Wines of the Week:
Customer Favorites - A Couple of American Beauties
2010 Banshee Sauvignon Blanc
Regular Price $19.99
On sale for $14.99
2009 Banshee Pinot Noir
Regular Price $22.99
On sale for $17.99
It's new, it's cool, it's hip. But it's been going on for a while now. Talented young winemakers who can't afford to start their own winery will buy grapes from ultra-premium sources and make their own wine at co-op style facilities. We love these high end wines at low prices and Banshee is our new favorite in this category.
I gotta give props to our local fine dining spot, "80 Thoreau" and my pal there Vincent Vela for turning me and a lot of our guests at the shop onto the Banshee Pinot Noir.
I can't tell you how many people I've recommended these wines to and then they come back and tell me, "it tasted frigin' awesome, even my wife loved it" or "Mmmmm....that wine sure was tasty, but my husband drank the whole thing." And then they bought more. That's always a good sign, right? So I bought and bunch and now we have them as a feature.
It's very rare that I'll recommend two wines from the same producer because it's tough for any producer to make two top-notch wines like it's tough for me to multi-task. But these folks (on the left) did it.
Details on the Sauvignon Blanc: This is a slightly grassy, lemon blossom and citrusy Sauvignon Blanc, with no malo but a rush of melony goodness on the palate. Medium-bodied, this wine has good texture AND acidity, which would come as no surprise if you knew the wine’s source. Banshee gets 98% of the fruit from one of the top Sauvignon Blanc producers in the Napa Valley. On sale for $14.99 and in the cold box waiting for you now.
Details on the Pinot Noir: A blend of two top-notch vineyards, one in the Petaluma 
Wind Gap (Sonoma Coast) and one from Russian River Valley. This Sonoma County is a complex pinot with dark cherry fruit and sweet earthen minerality held together by bright acidity and long, rich and ripe tannins. I think this is a Cab lovers Pinot because it's so big and juicy. On sale for $17.99
Respect: Both the Sauvignon Blanc and the Pinot Noir average 90 Points on the public review site, CellarTracker.com
Want to know more about the Banshee Project? Click here
This is the kind of wine you drink a few glasses of without realizing it. I've been tasting a lot of heavier wines lately so it was refreshing to drink something so light with so much flavor. It has nice cherry, smoke and spice smell, with a light and fresh mouth feel that's still very round and concentrated. The tannins on the finish are smooth and enjoyable. I would recommend opening this at least an hour before drinking it. It was almost better on the second day of being open.
I drank this wine the other night and agree with the review. For me it's style falls somewhere between Burgundy and Napa. It has the elegance and liveliness of Chardonnay from Burgundy but it also has those rich and creamy flavors that you expect from higher quality Napa Chardonnays. It's almost too perfect! And like any good Chardonnay, it also goes down too easy. It's great wine to serve to guests because "old world" a.k.a European wine lovers can enjoy the elegance while those who prefer US Chardonnay like Sonoma Cutrer, Ferrari-Carrano or Cupcake will like it's creaminess.
Elvio Tintero Grangia - 11.5% alcohol
We drank some of this delicious Cab last night. Again, the review is spot-on. The biggest thing for me with this wine is that it tastes like real Cabernet. Many of the Napa Cabs I try at this price point taste too oaky, have gobs of fruit and zero varietal character. Sure, it's kind of a generic label and we don't know which winery the grapes are from but if you can get past that and just enjoy what's in the glass this wine is a great value. I tried it again this afternoon and I have to say that on day two, this wine is even better. You could easily lay this wine down for a couple years, but why wait? It's delicious now with and even better with a little air. And again it's a great wine to serve to guests. Just like a good Chardonnay, who doesn't like a quality Napa Cab? 
The ride west from Provence was thankfully uneventful. We didn't get stuck in any tollbooths or gas stations like we did on the previous day. We stopped at our first winery, Chateau Laroque, (a Kermit Lynch import) toured the vineyards, met the winemaker and sampled some unfinished wine out of the barrel. The folks at Laroque were very gracious and our visit there was a real treat. Our next stops were going to be the wineries St. Martin de la Garrigue and Domaine Lafage. The winemaker at Laroque recommended we take the highway to save time.
was a big overhanging sign that read:
Domaine Lafage to us. Jean Marc and Eliane LaFage's 2010 white blend labeled "Cote Est" reflect the pioneering spirit you still see in Southern France. Breaking tradition for this wine, they have blended grapes you don't usually see together and somehow they make an amazingly fresh and tasty blend at even better price. The quality makes one think this style of wine had been perfected over centuries rather then a decade. 
an enticing bouquet of underbrush, damp earth, mineral, incense, black currant and black cherry. This is followed by a full-bodied, dense, savory wine with layers of spicy fruit and a lengthy, pure finish." If you like Napa Cabs, I think you'll like this wine. That black currant they mention in the review really shines through and reminds me a of a Cab from Oakville. But it still has that minerality that only comes from places like Priorat where the vines are grown on steep hillsides on rocky soil. Find this wine at the front counter or "highly rated" bins. 
Wines available to taste now:
You can't find wine from anywhere else in the world that tastes like this. But if you like Pinot Noir, Beaujolais, or Grenache/Garnacha based wines from Spain or the Rhone Valley, I think you'll enjoy this style. For under $10, it's exactly what I'm looking for; it's light, fresh, has plenty of fruit and doesn't taste like someone modified it with phony tactics to make it taste like a more expensive, complex wine. 
Lake County is located just north of Napa Valley along the Mayacamas Mountains. For years Lake County grapes were being sold and used to make Napa and Sonoma wines that we see labeled as "North Coast." But with wine drinkers looking for a little extra bang for their buck these days, the region is producing it's own wines and finally garnering a degree of recognition from the wine press.
grape (Barbera) being grown in a lesser known area of California. But after one sip, you'll taste why this wine has the best of both worlds - the fruity punch and crispness you get from an Italian Barbera, but also the guts, power and rich fruit you expect from grapes grown until the California sun. When we tried it at the shop without knowing the price, we all thought it was a $35+ bottle. It's a great value at half that price. 
Last night I spoke on the phone with the wine maker and I asked him how he got so much of the rich fruit flavors out of the grapes but managed to have the wine maintain it's crispness. He told me Lake County has slightly warmer days and cooler nights then Napa, and that they picked the Barbera extra late which reduced the acidity and cranked up the fruit. Even with so much fruit, this wine tastes very fresh and it retained plenty of acidity. 
does the press. They consistently get 93+ point scores. But what about their white wines? Robert Parker loves those as well. They also typically get 93+ point scores. So how the heck can I sell Anderson's 2006 Chard at over 50% off? 
read his Wine Advocate religiously, but you can see just how powerful this man is when he writes something remotely negative about a wine. He can make the fortune or failure of a given wine with a less then outstanding review.
layman's terms, when a wine goes through malolactic fermentation it gets that "buttery" taste. Without malolactic fermentation, the wine retains more of a crisp, refreshing taste. 
their counterparts from the north in places like Dry Creek and Lodi. This '08 Victor Hugo Estate Zinfandel from Paso Robles fits the bill, and is PACKED with juicy red fruits (think about biting into ultra-ripe raspberries, strawberries and blackberries in the summer), and just the slightest hint of tobacco to give it a little earthiness. 
2008
My favorite thing about this wine is that it's balanced. Sure, it's 14.9% alcohol, but you'd never guess it because Victor (and mother nature) absolutely nailed the sugar/acid ratio in this wine and the result is pure berry bliss. I tasted several of his wines last week and honestly I thought this Zin just blew away everything else. Maybe it's his 35+ years of wine making or maybe it's the ocean breeze, cool nights and the warm days in Paso. It all matters, but what's most important is that you get a great wine for the price. 
way to greet the evening than with a fresh glass of wine. I could be hanging out at a BBQ patio party in Napa, melting away in the afternoon sun in the Italian country side or kicking around the narrow streets of Madrid.
Rombauer Chardonnay is sacred ground for many...and with that being said we must let you know that the #1 question we get asked by Chardonnay fans is "I love Rombauer but I want something closer to $15 tonight. What do you have for me?"
sell out from our distributor before the pundits get to review this vintage.
Viticultural Area) located in the heart of Napa Valley. 
Within Rutherford you can find micro-climates. Case in point is the Dollarhide Ranch. Previously a horse and cattle ranch in the 1800's, Dollarhide is now famous vineyard that was purchased by St. Supery in 1982. 
behind Dollarhide Ranch) was able to get a load of Cabernet grapes from the prestigious Dollarhide Ranch. How come? Simple. The recession was a'comin' and the price of grapes dropped. 
The 2008 Napa wines are just starting to be released. So how does it stack up, especially compared to the much hyped 2007 vintage? Robert Parker writes,
2008 Maxwell Creek Cabernet Sauvignon - 13.9% a.b.v.