Hot Sheets

One of the outstanding deals of real Valpolicella is this wonderful, full-flavored Ripasso from a terrific small producer located in the classic heart of the region, Marano di Valpolicella. Long known as top farmers, the Vaona family has only recently taken up the same laborious efforts of producing their own wines. Teeming with character and substance, the 2009 Valpolicella Ripasso is from a single vineyard which is also responsible for the estate’s top Amarone and offers heaps of luscious dark cherry, plum, Indian spice, candied violet and dark chocolate. Full bodied and intense with great balance and fine-grained tannins that support the lushness through to the long finish that is full of mouth-coating complexity. Enjoy now over the next 3-5 years with pasta darned with morels (or other mushrooms) and tender morsels of slow cooked lamb, a stellar pairing that must be experienced!

This wine epitomizes the soul of France. Few wines express where they are grown better than the mineral-laden white wines of Muscadet. One of the real masters in Muscadet is Domaine de la Pepiere's Marc Ollivier. With each vintage that we taste of this bone-dry wine, we are reminded of how much it has to offer and how impressive a great bottle of French white can truly be. The magic is in the soil, a top soil of clay and silica over a brittle granite subsoil all which presents itself in the finished product.

Clos des Briords is the estate’s old vine cuvee with vines dating back to the ‘30s. Complex, and meditative peaty, flinty, deep aromas, it doesn't get much purer than this with bracing acidity in the mouth and tons of lime, mineral, saline and smoke. You will want to drink this one now and often with seafood. Oh yeah, if you think Muscadet doesn’t cellar, think again, because when Bryan visited the Domaine in 2011, they uncorked a 1995 and 1996 which were both sublime!

Another insane red wine value from Spain, just how do they do it for so cheap?!? The hot days, cold nights, no rain, and intense sun exposure allow the grapes to ripen perfectly in the central Spanish wine region of La Mancha. The grapes in this hot climate bask in the sun all day long, making smooth, hearty offerings that are easy-drinking Wednesday wines with nice character. Carril De Cotos is juicy, full fruited drink with flavors of smoked meat, jasmine, creamy strawberry jam and anise. Enjoy with pizza, burgers, grilled chicken, in other words, this will class up party foods.

Calabria’s Ciro region is situated not far from the picturesque Ionian coastline on Italy’s boot tip. Librandi is one of the area’s leading producers and the estate's core wine, Ciro Rosso, is made from 100% Gaglioppo, the most important grape of Calabria. Gaglioppo is originally of Greek origins and is thought to be introduced in Italy around the same time as Aglianico. It is human nature to make comparisons and maybe the closest analogy that we come up with is that it may be likened to a warm climate Nebbiolo. The 2010 version is hearty with a roasted red plum, sottobosco, red licorice and rose petal aromas which follow into a warm, dry Italian texture that screams for tomato-based dishes jacked with some spice.

Franck Faugier is a disciple and long-time friend of the King of Crozes, Alain Graillot. The wines here are expressive, full of finesse, layered with fine fruit and above all, display to-the-moon, luxurious aromatics. All of Franck Faugier's 12 hectares of vines are located in the heart of the Crozes-Hermitage single Cru of Haut-Chassis, hence the name of the Domaine. Les Chassis Cuvee is Faugier's top wine made from 50+ year old Syrah vines coming from the warmest portion of the vineyard with coarse sand and stones in the complex soil along with a mix of clay and limestone.

A sensuously spicy nose of violet, mocha, Havana tobacco, cacao, nutmeg, black cherry, blackcurrant, blackberry and game rolls into a youthful firm resounding mouth civilized by tannins made soft and silky in the maturing process. This is very typical of 2009 and is very ageworthy.

If not for David Lett, there would have been a possibility we’d be drinking hazelnut or fruit wines. A few years back we lost this icon, but his legacy lives on through his son Jason. David and Diana Lett established The Eyrie Vineyards in 1966, with the first plantings of Pinot Noir and chardonnay in the Willamette Valley, everyone who loves Oregon wine knows the story...

2010 is a fabulous vintage for Eyrie, but as always typical of the estate, patience will be required. Tightly-wound gnarly-ass earth tones with underlying perfumed rhubarb, red cherry, strawberry and fine herbs. Very linear and youthful with superb depth and concentration, yet maintaining an almost airy quality all in a tight, vertical form right now. The finish is transparent, minerally, red and persistent, there is so much material here and classic tones buried beneath the surface that it will take 2-3 more years for this to truly unfold. If you want instant gratification, this isn't the wine, but if you are patient, love true-to-form, not-sweet, Pinot Noir order some and wait until 2015 and then drink it through 2022, it will be an inspired, seductive Oregon Pinot Noir adventure.

The 2010 Artist Series Cabernet from Woodward Canyon is absolutely off the charts! No Old Vine Cab was produced in 2010 and the addition of these grapes into the Artist Series also has aided in the enhancement of a wine that is always top-drawer when it comes from the major Cabs from Washington. Grapes from 4 of Washington’s renowned sites (Champoux Vineyard, Woodward Canyon Estate Vineyard, Sagemoor Vineyard, and Weinbau Vineyard) have resulted in a finished wine that is voluptuous and seamless.

Cassis, blackberry cobbler, jasmine, kissed of coffee and nutmeg and smoke waft from the nose. Youthfully bound, this is a bolder wrapped in lace. Bold structure, waves of depth, underlying subtle tones will inevitably reveal themselves. Long, packed and stacked, this wine is rock star stuff! If you must drink it now, decant it and be armed with a big rib-eye, but for best results, cellar it until 2016 and drink it through 2025+.

Always known as a great Muscat Beaumes de Venise producer, lately Domaine Durban has been on fire with their red wines and after tasting the 2010 Gigondas, one sees that they’ve lit it off! From fruit entirely in the Dentelles de Montmirial, this is Gigondas that epitomizes smoothness and feminine beauty without ever sacrificing its warmth or detail. Loads of depth and material, plenty of persistence and structure. Drink it over the next decade.