Friday Sips

Drop by this afternoon to sample 4 wines with absolutely nothing in common except that they are all delicious. Oregon Pinot, Big California Red, French Sauvignon & Bierzo will all be on the docket and are detailed below.

A few Fridays ago, we featured this Loire Valley genius’s dry Rose and this week it is on to the mouth-watering Sauvignon Blanc. Located in Montlouis sur-Loire, Francois rose through the ranks to become finest producer in this underrated Chenin Blanc region. He also makes stellar Vouvray and a while back, he decided to extend his reaches and make wines from the vast Touraine region.

100% Sauvignon Blanc from the Cher Valley within the Touraine and from 2 villages that are about halfway between the city of Tours and Sancerre, this wine will shame quite a bit of Sancerre wines that easily sell in the 20-30 range. A rarity for this area is that this wine is hand-harvested and farmed biodynamically. Beautifully clear and precise aromas of with exuberant grapefruit and mandarin, this is a fun, yet quite serious drink. Crystallized fruit abound with gentle scents of flint and chalk lead into a texture that is vivid, lively and thirst-quenching. This will pair well with chevre, shrimp salad or fish like cod. Now if I were really a puritan, I’d say that this goes down too easily and almost like water, but since I’m not exactly very virtuous, I’d rather say to use it when you are on a date. You figure it out!

Synonymous with Spain, the Palacios family seemingly does no wrong. Influential throughout Spain, Alvaro and Riccardo Perez were the primary forces who brought Bierzo into prominence. The wine is once again very formidable and as always made from 100% Mencia.

One of the world’s most terrific values, this wine has a bit of something for everyone. Loaded with scents of cinnamon, clove, plum, some roasted earth and chocolate licorice, this wine unfolds as it aerates in the glass. The texture is plump, but very poised and proper. Gracing its way to the finish, this Spanish treat is an absolute pleasure with pork dishes. As many of you have experienced in the past, Palacios Petalos Bierzo is imminently drinkable and lovable and certainly in-demand and now at its lowest price since 2005. For those who like a little score reassurance for performance, this one has 93 points from The Wine Advocate.

Since we started working with John Grochau's wines almost 9 years ago, we have always remarked at how much virtue and value are in these bottles. Notoriously one of the producers who releases his Pinots on the later side, it is a joy to be able to offer a resoundingly delicious version of one of our favorite Willamette Valley expressions from a much-hyped vintage.

A resounding combination of dark and vibrant scents are laid back and steadily build as the wine is aired in the glass; impressive depth and range of fruit and earth beam in the mouth flowing into a long finish of red cherry and peppery tones that echo well after the wine is swallowed. Savory and delicious now but given the attention to detail and structure Grochau Cellars Pinots always possess, more stuff is going to emerge over the next 6-7+ years. Drink and hold some!

Lots of excitement is occurring in California and it doesn’t have anything to do with the overblown and overpriced wines that have famous names and large marketing departments. What we are seeing right now is a plethora of wines that possess lots of soul and are devoid of the sugarcoating.

Three Wine Company is the venture of famed Sonoma wine vet Matt Cline. If the name sounds familiar, it is because Matt was the winemaker at Cline Cellars and has taken his talents over to Contra Costa where he is making exquisite wines. The Old Vine Field Blend is an assemblage of 19% Zinfandel, 17% Petite Sirah, 51% Carignan, 12% Mataro and 1% Alicante Bouschet all from ancient vines. This wine is sheer massive attack! Blitzing the olfactory senses with fresh blackberry, raspberry, baked pie, classic spice and roasted earth. There is also a hint of exotic dried herbs and spices adding complexity to this blanketing red. Mouth filling and long lasting on the palate, with great food-friendly restraint and balance, the ripe tannins frame the perfumed fruit perfectly, especially for a wine of this magnitude. This is a great red for grilled steak and hearty, slow-cooked tomato-based stews with olives and eggplant. My gut says that this will have a real propensity to age and actually gain even more smoothness but once you taste, you will find it very difficult to keep your hands off it and consume a bunch, especially at this price. No problem to lay a few bottles away and uncork them over the next 7-10 years.