Featured Wines - February 2012

This Reserva is another flawlessly balanced wine from Luis Valentin and Carmen Enciso. It ingratiates with plenty of dark fruit aromas, mingled with fresh cedar, spice and dark chocolate. In the mouth, the wine offers soft, silky fruit followed by complex layers of sandalwood, cinnamon, coffee, and fresh tobacco. Valenciso’s Reserva always seems to strike a perfect balance between fruit and structure, and the 2005 is no exception, with downright velvety tannins adding both structure and support, without imposing astringency.

Donati’s 2007 Paicines Claret is an artful blend of Merlot, Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon, and Cabernet Franc from Donati’s own vineyard, which is located 27 miles east of Monterey Bay. Deep crimson and endowed with a rich claret-like nose, Donati’s Claret marries the pure fruit flavors of Paicines with cedary, cigar box flavors more reminiscent of top-notch red Bordeaux. Allow Donati’s youthful Claret considerable aeration to bring out all of the wine’s Old World charm and complexity.

Deep purple in color, Vierlas offers up the enticing aromas of black fruits, blueberries, grilled meats, and hickory nuts. Moreover, Vierlas comes across as warm and rich on the palate, providing plenty of forward fruit and mouth filling flavors in a generous, balanced format. And underneath its huggable fruit lay an ample underpinning of ripe tannin, which should allow it to improve for several more years in bottle. However, even in its youth, there is nary an edge to this delightful offering from Guelbenzu.

The elegant 2009 Jacques Girardin Les Terrasses de Bievaux Santenay offers toasty new oak flavors and subtle spice tones that give way to crisp apple and poached pear scents as it evolves and expands leisurely in the glass. Full of graceful, subtle Chardonnay flavors, wrapped beautifully in a cachet of vanilla and spice, this Santenay offers the exquisite balance, charm, flavor, and sophistication that first rate white Burgundy has to offer.

On the nose, this stylish wine offers up the beguiling scents of acacia flowers and apple blossoms. On the palate, the 2010 Domaine de la Collonge Mâcon-Fuissé follows through with gentle fruit, pinpoint minerality, laser like precision, and purity – all of which add up to an elegant, nuanced, refreshing glass of Chardonnay that will please even the most ardent critics of over-blown, over-oaked Chardonnays.

Pinot Blanc is one of California’s least known grape varietals, even though it it’s nearly always a real crowd pleaser. Donati’s Paicines Pinot Blanc is no exception, sporting great eye appeal, bright pure fruit flavors, high natural acidity, and a gorgeous spice box finish. In between, one encounters a cornucopia of subtle, complex scents and flavors that go missing in far too many California Chardonnays. In short, superb balance, pure flavors, and a clean, exuberant finish make Donati’s Pinot Blanc a true crowd pleaser.

As we have come to expect from this domain, Guigal’s 2007 Gigondas is a deeply colored, full-bodied red wine possessing charm, vigor, and elegance, built along the lines of the estate’s now legendary Châteauneuf-du-Pape. It sports a rich ruby/purple robe and a flamboyant aroma of rose petals, violets, kirsch and crème de cassis. On the palate, Guigal’s Gigondas is broad and expansive with a core of black fruits and spice, all neatly wrapped around silky tannins.