December Staff Picks

Peter: NV Pedro Romero Manzanilla Sherry “Aurora” .187L four pack $11.99 Super fresh manzanilla straight from the cellars of Pedro Romero to our doors. Manzanilla shows best in the first six months of it's life. Swirl to release the intoxicating aromas of french bread, flower, almond, sake, and ocean breeze. Pedro Romero named this manzanilla after his wife Aurora, to be the signature wine of his bodega, founded in 1860 by his father. Manzanilla Aurora is today, as it was then, a dry, delicate wine with a clean almost lemony flavor and a slightly salty snap and surprising depth on the finish. It is delicious enjoyed as an aperitif or paired with olives and mild to medium cheeses or with virtually any other lighter mediterranean fare (fish, shrimp, anything in olive oil, and so on). Serve well chilled. And it comes in a handy four pack of .187L bottles to ensure the freshness of every glass. Sam: ’99 Allegrini Palazzo Della Torre $14.99 The 1999 offering of Allegrini Palazzo Della Torre is delightful. Assembled from 70% Corvina, 25% Rondinella, and 5% Sangiovese, approximately seventy five percent of the grapes from the Podere Palazzo Della Torre were vinified immediately, while the remaining grapes were left on the vines to dry until late December. Following fermentation, the wine was left to mature in French oak for about fifteen months and in the bottle for nine. The result is a fabulous offering from one of Veneto’s finest wineries. My first impression was a dark bouquet of chocolate, black licorice, toasted oak and strawberries; as I continued, however, I found delightful, bright, spunky red fruits, cherry spice, light plum and a slight raisin-like quality and that there was a lot behind this wonderful wine! Enjoying this on consecutive days, the first day with a rare beef Wellington and on the second day with roasted breast of duck, I found the latter to be the perfect match with the wine. Cheers. Justin: ’96 Pierre Bise Coteaux du Layon Rochefort “Rayelles” .500L $22.99 The ’96 “Rayelles” is a late release from one of the most consistent, high-quality, and undervalued producers of sweet Loire wines. It’s a remarkable value—and a succulently smooth one at that. Château Pierre Bise takes its name from the volcanic rock spilite (“pierre bise” in French) that surrounds the estate and excelled in both the classic, concentrated 1996 vintage, and the almost freakishly super-sweet 1997 vintage, a banner year for the “sugar hunters,” those producers known for seeking out record levels of sweetness. Château Pierre Bise, is one of my favorites because of the excellent balance they achieve even in the super sweet vintages. In a blind tasting of top ’96s and ’97s Pierre Bise’s mid-range cuvees ranked right up there with some of the very highest cuvees of other producers, sometimes costing five times as much. While the higher-level cuvées will likely prove more age-worthy, the ’96 Rayelles is superb now and will probably last another 8-10 years for those with the discipline to resist. This wine is a clear, golden straw color, and slightly viscous in the glass. The bouquet shows a fragrant mix of dried pears, peaches and pineapples along with a hint of baked apples. On the palate it is marvelously smooth and dried pear and juicy, gooey pineapple flavors come forward along with honeyed, lemony notes and just a hint of spice. The long, clean, silky finish closes with apricot and tart green apple notes. It is excellent with wintery, cinnamony, baked apple desserts. It also pairs beautifully with milder, creamy blue cheeses and is a perfect finally to a wonderful weekend dinner. This is one to stock up on for all your holiday feasts and whenever you want to turn a dinner into something special. Dr. Marty: ’00 Château Pesquié Côtes du Ventoux “Quintessence” $17.99 When Robert Parker calls a wine in the high-teen price range “amazing stuff” and endows it with a 92 score, the skeptic in me comes to the fore and I get ready to slay the dragon. But, alas, as so often happens, in this case, too, Parker is right, my skepticism recedes and I start enjoying the wine. Such was the case with the 2000 “Quintessence” from Chateau Pesquié. Château Pesquié is located in western Provence, only a few kilometers from Gigondas. This puts the vineyards in a more Rhone-like environment. High in the foothills of Mount Ventoux, in the Thone Valley, it’s literally at the top of the Côtes du Ventoux appellation. On terraced slopes, the vines include old Syrah and Grenache, with their age ranging between 40-100 years. No herbicides are used in the vineyards and crop thinning takes place in July and August. Harvesting is done manually. Quintessence is the estate’s main cuvée and the name was given to highlight the wine’s superiority, concentration and careful selection from the oldest vines. Not unexpectedly, it’s only made in "quintessential" vintages. The blend is Grenache 60% and Syrah 40%. Temperature-controlled stainless steel fermentation tanks are used and aging is in 100% new oak casks. The 2000 Quintessence’s color is a bright deep ruby/purple. Aromatically, the wine is already spouting its complexity with blackberries, raspberries, plums, minerals and earth. The wine’s structure provides perfect support for all this. The acid is just right, the tannins soft, the body full and the mouthfeel smooth. Black fruit, grilled meat and earth are the flavors in a very pleasurable, long finish. This is a very sumptuous and opulent wine that deserves Mr. Parker’s aforementioned plaudits.

John: ’01 Mark Angéli Anjou Blanc, Chenin Blanc $34.99 Chenin Blanc can be argued as one of the world’s most versatile grape varieties, capable of producing a bone dry floral style to some of the finest, longest living sweet wines. Mark Angéli is a brilliant and eccentric winemaker from the Coteaux-du-Layon, and a newcomer to the area and the profession. A chemistry student turned stonemason who embraced viticulture as a form of environmental protection, a firm believer in bio-dynamie and in the wines that can be made from this method of culture. After years of making celebrated Bonnezeaux, Angéli decided several vintages ago to reverse course, and make great dry (or semi-dry) wines from most of his plots, even in Bonnezeaux. Thus was created his Anjou blanc “La Lune,” which has the deep gold color of a sweet Chenin, and notes of dried, candied fruit on the nose; the mouth is rich, despite its minerality and lively acidity; the wine is totally dry, but with the weight and flavors of a moelleux: in all, quite an astonishing feat of vinegrowing and winemaking. Patrice: ’99 Masia Carreras Catalunya Spanish Red, $24.99 Another “thumbs up” from the staff on the ’99 Masia Carreras. This beautiful concoction (60% Garnacha, 20% Cariñena, 10% Tempranillo, 5% Cabernet Sauvignon and 5% Syrah) contains all of the complexities one might expect from a wine containing such rich varietals. In the glass the color is a rich ruby red tinged with magenta. The bouquet is a seductive mix of black cherries, barbecue, savory herbs and spice. On the palate this sophisticated beauty pleases with many layers of flavors that seem to go on forever. The initial taste of rich plums and cherries gives way to elements of dark chocolate and spice followed by essences of roasted nuts and meats. As you might guess the finish is quite “big.” We enjoyed this wine with a barbecued crusted rack of lamb accompanied by tricolor cous cous and steamed green vegetables. Delicious now, this wine can be consumed over the next ten years. Very well priced for a wine of this caliber. Dominique: ’99 Domaine Raphet & Fils Morey-St.-Denis, 1er Cru “Les Millandes” $47.99 Jean Raphet, a wily 67 year old Burgundian, is one of those authentic producers that you never hear much about. A tireless conversationalist, he is the perfect embodiment of many people’s idea of a Burgundy vigneron. He still believes in respecting the terroir and lets the true expression of the fruit speak for itself, not by an advertisement... Raphet’s wines are not as well known as some growers but they are enormously impressive. Rich with elegance and depth, they are often quite light in color but with the structure and the capacity to age superbly. His winery is situated in the little village of Morey-Saint-Denis, which is also the name of the appellation, surrounded by Gevrey-Chambertin to the north and Chambolle-Musigny to the south, in the Côtes d’Or, Côtes de Nuits of northern Burgundy. With a wine production area of 12 hectares spread in different vineyards around heart-stoppingly beautiful villages, Jean Raphet produces a wide range of wines, each with its own character and personality, but all are made with the same passion and tradition. The exclusive Premier and Grand Crus are mostly single barrel bottlings, yielding around 25 cases each. For the American market all of his wines are aged in 100% new oak barrels, from the Vosges and Allier forests. While for the French market they are only aged in 20% new oak barrels. Only one barrel, 25 cases, of this delightful “Cuvee Unique” wine was made. The wine has been bottled with neither fining nor filtration. So juicy, this wine smells like black cherry jam, a hint of spice and chocolate shavings, with generous dashes of cinnamon and even thyme. Medium bodied at first, it seems to blossom on the palate. It is a fruit-driven, aromatic, complex and lushly textured Pinot Noir from one of Burgundy's finest terroirs. Coming from Bordeaux, I am amazed by the concentration of this burgundy which makes me sit down. It is a huge Morey, sure to age for at least a decade. Personally and as an ex-sommelier, I have always loved Raphet’s wines, but this one is outrageously GOOD, and so rare that I will urge you to snap up the remaining bottles. Even North Berkeley Imports, the importer, doesn’t have any more. Scott: NV Egly-Ouriet Champagne, Brut “Grand Cru” $30.99 During the December holiday celebration, pop the corks and let the bubbly flow. While bubbles alone are a reason to cheer, champagne is also a great accompaniment to food and for this reason adds to champagne’s yum appeal. Champagne is produced in France’s northernmost winemaking region, which causes the grapes to have a high level of acidity. Acidity causes the mouth to water, and when the mouth waters, it craves food. As for choosing a champagne, Egly-Ouriet is a small producer with a unique style that is different from the large producers. All grapes are grown on Grand Cru vineyards or select growing areas within Champagne. The Non-Vintage Brut is made up of 70% Pinot Noir and 30% Chardonnay grapes. Egly-Ouriet has a fragrant nose of white peaches with a mineral, biscuity, chalky quality. On the palate, the peach and mineral qualities are joined by refreshing acidity. It is very easy to see why the New York Times awarded this champagne the highest rating of 3 stars in their recent champagne tasting panel. Egly-Ouriet’s crispness makes it a great match for lighter dishes from salad with a simple oil and vinegar dressing to a tuna tartar as well as with many types of hors d’oeuvres from puff pastries to satays and also entrees such as chicken, turkey and lobster. This wine-food pairing flexibility is cause for celebration. And at this price, you will be able to celebrate year-round.