Featured Wines - June 2011

Blackberry, cassis, wood smoke, voluptuous fruit, a seductive mid palate, and a long, lusty finish punctuated by pinpoint minerality are just a few reasons to like (we mean really like – love, if you will) the 2008 Shannon Vineyards Mount Bullet Merlot. In short, Shannon’s Mount Bullet Merlot is no ordinary Merlot, and for that we are thankful. Rather, this outstanding offering is a feast for the senses that reminds us of fine classified Bordeaux, shaming in fact many a grand cru St. Emilion.

The 2009 Cusumano Benuara is a deeply colored potion that captures the brooding pulse of Sicily. And like Sicily and its soul mate Sàgana, Benuara can be stoic and reticent upon first meeting. However, after a few minutes in a glass to collect itself, it offers a wealth of luxuriant, hedonistic fruit, spice, and weight.

Consummate winemaking skills and the myriad attributes of the magical 2008 vintage have imbued the 2008 Bethel Heights Estate Grown Pinot Noir with charm and hedonistic pleasure as well as great age ability. This youthful, full-bodied Pinot Noir already offers up a fragrant bouquet of cinnamon, clove, ripe black fruits, and the intoxicating scents of roses and spices.

The 2010 Fernz Sauvignon Blanc is redolent with savory scents: fig, freshly mown grass, gooseberry, guava, pink grapefruit and more dazzle the nose and follow through in flavor on the palate. Equally impressive is the wine’s silky texture, pinpoint minerality, and crisp, snappy finish. In short, Fernz has fashioned a wine that captures the essence of Sauvignon Blanc and the entrancing beauty of New Zealand. The 2010 Fernz Sauvignon Blanc is more than a cut above the pack.

The 2009 Villa del Borgo Refosco opens up with an eye catching ruby robe. It follows up with a beautiful fruit driven nose. Scents of cherry and woodland strawberries waft from the glass, followed by the clean, haunting fragrance of forest floor swept by a spring rain.

Muscadet is a wine made to accompany the fruits of the sea and Sèvre and Maine is an appellation whose climate, history, and sustenance are inexorably married to the sea. Consequently, it should come as no surprise that the wines of Muscadet, including Château du Coing are fashioned with all the edible creatures of the briny deep in mind. In France, oysters are the traditional, tried and true accompaniment to Muscadet.

While most New World Chardonnays are beginning to tire at five years of age, the 2006 Vasse Felix Heytesbury Chardonnay is just beginning to hit its stride – ample testimony to Vasse Felix’s magic touch and Margaret River’s inimitable terroir, which together produce the most complex, age worthy of Australian wines. The aroma alone on the Heytesbury Chardonnay is worth the price of admission: subtle, complex hints of acacia, jasmine, pineapple, and stone fruits mingle with citrus zest and soft spicy, well-integrated oak tones.