Featured Wines - May 2006

The 2004 Undurraga Chardonnay Reserva is an elegant, flavorful style of Chardonnay that combines that best of both Worlds – the Old and the New. This Chardonnay’s amplifying nose is redolent with the aromas of apples, fresh baked bread, white flowers, and dried apricot all wound around a gentle vanilla oak that knows how to highlight a wine’s attributes rather than annihilate them. And as pretty as the aroma of the 2004 Undurraga Reserva Chardo...

A sleeping giant, the 2003 Hewitson Mad Hatter Shiraz is an elegant, rich, highly polished McLaren Vale Shiraz that is poised to burst. In short, this is the essence of outstanding Shiraz and a tribute to the greatness of this varietal in South Australia. The 2003 Mad Hatter is packed with enormous character, flavor, and style. Black fruits, cassis, smoke, licorice, and polished wood are just a few of the scents and savors that gush from this...

The De Angelis brothers are known for their richly robed, decadent style of Lacrima Christi, but the glorious 2004 De Angelis Rosso Lacrima Christi del Vesuvio is without a doubt the brothers’ finest effort to date. It offers a veritable feast for the senses, beginning with a deep black cherry colored robe and a haunting bouquet. The nose comes across as an infusion of pure black fruits, summer berries, plum and cedar, which deftly move onto th...

Elegant and classy, the 2003 Jacques Girardin Santenay Premier Cru is a wine to dress up and take out on the town. Refined and oozing with potential, this red Burgundy is already delicious and reveals itself as a charming and satisfying dinner companion. Properly served in a wide-bowled glass, this garnet-colored wine releases aromas that carry the distinct signature of its terroir; grassy and woody notes mingle and evolve with each sip. An in...

The 2003 Georg Breuer Rudesheim Estate Rheingau Riesling is no flabby, syrupy fruit bomb, so you may dispel any pre-conceived notions you may have formed about Riesling or German wines in general. Nevertheless, the 2003 Georg Breuer Rudesheim Estate Riesling does display plenty of praiseworthy fruit; yet, it does so without sugary sweetness. The wine’s tremendous burst of pure Riesling fruit is admirably offset by bracing acidity and subtle min...

“Charming, round, soft, and pretty,” were the adjectives most often heard uttered around the tasting table in conjunction with the lovely 2003 Château La Rose Tour Blanche. Indeed, the 2003 Château La Rose Tour Blanche is pretty, red Bordeaux. Within a ruby red robe and a medium body lies a balanced, distinctive, healthful wine that speaks of classic claret. Scents of wild berries, spring rains, and awakening woodlands permeate the nose; while,...

The soft scents of wildflowers and honey emanate from the golden-hued 2004 Il Palazzone Terre Vineate Orvieto Classico Superiore. This is a wine the carries the seductive scent of spring in every draught of its delightful bouquet. Moreover, all of this lovely Orvieto’s olfactory goodness follows through on the palate, so that very sip of the 2004 Il Palazzone Terre Vineate Orvieto recalls the vernal awakening amidst the budding green and amber-...