Contributed by: Joe Roberts
Remember when white blends from Down Under were popular? Here's a throwback to Australia's white blend halcyon days: Bird in Hand's "Two in the Bush" Semillon - Sauvignon Blanc from Adelaide Hills. While it's not going to be mistaken for Bordeaux Blanc anytime soon, this blend shows off the quaffable side of both varieties, offering a lovely, refreshing, and easy-drinking warm weather white.
Contributed by: Joe Roberts
Since being purchased by Jackson Family Wines in 2015, the premium Siduri brand has basically not skipped a beat. If anything, winemaker Adam Lee now has more tools (in terms of vineyard sites) at his disposal, and his wines remain stalwart examples of Pacific Northwest Pinot Noir. Interestingly, Siduri wines are vinified separately by each vineyard site, block, lot, clone, yeast and barrel cooperage, further extending the potential toolkit. A great example is the most recent Siduri Santa Lucia Highlands Pinot Noir, which is clearly well-crafted, offering ample spice aromas and rich, dark berry fruit flavors.
Contributed by: Joe Roberts
While it's easy to find Argentine Torrontes, it's less easy to find one that is floral, pretty, and has the acidic energy to counterbalance its fuller body and mouthfeel. And it's even more difficult to find one with a bargain bin price tag. But that's precisely what we do find in Colome's Salta Torrontes, a white that's just rich enough and just zesty enough to be a perfect match with the waning days of Summer (or the early days of Fall).
Contributed by: Joe Roberts
Poor Pinot Grigio; talk about a perennially maligned grape (for example, it's the punchline to the wine joke "what's the Italian phrase for 'I have no flavor'?"). Of course, its ubiquity on the world's wine shelves doesn't help the cause to prove that Pinot Grigio has more to offer wine lovers than being a substitute for flat melon-flavored soda. One thing that does help that cause, however, is Tommasi's "le Rosse" offering from the Veneto. Here we find a crowd-pleasing Pinot Grigio that is true to its varietal expression, but also offers the minerality and vivacity that will keep more seasoned wine lovers interested.
Contributed by: Joe Roberts
In the mid 1800s, Prosper Maufoux left his practice as a notary to take up wine production. Today, the business is still family-run, making wine in Burgundy from the north through the Mâconnais. Their Chablis is textbook stuff, in a good way, hailing from oyster fossil-rich soils and delivering white flower, saline, slate, and citrus aromas on top of a linear, focused, refreshing mouthfeel.
Contributed by: Joe Roberts
For a long time, English sparkling wine seemed more undelivered potential than realized gains. That's decidedly not the case with Ridgeview's Fitzrovia, a rose Brut fashioned from the traditional Champagne grape blend, and using traditional Champagne methods. The English justifiably have confidence in the Fitzrovia's elegant taste combination of raspberry, citrus, and honeyed brioche flavors: it was served to U.S. President Obama by the Queen during a state banquet at Buckingham Palace.
Contributed by: Joe Roberts
There's something about Sylvaner that seems to click with Autumn. After all, Fall is the time when we tend to start cooking up foods with both heartier texture and the extra flair of sweet, warm spices. Sylvaner can deliver both, but often do it with less heft and more "zing" than, say, the average Chardonnay. A good example of this is the Pacherhof Alte Reben Sylvaner, made form forty year old plantings in Valle Isarco. It's big on tropical fruit flavors, but thanks to minerality and zestiness, and hints of smoke and spice, it comes off as balanced and lithe.
Contributed by: Joe Roberts
Late Bottled Vintage is like Vintage Port's younger brother: it gives you the raisin and berry fruitiness, and the power and sweetness, but without the gravitas (and the heftier price tag). Dow's LBV is a standout, offering a ready-to-drink, crowd-pleasing Winter warmer that, while nowhere near as complex as a full-on Vintage Port, will give your holiday dinner guests a great match for most end-of-meal sweets.
Contributed by: Joe Roberts
Attune farms a mere eight-and-a-half acres of vineyard on the Sonoma portion of the Carneros AVA, producing only about 320 cases of their Pinot Noir in the 2014 vintage. While not exactly an ubiquitous find, it's well-worth a search. This is a Pinot that is both elegantly restrained, but also generously complex, with plum, berry, and pomegranate flavors that are combined with aromas of black tea and violets. It's the type of Pinot Noir that might at first seem as though it hailed from Europe, instead of sunny California.
Contributed by: Joe Roberts
Casarena's single-vineyard line of wines is all about potential; their sites are relatively new, but they've picked an interesting spot that is marked by limestone-rich soils. The result in the case of their Naoki Vineyard is a Malbec that doesn't lack for power or plummy fruitiness, but also doesn't shy away from Malbec's gentler side. That gentler touch comes by way of surprising aromatic complexity, in the form of bramble, flowers, and smoked game meat. If you think that Argentine Malbec has been nearly played out, this is the type of release that will make you reconsider your stance.
