Gaba do Xil is a single-vineyard dry white from Spain's Valdeorras in
Galicia.
It's the first bottling ever from the O Barreiro parcel and the main grape
is Godello, but we understand there are tiny percentages of Doña Blanca and
Treixadura in this. No oak. No malolactic. No lees-stirring.
You'll find some stony, "salty" notes to this...a nice alternative to
a Sancerre or Chablis, for example.
$24.99
You'll have a tough time finding a better value in top-notch dry Riesling than
this delightful wine from Schloss Vollrads.
It's call Volratz...hints of petrol and Riesling fruit.
And it's dry!
$26.99
From Switzerland we have a famous red wine that's a classic blend of Pinot
Noir (mostly) with a touch of Gamay.
In France's Burgundy region you'll find, occasionally, a Pinot Noir/Gamay blend
where it's called "Bourgogne Passe-Tout-Grains."
This Swiss red is a nice, lighter-bodied red.
$29.99.
A mere 1200 bottles of this delightfully complex Champagne were made by a couple
of young French enologists.
It's from the grand cru village of Verzenay and it's bone dry and mildly toasty.
$74.99
After a long absence, there's a new vintage of Greywacke's exceptional
Sauvignon Blanc called "Wild Sauvignon."
This is essentially a winemaker's "reserve" wine...wild yeast
fermentation, a bit of a malolactic fermentation and aging in seasoned oak
barrels on the lees sediment yield a wine of elevated quality. It's not
the citrusy, fruit bomb one typically finds in Sauvignon Blanc from New Zealand,
as it tips its chapeau to vignerons in France's Burgundy.
$29.99
Guigal's La Doriane bottling of Condrieu is amazingly good...as usual!
If you want to "blow the doors" off at Thanksgiving, snag a bottle of
this peachy, toasty dry white.
$135/bottle
The 2018 Penfolds BIN 389 is a killer.
It's usually about $70-$75 a bottle, but we've sale-tagged it for a short time
and you can pick this up for just $59.99.
People sometimes have described this as "Baby Grange," Penfolds'
famous benchmark Aussie red which goes for $600-$800+.
Showy, dark fruit and lavishly oaked...impressive!
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Ijalba 2021 Rioja...it's a young, chillable red on par with good Beaujolais
or Dolcetto wines.
Pure Tempranillo and it does not seem to have spent time in oak, so the dark
berry fruit is front and center here.
$11.99
The new vintages of Vietti's Barbera d'Asti (Sale $19.99) and Roero Arneis
($28.99) are recent arrivals.
Both are quite good...a smooth, berryish, dry red and a light, crisp, flavorful,
non-oaked white wine.
We have a precious few bottles of their single vineyard 2018 vintage Barolos,
too. $219.99/bottle.
But the 2018 "Castiglione" Barolo, a blend of vintages, is
magnificent...$59.99.
Another shipment of Soalheiro's stellar Alvarinho landed and we have it open
for tasting currently.
$2.70/pour
$26.99/Bottle
Deliciously dry Alvarinho (Albariño is the Spanish version).
The Tamellini brothers make remarkably delicious Soave.
Most Soave is akin to water and you'll find Evian or Crystal Geyser have as much
character as the average bottle of Soave.
Tamellini is different.
100% Garganega...no Trebbiano.
Melon and peach notes dominate the nose and come through on the palate.
Best of all: $14.99!
The 2019 Chianti Classico Riserva from La Vigna di San Martino ad Argiano is
delicious.
It's more "noble" than most Chianti, being worthy of a grilled steak
as it's almost too good to be a "spaghetti red."
The vineyard is tiny and is situated in the northwest part of the Chianti
Classico area.
Sale priced at $44.99.
From Sicily we have the 2019 Cerasuolo di Vittoria from the famous Planeta
winery.
This is a berryish red blend featuring 60% Nero d'Avola and 40% Frappato which
is ideal served at cool cellar temp with a summer barbecue...chicken, pork, lamb
or beef pair handsomely with this.
Sale price is $24.99.
Damn, this is a lovely bottle of wine!
It's from a small patch of Zinfandel grown in Oakville (where most Zin has been
replaced with Cabernet $auvignon).
Sale price is $29.99. Gorgeous berry fruit (not jammy or raisiny!) and spice with a nice touch of
oak.
The Pinot Blanc grape is typically over-looked as Chardonnay and Sauvignon
Blanc dominate the local wine market.
The French, in Alsace, view this variety as a good one and we used to see a
barrel-fermented version from Monterey's Chalone Vineyards.
A number of wineries in Oregon dabble with Pinot Blanc and this 2023 bottling
from Elk Cove is exceptional.
Lots of apple and pear-like notes with a faint touch of citrus and melon.
It's a non-oaked, dry white.
$25 at the winery...but we offer it for $19.99.
The price of a bottle of Napa Cabernet is in the stratosphere these days.
Some wine marketing folks are out of their minds,
demanding to control the pricing of their extravagant bottles.
One vintner sent out a note saying their wine is to be sold for $175/bottle and
they did not want retailers to "discount" it down to $174.99!
This Peirson Meyer Cabernet goes for "only" 119.99 and we find it to
be on par with those $175-$300 bottles.
The grapes are from a 15 year old vineyard in Calistoga...lots of blackcurrant
fruit and a nice balance of cedary tones from its maturation in French
oak. Very fine!
Union Sacré is a small winemaking company in California's Central
Coast. The winemaker is French and his partner is American.
They say they're big fans of the wines from France's Alsace.
Giving their Pinot Gris a bit of skin-contact before the fermentation created
that lovely pinkish tone to the wine which checks in with a mere 12.1%
alcohol...the wine is dry and snappy with some green apple notes and a hint of a
citrusy tone.
Sale price for the Pinot Gris is $17.99.
2021 Rosé of Pinot Noir from the Ancient Peaks folks in southern San Luis
Obispo County...
Remarkably good!
Dry, of course.
$16.
The Mondeuse grape in France's Savoie region produces a delightful dry red
wine.
We've long enjoyed the wine of the Angelot brothers as they make a dark-hued red
wine teeming with berry-like fruit notes.
No oak...it's effusively berryish along the lines of Beaujolais.
And it's well-priced...$15.99.
Best served at cool cellar temp.
We've been looking for good, well-priced Chardonnay...a couple of old favorites
are no longer in production.
The 2022 Buehler is a solid choice, though...Russian River Valley fruit.
Lightly oaked and it undergoes a malolactic fermentation, contributing a faintly
creamy note to pair with the appley Chardonnay fruit.
Sale priced at $20.99.
The Cheverny appellation has long been a budget-priced alternative to
Sancerre.
It's located about 65 miles west of Sancerre and a short drive south of Blois
and Chambord, famous châteaux along the Loire river.
Salvard makes delicious, dry, crisp Sauvignon Blanc from their mature vineyards
(20+ years of age).
No oak.
They blend in a bit of Chardonnay to give the wine a bit more body and texture
than if it was solely Sauvignon.
$19.99 for this just-arrived 2024 vintage.
One of our favorite French reds from the Loire Valley just landed...it's from
the Château du Hureau in the Saumur-Champigny appellation.
Beautiful red fruit notes with its textbook smoky element, this is a gentle,
medium-bodied red.
$21.99 makes it a bargain!
We have a small selection of Japanese Sake and this IMA bottling caught our
attention as it's crisper and slightly more tart than most Sake.
In fact, they say it's an ideal partner for oysters and other delectable
seafood.
Indeed!
$39.99
Weimax has maybe a dozen selections from Switzerland and this dry white from
the Leyvraz winery is a favorite.
Made from the Chasselas grape, the St. Saphorin appellation in the Vaud area
overlooking Lake Geneva.
Some people only enjoy this with a fondue evening, but it's worthy of the dinner
table on other occasions, too.
No oak. Dry...mildly stony.
$29.99.
Piazzano is made by our friend Rolando Bettarini in Italy's Tuscany region.
The vineyards are about 15 miles west of Florence and about 6 miles south of
Vinci, birthplace of Leonardo.
It's a youthful, easy-drinkin' Sangiovese (85%) blended with other local Tuscan
varieties.
$14.99!
The Txueka family has been making this Basque white wine for several decades
and I think we've carried it since the 1990s.
Theirs is typically 90% Hondarrabi Zuri with 10% of the red grape, Hondarrabi
Beltza and the alcohol level is fairly modest with high acidity and maybe even a
very faint touch of spritz.
It's a delightful wine as an aperitif and with lighter fare.
We brought a bottle to lunch at the Basque Cultural Center recently and the wine
was a perfect prelude to a well-aged red wine from Spain's Rioja region.
$22.99.
The Cusumano family makes our current favorite rendition of the Carricante
grape in the volcanic soils of Sicily's Mount Etna.
If you enjoy non-oaked, crisp dry whites with a measure of minerality, give this
a try.
$39.99
We're big fans of Riesling and you'll find some wonderful examples from the
West Coast, Australia, Italy, Austria and, of course, Germany in the shop.
The Karp Schreiber wines come from Germany's Mosel region and this 2018
Brauneberger Juffer is mildly sweet, yet beautifully balanced thanks to amply
acidity.
Hard to beat at just $19.99.
Winemaker Nils Venge has usually been recognized for his work with Cabernet
and Zinfandel, so we were (pleasantly) surprised to taste this 2021 Napa Valley
Chardonnay and find it to be quite good AND well-priced. Ripe pear-like
fruit and nice toasty oak with creamy overtones.
$29.99 on sale!
It's not unusual for Napa and Sonoma winemakers to incorporate some fruit from nearby
Lake County into their wines.
The quality of the grapes can be very good and the fruit tends to cost less.
Here's a Lake County Cabernet Sauvignon from perhaps the top site in the Red
Hills sub-region of Lake County, a graceful and elegant wine which we've
described as "North of Napa Geographically and South of Napa in terms of
Price."
$39.99
The Birichino Malvasia is intensely fragrant, as
always...jasmine, lemongrass, orange blossoms, etc.
While it smells "sweet," the wine is actually dry and pairs remarkably
well with Asian-styled dishes.
$16.99.
Two weeks ago we splurged on a bottle of the 2007 Terlan Pinot Bianco.
They call it "Rarity," as the wine is matured on the spent yeast for
about ten years in stainless steel after its year, or so, in large wooden
vats. The wine retails for close to $200 a bottle and it was very good.
A few days later we opened a few bottles of Italian whites, including this
"Terlaner" from the Terlan winery. It's predominantly Pinot
Bianco with a bit of Chardonnay and a drop of Sauvignon Blanc. It was the
best white of that tasting. The apple and pear fruit of the Pinot Bianco
takes center stage...no oak coming through here.
Damned good and it stood up to our Artichoke Risotto, too.
$33.99
