Francis Coppola Zinfandel Diamond Collection 2006
California
Moderate

This is classic California Zinfandel with deep fruit but fresh and lively on the palate. Famed film director Francis Ford Coppola makes this wine in Geyerserville, California. Fruit comes from old vines in Amador County, granitic site of some of the best Zinfandel in the country. Fruit from Paso Robles and Sonoma, as well as a small percentage of Petite Syrah, is added then aged for 14 months in French oak barrels. The result is a wine combining depth of briary, spicy, black raspberry, cherry fruit with a lively, fresh, vigorous palate of pure, focused fruit. Enjoy with grilled baby-back ribs to pasta with tomato sauce.

Murphy-Goode ‘The Fumé’ Sauvignon Blanc 2008
North Coast
Moderate

Quite a special Sauvignon Blanc from the 2008 vintage. Note the silky, soft texture on the first sip, with freshening acidity only appearing in a discrete way as the flavor develops on the middle palate. Both bouquet and flavor offer a juicy, succulent note of passion fruit with accents of melon, pear, and grapefruit. But these are subtle, gentle – a long way from the sometimes brash tones that Sauvignon Blanc sometimes has. Murphy-Goode is one of the few wineries using a special clone of Sauvignon Blanc called Sauvignon Musqué that adds a floral tone to the wine. Fermented in both stainless steel and French and American oak to preserve fruit and add a beguiling texture.

Ferrari-Carano Siena 2007
Sonoma County
Premium

Siena is the Ferrari-Carano family’s bow to their Italian and New World wine heritage. Sangiovese makes up 78% of the wine with a surprising 22% of Malbec. All the fruit comes from estate vineyards in Alexander, Dry Creek, and Russian River Valley. This diversity gives depth to the wine as well as a fresh balance for early drinkability. Hand-harvested grapes undergo a seven day cold soak in the gravity flow winery. After fermentation, the wine is aged in a combination of Hungarian oak puncheons and French oak barrels for 12 months before bottling. The result is a crimson, ruby-edged wine of smoky, red fruit with crisp focus to the full-bodied texture.

Fess Parker Viognier 2007
Santa Barbara County
Premium

Viognier is the great white grape of the Rhône valley, where it produces opulent, exotically scented dry white wines made to go with full-flavored dishes with tomatoes, garlic, saffron. Sunny but cool coastal California is an ideal place to grow these Rhône varieties. Fess Parker winery has a fine, classically styled Viognier (with 4% Roussane) in its 2007. Medium yellow in color, the bouquet shows Viognier’s combination of floral – orange, apricot blossom – and ripe fruit: peach, nectarine, pineapple. Full bodied and luscious, this wine is made to match fish or poultry dishes with generous amounts of saffron.

Starmont Merryvale Chardonnay 2007
Napa Valley
Moderate

Here’s a super value in a full-bodied, intense yet balanced and fresh Chardonnay to pair with your best holiday seafood dishes from lobster to roast fowl. The Starmont 2007 has a light yellow color leading to an intense bouquet of ripe Chardonnay: hazelnuts, lees, brioche, as well as a citrus-floral character. Full bodied and supple, there’s still a sense of lift and freshness to the wine which keeps these rich flavors and textures focused and bright. Sourced from vineyards throughout the southern part of Napa Valley whose cooler climate preserves the acidity needed to balance this wine’s ripe components. This fruit is then whole-cluster pressed for the finest, most delicate juice, then half fermented in stainless steel and half in French oak barrel (15% new), and only 60% goes through malolactic preserving the wine’s fresh lift. A value not to be missed.

Wild Horse Pinot Noir 2007
Central Coast
Premium

Established in 1983 in California’s central coast and dedicated to making wines from those vineyards, Wild Horse blends together fruit from famous vineyards in San Luis Obispo (Edna Ranch) and Santa Barbara (Bien Nacido) for this 2007 Pinot Noir. Fruit was hand-harvested and fermented after a three-day cold soak in small lots in open and closed vats, with daily punch downs and gentle sprinkler irrigation to extract color and fruit. Aging was 10 months in French oak, 25% new. The result is Pinot Noir with a fine bouquet of roses, violets, and crisp red fruit notes of cherry and raspberry. In addition to this succulent fruit, there’s a dark mocha spice that trails into the long finish. Full and supple, there’s a crisp underlying definition to the fruit.

J Pinot Noir 2006
Russian River Valley
Premium

Vintage 2006 marks the twentieth anniversary of the founding of J vineyards. Its wines are focused on what the Russian River Valley terroir is able to express through Chardonnay and the Pinot family (Noir and Gris), both used to make sparkling and varietal wines. This is a rich, luscious yet structurally firm Pinot Noir showing warm clove and nutmeg spice allied to red fruit suggesting ripe black cherry.
Mostly from J’s estate vineyards, the fruit is harvested at night to deliver cool fruit for the first step in a five-day cold soak, a Burgundian practice that allows extraction of subtle aromatic and flavor compounds before alcoholic fermentation begins. The wine was aged for a year in French oak barrels, only 30 percent new, so as to delicately frame the flavors and not add a heavy oaken overlay.

Freestone Pinot Noir 2006
Sonoma Coast
Luxurious

Freestone is Napa Valley’s famed Joseph Phelps Winery’s exploration of biodynamically-grown Pinot Noir out in the foggy wilderness, only eight miles inland from the cold Pacific at Bodega Bay. Freestone shows the promise that the cold, rocky Sonoma Coast holds for Pinot Noir lovers as one of the few places in California that can not only grow fine Pinot Noir but where great Pinot Noir is possible. This is a New World Pinot that lovers of Chambolle-Musigny, one of Burgundy’s iconic wines, should try. I think they will see similarities between the two in the taut, silky texture, the delicate but penetrating bouquet of high-toned cherry fruit and blood orange mixed with dark accents of forest floor, a shimmer of minerals, and a persistent, fine, nuanced finish.

Silver Oak Alexander Valley 2005
Sonoma County
Luxurious

An iconic Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, produced for the first time in 1972 — a cool, wet vintage that showed the outstanding terroir of this valley. The Silver Oak bottling is sourced from three Alexander Valley estate vineyards and is 100% Cabernet Sauvignon. It was aged 25 months in 50% new and 50% seasoned American oak from Missouri, then in bottle another 15 months before release in late summer 2009. 2005 is a great vintage, noted for its long, cool growing season that allowed ripeness combined with freshness to focus the wines. The bouquet leaps from the glass, showing a spicy tobacco accent to the fine, sleek black currant fruit. On the palate the wine is silken in its juicy, flowing texture highlighting racy, fresh flavors of black currant, spice, and tobacco.

2006 Clos du Bois Cabernet Sauvignon Sonoma Reserve
Alexander Valley
Premium

This Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon shows one of the most appealing aspects of fine Cabernet: a cedar and tobacco scented complexity accenting the black currant fruit. Great Cabernet Sauvignon is more than just about fruit: there should be other elements in play and this wine has them. There’s even a touch of
tea-leaf shading the fruit and a touch of herb such as rosemary.
There is fruit of course, a juicy, glossy black currant gently supported by a combination of seasoned French, American, and Hungarian oak, only 40% new. Tannins are silken, almost velvety, and will allow the wine to age and improve at least for another three to five years.

Clos du Val 2006 Cabernet Sauvignon
Napa Valley
Premium

One of the first modern era wineries of Napa, Clos du Val was founded in 1972 in the Stag’s Leap District of eastern Napa. The original wine maker was Bernard Portet who grew up and trained in Bordeaux, bringing his Bordeaux sensibility for elegant, graceful wines matched to the power and force of warmer, riper Cabernet grown in Napa. The 2006 is a powerful yet elegant Cabernet Sauvignon showing with air a lovely warm ginger spice bouquet along with a fine intensity of black currant fruit. Complex and subtle, the wine shows accents of freshness from Cabernet Franc, a certain supple quality from Merlot and a firm core due to Petit Verdot and the 85% Cabernet Sauvignon. Decant now and enjoy at dinner but this is a wine that will develop well for at least another 10 years.

Grgich Hills Estate Cabernet Sauvignon 2005
Napa Valley
Premium

Founded in 1977, Grgich Hills has long been recognized for the complex ageability of its Chardonnay, its layered Fumé Blanc, the rich balance of its Cabernet Sauvignon. Today, Grgich Hills continues to show its commitment to biodynamic farming, believing that the finest raw material is an absolute necessity for making great wine. The 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon from this great vintage shows a balance between rich, complex fruit and a fresh, racy quality due to the long cool season. The wine’s color is still a brilliant crimson ruby, with the bouquet showing pure, crisply defined black currant fruit. Fruit spice is present from small amounts of Merlot, Cabernet Franc, and Petit Verdot as well as wood spice from aging 21 months in French oak barrels, 60% new.