Page 11 - Staff Tastings

There is no doubt that Chateauneuf-du-Pape  is a unique wine region—from its famous rounded “galet” stones which blanket the vineyards to the sometimes extravagant lengths that appellation rules go to in protecting the land (a 1954 law banning UFO flyovers is still in effect). It’s only fitting then that we should be tasting a unique wine! While some 95% of Chateuneuf-du-Pape wines are reds, there exists a small minority of whites produced—including today’s 2015 Chante Cigale Chateauneuf-du-Pape Blanc.

Chante Cigale is a producer that is as much a specialist in white Chateauneufs as any, dedicating a fifth of their production to the equal parts of Grenache Blanc, Roussanne, Clairette, and Bourbolenc that make up their blend. The domain’s history dates back to the late 1800s when their founder Hyppolite Jourdan first started producing. Over

For many Americans, no wine better encapsulates Italy than Chianti. Having come into vogue packaged in a straw basket known, foretellingly perhaps, as a “fiasco”, this wine had the ideal combination of food-friendly taste and low-price that made it a pasta night classic. Chianti was destined, however, to become a victim of its own success. Feeling the pressures of a burgeoning market, producers took to increasing harvest yields and adding in higher percentages of unremarkable grapes leading to thoroughly lackluster wines. For a while, Chianti seemed to be destined to the bottom shelf.

But as the region as a whole revamped its image during the Super Tuscan revolution of raising quality and reinventing traditional grape blends, the wines of Chianti saw changes as well. For the Giacomo Mori estate, headed by Giacomo’s son Giovanni, this involved a major replanting effort in the mid-1990s. Taking inspiration from Chianti’s origins, Mori rejected the Trebbiano

Producer Stephane Riffault (son of the titular Claude) and the Sancerre region have one thing in common—a close connection to Burgundy. For Sancerre, the relationship to Burgundy is physical. A mere hour and a half by car from Chablis, it shares some of the climatic and geological traits of this other region famed for its crisp whites. For Riffault, it’s emotional. Riffault spent time both working and studying with Burgundy producer, Leflaive. His brother, Etienne, has also found success making wine in Puligny-Montrachet and the two often share winemaking critiques and the fruit of their labor with each other. This has led to a style of Sancerre all his own, characterized by Stephane in an interview as a mix of the Burgundy and Berry zones or “Bourguichon”, which have “the unctuousness of chardonnay while keeping the freshness of sauvignon blanc.”

But this Burgundy influence only serves to highlight the beautiful Sancerre terroir, not hide it.

In European winemaking, family feuds are nothing unusual.  Angelo Monaldeschi, nearly 700 years ago, made his home in the Castello della Salla hoping to rule the city of Orvieto. He faced competition, however, from his three brothers, each of whom raised their own fighting force to conquer the town. As told by Marchesi Antinori’s website, “the largest was called the Cervara (the Stag), […] another the Cane (the Dog), a third the Aquila (the Eagle), and, the clan of Angelo, the most warlike of the entire family, the Vipera (the Viper).” The Vipera and the Cervara clans would continue to fight for nearly a century until a truce was brokered. With peace restored, the ancient stronghold of the Monaldeschis would pass through many hands, ending with the Antinori family in 1940. Taking inspiration from this story, Antinori chose the name for the estate’s top wine and today’s star—the

We at Sokolin pride ourselves on bringing you not only the most sought-after and well-known wines, but also less-familiar, hidden gems from across the world. Today’s wine, the 2007 Bisceglia Gudarra Aglianico del Vulture Riserva, is one example. Hailing from Basilicata, Robert Parker’s “favorite underdog Italian region”, this wine is one defined by its terroir. Produced on Mount Vulture, an extinct volcano, the vines dig deep into the thick ancient ash to produce wines of incredible depth. To taste this wine is to experience both a far-away place and an ancient time. “Wine has given me the ability to bring a little piece of Basilicata to countries all over the world,” says owner Mario Bisceglia.

The grape itself, Aglianico, also has a long history. The longest, perhaps, of all commercial wines according to Denis Dubourdieu, who points to the

While the Garden of Eden might be known for its apples, California drinkers know that Mount Eden means grapes and seriously good wines, such as today’s 2013 Mount Eden Estate Chardonnay.  

Far from the bucolic greenery of the biblical pastures, the Mount Eden vineyards are located high in the Santa Cruz Mountains on rocky shale soils. Nearly 1000 feet above the fog line on east-facing hills, the vines receive ample sunlight, dry weather, and cool, consistent temperatures that help the grapes reach optimum ripeness year after year. The area, the first mountainous zone to be made an AVA in 1981, has been making extraordinary wines for years. In fact, two Santa Cruz Mountain wines, a Chardonnay and a Cabernet, were featured in the famed Judgement of Paris wine competition. 

Consistency and pedigree are key with this producer. Mount Eden has been producing Chardonnay

All good things must come to an end, it seems. Gone is the unseasonable warm weather we’ve been enjoying, and here comes the snow. To combat these dark skies, today we’re tasting a brighter wine—the 2014 Domaine Terres Dorees Jean Paul Brun Bourgogne Pinot Noir. 

Burgundy, or Bourgogne in French, is broadly split into two parts—Burgundy proper in the North, where you’ll find names such as Corton, Chambertin, and Romanee Conti, and in the South, the area of Beaujolais. Beaujolais is best known for its young, playful Gamay-based wines which, while highly drinkable, often lack individual character. Jean Paul Brun, however, has decided to turn that idea on its head. 

Making wines around the village of Charnay since 1977, Brun has been at the forefront of a trend to bring serious and seriously tasty terroir-driven wines to Beaujolais.

With the clock falling back this week, we fall back on one of our favorite Thanksgiving varietals—Pinot Noir. This is a grape that was seemingly designed for cool weather. Its warm, elegant fruitiness makes it a great companion to the hearty foods and chilly air of autumn. Even in the vineyard, Pinot is a grape that produces its most profound expressions through colder climes, such as today’s wine, the 2013 Melville Pinot Noir Estate Santa Rita Hills. 

When you think of the world’s great Pinot Noir sites, Burgundy of course jumps to mind along with Oregon and perhaps the up-and-comer of New Zealand. But California should be on the savvy wine-drinker’s radar. While generally too hot for the finicky Pinot, there is one area where geology has come together to offer an especially ideal spot for its growth—the Sta. Rita Hills. Only 10 miles from

« Qui boit du Meursault ne vit ni ne meurt sot »

This play on words is the unofficial slogan of the village of Meursault and might be roughly translated as “A person full of Meursault is no fool at all”. A fitting phrase for today’s wine, the 2014 Patrick Javillier Meursault les Tillets, which you’d be a fool not to taste! 

The town of Meursault has been synonymous with rich, oak-driven white Burgundies since nearly the time of its first winegrowers, the Cistercian monks. Les Tillets, the vineyard name, hearkens back to the fragrant linden trees planted by these monks to surround the vines. 

Like the Cistercians, today’s winemaker, Patrick Javillier, mixes instinct and an innate respect for the land with years of intense study to practice his craft. With his winemaking father, Javillier spent his youth in the

In France, wine’s most dynamic successes are the result of tradition meeting innovation. This couldn’t be more clear than in Burgundy’s most recently created appellation—Viré-Clessé (veer-AY cluh-SAY). Often overshadowed by its more famous Mâcon neighbors of Pouilly-Fuissé and Saint-Véran, the area of Viré-Clessé, classified in 1999, has nonetheless been known by wine fans as a source of rich, great valued wines for centuries. 

The name of the village of Viré itself (or Viriaco as it was known) means “grape-growing” and has been producing wines since the ninth century. One thousand years later in 1868, Jules Guyot would be quoted as saying that Viré-Clessé wines are “always agreeable, always healthy, and what’s more, at more than reasonable prices”. If Monsieur Guyot were here to taste today’s wine, the