Featured Wines - August 2012

The big, brooding, mouth-filling 2010 Carchelo offers up copious quantities of black cherry, plum, spice, and smoke on the nose as well as the palate. Deep in color and long on flavor, it is explosive in the mouth where cherry, cassis, and plum-like flavors satiate with a healthy tannic backbone. Although Monastrell (Mourvèdre) has a reputation for being a shy-bearing grape that’s difficult to grow, Carchelo serves as testimony to the virtues of this varietal and Bodegas Carchelo’s consummate skill.

Smooth, powerful, and packed with flavor, the 2010 Tremonte Oro de Los Coipos is one fine tasting wine, even in its infancy. Nearly black in color, this world class blend of Malbec and Cabernet Sauvignon offers up an enticing array of savory ripe black fruit, cedar, and sassafras scents. All this goodness carries through on the palate, joined by a wealth of deep down cassis and spice flavors, and all framed by fine grained tannins with just the right touch of toasted oak. Enjoy this wine now and for the next ten years.

The 2010 Forchir Villa del Borgo Pinot Grigio is a bright, clean, medium-bodied wine offering aromas of spring flowers and stone fruits. The aromas follow through on the palate where they are infused with a subtle minerality and a hint of citrus, which add both freshness and zip to the finish of this 100% estate-produced Pinot Grigio. It’s a wine that’s just plain fun to drink; light and flavorful, one can sip and savor it or simply knock it back. In other words, one need not work to take pleasure in this wine.

The 2009 Peltier Station Lodi Cabernet Sauvignon is one smooth, voluptuous Cabernet with a heady aroma that completely captivates the nose. Better still, the wine’s deep, rich blackberry, raspberry, and dark chocolate flavors are adeptly infused with cedar and toasted barrel flavors that made us literally beg for more. Although it sports a whopping 14.8% alcohol, the wine never comes across as hot or clumsy. To the contrary, Peltier Station’s 2009 Cabernet conveys charm, grace, and plenty of polished Cabernet flavor.

Crafted from a miniscule 2 acre vineyard on the Peltier Station property, this deeply colored Teroldego offers a complex bouquet of dried rose petal, cedar, dark Belgian chocolate and so much more. More Italian in style than American, some panel members likened this unique offering to the classic Gattinara and Spanna wines of legendary winemaker Antonio Vallana. This unique and spellbinding beauty will unfold slowly in the glass over hours, revealing its innate charms – one captivating layer at a time.

Artesa has proven once again to be at the top of their game with their Carneros Chardonnay. For starters, the prolonged 2010 growing season is evident in the aroma, a delicious mélange of summer fruits, baked apple, butter, and scintillating spice tones that emanate from barrel-fermentation and extended aging sur lie. And in the mouth, complex flavors of apple, peach, pear, and ambrosia satisfy the palate. The wine’s lavish, textured underpinning makes it a true pleasure to drink now, but further bottle age will only increase its stature.

As one would expect from well made Viognier, Peltier Station’s 2009 Lodi Viognier walks the line between feminine elegance and sinuous muscularity. Fragrant with the scents of ripe summer fruits (apricot, apple, and pear mostly), the 2009 Peltier Station Viognier leads with its feminine side. But, it’s on the palate where it offers up considerable flavor and flexes its muscles – all while never losing its inherent grace and charm. We suggest serving this delicious Viognier at no more than 40º-45º F.