Featured Wines - October 2009

A unique blend of Sonoma County Merlot, Zinfandel, and Cabernet Franc, the 2007 Friends.Red Zinfandel is a plush, smooth, almost huggable red wine. Rich in color and pleasantly aromatic, this medium bodied wine offers up an enticing bouquet of berry fruits, bramble, and forest woodlands. In the mouth, all that is appealing in each of the varietals in Friends.Red comes to fore and blends harmoniously together as one. In doing so, they offer the pa...

Ethereal, flavorful, and delightfully uncomplicated, the 2008 Château Lamothe de Haux Bordeaux Blanc embodies all the attributes of the finest white Bordeaux. A glint of the sun and a pale yellow hue capture in each glass of this wine the radiance of summer, and then set the table for more sprightly pleasure to come. Although always consistent in quality from vintage to vintage, the 2008 Château Lamothe appears to be this estate’s finest Bordeaux...

A deeply colored, full-bodied red wine, the 2005 Guigal Gigondas exhibits as much charm as vigor. Built along the lines of Marcel Guigal’s now legendary Châteauneuf-du-Papes, this Gigondas possesses a rich ruby/purple robe and a flamboyant bouquet that offers a cachet of rose petals, violets, and the deep down scents of kirsch and crème de cassis to tantalize the olfactory. In the mouth, this Gigondas is broad and expansive, with a core of black ...

Once again Tim Burvill has fashioned an exceptional wine in Rockbare’s 2007 McLaren Vale Chardonnay. Pale yellow with a glint of sunlight, the vibrant 2007 Rockbare Chardonnay appears radiant and even regal in the glass. Even more exciting is the aroma this wine exudes – a delicate yet seductive bouquet of freshly baked bread, caramel and mountain apples. However, the best is yet to come: the 2007 Rockbare Chardonnay offers a complex, refreshing ...

The 2006 Château Lamothe de Haux Premières Côtes de Bordeaux sports a bright ruby robe, soft scented bouquet, and friendly up front flavors, which make it one very pleasing, easy drinking claret for here and now. If you are expecting a tannic monster whose attributes lie in the distant future, you would do well to look elsewhere. Instead, the 2006 Château Lamothe de Haux Premières Côtes de Bordeaux is all about fine, every day drinking – right no...

A deeply colored, full-bodied red wine, the 2005 Guigal Gigondas exhibits as much charm as vigor. Built along the lines of Marcel Guigal’s now legendary Châteauneuf-du-Papes, this Gigondas possesses a rich ruby/purple robe and a flamboyant bouquet that offers a cachet of rose petals, violets, and the deep down scents of kirsch and crème de cassis to tantalize the olfactory. In the mouth, this Gigondas is broad and expansive, with a core of black ...

Wines often express not only the personality of the vineyard but also the character of the winemaker. And this is certainly true of Hirtzberger. The 2007 Hirtzberger Rotes Tor Federspiel Gruner Veltliner is as focused, elegant, and refined as its creator, but its most defining attribute is that its greatness is understated. Franz Hirtzberger’s 2007 Rotes Tor Gruner Veltliner is a polished, dignified Gruner Veltliner. It exhibits an amplifying bou...