Featured Wines - June 2012

To say that the 2008 Black Pearl Shiraz blew us away would be an understatement. Deep in color and scented with aromas of ripe blueberries, cassis, lavender, and roses, this rare, boutique Shiraz offers soft, succulent flavors that mimic the wine’s haunting aroma, revealing a polished, sophisticated style of wine with feminine charm, good structure, and a smooth silky finish that lingers. It’s no wonder why John Platter (South Africa’s version of wine critic Robert Parker, Jr.) rated the 2008 Black Pearl Shiraz four stars.

Bottled on its lees, the 2010 Domaine des Quatre Routes reveals the clean, dry, refreshing flavors that have earned estate bottled Muscadet a favored place in Parisian bistros and seafood restaurants. A slight perle or tingle, and a hint of stone fruit, citrus, and sea spray emanate from this thirst quenching wine. The limestone rich soil of the Loire, the scent of the sea, and the delicate flavors of the Melon de Bourgogne varietal are what shine in Henri Poiron’s classic, refreshingly dry Sèvre-et-Maine Muscadet.

Fioravante’s 2008 Reserva Cabernet Sauvignon hails from Perdriel, an exceptional part of Mendoza known for its intense red wines. A richly endowed Cabernet with deep, pure fruit flavors, complex earth tones, and a flair for the dramatic, it is easy to forget this wine’s best years are yet to come. However, as one of our panel members exclaimed, “it already rocks.” Dark, brooding and full of life, this cab offers plenty of black currant flavor, a deft touch of oak and enough warm, dusty tannins to balance its rich fruit.

The exuberant 2010 Nidia Rueda Verdejo offers a heady aroma combining scents of candied orange peel, green apples, lemons and peaches in a savory concoction – a wonderful prelude to Nidia’s flavor profile, which happily mimics the wine’s delightful bouquet. On the palate Nidia delivers substantial mouth feel, yet it remains crisp and refreshing. Medium–bodied but long on varietal character, the 2010 Nidia Verdejo is one easy wine to drink. It’s both ethereal and savory, all at the same time.

The 2005 Vergenoegd Cabernet Sauvignon is packed, polished, and extroverted. Appearing deep, brooding, and impenetrable in the glass, it rapidly expands with a bit of aeration into a smooth, stunning Cab delivering charm, deep flavors, and healthy tannins. The wine offers seductive aromas of black currants, dark chocolate, and roasted coffee, with a dash of loamy richness. This is a textured, flavorful wine combining the finesse of Bordeaux with the rich fruit and polished tannins one expects from the best New World Cabernets.

The hauntingly beautiful 2010 Bouchard Père et Fils got our top pick this year for Pouilly-Fuissé, a type of wine for which we are quite particular. The wine’s fragrant aroma, full of acacia blossoms, pure silky fruit, and lemon oil, enticed us from the moment we poured the wine. And, Bouchard Père et Fils’ 2010 Pouilly-Fuissé follows through both in the mouth and on the finish, exiting with elegance, finesse, and a clean minerality that attests to the wine’s grace as well as its sense of place.

In the words of one tasting panel member, “Noà is quite a big boy,” and that’s an understatement. The 2008 Cusumano Noà comes across as a brooding, intense adolescent at the moment, but already its bouquet is alluring as it streams from an opaque blackness. Within Noà’s formidable structure lies a core of berry fruit, earth, and spice that combines the best attributes of Cabernet and Nero d’Avola, and it develops a velvety smoothness with aeration. Still young, Noà will continue to evolve beautifully for the next few years.