Featured Wines - February 2019

The Coustals have once again fashioned a hedonistic and thoroughly enjoyable red wine in their 2017 Château Eulalie Plaisir d’Eulalie Minervois. Ripe, round, and beautifully textured, the 2017 Plaisir d’Eulalie highlights the estate’s inimitable terroir and old vines in yet another exceptional Languedoc vintage. The 2017 Plaisir d’Eulalie begins to captivate from the moment it is poured. Savory scents of black cherry and plum, intertwined with hints of violet, Provençal herbs and black pepper greet the nose and continue...

Garnering 92 points from Master of Wine Tim Atkin’s South African report, the bold and complex 2017 Rustenberg Stellenbosch Chardonnay bears more than a passing resemblance to the traditional Napa Valley Chardonnays of the 1970s – the very wines that challenged France’s superiority with Chardonnay and established California as the New World’s premier wine producer. The 2017 Rustenberg Stellenbosch Chardonnay offers enticing aromas of apple...

Bordeaux was blessed with outstanding weather in 2015. With ideal growing conditions throughout the 2015 vintage and traditionally very low vineyard yields, Château Barreyre has produced the château’s most prestigious wine to date. The 2015 Château Barreyre weighs in at a whopping 15% alcohol and is packed with color and mouth-filling flavors. We have been great admirers of the wines of Château Barreyre for more than a decade and thought...

With a luminescent golden yellow color, Pinot Gris’s natural tint, the 2016 Steve Bird Gisborne Pinot Gris makes a bold statement right out of the bottle. From the color one might almost think an unctuous wine awaits a beckoning sweet tooth, but not so. Fresh, clean aromas reminiscent of pear and white peach imbued with a hint of exotic spice greet the nose. In the mouth, one immediately realizes the magic in this wine is not in the form of...

As a blend of 65% Grenache, 20% Mourvèdre and 15% Syrah, the 2016 Domaine Chamfort Vacqueyras is a powerful yet polished wine of great character from old vines, many of which are in excess of 50 years of age. Deeply colored, full-bodied and packed with flavor, the 2016 Domaine Chamfort Vacqueyras displays a heady bouquet of dark fruits, anise, garrigue (the amplifying herbal scents and savors of the Provençal landscape), pepper and spice. Moreover...

Riesling is one of the world’s most esteemed grape varieties, well-deserving of the rich praise and lofty position it enjoys among discerning wine drinkers around the world. Yet, Riesling remains underappreciated by many Americans, due at least in part to the predominance of inexpensive, low alcohol, sweet Rieslings from Germany that pervaded the American market for decades and the perception that Riesling must be sweet. Not all Rieslings are...

Chappellet’s 2016 Mountain Cuvée is truly a red wine lover’s wine. This is especially true for those seeking an accessible, high-quality Cabernet or meritage offering. A blend of 51% Cabernet Sauvignon, 24% Merlot, 13% Malbec, 9% Petit Verdot, and 3% Cabernet Franc, the 2016 Chappellet Mountain Cuvée is dark purple in color, packed with rich fruit, and endowed with ripe tannins that beautifully frame the wine’s cornucopia of complex flavors. Its...