2008 Siduri Pinot Noir
Russian River Valley, California – Stelvin Cap
Suggested Retail Price $25

Former wine merchant in Austin, Texas and – with his wife, Diana – native Texans, Adam Lee has built Siduri over the last decade and a half into one of the widest-ranging producers of Pinot Noir from the West Coast of the United States. Siduri offers in any one year Pinot Noirs from virtually all of the finest, cool-climate growing regions (and several great single vineyards) from Santa Barbera in southern California to Willamette Valley in Oregon. And of these two dozen or more wines in any one vintage, not one comes from a vineyard owned by the Lees: instead they buy Pinot Noir by the acre, not ton, from some of the most respected grape growers, thus managing to avoid much of the built-in costs of owning vineyards.

This is classic Russian River Valley Pinot Noir. The color has a youthful bluish, crimson cast to the bright, medium ruby-garnet. Aromatics are a seamlessly blended complex of floral notes and red/black fruits – cherries and raspberries – with spice accents – nutmeg, clove – in a lush textured yet fresh and vibrant wine. There's energy and lift to the wine's concentration along with a light level of tannin that focuses the wine especially on its long, spicy, floral finish. And all this harmony and elegance is captured by being bottled
unfined and unfiltered, and under Stelvin screw cap (no worry about TCA taint).

2008 was a low yield year in the Russian River Valley due to spring frosts during flowering. Eventually, fruit from six different vineyards were blended to showcase the region's character. Four different Dijon clones (114, 115, 667, and 777) in addition to Pommard, Wadenswil, and Clone 23 add their element of complexity to the wine.

Argyle Pinot Noir 2007
Willamette Valley, Oregon – Stelvin Cap
Suggested Retail Price $21.99

2007 marks the 20th vintage for Argyle and its wine maker Rollin Soles (who graduated from Texas A&M University with a degree in microbiology). The 2007 Willamette Valley Pinot Noir is elegant and satisfying, expressing the intriguing, subtle (and delicious) aspects of Oregon Pinot Noir.

Argyle's basic Willamette Valley Pinot Noir is a blend of fruit hand-harvested from the three vineyards Argyle owns: in the Dundee Hills Knudsen and Stoller, and on the east slopes of Eola Hills the Lonestar vineyard. And the 2007 is a classic example from which to learn what Oregon Pinot Noir is like and what makes it different from other U.S. examples of this variety. This is not Pinot Noir masquerading as Syrah or Cabernet Sauvignon!

First of all, the color in this 100% Pinot Noir is a bright, pale garnet as Pinot Noir simply does not have a high level of coloring matter in its blue-black skins to give an opaque wine, even though the crushed grapes have a four- to five-day cold soak to extract water-soluble flavor elements. Then when fermentation is over, the wine rests mixed with its grape skins for a further four- to five-day maceration to extract more flavor. As a result the texture and weight of the wine is full, tender, supple, and silken. Both bouquet and flavor express fruit in the cherry and strawberry spectrum, combined with a gentle, dry spice from eight to nine months aging in French oak barrels and early bottling in August 2008 to preserve fruit. All of these characteristics are captured by bottling the wine unfiltered and under screw cap in order to avoid any possibility of cork taint.

Verdejo Martina Prieto 2008
Rueda, Spain
Suggested Retail Price $19.99

It’s not often one uses the words ‘remarkable’ or ‘extremely fine’ about a wine from Rueda, Spain, but in the case of this Verdejo from Martina Prieto the words are justified. The wine is a full-bodied, creamy-textured dry white in the style of a fine, vibrant Meurault with the difference being there isn’t any oak used in the Spanish wine, and — of course — there’s no chardonnay here either.

Verdejo is indigenous to Rueda, northwest of Madrid and east of Ribera del Duero on the Castillo Y Leon plateau. Respected in Rueda for characterful wines that aged well, the ancient variety was not much planted after the phylloxera epidemic in the 19th century because of its low yields. By the 1980s there were only a few acres remaining of ancient Verdejo vines until the Rioja wine estates Marqués de Riscal and Marqués de Griñón as well as Rueda wine growers Angel Rodriquez and Jose Pariente began to make wines from this variety, sometimes blending it with Sauvignon Blanc or with the more neutral Viura in a fresh, crisp and clean modern style virtually unheard of at this time for Spanish white wines.

Martina Prieto is Jose Pariente’s granddaughter. She makes under her name a limited amount of 100% Verdejo wine, 3000 cases from 29 acres at over 2000 feet altitude. Low yields, hand-harvested at night, stainless steel fermentation and daily lees stirring is responsible for this beautiful wine. Scents of grapefruit, lime, fennel, and mint combine with a powerful minerality on the fresh, vibrant and creamy, full-bodied palate. Flavors reflect a mineral base with nuances of fennel and grapefruit and a long savory finish that grows in complexity and intensity.

Serve with Spanish frittatas, ceviche, or Spring green vegetables such as fresh lima beans, mushrooms, asparagus with hollandaise, or grilled lobster or any meaty white fish.

Château Picque Caillou 2005 & 2006
Pessac-Leognan, France
Suggested Retail Price $26.99 & $30.99

Here are two vintages of the same Château offering great value for the Bordeaux lover looking for reasonably priced examples with the typicity, character, and nuance that have made Bordeaux wines a worldwide touchstone.

Pessac-Leognan is the northern section of what used to be called Bordeaux’s Graves, whose vineyards and wines have been famous since the early Middle Ages; though now they have been surrounded by the city’s ever-growing suburbs and airport. In fact, in 1929 there were 14 wine châteaux in Merignac (where the airport is located), but today only Picque Caillou survives, the other vineyards now lying beneath runways and hangers.

The deep gravel soils here (hence the name ‘Graves’ which means ‘gravel’) at the city’s southern border give wine of restrained savory richness. At Château Picque Caillou (‘caillou’ means ‘pebble’), a 49-acre estate just a few hundred feet from First Growth Château Haut-Brion and Pape-Clement, the wine is a blend of 45% each Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot with 10% Cabernet Franc. Aged for 12 months in oak barrels, 1/3 new, the result is a classic expression of this region.

The 2006 has an immediately inviting, medium-intense bouquet combining Asian spice with notes of sun-warmed brick, sealing wax, mineral, and a touch of the freshness of black currant leaf — the typical Graves characteristics. On the palate the wine is medium-weight, with a supple and tender core but also taut with a crisp, fresh finish showing velvety medium tannins. Delicious now, but the wine has at least another three to five years of development.

The 2005, considered on a par with 2000, 1990, and 1982, shows a bouquet of deeper, riper, ‘sweeter’ fruit (though less intense than the 2006 at first) but still filled with mineral and brick-dust. On the palate the 2005 is more profound, more velvety, and with higher tannin level so decant an hour or so before serving which will also allow the bouquet to open. The wine’s smoky, mineral savor lasts for minutes.

Ideally one would savor the vintages’ differences and similarities together, while served with roast lamb (traditional with the finest Bordeaux) and experience one of the greatest pleasures that Bordeaux wine can offer. As renowned British wine authority David Peppercorn, MW, has noted of the estate’s wines: “Sylish, supple, full-flavoured. Wines of breed.”

Chassagne-Montrachet Blanc Louis Jadot 2007
Burgundy, France
Suggested Retail Price $55

If you love vibrant, fresh, yet resonant wines I’d like to recommend this classic white Burgundy from Louis Jadot. Chassagne-Montrachet is the southernmost of the trio of world-famous villages — the other two being Puligny-Montrachet and Meursault as one goes north from Chassagne — in the heart of Burgundy that for many are the highest expression what the Chardonnay grape can do as a wine (with apologies to lovers of Chablis and Blanc de Blancs Champagne).

In the great 2007 vintage, this is a textbook village Chassagne-Montrachet in its fresh floral and lime aromatics that brightens the subtle hazelnut depth in the wine’s flavor. As a vintage, 2007 is one of the more exciting years for white Burgundy. The vintage combines a fresh, vibrant, racy character that enlivens the wines’ mineral depth: think a combination of rushing mountain stream and cool well water. The long cool growing season in 2007 also adds a bright touch of lime flower to the aromatics and flavor. On the palate, the medium-weight wine shows mineral and nutty, earthy flavors that remain deep and fresh at the same time. Typcial of wine maker Jacques Lardiere, a portion of the malolactic fermentation was blocked in order to preserve higher acidity in the wine for added freshenss and vibvrancy. There’s an elegance to the moderately earthy flavors as well as concentration that suggests this will develop over the medium term, for another three to five years even though it is enjoyable now. Be sure not to serve too cold and — ideally — decant for an hour or more before serving.