SANTA RITA HILLS | CALIFORNIA | $45
Black cherry fruit with Kadoda fig and dark berry notes with flavors of cedar, nutmeg, rhubarb, soil and chalk. Nicely textured with a slight tooth, medium bodied, fairly big for a Pinot, well balanced and complex with soil elements keeping pace with fruit. Bright, easy acidity brings a lively, agile quality. There’s a lot going on here, and one would be remiss to pre-judge this child on girth alone. A very good wine. (Reviewed 1/20/13)
Category Archives: $21 to $50
Flying Goat Pinot Noir Rancho Santa Rosa 2008
Filed under $21 to $50, California, Pinot Noir
Calera Pinot Noir 2011
CENTRAL COAST | CALIFORNIA | $24
Red cherry with blackberry and plum plus notes of allspice, bay, dill and a hint of smoke. Medium bodied, slightly heavier than it appears, well integrated with some complexity. Heavy-silk mouthfeel — very satisfying. A seven-vineyard blend from four Central Coast counties, mostly (39%) San Felipe Vineyard, Santa Clara County. The team pulls together as one, individualism set aside, yet gathers its strength from each individual’s unique contribution. A very good wine and a value. (Reviewed 1/1/13)
Filed under $21 to $50, California, Pinot Noir
Novy Syrah 2006
RUSSIAN RIVER VALLEY | CALIFORNIA | $28
Concentrated blackberry fruit with purple plum, black currant, juniper berry and chalk, plus hints of cocoa and citrus pith. Full bodied with some jammy qualities; while not laden on the palate, there’s a satisfying density that, to great joy, belies its 14.1% alcohol. Nice complexity, balanced, smooth satiny texture with a barely present tooth. His girth might suggest sloth, but this fellow is agile, never lumbering. A very good wine. (Reviewed 12/30/12)
Foxen 7200 Sangiovese Guglielmo Grosso 2008
SANTA MARIA VALLEY | CALIFORNIA | $32
A complex integration of cherry and blackberry fruit with ginger-spice cookie and candied orange peel, plus notes of raspberry, plum, clove, graphite and tar. There’s a fruit cake-like quality at play here, and this makes for a most interesting wine. Enjoyable, complex, superbly integrated. It’s that garish early-Madonna fashion: many disparate components coming together to create something that works — but no undergarment as outerwear here. A very good wine. (Reviewed 12/30/12)
Filed under $21 to $50, California, Italian Varietals
Piper-Heideieck Brut NV
CHAMPAGNE | FRANCE | $40
Lemon fruit and zest with green apple and young pear, and notes of pineapple, stone minerals, vanilla, chervil and green tea. Focused, pleasantly dry with satisfying acidity and classic effervescence. This bright and bubbly child enlivens the soirée with her look-at-me performance — attention-intent, but less than over the top — and yet there’s sufficient talent to deliver a sublime, entertaining choreography; best of all, the child eventually leaves allowing the adults to carry on. 55% Pinot Noir, 30% Pinot Meunier and 15% Chardonnay. Among Wine Spectator’s Top 100 Wines of 2012. Commonly available at $30 to $36. A very good wine. (Reviewed 1/1/13).
Filed under $21 to $50, France, Sparkling Wine
Beckmen Syrah Purisima Mountain 2007
SANTA YNEZ VALLEY | CALIFORNIA | $42
A full basket of ripe dark berries and mission fig with notes of woody spices, graphite, coffee, cocoa and earth. Full bodied with big fruit, balanced by a robust savory structure. A velvety mouth feel brings luxury, and the finish is long and satisfying. A very interesting wine: a plus-size, well-proportioned with forward fruit, yet multi-faceted. It’s a complex life, this — and here’s a wine to match. A very good wine. (Reviewed 12/9/12)
Ken Brown Pinot Noir 2008
SANTA MARIA VALLEY | CALIFORNIA | $35
An aromatic wine, full of savory spice and wood notes that keep pace with black cherry, raspberry and boysenberry fruit. Well-integrated flavors of rhubarb, cardamom, allspice, organic soil, cedar and mint make for a complex wine with horizontal fullness. Medium bodied with a firm, rich texture — satin-like with some tooth. More than a simple sum of its component parts, this effort nets an intricate profile that delivers a magical “something else.” It’s how a gathering of personalities becomes a soirée. 64% Garey Vineyard, 36% Nielson Vineyard. A very good wine. (Reviewed 11/10/12)
Filed under $21 to $50, California, Pinot Noir
York Creek Cabernet Sauvignon ‘Estate’ 2007
SPRING MOUNTAIN | CALIFORNIA | $50
Black cherry and plum fruit with dark berry accents, and notes of violets, orange zest, bay and black pepper. Firm tannins provide structure and a pleasant acidity adds brightness. Full bodied with a silky texture. There’s an easy complexity at play revealing stand-out flavors alongside well-integrated ones. You think you know this one, but there’s more than pleasantly meets the eye. 85% Cabernet Sauvignon, 8% Merlot, 4% Cabernet Franc, 3% Petit Verdot. A very good wine. (Reviewed 12/30/12)
Filed under $21 to $50, Cabernet Sauvignon, California, Uncategorized
Ecluse Syrah Lock Vineyard 2007
PASO ROBLES | CALIFORNIA | $42
Deep black cherry and loganberry fruit bolstered with firm flavors of cardamom, earth and chalk with a hint of smoke. A big wine, robust in every sense, but neither overtly jammy nor fruit-dominant; it’s balanced with fruit and savory working together yielding a complex, satisfying quaff. Velvety texture with a slight grain that gives a satisfying little chew. She’s full-figured, she is, and a bit forward — enough to elicit your blush — and yet there’s something entirely and wholesomely comfortable. A very good wine. (Reviewed 12/23/12)
Ruffino ‘Modus’ 2009
TUSCANY | ITALY | $25
Forward boysenberry, plum and pomegranate with flavors of dried cranberry, nutmeg, tar and camphor. A lively, medium-bodied wine showing focused fruit and nice acidity with a dry finish. Nimble on the corners, quick and responsive, a pleasure to drive — an Alpha Romeo. A Super Tuscan blend of 50% Sangiovese, 25% Cabernet Sauvignon and 25% Merlot. A very good wine. (Reviewed 12/9/12)
Filed under $21 to $50, Italian Varietals, Italy
