Featured Wines - June 2010

Classic, juicy Côtes du Rhône best describes Guigal’s eminently drinkable 2006 Côtes du Rhône Rouge. With 50% Syrah as the wine’s base, it should come as no surprise that a mélange of red and black fruits dominate the aromatic profile of this wine. And on the palate crème de cassis flavors emerge from this hedonistic potion to meld with a seductive dollop of garrigue (the alluring scent and savor of Provencal brush and wild herbs) that characteri...

The 2006 Domaine des Baumard La Calèche is a light golden wine that captures the beguiling charm and pastoral beauty of France’s Loire Valley. Like the countryside of this fabled part of France known as Le Jardin de France (The Garden of France), Baumard’s La Calèche captivates the senses slowly and imperceptibly. It is both subtle and ingratiating. As a special cuvée of Chenin Blanc from a number of Baumard’s Anjou vineyards, La Calèche possesse...

The 2007 Molnar Family Poseidon’s Vineyard Pinot Noir is one suave, sophisticated Pinot Noir. Seductive in the nose, it offers entrancing scents of crushed berries, cola, and plum. On the palate, the wine’s alluring aromatics follow through and mingle with hints of forest woodlands, herbs, and Asian spices. Smooth, textured, and expansive in the mouth, this mid-weight Pinot Noir is ideal for drinking now and for the next several years. For optima...

James Healy and Ivan Sutherland have created their finest Sauvignon Blanc to date in the super premium 2007 Dog Point Vineyard Section 94. Consequently, Dog Point’s flagship Section 94 Marlborough Sauvignon Blanc appears on nearly every outstanding restaurant wine list in New Zealand, and if there were enough to go around Section 94 would be known the world over. For starters, this outstanding Sauvignon Blanc offers up a sensual, complex cachet o...

Stefano Massone has once again fashioned a fresh, lively, natural Gavi of supreme elegance and breed from the six hectare Vigneto Masera. From the wine’s inviting straw-colored robe to a blithe, refreshing finish the 2008 Massone Masera Gavi is another unequivocal success from this estate. It offers the usual clean, refreshing fruit flavors and overt appeal for which Gavi is renowned, and more. Delicate grape, pear, pineapple, and fresh squeezed ...

By combining fruit from the warm Dry Creek Valley and the cooler Russian River Valley appellation, Dry Creek Vineyard has created an aromatic, flavor packed 2007 Heritage Zinfandel that is simply delicious. Aromas of blueberry, bramble, chocolate and white pepper seep from the glass. On the palate, crushed berries, mint, and tobacco flavors mingle with suave oak tones and the wine’s own refined tannins. Although ripe, redolent, and fully charged,...

A deep complex wine that combines power with finesse, the 2003 Silvio Grasso Bricco Luciani Barolo provides the perfect snapshot of Grasso’s style. A quintessential La Morra Barolo, this wine offers up a beautiful bouquet of redcurrant, coffee, plum, mocha, and spice. On the palate the wine is broad and expansive, exhibiting a smooth, polished core of fruit, spice, and roasted coffee. Furthermore, the wine’s youthful tannins have begun to recede,...