Page 13 - Staff Tastings

Salvatore Geraci continues to make one of the iconic wines of southern Italy; hence I opted to share this bottle with my lady for her birthday this past weekend. Surrounded by our four children, our best friends and a sparklingly beautiful afternoon, we proceeded to imbibe in great flavors from the Finger Lakes. Some Rieslings from the area were a must, but I was secretly waiting to pull the cork on the 2007 Palari Faro. 

Salvatore oversees every detail within his operation, from the condition of each vine to the restoration of his family manor into a modern winery and tasting room. He happens to be an architect as well. The images of Salvatore’s vineyards are astounding. From these impossibly steep terraces, he creates the Falari Paro. It was almost Burgundian in weight and light on its feet. Then you take notice of the floral bouquet, trying to anticipate the minerality you’ve read about. On the

Back when Napa Valley was just beginning to establish itself, a lot of California wines were sweet and multi-varietal wines. It wasn’t until wineries in the late sixties and early seventies started using Cabernet Sauvignon as the main grape that Napa Valley became known for it. One of the few pioneers to make a wine made of Cabernet Sauvignon was Caymus. 

Caymus Vineyards was established in 1971 by Charles and Lorna Wagner with the help of their son Chuck. The Wagners have been wine growers since 1915, which they sold off to bulk wine at the time. It wasn’t until 1972 that they produced 240 cases and released their first vintage of Cabernet Sauvignon. Today, they produce the Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley, the Special Selection Cabernet Sauvignon, and a Zinfandel, with production around 65,000 cases. 

We just checked in their latest release, the 2013 vintage, and I was eager to taste this wine. The ‘13 vintage is being hailed as one of the greatest

The Sta. Rita Hills American Viticulture Appellation is in the southern section of California’s Central Coast in Santa Barbara County. The first vineyard in the region, Sanford and Benedict, was planted in 1971 but the AVA status was granted 40 years later in 2001. According to the Sta. Rita Hills Winegrowers Alliance, the “AVA is home to over 59 vineyards, totaling 2,700 hundred acres planted to Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and 18 other cool climate wine grape varieties.”

Ron Melville relocated his family’s winery from the Knight’s Valley part of Sonoma County to Sta. Rita Hills in 1996. Since then, he and his son, Chad, have been dedicated to producing cool climate Pinot Noir, Chardonnay and Syrah from their estate fruit. Located about 10 miles from the ocean in the coastal valley corridors between the Purisima Hills and the Santa Rosa Hills, the estate vineyards receive consistent morning and evening fog as well as steady afternoon winds. The Chardonnay

Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc is one of our top sellers during the warmer months.  Last year, the 2014 Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc Marlborough was ranked #21 on Wine Spectator’s Top 100 list and there’s no guess why.  David Hohnen, the founder of Cloudy Bay, hit the nail on the head when he said that “Many people can remember their first taste of Cloudy Bay, they were captivated by the wine.” We recently received the 2015 Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc Marlborough and Iwas eager to see what this vintage would bring to the table. 

Cloudy Bay was established in 1985 by Hohnen who was one of only five wine makers to explore Marlborough and take a chance on the land.  At the time, a vineyard in this location would’ve been unthinkable, but not for Hohnen. He had a hunch that the land would produce great wine and was determined to prove it, which

When Roman Bratasiuk decided to become a winemaker, he literally drove the backroads of McClaren Vale, stopping to taste grapes before he found the vineyard now known as Astralis. Once he found this magical place, where the stars seem almost close enough to touch, his fate was sealed. He worked from sun up to sun down. His hands were stained a deep red-purple from picking the grapes, and it is the way his sons, Alex and Adam, fondly remember him during those years.

The Bratasiuks have such reverence for the vineyards and terroir – Roman has always referred to the vines, some of the oldest in the world, as ‘gentlemen’ and the family believes that terroir ‘tells the story in every bottle’. They still do most of the labor by hand and look forward to passing this beautiful property onto the next generation. Alex and Adam are now largely in charge.

Knowing the Clarendon Hills story made opening a bottle of the 2005 Romas

Sociando Mallet derives its name from two previous owners. A nobleman known as Sociando owned the property back in the 1600s. The second part of the estate’s name comes from a naval captain who owned the estate by the name of Mallet. It was Mallet who combined the two names to form Sociando Mallet. When Jean Gautreau purchased Sociando Mallet in 1969, the property had fallen into disrepair in both the wine making facilities as well as the vineyards. Gautreau quickly expanded and replanted the vineyards and remodeled the wine making facilities creating a state-of-the-art production facility. From a “wine geek’s” standpoint the most interesting point for me was that Sociando Mallet does not green harvest, as most Bordeaux estates do. He has some of the highest yields in the entire region. Jean Gautreau prefers to allow nature to decide. Those high yields at Sociando Mallet are part of what gives

Fontodi Flaccianello by all standards could be classified as a Chianti; however, the Manetti Family that produces the wine still classifies it as a Super Tuscan and thus, it’s still how people perceive it. This week I had the opportunity to try the 2012 Fontodi Flaccianello and got to see firsthand how this wine compares to some Chiantis and some Super Tuscans. 

Fontodi has belonged to the Manetti Family since 1968, but the estate itself dates back to the 16^th century. Today the winery, which is in the heart of Chianti, produces seven different wines, one of them being the Flaccianello Della Pieve that originally got its name from the vineyard where the grapes came from. It is one of the first mono-varietal Sangiovese Super Tuscans that started production 1981. Since 2001 though, Flaccianello gets its grapes from a few different sources, but only the best grapes go into it. With the

2013 Domaine Vincent Paris Cornas Granit 60

$37.95 – 93 VM

Having been in the fine and rare wine business for nearly 13 years, it’s not every day that I’m blown away by a new find. I’ve been fortunate to have tried some of the greatest bottles from the best wine producing regions on earth. That being said, I love trying new wines from regions that I typically do not focus on tasting. I recently noticed that we had several cases of 2013 Domaine Vincent Cornas “Granit 60” come into stock with a killer price, and that it somehow had passed under the radar of our sales team. It’s not often that I have the chance to grab

If you’re looking for the perfect bottle to bring to the beach, on a picnic or to any summer gathering, why not try the newest release from Brad Pitt, Angelina Jolie and the Perrin Family?  2014 was a great effort, but I think 2015 will top it easily. Perhaps I’m just ready for a summer sipping wine, but my experience with the 2015 proved to me that Pitt, Jolie and Perrin know what they are doing when it comes to Rosé. 

In 2012, Jolie and Pitt purchased the 1,500-acre estate and haven’t looked back. The famous Perrin family, who you might know from Chateau de Beaucastel in the Rhone Valley, has paired with the celebrity couple to produce four vintages that have impressed the world of wine. Pitt and Jolie have the utmost respect for the estate and the land. They believe in the potential and want to continue the success by adding superb vintages of