Featured Wines - March 2016

Antucura enjoys a well-deserved reputation for fashioning bold, age-worthy wines that are layered and packed with flavor, but the 2011 Antucura Grand Vin belongs in a class by itself. It weighs in at 15.5% alcohol, though one hardly notices Grand Vin’s high octane until the wine has slipped surreptitiously down the throat and a warm glow begins to overtake the imbiber. Power, strength and vigor, though, are not Grand Vin’s only assets: the...

Benovia has again in 2013 fashioned a complex, beautifully textured Russian River Chardonnay. The 2013 Benovia Russian River Chardonnay presents itself as sunshine in a glass, with a sparkle and a glint of golden rays. And, immediately upon opening, the wine’s aroma wafts from the glass: a delightful mélange of butter, oak, coconut, pear, spring flowers and spice, all in one harmonious basket. Sourced primarily from Benovia’s Russian River...

The 2012 vintage smiled upon Châteauneuf-du-Pape and the southern Rhône Valley, and Jerome Quiot has taken advantage of nature’s bounty in fashioning an outstanding 2012 Domaine du Vieux Lazaret Châteauneuf-du-Pape. This wine offers exceptional aromatics: seductive scents of deep black fruits, violets, Provençal garrigue and savory herbs captivate the nose from the moment the wine is poured. From the wine’s dark ruby center wells a trove of...

The medium-bodied 2014 Denis Dutron Mâcon-Fuissé offers everything classic white Mâconnais Burgundy has to offer. It begins its enchantment with a brilliant, sun-kissed robe, but better still is the wine’s enticing bouquet of freshly picked mountain apples, acacia flowers, and freshly baked bread straight out of the oven. In the mouth, soft creamy flavors meld beautifully with the wine’s pure natural fruit and bright acidity. Pinpoint...

Members who have been with The International Wine of the Month Club for a while have heard me say that we don’t put much stock in gimmicks or catchy labels because after all is said and done none of us can drink a label or a price tag, only the wine in the bottle. With that said, we were at first a bit skeptical of the 2012 Klassen The Big Mouth Red with its cheeky name and label, but not for long. One taste of this wine and we looked at each...

Rare among Tuscan white wines for its flavor, freshness, and longevity, Vernaccia di San Gimignano owes its 800 year reign as the region’s most lauded white wine to the predominance of the relatively rare Vernaccia clones that thrive in the environs of San Gimignano. Whereby most Tuscan whites rely upon the more innocuous and ubiquitous Trebbiano and Malvasia grape varieties, Vernaccia di Gimignano must be comprised predominantly or entirely...

Once again Peltier Station has fashioned award winning wine in the 2009 Peltier Station Lodi Petite Sirah. Grown in a vineyard in the Lodi Appellation of South Sacramento County, where hot sunny days are tempered by the Delta Breeze, Petite Sirah truly thrives. The 2009 vintage yielded an intense Petite Sirah that has mellowed to perfection with bottle age. Still sporting a deep purple robe the 2009 Peltier Station Petite Sirah offers a...