The International Wine of the Month Club’s Premier Series is pleased to offer four exceptional wines in June from south of the equator. Leading this month’s Premier Series is the highly acclaimed 2022 La Posta Bonarda (92 Points – Descorchados), a wine that immediately captures the eye with its crystalline brilliance and intense ruby red color. However, what’s most impressive is the wine’s flamboyant aroma, a delightful mélange of crushed red raspberries, sandalwood, and dark chocolate. The newly released 2022 La Posta Armando Bonarda continues to impress in the mouth with rich berry flavors, smoky spice tones, and juicy mouthwatering acidity, which dances across the tongue before exiting with a delightful and refreshing flourish. The wine’s racy, hedonistic style and seamless structure make it an ideal wine to drink cool over the next several years, but there is no need to wait. Enjoy!
Our next Premier Series feature is the delightful 2022 Black Pearl Swartland Chenin Blanc from Mary-Lou Nash. A true crowd pleaser, the 2022 Black Pearl Chenin Blanc offers a fresh and sensuous bouquet of red Anjou pears, stone fruits, and lime zest. The wine’s enticing fruit aromas carry through in the mouth and meld beautifully with the wine’s racy, refreshing acidity. Precise and laser-like in focus, the 2022 Black Pearl Chenin Blanc caresses the senses and slakes the thirst. Moreover, every sip seems to reveal an additional aromatic delight and an appealing subtlety. Enjoy this Chenin Blanc with multiple 90 Point ratings now and often.
Next in this month’s quartet is the 2021 Mendel Lujan de Cuyo Cabernet Sauvignon (93 Points – Tim Atkin; 92 Points – Robert Parker; 92 Points – Vinous) from Roberto de la Mota, one of the planet’s greatest winemakers. Harvested from the estate’s premier, high elevation vineyards and matured in 100% oak barrels for 12 months, the 2021 Mendel Lujan de Cuyo Cabernet Sauvignon exhibits amplifying aromatics and bold beautiful flavors. Blackberry, cassis, and dark chocolate flavors flow on a bed of ripe, racy tannins. Add deft touches of spice and well-integrated oak tones to the wine’s pure ripe berry tones and this Cabernet fills the mouth, before finishing with real panache. Enjoy!
Rounding out June’s Premier Series portfolio is the 2022 Groot Constantia Western Cape Sauvignon Blanc, a classic blend of 93% Sauvignon Blanc and 7% Semillon. Bearing a bright sun splashed color and fragrant with the scents of lemon zest, passion fruit, gooseberry, and guava, the 2022 Groot Constantia Sauvignon Blanc pleases from the moment it is poured. The wine’s intoxicating aroma re-emerges in the mouth, offering a complex mélange of guava, gooseberry, citrus, melon, and passion fruit to complement a zesty minerality. Boldly flavored but impeccably balanced, the fresh and racy 2022 Groot Constantia Sauvignon Blanc tantalizes the taste buds with its snappy fruit flavors and crisp refreshing minerality. Enjoy this delicious Sauvignon Blanc moderately chilled (40°-45° F) now and for as long as you can get your hands on it, for this is truly one of the world’s finest Sauvignon Blancs.
The International Wine of the Month Club’s Collectors Series is proud to offer three exceptional wines again in June, beginning with the highly touted 2021 Luca Old Vine Uco Valley Mendoza Malbec (94 Points – James Suckling; 93 Points – Wine Spectator; 93 Points – Vinous) from Argentina’s first family of Malbec. Aromatic and seductive, Luca’s 2021 Old Vine Malbec offers a cornucopia of savory scents and flavors: blackberry, cherry, cacao, and violets mingle with sensuous spice tones and rich dark chocolate. The wine’s delectable aromatics follow through in the mouth, offering layers of savory dark berry, chocolate, and intoxicating spice tones. Savory, complex, and long in the finish with a hauntingly beautiful patina of vanilla oak, the 2021 Luca Old Vine Malbec is a very polished, balanced Malbec. A clear standout, this acclaimed wine may again be named “Malbec of the Year.” Enjoy!
Our next June Collectors Series offering is the 2022 Albert Bichot Domaine Long-Depaquit Chablis. This brilliant Chablis wears an inviting, bright, sun-splashed color, while fresh scents of spring flowers, white peach, citrus, and oyster shells greet the nose. Moreover, this comely Chablis delivers on the palate with the appellation’s refreshing telltale flavors: a delightful mélange of white flowers, flint, lemon zest, and a faint but beckoning scent of the sea born of Chablis’s Kimmeridgian soil. Sensuous and intriguing, the youthful 2022 Bichot Domaine Long-Depaquit Chablis finishes with panache. Enjoy!
Completing this month’s Collectors Series is the suave, sophisticated, and knockout delicious 2015 Château Sainte Eulalie Minervois La Livinière Grand Vin, a wine that leaves no doubt as to the Coustals’ acumen and why La Livinière was designated the first Languedoc Cru. From the moment this hedonistic delight exits the bottle, the wine’s deep and impenetrable purple robe beckons the taster. Savory scents of ripe blackberry, cherry, and plum along with a cache of exotic spices greet the nose and grace the palate. In the glass, the 2015 Château Sainte Eulalie Grand Vin unfolds gracefully, filling the mouth first with seductive berry and fruit flavors, followed by hints of chocolate and sandalwood that emerge in the mid-palate. All that the 2015 Château Sainte Eulalie Minervois La Livinière Grand Vin has to offer is carried on the smoothest, silkiest tannins. Enjoy!
