Featured Wines - May 2013

Justin’s hand-picked and meticulously sorted fruit results in a wine with extraordinary elegance and polish. An attractive aroma of crushed blackberries, currants, and layered spices sets the tone for what is to follow. In the mouth, Justin’s 2010 Paso Robles Cabernet Sauvignon comes across remarkably smooth. Its alluring entrance imparts layers of flavor, with blackberry, boysenberry, and soft cedar notes, while the wine finishes with a gentle flourish and just the right amount of subtle vanilla tones from spending 18 months in American oak barrels.

Deeply robed and endowed with a haunting bouquet, the stylish 2008 Seghesio Barolo offers up a beautiful complex aroma reminiscent of plum, fennel, rose petal, and forest woodland. Better still, the wine’s heavenly scents carry through on the palate, providing plenty of mid palate appeal and nuanced flavors to savor a good long while. Elegant, but by no means eviscerated, the 2008 Seghesio Barolo possesses a healthy dose of firm ripe tannins to under gird its velvety center and assure a decade or more of pleasurable drinking.

Jim Clendenen has crafted another iconic wine in the 2010 Au Bon Climat XXX Anniversary Chardonnay. Its heady aroma and complex, deep down flavors enliven the senses. Pear, tropical fruit, sautéed hazelnuts in fresh creamery butter, vanilla, Asian spices, and a long, dry spicy finish make this big boned Chardonnay nearly irresistible. Bold but not brazen, the XXX Anniversary provides a harmonious synthesis between a full, in your face style of Chardonnay and an elegantly crafted, discreet Chardonnay that is both complex and fulfilling.

Nearly black and impenetrable in color, the 2010 Corte C provides one hearty mouthful of wine, but with balance and charm. Upon aeration, a wellspring of berry, black fruit, and dark cherry scents rise from the glass welling up from the wine’s dark, brooding core. Hints of cedar, grilled meat, and wood smoke mingle with the wine’s lush berry flavors to provide one big satisfying mouthful of wine. With extended aeration, 2010 Vistalba Corte C reveals even greater complexity and flavor, not unlike fine young Bordeaux.

What a portrait the 2010 Condesa Eylo Verdejo makes! Imbued with a touch of the Castilian sun in its bright shiny robe, this ripe, sensuous Verdejo offers beguiling scents of apple and pear along with wafts of spring flowers. Fleshy, yet elegant, racy, and impeccably balanced with a long, impressive finish, the 2010 Condesa Eylo offers something wonderful in every sip. Pure fruit flavors tempered with hints of fennel and mineral enliven the palate and add complexity to Jose Antonio Merayo’s delicious Rueda Verdejo.

If you like a juicy, satisfying red wine with a little zip, you’re going to love the 2010 Domaine du Tauch Fitou. This utterly satisfying Fitou tastes great and goes down easily – perhaps, too easily. We had to rescue the bottles from several panel members who forgot it was a tasting. Indeed, there is no need to prognosticate where and when this wine will be ready to drink. It’s all there now. So, relish now and over the next year the crushed berry and wild herb scents and savors in this wine, along with the wine’s silky tannins and smooth finish.

Made entirely from Macabeo grapes that are fermented in the bottle, Torre Oria Cava, whose recent success includes a Gold Medal at the prestigious Concours Mondial, captivates from the moment the cork pops. Its pretty sunshine-imbued color and full floral bouquet of berries and wildflowers are joined by delicate, tiny bubbles that glide gracefully across the palate. Refreshingly dry, supple and medium-bodied throughout, Torre Oria offers a wealth of charming, elegant flavors including savory peach, tropical fruit and spring flower tones.