Posts in California
New Prestige Releases from Trinchero

Trinchero 2012 Forte Napa Valley: This estate-grown wine boasts exceptional concentration. In fact, it’s a bit of a monster! It is inky black in color, bold in its full body and strident in grainy tannins. Alas, this is a classic case of a high-end wine seeing a retail shelf or restaurant wine list far before its time, even if it is now four years post-vintage.

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Under $25 Pinot Noir Values from Sonoma

Pinot Noir isn’t an easy grape to grow and it isn’t an easy grape to vinify either. Combine those two points with low yields and you have a wine style that tends to be pricey, wherever it hails from. Plus, Sonoma isn’t an appellation known for its bargains, whatever the grape variety may be. So, when I recently purchased a dozen Sonoma Pinot Noirs under $40, I was particularly pleased to find these three bottlings under $25.

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Copain Wines: Suave & Subtle

Copain Wines mix European stylistic sensibility with Californian fruit. To add a layer of complexity, these wines are made in Healdsburg, one of Sonoma’s sweetest towns, yet none are made with Sonoma fruit. Alas, it’s hardly the first time something in the wine world has seemed contradictory. What is utterly clear with Copain Wines, however, is that they are supremely delicious.

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Pinot Noir: The Gypsy

Last week I met Davis Bynum. Davis was one of the modern pioneers of Russian River Valley. (The Russians who settled there in the early 1800s planted vines before the Gold Rush of 1849.) In fact, Davis was the first to produce a single vineyard Pinot Noir from the area AND indicate its origins on the label.

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