February Staff Picks

Dominique: ’01 Bodegas Sierra Cantabria Rioja Reserva $17.99 February is very much about Valentine’s Day. Whether in a restaurant or at home, it usually includes a romantic dinner with a well crafted wine. My wife and I fell in love with Sierra Cantabria after a visit of the Bodegas 3 years ago, and their Reserva 2001 seems to me the most appropriate Valentine wine: charming, sensual, elegant and voluptuous. In 1926, Rioja became Spain's first officially-named DO (Denominacion de Origen) region. At an average 400 meters elevation, the mountainous vineyards have favorable exposures to the sun during the day, while the nights are quite cool. As a result, the grapes develop perfect ripeness without an excess of temperature or humidity. They benefit from a moderate continental climate, influenced by the Cantabrian Sea, the Sierra Cantabria Mountains and the Ebro River. The best of Rioja's wines, like Sierra Cantabria, stand alongside the finest bottles from Bordeaux, Burgundy and the Rhône Valley in France, Piedmont and Tuscany in Italy and California in the US. Rioja's winemaking tradition developed through direct influences from Bordeaux going back to the mid-nineteenth century, which helps explain the traditional, barrel-aged, and elegant style of Rioja. The Eguren family established Bodegas Sierra Cantabria in 1958. They had been winemakers in the hilltop village of San Vicente de la Sonsierra for many generations. Over the years, they bought additional vineyards, creating a managing company for all the properties in 1990, which today includes Señorio de San Vicente, Bodegas Sierra Cantabria and Finca el Bosque, Viñedos de Páganos (El Puntido) in Rioja and Dominio de Eguren (Codice and Protocolo) in Castilla and Bodega Numanthia Termes in Toro. Eldest son and Director Miguel Angel Eguren and winemaker Marcos Eguren took charge of operations in 1989. From the various family vineyards, Marcos Eguren established the separate properties, each with their own vineyards in order to keep handling and manipulation of the fruit to an absolute minimum. Sierra Cantabria 2001 Reserva is an amazing wine that combines all the components of great Rioja: ripeness, very good concentration, balance, freshness, elegance and tremendous aging potential. It exhibits dense dark berry, ripe cherry and delicate floral aromas along with profound dark chocolate, mocha notes and hints of spice. The palate is incredibly dense and packed with firm yet refined and integrated tannins. Beautiful after 2 hours of decantation, it possesses all characteristics to benefit from another 5-10 years in bottle. A fantastic value from Rioja. Enjoy! Justin: ’04 Bodegas Mauro VT Castilla y León $38.99 This is a deep, rich and fruit-laden red and probably the most prodigious edition of this perennial star yet made. The outstanding 2004 vintage combined with the masterful winemaking skills of Mariano Garcia have combined to create a brooding beauty that will soon transform into a voluptuous and expressive powerhouse. Bodegas Mauro is situated just west of the Ribera del Duero appellation and their wines display all the character of the appellation and then some. This entry level offering is seriously good, followed by their more expensive cuvée, “Vendimia Seleccionada,” a harvest selection of the best fruit from various plots, and their very limited single vineyard offering “Terreus Pago de la Cueva Baja,” sourced from ancient vines. The hallmark of all their wines is a miraculous blend of power, balance, roundness and an unmistakably deft hand in barrel aging. Opaque purple in color, the 2004 Mauro is loaded with glorious fruit. The nose offers deep aromas of velvety mixed berries, black cherry vanilla and fresh plums with raspberry and wild herb inflections. On the palate the attack is plush with a very deep, rich, smoky black cherry core. Mouth-coating blueberry and boysenberry notes fill the powerful mid-palate, are buoyed by seamless acidity and backed by full, soft, ripe and round tannins, which still need time to de-compress. The overall weight, depth and length are outstanding, yet three to six months more time in bottle will allow it to more fully harmonize and really start strutting its stuff. A little patience will be very well rewarded with exceptional drinking for another 10+ years. I am stocking up on this one now, before its gone, because I DO NOT want to miss out on the pleasure of drinking this massively good wine in the years to come. Donald: ’04 Quinta do Vale Meão Douro “Meandro” $17.49 Vale Meão is one of the oldest and most established quintas in the Douro. Since 1877 it has remained in the same family. Now under the direction of winemaker Francisco Olazabal, this quinta is poised to become one of the most important in the region. The vineyards span 62 hectares and cover three distinctively different soil types: alluvial gravel, slate, and granite. These different terroirs are important for the resulting wine, which mirrors the soil types. I was surprised to find such distinctive minerality in a wine with this much deep black fruit and bracing acidity. The different varieties, Touriga Nacional 30%, Tinta Roriz 30%, Touriga Franca 30%, Tinta Amarela 5% and Tinta Barroca 5% are indigenous to the region and together help create a wine of stunning complexity. After spending 30 minutes in the decanter, baked plum, cherries, blackberry and dense bramble notes gradually unfurl in the glass. The nose possesses a dynamic mineral backbone that meshes beautifully with the fruit. The palate gradually evolves into a dense core of black cherries and lavender wrapped tightly in an iron ore and granite grip. In twenty years this will still be stellar and at this price you can purchase a case, put it down and forget about it until then. Drinking it now takes some work, but it is rewarding, especially with grilled sausages over polenta and a hearty garlic and black olive infused tomato ragout. “An intense kirschlike aroma is followed by pure flavors of dark cherry and blackberry, with loads of mineral and spice. Refined and powerful, with a long, long finish of iron and hot stone.” —WS 92

Patrice: ’01 Fattoria di Felsina Bernadenga “Rancia” Chianti Classico Riserva $27.99 Fattoria di Felsina is one of those fairy tale Tuscan estates with a history dating back to the 12th century, when it was run by Benedictine monks. Fast forward eight centuries and this winery has become one of the top Chianti producers—with an increasing reputation especially for the last two decades. Currently managed by Giuseppe Mazzocolin, the Fattoria is not only highly respected for its Chianti but for its Super Tuscan bottlings as well. Within the Felsina estate, the six acre Rancia vineyard is one of the finest sites. The Sangiovese from this vineyard is used for one of Tuscany’s most sought-after Chiantis, the Felsina Berardenga Rancia Riserva. In the glass, the 2001 Felsina Berardenga “Rancia” Riserva is a deep crimson. Its seductive nose is filled with crushed rose petals, violets and roasted berries. On the palate, there are delicious rolling layers of black plums, dried cherries and herbs, complemented by a hint of smoke and earthiness. The tannins are textured and well integrated with the kind of ample acidity one expects from a well-made, fairly traditional Chianti. The finish is both lingering and satisfying. What else but a hearty dish like fresh pasta putanesca or a florentine steak to enjoy with this classic Italian…—the “real thing” from Tuscany. Sam: ’03 Château Ampelia Côtes de Castillon $15.47 The region of Côtes de Castillon has recently developed renown throughout the world as producing quality Bordeaux wine at value prices. Châteaux such as Cap de Faugères, Clos Puy Arnaud, and d’Aiguilhe, just to name a few, have been popular with wine critics and consumers, because they are more accessible in their youth and are relatively inexpensive in comparison to the more famous Right Bank growths of St. Emilion and Pomerol, with which they mostly share the same grape varieties. Enter Château Ampelia, a relatively new “cult wine” in the Côtes de Castillon. Ampelia is the ancient Greek festival of the vine, during which only fruits and vegetables were to be eaten; it is also the name of a prosperous Greek resort town. This charming Château’s relatively young vines (most are only 20-25 years old) produces primarily Merlot and Cabernet Franc. Generally, between 1200 and 1500 cases are produced of the grand vin for each vintage, representing the finest fruit from the estate. The 2003 vintage produced a number of wonderful values, and Château Ampelia is one of them. The assemblage of 85% Merlot and 15% Cabernet Franc suggests a blend crossed between a luxury Pomerol and a fruity Bordeaux Supérieur. The brilliant aromas of smoke, cassis, plum and dried herbs, with hints of cedar, rhubarb, and vanilla that waft from the glass are instantaneously inviting and engaging. On the palate, it offers a mouthful of bodacious red and black fruits, with loads of black spices, ripe plum essence, notes of earth, integrated oak and grippy tannins. The scintillating Asian spice and cassis notes on the finish are especially memorable. This wine's great length and bounty of well-integrated flavors are quite impressive. A powerful, elegant, sumptuous and affordable treat and a brilliant match for a variety of dishes, such as beef Bourgogne, stews, hearty roasts, veined cheeses, or even barbecue! Dan: ’03 Vrai Canon Bouché Bordeaux, Canon-Fronsac $13.47 Bordeaux drinkers know it is becoming more and more difficult to find a Bordeaux value. Bordeaux’s reputation as a classic region of high quality, combined with increased demand from emerging wine markets in Asia, has lead to steady price increases. So much so that many long-time Bordeaux drinkers can only watch as the door to Bordeaux shuts on them. However, every once in a while conditions conspire to pour enough heat on appellations that in more classic vintages grapes frequently fail to reach full ripeness. These lower level appellations are generally much less expensive than classified growth Bordeaux, and superb values when they attain especially high levels of ripeness and quality. The appellation of Canon-Fronsac in general benefited from this ripeness in 2003, and Vrai Canon Bouché, located in Canon-Fronsac, benefited in particular. Canon-Fronsac is a Right Bank appellation, along with famed Pomerol and St. Emilion. It is located just west of the town of Libourne, to the immediate south of Fronsac. As with other Right Bank wines, the wines of Canon-Fronsac are made predominantly from Merlot and Cabernet Franc. Regarding the wine’s olfactory and gustatory attributes, after 30 minutes of air the nose is full of truffle-inflected cassis, pencil shavings, and just a touch of gamey black olive. It is firm, with integrated acidity and fine tannins, giving a mouthful of cassis flavors studded with black truffle and graphite notes, followed by a low tone of grilled meat. The finish is long and accentuated with fine minerality. It displays excellent ripeness without signs of over-ripeness. Indeed, its grapes seem to have been picked just as they started to break into full maturity, and the wine is both elegant and robust. This is a lot of Bordeaux for the money.