April Staff Picks

Peter: ’01 Kanonkop Pinotage 2001 Stellenbosch $21.99 Made from extremely low yielding, non-irrigated vines over 55 years old. Vinified on the skin for 4 days in open fermenters at 28-30C. Punch down cap was executed by hand every two hours, labor intensive but the best method. Aged for 14 months in french oak. Pinotage is a cross of Cinsault and Pinot Noir. Winemaker Beyers Truter has been Widely acclaimed as "The King of Pinotage" Kanonkop has been awared the tittle of international wine maker of the year at the London wine and spirit competition-not once but twice this decade. This is my first ever South African wine of the month... IÕve tried many wines from South Africa, but they always fell short "pick for the month" status. Not this time—the flavors are singing, black cherries, cassis, bitter chocolate, smoky bacon, and earth. Complex and deep, truly a wine for wine lovers. Sam: ’99 Joseph Roty Bourgogne Rouge “Grand Ordinaire” $14.99 Joseph Roty, one of the great older gentlemen in the Cote d’Or, has a great reputation for producing complex yet fantastic wines. Though Monsieur Roty’s reputation for chain-smoking does exceed itself, many times one (at least one who is able to go to Burgundy) will venture to the property to have an opportunity to partake of his delicious offerings. The 1999 Bourgogne is certainly a wonder. It has a gorgeous light strawberry color, with pleasantly fragrant aromas of cherry liqueur and apple cinnamon. I first tasted this wine in the evening, and detected a noticeable lack of fruit; I thus decided to chill it a few hours. I didn’t get back to it until the following day, but it seemed to be a totally different wine than the day before! Lush cherries, red currants, and ripe raspberries seemed to spill forward in the mouth, as if to say, we are free (thus showing this wine has some serious stuffing! and a cooler tempature was a help). Fresh and quite delicious, not at all like the tight, somewhat herbaceous offering the day before, this is the perfect wine to go with Chinese food or a pasta dish with a light red sauce.  Bon Appetit!! And dont forget to decant well ahead of time. Justin: ’01 Condado de Haza Ribera del Duero Spanish Red $16.99 Condado de Haza is the second Ribera del Duero winery of Alejandro Fernandez, the highly regarded and pioneering owner of Pesquera. The 2001 vintage in Ribera del Duero is showing all the signs of being an excellent vintage from what we have seen so far. And this edition of Condado de Haza is a perfect example of how a usually tasty wine can reach to the heavens in an exceptional vintage. It is the best Condado de Haza in years, perhaps even better than the ’94s and ’95s, which are drinking superbly now. The opaque purple/magenta color of the ’01 gives a hint at the loads of fruit in the glass. After time to open it shows loads of sweet black cherry aromas layered with notes of spice, hay, smoke, wild herbs, vanilla creme and ashy minerality. On the palate it is rich with dense bright cherry flavors, earthy barnyard notes, toasty oak and hints of raspberry, strawberry and orange peel. Vibrant acidity and ripe tannins provide excellent balance and structure. The toasty oak vanillins add custardy, caramel, and cherry pie notes. To enjoy now in this dense, fruity phase be sure to decant vigorously. Or, give it four or five more years in bottle for the oak to resolve and for the underlying finesse and suppleness to show through. I warn you. It will be a tough wait. You may want to get enough for now AND some for later—before it’s all gone. José: ’99 Valderiz Ribera del Duero $25.99 Telmo Rodriguez was born 30 years ago in the town of Irun, in the Basque region near the border with France. Telmo's father bought and restored the famous Remelluri winery where Telmo spent a great deal of his youth. He went on to study at the University of Bibao, and then on to France working with Bruno Prat in Bordeaux. He received a "Diploma National d' Oenolgie" from the University of Bordeaux. He spent several more years in the Rhone Valley and then returned to Spain to work at Remelluri. Seven years ago he founded Compa–ia de Vinos de Telmo Rodriguez. His goal is to discover great vineyards, and bring to the market high-quality wines from both know and unknown regions across Spain. Valderiz is made from 100% Tinta del Pais (Tempranillo from Ribera Del Duero). It was aged in French and American oak for 18 months. It possesses a rich dense youthful character that offers a dense, plush texture, and is thick with intense and well defined ripe flavors of plum and blackberry. It has a captivating color of black cherry with sybaritic smoky fruit aromas. Last but not least, Valderiz 1999 should be consumed over the next 4 to 6 years for its unabashed display of delightful flavor. Elena: ’02 Paringa Shiraz Individual Vineyard $8.99 David and Dena Hickinbotham, responsible for making wines under some of the most well-known labels in Southern Australia, are also the owners and winemakers at Paringa. Their token wisdom is that producing varietal, single vineyard wines are the best way to underscore the high quality grapes grown in carefully maintained vineyards. This theory in combination with a phenomenal 2002 vintage in Southern Australia has resulted in a superb Shiraz from Paringa. The 2002 vintage is described as being the best season ever in terms of quality for the growing districts of Southern Australia. With an uncharacteristically long and cool summer, combined with a warm, dry autumn, the region saw a lighter crop of berries. This smaller crop allowed for fully developed color and flavor in the berries, along with a well-balanced acid to sugar ratio. Although the quantity produced of both red and white wines in Southern Australian for this vintage were much below average, the superior quality exceeded expectations, especially Shiraz, the region’s signature variety. The wine in the glass is a young ruby/purple, with a nose of berries, plums, and licorice. On the palate, it shows mellow berries and a slight peppery edge. True to this great vintage, the acid is nicely rounded and balanced with the sweetness of the fruit, and shows a smooth, clean finish. While it is drinking nicely now, it is still young and will improve over the next few years.

John: ’02 Mayol Bonarda, Argentina $10.49 Bonarda is a grape whose lineage has been the subject of much debate. Many think that it is the obscure Charbono grape of California (which has been argued to be Dolcetto of Italy), brought to fame by the Inglenook family. Others claim that it is Croatina, a fruity red found around the Piedmont and Lombardy borders of northern Italy. Regardless, the variety along with many other native Italian varietals found its way to Argentina by Italian immigrants, and now has the most vines planted in the country. The Bonarda grape is gaining more and more popularity in the export market. The light, easy, fruity wines are the sorts that can happily be drunk with a slight chill to them. The ’02 Bonarda from Mayol is loaded with bright juicy raspberry and blackberry fruit, touches of sweet and savory spices and a dash of vanilla. Perfect as an accompaniment to the weekday evening meal, this jammy offering has quickly become my official Chinese takeout red. It’s a perfect match with spareribs, black bean sauce or anything extra spicy. Patrice: ’02 Nora Spanish White, Albarino/ Rias Baixas $10.99 Looking for a lovely and crisp apéritif wine that is modestly priced? You may want to try the ’02 Nora Albarino from the southern part of the Rias Baixas region of Spain near Portugal. The 2002 Nora exhibits the palest of amber colour in the the glass. The nose is filled with the scent of honeysuckle, green apple and peach. On the palate the wine is both tangy and fruity with a healthy dose of citrus, peach and apricot. The notes of steely minerals keep it lively but not too sharp…no oak here. The finish is invigorating. We enjoyed the wine with a delicious lobster salad accompanied by toast points as an appetizer to our main course. I must add that the pairing worked very well not only on the palate but on the pocket book as well. At over $20 a pound for the lobster salad the price of this quality wine was quite the treat. The ’02 Nora will go great with any shell fish combination as well as spicy Asian cuisine. Enjoy! Dominique: ’98 Canet Valette “Le Vin Maghani” $19.99 This month I would like to introduce you to a great wine that I rediscovered: "Le Vin Maghani" (from Saint-Chinian in the Languedoc). When I first tasted it about a year ago I found it nice but a bit tight and tannic. I took a bottle home a few weeks ago, opened it, decanted it and left it for about an hour before pouring my first glass. One word came to mind: Superb! Even with a high rating from The Wine Advocate, the obscure Canet Valette “Le Vin Maghani” is not easy to sell and often needs a little explanation: The Saint-Chinian vineyard is situated to the North-West of Béziers at the foot of the Caroux and Espinouse hills (western Languedoc, Herault). The wines have a very long-standing reputation going back as far as the fourteenth century. But it was the Benedictine monks, as early as the 18th Century, who introduced the vineyard and cleared the ground on the banks of the Vernazobres River which became site of the village of St Chinian. It is there, around the rivers Orb and Vernazobres, that twenty villages have united to produce one of the greatest crus to the Languedoc, Saint-Chinian. It was not until towards the middle of the 19th century that the "Vignerons" began to concentrate on quality rather than quantity. A VDQS since 1945, St Chinian acquired AOC status in 1982. The appellation produces primarily red and rosé coming from 2000 hectares of vines planted mostly on south-facing hillsides looking at the sea, at an altitude of 100 — 200 meters. The vines grow on schist soil to the north, resulting in more rustic and leaner style wines. To the south there is ample limestone and clay, bearing fruitier yet more robust wines. Canet Valette has set the precedence for quality winemaking in this relatively unknown Languedoc growing region. He vinifies his wine the traditional (nearly organic) way: no herbicide, no pesticide, no fining and no filtration, just the help of Mother Nature. Choosing only the super-ripe grapes, Marc moves through the vineyards three to four times and harvests later than others. He sorts the grapes twice: once in the vineyard on a sorting table then again in the cellar. With new equipment there is a gentle extraction, with routine punching down and gravity flowing to move the juice. "Cuvaison" lasts for three to four weeks (depending on the vintage), which gives a rounder, finer tannic structure. These are incredibly expressive, aromatic, concentrated wines. Canet Valette “Le Vin Paghani” is as good as the reserve and less expensive. It is a fantastic introduction to wines of Saint-Chinian and from one of the most respected estates of the area. It is medium-bodied, loaded with a jammy black and red berries (cherries and blackberries) spice and rich structure. After 1 hour in the decanter the nose reflects the Garrigue surrounding the domain. Perfumes of wild herbs and resiny plants mixed with black currant exploded in the glass. It was all about refined power, depth and concentration. The wine has a good acidity to balance the fruit and the chewy tannins and seems to expand in your palate. A long finish with big yet supple tannins, earthiness and beautiful black fruits. A whole Universe in a $20 bottle. Drink with Goulasch de Bœuf, civet de lièvre, cuisse de Biche sauce poivrade, fricassée de rognons. "Red/black fruits are intermingled with spices and licorice in the aromatics of the 1998 St.-Chinian Le Vin Maghani Reserve." —Pierre Rovani, 90 points, Wine Advocate #139 (Feb 2002). Scott: ’01 Valle Reale Montepulciano d’Abruzzo “San Calisto” $28.99 Abruzzo offers rare and refreshing simplicity. This mountainous region with favorable growing conditions offers DOC and classified wines based on Montepulciano and Trebbiano, which remain the grape varieties of choice. Montepulciano is often confused with the town of the same name in Tuscany that is known for Vino Nobile di Montepulciano. Like other Tuscan treasures, Vino Nobile di Montepulciano is made from Sangiovese. Abruzzo’s Montepulciano grape is deserving of greater distinction than it currently holds as it provides a wide variety of wine from light, refreshing rosés and reds to reds of excellent character that are full bodied and robust. Deep within one of Italy’s beautiful national parks, the San Calisto vineyard benefits from the Pescara River, wild vegetation, and the surrounding mountains. Sixty acres planted in 1999 enjoy a southwestern exposure. For the 2001 vintage, the manual harvest began in late October, which benefits the late ripening Montepulciano. Only 1,300 cases were made, and the wine was aged for 15 months in French Barrique. After the wood aging, the wine spent another year in bottle before being released. The wine is a deep ruby color. On the nose, roasted cherries are complimented with dense hazelnut, chocolate and toasted oak notes. The lushness of the nose is followed by a cherry, vanilla and nutmeg spiced palate. Acidity on the attack is followed by soft tannins on the finish which are well integrated with the other components. The San Calisto is rich and luxurious and will turn any meal into a decadent affair. For the meal, you can do as the Abruzzesi do (although to a much less extent now) and marathon with a La Parada. A La Parada is a thirty to forty course meal that lasts hours if not days. Or, you can just enjoy some of the local bites such as roast lamb or liver sausages sweetened with honey and spices. Another option is an after-dinner cheese course which would beautifully match with a pecorino or caciocavllo. Salute!