Ripe notes of plum and savory coffee tones connect with spiced cedar.
Ripe notes of plum and savory coffee tones connect with spiced cedar.
No doubt its best years are ahead of it, but this blend of 92% Cabernet, 6% Merlot, and 2% Petit Verdot aged in (75% new) French oak for 46 months has got plenty to say now. Blackberry and dried plum meld with black pepper and cinnamon toast amid hints of smoked vanilla and mixed herbs, while sturdy, chicory-toned tannins are assuaged by a velvety mouthfeel, plummy acidity, and a woodsy quality on the finish.
Owner/winemaker Don Lorenzi calls this “a white for red wine drinkers.” Fermented and aged for 18 months in French oak, it’s certainly bold and rich, but it’s not without nuance. Pineapple upside-down cake and fresh, juicy white cherry take the lead on both nose and palate, where the tang and creaminess of lemon curd are seasoned with a pinch of saffron on the finish.
This 95% de-alcoholized Chardonnay offers vibrating bubbles with lovely notes of brioche and lemon meringue. Soft on the palate with a finish of peaches and cream.
Gooseberry, passion fruit, and jasmine are lovely aromatics that translate to the palate. Key lime and a grassy middle rely on a keen acid structure for a bright mineral finish.
The liquid arrives with a deep, graceful warmth seasoned by garden herbs and wild strawberries. Its quiet elegance shows wood-kissed, earthy dark fruit, with a civilized elegance.
Vinified in a mix of oak and concrete and spending about a year on the lees, this Chardonnay is poised just so between brightness and richness. Nectarine, grapefruit curd, and preserved lemon coalesce around crème brûlée, fig, and toasted pine nut on both nose and palate, where round acidity yields to a slightly chalky finish.
Sour cherry and black currant are stitched together by fine threads of leather, tobacco, and toasted cumin in this wine, whose zip and grip don’t eclipse its charm.