Caparzo 2011 Brunello Di Montalcino The name of the estate apparently derives from “Ca’ Pazzo”, as shown on some ancient maps. The estate covers an area of 190 hectares, 54 of which are vineyards, 4 are of olive groves, 87 of which are wooded and 45 of which are to be planted with new vines. Caparzo is the only estate-bottled producer of Brunello di Montalcino to have estate vineyards on all five sides of the hill of Montalcino, ensuring that no matter what climatic challenges effect one side, the other vineyards will more than compensate. More than thirty years have passed since the first vines were planted and the first…
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Chateau Lynch Bages 1995 & 2013 Although there are records of the Bages territory as far back as the 16th century, the history of wine production in the area really began in the 18th Century. From 1749 to 1824, the vineyard was owned by Thomas Lynch, the son of an Irishman from Galway who worked as a merchant in Bordeaux. Thomas Lynch managed the land wisely and produced high quality wines under the name of ”Cru de Lynch”. As part of the prestigious 1855 Classification, for the Exposition Universelle de Paris, his wine would soon be classified as one of the fifth growths. I recently went to a Private…
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Dominus Christian Moueix 2012 In the late 1960s, while attending the University of California at Davis, Christian Moueix fell in love with the Napa Valley and its wines. Son of Jean-Pierre Moueix, the famed wine merchant and producer from Libourne, France, Moueix returned home in 1970 to manage the family vineyards, including Chateaux Petrus, La Fleur-Petrus, Trotanoy in Pomerol and Magdelaine in Saint Emilion. His love of Napa Valley lingered and in 1981, he discovered the historic Napanook vineyard, a 124-acre site west of Yountville that had been the source of fruit for some of the finest Napa Valley wines of the 1940s and 1950s. In 1982, Moueix entered into…
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Clos Mogador Priorat 2013 In an arid and magical place, French monks discovered “Eden’s Ladder”, Escala Dei (12th century). It was here that they made the Lord’s wine. In this very same arid place, 800 years later, a young French woman and a Catalan man, Isabelle and René Barbier, found the place of their dreams, Clos Mogador. René Barbier led the original Priorat movement, proving that exciting and unique fine wines could be made in this forgotten corner of Spanish Catalonia. At Clos Mogador, he nursed back to life abandoned old vineyards planted on steep hillsides, where the ancient Grenache and Carignan vines had learned to struggle against the aridity…
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Champagne Taittinger Prestige Rosé NV When Pierre Taittinger first discovered the Champagne region, he was a young liaison officer during the first World War. It was thanks to his passion for wine and gastronomy that he returned several years later and, with his brother-in-law, invested all his energy into the development of a burgeoning champagne business. Since 1932 Champagne Taittinger has grown and taken its place among the great Champagne houses, commanding a bold innovative style particularly influenced by Chardonnay. Having bought back the family business in 2006, Pierre-Emmanuel Taittinger has surrounded himself with a team that is both young and bound together by a spirit of attainment and permanence.…
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Chacra Treinta y dos Pinot Noir 2013 Bodega Chacra is located in the Rio Negro Valley of northern Patagonia, 620 miles south of Buenos Aires, 1,240 miles north of Tierra del Fuego, and roughly equidistant west to east from the Andes Mountains and the Atlantic Ocean. The property’s situation in the arid central Argentine desert is tempered by the convergence of the Neuquen and Limay Rivers, both of which flow from the Andes and join the Rio Negro, which in turn flows into the Atlantic. Acquired in 1932, Piero Incisa della Rocchetta, grandson of Sassicaia’s creator was born in Tuscany, making wines in Argentina, also purchased two other old vine…
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Kosta Browne Santa Lucia Highlands Pinot Noir 2014 Located on the eastern slopes of the coastal range that shelters the fertile Salinas Valley from Big Sur, this appellation is relatively new with the first vineyards being developed only in the 1970’s. Surprisingly, these central coast slopes are generally cooler than the Russian River Valley, largely as a result of the ocean breezes and fog coming in from Monterey Bay. The vineyards are sheltered by the coastal peaks that limit rainfall. Pinot Noir excels on these hillsides. The five vineyards that help Kosta Browne make fine wines are farmed by two incredible grape growing families – Pisoni and Franscioni, where their…
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Fulcrum Brosseau Vineyard Chalone AVA Pinot Noir 2014 A Fulcrum is the point on which an object balances. This was the name winemaker David Rossi chose for his winery when he founded it in 2005 – years before the word balance became an essential element in any discussion about great New World Pinot Noir. For David, a Fulcrum represented the style of winemaking he spent years refining. It was also an ideal metaphor for his belief in leveraging the finest grapes to create balanced, complex and age-worthy Pinot Noirs. I recently went to a private tasting at one of my favorite wine shops, Stew Leonard’s Wines, in CT, where I…
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Domaine Serene Yamhill Cvuée Pinot Noir 2011 Grace and Ken Evenstad first arrived and settled in the Dundee Hills in the Willamette Valley in 1989. At that time, the couple had spent over 20 years together in Minnesota building a successful business and a deep appreciation for the wines of Burgundy. The Evenstads had faith in Oregon early on, before there was a national market for domestic Pinot Noir. When the time came to pursue their longtime dream of growing and producing world class Pinot Noir, they invested in a 42 acre hilltop estate that had just been logged in the beautiful Dundee Hills of Oregon. With the support of…
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Bodegas El Nido Clio 2009 The Bodegas El Nido winery is located in the Valley of the Aragona, 10 kilometers north of the town of Jumilla, in the “top boundary”, so named because it is the highest altitude in the municipality. The vines are planted on soils mostly of limestone and very stony surface. The winery began bearing fruit in 2001 as a result of the partnership between the Gil family and Chris Ringland, one of Australia’s best winemakers. The first harvest sold was 2002 under both El Nido and Clio brands. A favorite. Dark red color with aromas of ripe fruit, floral notes and perfume spice. Aged for 24…