Featured Wines - January 2022

The 2019 Taboadella Villae Dão Red (91 Points – Wine Enthusiast) is a unique blend of indigenous Portuguese grape varieties (40% Tinta Roriz, 20% Jaen, 20% Tinta Pinheira, 10% Alfrocheiro, 10% Touriga Nacional) that could rightly serve as a poster child for Dão’s modern style of hedonistic red wine. The artfully blended 2019 Taboadella Villae Dão sports a brilliant ruby and sapphire robe, an intoxicating aroma, and plenty of lush fruit and...

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. To the tremendous delight of winemakers, Mother Nature smiled favorably on Vouvray and the entire Loire Valley in 2020, providing exceptional quality. Not surprisingly, the 2020 Domaine de la Racauderie Gautier Vouvray Sec is proving to be a truly exceptional Vouvray Sec. Juicy, precise...

The 2018 Château Laronde Desormes (90 Points – Wine Enthusiast) is a very limited offering due to hail that tore through Bordeaux in early 2018. But what nature takes away in quantity it gives back in quality. The 2018 Château Laronde Desormes is knockout gorgeous. The reduced yields and exemplary weather during the rest of the growing season in Bordeaux has resulted in the finest Château Laronde Desormes to date. The 2018 Laronde Desormes...

Gracious and silky smooth, the 2015 Domaine Rolet L’Étoile Chardonnay possesses all the quality of the finest Chablis and a cachet all its own. A pale yellow glow alights the wine, while soft scents of apple and pear imbued with the patina of the finest wood greet the nose. In the mouth, the mature 2015 Domaine Rolet L’Étoile Chardonnay graces the palate with a delightfully smooth mélange of orchard fruits, almond, walnut, and L’Étoile’s mineral-rich...

Avignonesi’s 2016 Vino Nobile di Montepulciano (93 Points: Wine Enthusiast) is this legendary estate’s finest effort in a decade. Aromatic, elegant, and impeccably balanced, the 2016 Avignonesi Vino Nobile di Montepulciano reveals its noble bearing from the moment it is poured. This four-variety blend (Prugnolo Gentile, Canaiolo, Mammolo, Merlot) sports a deep ruby robe and amplifying aromatics redolent with the scents of black cherry...

The recently released 2019 Gust Petaluma Gap Sonoma County Chardonnay goes a long way towards fulfilling Megan and Hilary Cline’s goal of fashioning the Holy Grail of Chardonnays – Montrachet-style wines with full flavors, moderate alcohol levels, finesse, and complexity to complement food. Aromatically, the 2019 Gust Petaluma Gap Chardonnay offers a refined, intoxicating bouquet resplendent with the savory scents of freshly cut pineapple...

Just when we thought it would be hard to match the incredible 2016 Raspail-Ay Gigondas, we were wrong. The 2018 Raspail-Ay Gigondas (94 Points – Wine Advocate; 94 Points – Decanter) is every bit as compelling. The 2018 Domaine Raspail-Ay Gigondas once again captures the Ay family’s consummate craftsmanship as well as the greatness of the 2018 vintage, one that was short on quantity but long on quality. The 2018 Raspail Ay Gigondas is aromatic, juicy...