Featured Wines - January 2012

The 2010 11 Piños Bobal Old Vines offers the scents of freshly picked red fruits, violets, minerals, and wild mountain herbs. Partially oak-aged, this youthful Bobal offers plenty of concentration, elegance and suavity in a beautifully proportioned frame. Mouth filling and persistent on the palate, this smooth and crisp old vines offering marries the unique qualities of Bobal to the contemporary penchant for moderate oak ageing, making it loveable to the last drop.

Carmen’s Gran Reserva offerings are part of Carmen’s luxury series of wines, offering the consumer one of the finest quality/value ratios available. In the case of their 2010 Gran Reserva Chardonnay, purity, balance, and flavor await the eager taster. Like a hypothetical blend of New World Chardonnay and French White Burgundy, this wine offers up the beguiling and elegant aromas and flavors of fresh pressed apples, minerals, stone fruits, and warm buttered toast.

Carmen has fashioned a string of world class Carmenère wines for nearly two decades, and the estate’s 2009 Gran Reserva is the most stunning young Carmenère we have tasted to date from this property. Deeply colored and textured, it’s a stunning example of just how good young Carmenère can be. Scents of ripe red and black fruits, roasted coffee, violets, and wood smoke lead to a deep, layered, and supremely balanced feel on the palate, where notes of crushed blackberry, dark chocolate, plum, and spice emerge.

Produced primarily from the free run must of Parellada, the 2010 Can Feixes Blanc Selecció is testimony to the magic of this fine but relatively unknown grape. The 2010 Blanc Selecció is endowed with an amplifying nose comprised of the scents of citrus, gravel, minerals, and wild flowers. In the mouth, the 2010 Blanc Selecció enlivens the palate with pure fruit flavors, pinpoint precision, gentle minerality, and a nice touch of spice, with a dry, embracing finish that is both refreshing and satisfying.

The 2008 Ch. Boutisse Saint-Emilion Grand Cru wears a deep purple robe that exudes Saint-Emilion’s hedonistic proclivity. Ripe and plush, it offers up a heavenly bouquet of blackberry, boysenberry, coffee, and finely ground spices. Warm and intense on the palate, the finely polished 2008 Château Boutisse is classic Saint-Emilion; it’s impeccably balanced and oozes with warmth, plush fruit, spice and finely grained tannins. Enjoy this lush, elegantly wrought Saint-Emilion now and for the next decade.

The 2010 Casal Novo Godello is a mere infant, yet it’s already begun to blossom, offering up savory scents of lemon zest, white fruits, and spice along with a subtle minerality that lends vibrancy and adds to the wine’s overall sensual appeal. Casal Novo’s vivacity continues on the palate, where white peach, melon, and subtle spice tones spread their welcome. All this goodness adds up to a delightfully fragrant, fairly intense but balanced glass of white wine with a lengthy finish and huge palate appeal.

The 2006 Fratelli Revello Barolo is a clear stand out, even in a vintage as fine as 2006. Possessing exceptional harmony and balance, Revello’s 2006 Barolo offers up aromas of pure, ripe red fruits, anise, mint, and moist woodlands. On the palate, this deep wine provides plenty of red fruit, spice, and pure woodland flavors. As good as all this is, it’s the finish on the 2006 Revello that leaves the greatest impression, with the wine’s floral tones re-emerging at the end. As with all Barolo, we suggest extended aeration.