Featured Wines - June 2013

Clothed in a royal purple robe, Carmen’s 2010 Gran Reserva Petite Sirah foreshadows the majestic statement that follows. Big, bold, and beautiful, this Gran Reserva offers up heady aromas of ripe cherries, black raspberries and plums before following through with explosive fruit and spice flavors in the mouth. Rich black fruit, dark chocolate, and deep woodland flavors wrapped in just the right amount of oak satiate the senses. Moreover, Carmen’s 2010 Gran Reserva Petite Sirah displays a healthy balance of fruit, tannin, acid and alcohol, but make no mistake; this wine packs a wallop.

Few wines can transport us to Italy quite the way Palazzone’s Orvieto does. In the 2011 Terre Vineate, Giovanni and Lodovico Dubini have once again captured a dry, captivating wine of grace, elegance, and distinction. The 2011 Terre Vineate offers a wealth of savory scents in the form of stone fruits, minerals, and wildflowers. Moreover, all of these soft and seductive aromas follow through on the palate, so that each and every sip of the 2011 Terre Vineate recalls spring and the vernal awakening amidst the budding green and amber-hued hills that surround Orvieto.

Born of old vines of Garnacha and Samsó, many of which are 100 years of age, the 2010 Vespres sports an opaque purple robe, a heavenly scent, and a boatload of flavors that gush from the glass. Fragrant with an alluring bouquet of woodland violets, wild blackberries and cherries, Asian spices, and budding woodlands, Vespres’s Montsant unfolds slowly to seduce the nose. Its alluring olfactory happily carries through on the palate where layers of ripe, sweet fruit unfold, bolstered by fine, ripe tannins – all of which are infused with subtle mineral tones and finished with a mantle of well integrated oak.

Many in the press and trade believe Château de Fontenille provides tremendous bang for the buck, and we agree. Supple, silky and deeply colored, the 2009 Château de Fontenille reflects the beauty of the highly acclaimed 2009 Bordeaux vintage. Savory scents of cassis, cedar, and mulberry permeate the nose and fold gently into the wine’s palate profile. Bolstered by smooth, ripe tannins, this delightful red Bordeaux finishes fresh, but with nary an edge. How we wish more of Bordeaux’s Petits Châteaux could offer the simple elegance and charm that one encounters in Château de Fontenille.

The 2009 Château Fourcas-Borie resonates with the finest attributes of the much heralded 2009 Bordeaux vintage. For starters, the wine weds subtle fruit to ripe, flexible tannins. Add a nice touch of new oak and an elegant, smooth, eminently drinkable Médoc emerges from the hillside vineyards of Fourcas-Borie. Enticing scents of black currant, cedar, and freshly cured tobacco (deftly infused with subtle oak tones) spring immediately from the glass. Round and generous in the mouth, the wine slowly deepens and expands on the palate.

One taste of the 2011 Château de Fontenille Entre-Deux-Mers and you’ll know why this classic white Bordeaux garnered Gold (the coveted Medaille d’Or) at Europe’s most prestigious wine tasting event, the Concours Mondial Bruxelles. Entre-Deux-Mers is a right bank appellation renowned for its beautiful crisp white wines, and the 2011 Château de Fontenille Entre-Deux-Mers delivers all that, and much more. Subtle scents and flavors of citrus, dried honey, fig, and melon meld with gentle minerality and inviting crispness to endow this wine from start to finish. In addition, it delights the palate and quenches the thirst.

From the very first time we tasted this wine, we were enamored of Josh Bergström’s incredibly elegant, pure 2009 Old Stones Chardonnay . . . and the wine keeps getting better. The incredibly elegant, pure 2009 Old Stones Chardonnay offers an enchanting aroma: a combination of baked apple, poached pear, and hazelnut, infused with subtle hints of vanilla and spice. Add an abundance of creamy layered fruit, supreme texture, pinpoint minerality, and tremendous suave appeal on the palate and the 2009 Bergström Old Stones Willamette Valley Chardonnay delivers on all counts.