founder Fred Furth first spotted from his airplane the property's natural amphitheater on the eastern side of the Russian River Valley. The property - and then in 1983, the AVA - were named for the area's white, powdery and volcanic soils. Though a sub-AVA of the Russian River Valley, Chalk Hill is warmer because it sits above the cooling fog experience throughout the rest of the Russian River.
Read MoreI recently reconnected with the Wentes of Wente Vineyards for the inaugural World Chardonnay Day webinar. The Wente Family is known for its "Wente clone" of Chardonnay, which is a highly sought-after heritage clone in California.
Read MoreEasy-going and impressively accessible already, this juicy, berried wine is surprisingly gluggable. Svelte tannins meet lightly piquant acidity to give this blend a real pop of freshness. This is super fun though not very complex.
Read MoreSardinia is deeply distinctive. The island is detached sentimentally from its legal association with Italy. The languages spoken there today - including Italian - reveal its rich history, including isolation and invasion. The local Sarda language is considered to be the closest Romance language to "vulgar", or non-classical, Latin, and a dialect of Catalan is spoken in the northwestern corner of the island. Vinously, the grape varieties are historically Spanish.
Read MoreI was taken by Enate's Chardonnay 234 last December, so I was very eager to taste some wines from the bodega this spring. As with the vintage 2019 Chardonnay, the value on offer here is tremendous. I love the inclination of Spanish wineries to release wines when they are ready to drink. This is a fine example of a bold red wine that is brilliant now and that would have shown very differently if released on a more "modern" schedule of 12 to 18 months post-harvest.
Read MoreWinemaker Jesse Katz began this venture in 2009, just before I originally met him in 2011 when he took on the winemaking at Lancaster Estate and Roth. Fast-forward just over a decade….this is an incredibly rich Chenin Blanc to be only 12.1% in abv. It's deep yellow in color and rounded and broad on the palate with a generous oiliness…..
Read MoreBeaujolais Crus are delightful summer wines. Their exuberant, raw fruit flavors and pronounced, minerally undertones deliver a vitality in the glass that offers a delicious compliment to more complex and equally fresh summer fare. However, Beaujolais Cru shouldn't be lumped in with Beaujolais or Beaujolais Villages - much less Nouveau styles - as a pairing for picnic fare and summer barbecues.
Read MoreAs hard as it may be for some to believe, Merlot is a much-loved grape. The Sideways effect on Merlot at this point feels almost as distant as the 60 Minutes effect on red wine in general almost three decades ago. Kids born the year that the movie Sideways hit the indie screens (2004) will be legal drinkers in the USA in just four years. They and many other young sippers don't care that Merlot was sidelined - by a small portion of the drinking population - for a fairly short while. They are going to drink what they like, just like many other drinkers have been all along.
Read MoreBarbara Banke of Jackson Family Wines does nothing that isn't infused deeply with passion. So when I heard that she entered a partnership with a long-standing friend, Peggy Furth - formerly of Chalk Hill Estates - to develop a line of wines called Windracer, I was immediately curious. These are two class-act, business-savvy women, who earned their stripes and their very considerable paychecks on their own, well before they became part of California's North Coast elite vintners. I knew that the wines and terroir they chose would be distinctive.
Read MoreRon Rubin makes not only wine but also tea with Republic of Tea. That certainly offered some level of confidence when I agreed to taste the wines. This guy clearly knows how to taste! The prospect of making high-priced, super-limited-production, hard-to-find wines is not what makes Ron tick.
Read MoreDomaine de la Bégude is run by the seventh generation of the Tari Family, which hails from Château Giscours in Bordeaux's Margaux. As such, not only is this deeply-colored rosé typical of Bandol, it is also akin to the clairette style of rosé from Bordeaux. This Bandol Rosé is truly a rosé for all seasons.
Read MoreAligoté suddenly is a hot commodity as a Burgundian variety. Long a favorite, casual wine between family and friends of producers and of those that - gasp - wanted to make a Kir with it, Aligoté suffered from being the "second white grape" of Burgundy for far too long. Today it is chic and sought-after. Sometimes it's a "natural" wine expression. Other times it is clean-cut and pungently youthful. Yet other bottlings are a maze of complexity. Plus, throughout the styles, there are age-worthy ones. There is truly something for everyone in today's Aligoté.
Read MoreKind of Wild Wines hit all the right buzz words for today's concerned and informed consumer: "Made with Organic Grapes", "Supporting Organic Growers", "Free of Unwanted Additives", "Sustainable for Soil Health" and "1% to Environmental Partners" are some of their taglines. Mind you, only one of those snippets means anything legally.
Read MoreMandrarossa is based near Sicily's southwestern coast near the town of Menfi. In 2020, over twenty years since its founding, which itself happened only after years of painstaking research, the winery expanded to begin gathering grapes from two more world-class sources: Etna and Pantelleria. The wines are clean, precise and soulful. For the second time, I've come away highly impressed from my tasting.
Read MoreCorvezzo makes exclusively organic Prosecco, over half of which is estate grown. This bold choice was made by third generation "happy farmer" Giovanni Corvezzo as soon as he came to work full-time at the family farm near Treviso, one of two historical centers of the Prosecco production region. Not only has the switch to organic farming given Giovanni healthier grapes with thicker skins good for fending off the Veneto's occasionally finicky weather, he believes the wines are tastier, too. I can't say anything about the pre-organic wines, but these certainly are good wines, especially for the money.
Read MoreI've had the pleasure to get to know Brad Greatrix at the International Wine Challenge over the last eight years. Also, I've had many opportunities at the same competition to get to know English Sparkling Wine fairly well. Of course, the two spheres intersect.
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