Featured Wines - August 2000

A clear, bright sunshine imbued robe delivers scents of honey and summer fruits: peaches, apricot and pear permeate the nose. Gentle, immensely flavorful and completely seductive in the mouth, the 1998 Chateau Joanny is so easy to drink you will want to open a second bottle well before you finish the first. It’s medium body, full flavor and great balance might even convince you to invite a friend or two over to enjoy a third bottle. Enjoy!...

Structured like a classified Bordeaux, the 1998 Carmen Reserve Grande Vidure (60%), Cabernet Sauvignon (40%) is full of red fruits, spice and other lush decadent flavors. However, this wine’s best is yet to come as a layer of tannin will peel away, revealing secondary characteristics: coffee, berry, chocolate and bacon fat - the very flavors the Bordelais refer to as “gras” or fat. Bottled unfiltered, the Carmen Grande Vidure/ Cabernet Sauvignon ...

The 1999 Lawson’s Dry Hills Sauvignon Blanc is a tangy, palate pleasing Sancere-style Sauvignon Blanc. In the nose, the first impressions are of herb, grass, grapefruit and flint, reminding us of some very expensive French renditions. As it opens, gooseberry, passion fruit and finally, pineapple begin to permeate the bouquet and flavor of this expressive, mouth-filling wine, each adding depth and dimension. On the finish, this Lawson’s Dry Hills ...

The 1997 Baron de Magana should dispel any notion that the Navarra is any less capable of producing world class wine than Spain’s more highly publicized Rioja. In fact, we prefer the fuller, richer fare we have been tasting lately from this beautiful province to many of the over-oaked, underwined Rioja’s on the market. Deep, forceful and robust in color, the Magana melds the very best characteristics of its three great varietals: Merlot, Cabernet...