At a time like this, it's pretty much impossible to be 'normal'. But it is important to try and keep what you can as close to normal as you can while you can. Even though we will not be doing the public tasting portion of the Insider's Pick until further notice, we will still be offering the wine for purchase with the usual 10% discount on Thursday and Friday. The wines will still be ones we highly recommend, and the tasting notes will still be our own. We hope you are able to come by and get some wines to enjoy. Most people don't think of Sauvignon Blanc as a 'traditional' grape variety for Italy (and in comparison to the hundreds if not thousands of years in history many of their grapes have, you're probably right), but the Alto Adige isn't your usual Italian region. The history and population still has strong ties to Teutonic influences, as witnessed by the common Germanic sounding names of places and people, and it's proximity to the Alps provides a very different climate.When Sauvignon Blanc started appearing here in the late 19th century, it wasn't because of fads or marketing decisions, but because it made sense to plant it here. The climate brings the same sort of distinct vibrancy that it does with all the other successful varietals that have made a name in Alto Adige, and at their best can deliver world class examples that deserve mention with the best wines of the Loire. Probably most analogous to a Pouilly-Fume, there is a fresh underlying minerality to the white fruits rather than a piercing or tingling acidity, with round peach tones on the palate and less overt grassiness throughout. There is also that underlying savory food-friendly character so many Italian wines have that licks in on the finish, maintaining the distinct sense of place the other great Sauvignon Blancs of the world have. Enjoyable on its own, but a real stunner with local goat cheeses, white fish or rich seafood dishes.
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INSIDER'S PICK: 2016 'R' WINES HEIRLOOM RED MONTICELLO/ 2016 'R' WINES GRAND VIN MONTICELLO $33.996/18/2020 At a time like this, it's pretty much impossible to be 'normal'. But it is important to try and keep what you can as close to normal as you can while you can. Even though we will not be doing the public tasting portion of the Insider's Pick until further notice, we will still be offering the wine for purchase with the usual 10% discount on Thursday and Friday. The wines will still be ones we highly recommend, and the tasting notes will still be our own. We hope you are able to come by and get some wines to enjoy. For our anniversary, not only do we enjoy celebrating our long time relationships with our customers but with our friends in the industry as well. We've known Riaan Rossouw, aka 'The Mind Behind', since his first days in Virginia wines before taking over winemaking duties at Lovingston Winery. Always thoughtful, intelligent, and a man we could talk to for hours on end, he has made the wines at Lovingston subtle and understated, sneaky excellent, but without a lot of bombast and fanfare. His R label is a yearly private project where he truly gets to create with all restrictions taken off, single barrel experiments of theories and flights of fancies with an emphasis on pushing the context of what Virginia wines are and can be. In his words, "authentic, original expressive handmade wines true to the Monticello appellation, the style vibrates; more of a Warhol, Huxley, Bo Diddly, Chet Baker, Vaughn Monroe, Boney M frequency I think!' Simple enough, don't you agree? For his last release he produced two wines from the 2016 vintage, the assemblage for each based on the ph of each lot instead of grape variety to help achieve a desired texture and feel to the wine. Another fun fact; he's not telling us what grapes are in each wine, though we have our guesses. Grand Vin is a single variety built with a French influence, while Heirloom is a multi-varietal blend with an Italian influence. Both wines are made using native yeast strains, minimal intervention, and no SO2 used at bottling. Both wines are $33.99, and you are of course welcome to buy one or the other for the Insider's Pick discount. The fun idea we wanted to promote is for customers to get one of each and take the opportunity to try them side by side, explore the concepts Riaan set forth for us. At a time like this, it's pretty much impossible to be 'normal'. But it is important to try and keep what you can as close to normal as you can while you can. Even though we will not be doing the public tasting portion of the Insider's Pick until further notice, we will still be offering the wine for purchase with the usual 10% discount on Thursday and Friday. The wines will still be ones we highly recommend, and the tasting notes will still be our own. We hope you are able to come by and get some wines to enjoy. Trout Gulch sits along the top of the Santa Cruz Mountain range, emblematic of the term 'higher altitude vineyard'. The daily fog and cloud influence that rolls over the mountains from the nearby Pacific Ocean cools the vineyards by mitigating the heat from the sun, and the altitude guarantees the vineyards cool off more than the valley floor overnight by as much as 10-15 degrees. These cooler temperatures promote more natural acidity in the grapes when ripe and harvested, and can make for vibrant distinctive wines that many producers seek out. Several wineries source fruit from this property, often getting strong favorable press and fetching top dollar. Richard and Mary Kay Alfaro manage the property along with their own estate vineyards, and get access to some of the fruit to make into their own wine. With a fairly neutral 'hands off' style of winemaking in general, they give this brilliant quality fruit a lot of room to express itself and deliver a fantastic value for Chardonnay fans. Bright white fruit and lime notes on the nose with a little touch of creamy lemon curd, and only a touch of butteriness. The barrels used are multi-use and neutral, so the aromatics are all of the natural grape, and you can get even a touch of salinity that might be attributed to being only 4 miles from the sea. The palate is naturally rich, fleshed out a bit but some malolactic fermentation, but not so much that it obscures the flavorful sense of place the juice has, extremely lively and complex. This definitely doesn't taste like every other Californian Chardonnay, which is exactly what it wants to be. At a time like this, it's pretty much impossible to be 'normal'. But it is important to try and keep what you can as close to normal as you can while you can. Even though we will not be doing the public tasting portion of the Insider's Pick until further notice, we will still be offering the wine for purchase with the usual 10% discount on Thursday and Friday. The wines will still be ones we highly recommend, and the tasting notes will still be our own. We hope you are able to come by and get some wines to enjoy. One part of staying 'normal' is to celebrate anniversaries, and June is our traditional anniversary celebration month. We will have a separate email going out soon with more details, but part of the anniversary has always been to put out wines in the Insider's Pick that are a step up from our usual choices. Unfortunately we will not be able to offer samples this year, but the discounts will still make this a very attractive offer, especially for Burgundy fans. Bruno Colin and the Colin family is one of the great names in Montrachet, primarily Chassagne-Montrachet with some holdings in Puligny-Montrachet and several Grand Cru parcels, as well as some of the satellite villages. This is their basic Bourgogne cuvee, yet this is no afterthought wine, built with the same care and treatment throughout as all their wines save a few of the 1er Cru and Grand Cru bottlings. This wine also sees some declassified fruit from their Montrachet vineyards, bringing an extra level of breeding to the bottle. We have great 'end-of-vintage' deal pricing on this wine already, so to get to try a bottle with the additional Insider's Pick discount is a real treat. Those that have tasted Chassagne-Montrachet will catch the subtle nods and nuances that make that terroir so treasured among Burgundy fans, while others can look at this as a perfect time to see what all the fuss is about without having to spend top dollar for the experience. |
The Best of the Best.We offering free tastings on these wines in the store every Thursday and Friday, and a 10% discount off the retail price through the duration of the day. Come on by and give them a try! Archives
October 2024
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