Featured Wines - August 2019

The newly released 2017 Artesana Cabernet Franc Merlot Reserva marks another milestone for this up and coming boutique winery. In the hands of two highly skilled women, Analía Lazaneo and Valentina Gatti, this unique offering combine two of Bordeaux’s most prestigious varietals to create a boldly flavored wine that is both complex and polished. As is the case with all of Artesana’s wines, the 2017 Artesana Cabernet Franc Merlot Reserva comes...

Bright, eye-catching, and thoroughly seductive, the 2018 Château Sainte Eulalie Printemps d’Eulalie sets a new bar for rosé. Redolent with the scents of ripe strawberries, raspberries, melons, and herbs, one is immediately enchanted. Better still, the 2018 Printemps d’Eulalie offers juicy flavors and a real mouthful of wine to satisfy the palate, without sacrificing delicacy or freshness. A true crowd pleaser from start to finish, the 2018...

The 2017 Rayen Monastrell lives up to Monastrell’s reputation for yielding deeply colored, boldly flavored wines. Purple with a bluish tinge, this scion from the sun-splashed land of Castilla makes a statement even before one’s nose or mouth can greet the glass. Forceful and tannic, but not hard-edged, this youthful Monastrell from Castilla La Mancha delivers plenty of savory berry and black fruit scents and flavors along with hints of clove...

Nowhere in France is vintage more essential to the style, quality, and quantity of the wines that flow from a given year than in the Loire Valley. Late spring frosts in 2017 limited quantity along the Loire but assured excellent quality in Vouvray and elsewhere as the remainder of the 2017 vintage was picture perfect. The conditions smiled favorably upon the 2017 Domaine de la Racauderie Gautier Vouvray Sec, a truly exceptional Vouvray that...

Vespres is this month’s feature and the most traditional of Josep Grau’s Montsant offerings. Moreover, the 2016 Josep Grau Vespres, which has garnered 91 points from Vinous, is the most exciting Vespres since Grau’s outstanding 2010 Vespres, a wine that continues to delight. Born of old vines of Garnacha (80% Grenache) and Samsó (20% Carignan), many of which are 100 years of age, the 2016 Vespres sports an opaque purple robe, an enticing...

The 2018 Domaine Moreux Les Bouffants Sancerre emanates from a small, steep hillside parcel rich in limestone and rock next to Les Damnés, the “Grand Cru” of Chavignol. The exceptional 2018 vintage, which many in Sancerre are already calling legendary, has yielded a delightfully rich, energetic Sancerre. The 2018 Les Bouffants exhibits Sancerre’s telltale pale yellow color, striking aromatics, and ripe fruit flavors infused with the appellation’s...

Albert Pasanau has again fashioned an exceptional and complex Priorat in the estate’s 2013 Pasanau Finca La Planeta, which has garnered 92 points from Vinous. Exhibiting a deep, nearly impenetrable color from the preeminence of Cabernet Sauvignon, Pasanau’s 2013 Finca La Planeta could easily be mistaken for young classified Bordeaux on the order of fine Pauillac. Add Finca La Planeta’s beautiful and distinctive bouquet of black fruits and...