Featured Wines - December 2013

From Alejandro Fernández, the man widely regarded as the unrivaled master of Tempranillo, comes the recently released 2009 El Vínculo. Endowed with a beautiful aromatic profile and plush flavors, this old vine Tempranillo delivers deep blackberry and currant scents mingled with hints of sandalwood and Asian spices that usher in the wine’s soft, succulent flavors. Combining tremendous flavor with subtle complexity, El Vínculo offers a velvety texture backed by fine grained tannins that add lift and allow the wine to exit with a graceful flourish.

The 2012 Príncipe de Viana Barrica Chardonnay gives ample testimony to Navarra’s ability to produce fresh, beautiful white wine. This barrel fermented Chardonnay offers up a charming bouquet reminiscent of orchard fruits and fresh baked bread, and it follows through on the palate with a draught of soft apple and apricot flavors that thankfully are not overpowered by the wine’s three months in oak. Príncipe de Viana’s 2012 Chardonnay also makes a graceful exit, as it finishes with a pleasant crispness that leaves the mouth clean and quite refreshed.

Although Beneventano Aglianico is always one of Vesevo’s finest wines, they’ve truly outdone themselves with their latest release. Born on the hills of Italy’s scenic Campania, Vesevo’s Aglianico offers savory scents and flavors of ripe red cherries, plump black fruits, and deep down earth and spice tones. Happily, this graceful Aglianico is beautifully balanced, too, as it glides across the palate with plenty of lush juicy flavors. Ample tannic structure and a deft touch of oak skillfully frame the wine’s fruit and earth tones, without imbuing a hard edge to the finish.

The 2012 Martinsancho is yet another profound Verdejo from Angel Rodriguez. Sporting a sun splashed robe and an alluring, amplifying bouquet of apricot, citrus, spring flowers, minerals, and liquid stones, the youthful 2012 Martinsancho displays a purity and sensual appeal in every sip, to the point where the wine becomes almost spellbinding. But it’s not because the wine is big or bold: it’s the freshness and precision in Martinsancho that make it so seductive. A purer, more natural white wine would be impossible to find.

Like Dominique Ay’s highly acclaimed 2007 Gigondas, his 2010 Gigondas is a wine that can be drunk now with pleasure or cellared for up to ten years. Deeply colored, it offers haunting aromas of black cherry and berry fruits, herbs, violets, pepper, and spice. It then explodes with rich kirsch like flavors reminiscent of a heady liqueur, wild herbs, and hints of black pepper – all backed by ripe tannins that frame the wine’s striking flavor profile. This young Gigondas finishes with authority, brandishing plenty of power and flavor as it makes its long, memorable exit.

The 2011 Les Monts Damnés sits at the pinnacle of Domaine Moreaux’s exceptional offerings, stating its case from the moment it is poured. The wine’s intense melon and mineral driven aroma soars from the glass to delight the nose. Better still is the bevy of flavors that grace the palate. The 2011 Moreux Les Monts Damnés acts every bit the quintessential Sancerre, offering up pure intense flavors of herb, melon, fig, and passion fruit, all of which are perfectly balanced by a deep pinpoint minerality and a juicy acidity that leave the mouth fresh and clean.

The 2009 Castello di Monsanto Chianti Classico Riserva has garnered tremendous press, scoring 93 points from the world’s toughest critics and earning a place on Wine Spectator’s list of Top 100 Wines of the Year, so what more can we say? Plenty. This iconic estate has crafted a dense, rich, authoritative wine that offers succulent scents and savory flavors of ripe cherries, violets, tobacco, and spice. Plenty of up front fruit softens the wine’s ripe tannins, lending balance and roundness. Most of all, layers of flavor and great warmth translate into tremendous palate appeal.