Cocoa Hill Red Blend

Shiraz, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon and Malbec

Nose of plum, freshly ground white pepper, and vanilla. Taste of dark red fruits too many spices to mention and silky tannins leading to a long finish.

Batches barrel aged for 14 months in second fill French oak barrels while some remained in stainless steel to retain freshness.

Various grilled meats, charcuterie.

La Cetto Zinfandel Guadalupe Valley, Baja California

Taste of blackberry and boysenberry. tenuously jammy and laced with black pepper, and a slightly food friendly herbal edge.

What the heck is Guadalupe?
30 wineries are located just an hour outside of Ensenada, Mexico.  But you should get to know La Cetto and a trip to the valley. Solid wines, good food, and it's in Mexico!

LA Cetto is one of Mexico's largest wine producers. Located at the top of the Guadalupe Valley, Cetto almost a century of wine making tradition. The vineyards are located northeastern end of the Valley. In the foothills, the grapes get warm days and cold nights closer to prime wine real estate that we all know. Mexican winemakers are challenged by the fact that wine is not the average Mexican’s beverage of choice. However, that is changing!

Jed Steele “Blue Franc” Yakima Valley, Washington

Fancy description:

Very much Malbec-like [yes, I went there], with crisp and unpompous fruit, pepper, almond, and cinnamon.

Just like Zweigelt [another Austrian grape], this Austrian based grape is the perfect match for BBQ especially Korean!

For the rest of us:
It wears on the palate like the prefect suit, ready for any occasion!

What the heck is Blue Franc?
Blau Frankisch, literally means “blue grape from France.” Also known as Lemberger, Jed was smart not to use that term for this wine! Limburger cheese [please note the spelling] does not create the most positive of connotations...

Late-ripening red with rich tannins and a pronounced spicy character. The grape is grown across Central Europe, including Austria.

Laird Cold Creek Ranch Pinot Grigo

Hmm...

Being that the market is "soaked" with Gris and Grigio, it takes a lot to impress! This wine delivers intense apricot and bright Moros [blood orange] and focus that fruit into layers of coconut. One is to assume that since the wine is done in stainless steel they have enough acidity they can afford to lay the wine on the lees for an extended period.

Why spend the money?

Laird has 24,312 bottles produced of this wine while Santa Margherita Pinot Grigio sales reached some 8,5 million bottles in 2006.

This wine is also a single vineyard production which gives hands-on 

control with Cold Creek Ranch vineyard being a preeminent site 

for the production of both Pinot Grigio and Chardonnay.

Mercedes Eguren 50% Shiraz 50% Tempranillo

Yum!
Rich garnet color, just short of opaque. Aromas of cherries and plums with a kiss of chocolate. Up front fruit Royal Ann cherries with a back-round of fig Shiraz at work! Tempranillo wins in the end with firm grip and dearth-thy earthy-grace.
Great with anything that flames up on the grill like LAMB!

Syah - Shiraz
Interseting facts excerpted from wikipedia:
My thoughts in [ ]



Syrah was estimated in 2004 to be the world's 7th most grown grape at 142,600 hectares (352,000 acres). DNA profiling in 1999 found Syrah to be the offspring of two obscure grapes from southeastern France, Dureza and Mondeuse Blanche. It should not be confused with Petite Sirah, a synonym for Durif, a cross of Syrah with Peloursin dating from 1880.

Pliny the Elder [also wrote about hops calling them "Lupus salictarius", meaning wolf among scrubs." one cool dude]
Wrote in his Naturalis Historia about the wines of Vienne (which today would be called Côte-Rôtie), where the Allobroges made famous and prized wine from a dark-skinned grape variety that had not existed some 50 years earlier, in Virgil's age. Pliny called the vines of this wine Allobrogica, and it has been speculated that it could be today's Syrah. However, the description of the wine would also fit, for example, Dureza and Pliny's observation that the vines of Allobrogica was resistant to cold is not entirely consistent with Syrah.

Scotsman James Busby, often called "the Father of Australian viticulture", made a trip back to Europe to collect cuttings from vines (primarily from France and Spain) for introduction to Australia. One of the varieties collected by him was Syrah, although Busby used the two spellings "Scyras" and "Ciras". The cuttings were planted in the Sydney Botanical Gardens, and in Hunter Valley, and in 1839 brought from Sydney to South Australia. By the 1860s, Syrah was established as an important variety in Australia.

To confuse matters, in northern Rhône, different clones of genuine Syrah are referred to as Petite Syrah (small Syrah) or Gros Syrah (large Syrah) depending on the size of their berries, with Petite Syrah being considered the superior version, giving wines higher in phenolics. [However, Petite Sirah is not Syrah. "Durif" and "Petite Sirah" are interchangeable]

Bodegas Enguera “Pelta” Valencia, Spain

80% tempranillo and 20% monastrell

Fruit forward aromas with blackberry and herbs.
Blackberry flavors spill out of the glass with a tease of leather and spice.
A very pleasing cocktail wine!

What the heck is Valencia?
Grapes have been grown in Valencia since the Neolithic era. Valencia is Spain's third-largest city and biggest wine export center. Better known nationally for the lusciously sweet and flowery wine Moscatel [Muscat] grape. Moscatel, named for the grape that makes the DO's [denominacion de origen] dessert wine, is a low-lying area just southwest of Valencia city.
Valencia DO lies near Spain's east coast, with most of the region's inland rather than near the sea. The DO is divided into four sub-regions, Valentino, Alto Turia, Moscatel and Clariano.
Valencia's most popular grapes are:
merseguera, malvasía, tempranillo, monastrell and moscatel.

Isn’t Valencia an orange!
Name does indeed comes from Valencia Spain, known for sweet orange trees, which were originally from India. A patented orange hybrid was later sold by William Wolfskill to the Irvine Ranch owners, who make the orange famous. The success of this crop in Southern California led to the naming of Orange County, California.

Highway 12 straight to...

 ...BLISS!

Highway 12 Sauvignon Blanc

Tastes of green apple, musk melon, and tropical fruits are expressed
in a way that tickles the tongue and inspires the mind!

Highway 12 Merlot

Need a reason to like a kick-ass Merlot? 

Ripe Mirabelle plums dance through blackberry fields then reach out and 

touch little vanilla pillows of smoothness. Great with a wide variety of dishes.

A customer and friend expressed it best but can not be said in this forum. 

Drop by the store for his take...

Steltzner "Claret" 2007

Steltzner Vineyards & Stags Leap District, Napa Valley 2007
68% Cabernet Sauvignon / 20% Merlot / 12% Cabernet Franc

Taste
Impressive aromas of Lambert cherries and earth travel from nose to finish while the medium bodied, velvety-textured dances in the glass! The perfect wine for those couples seeking one's love for pinot noir with another's passion for cabernet.

What heck is Claret?
Claret derives from the French “clairet,” a now uncommon dark rosé and the most common wine exported from Bordeaux until the 18th century. It is a protected name within the European Union, describing a red Bordeaux wine, accepted after the British wine trade demonstrated over 300 years' usage of the term.


Claret is occasionally used in the United States as a label for red wine in the style of the Bordeaux, ideally of varietals authentic to the region. The French themselves do not use the term, except for export purposes.

The color "claret" resembles the red hue of Bordeaux wine. It has become a slang term for blood, as in "tapping the claret" meaning giving someone a bloody nose!

From the Steltzner website...
Eleanor, Queen of Aquitaine, divorced Louis VII of France and married Henry II of England (1152), securing Aquitaine independence from France. The English had grown fond of

Claret, the principal export of Aquitaine province, Bordeaux. Spawned from these events, the 100-year war (1337-1453) ensued over women's property rights and Claret. This historic merchants' wine reached its popularity zenith the 19th century England, Claret emerged as the fashionable beverage of choice.

In the English quest of leisure and sociability, it was served in the afternoons at the grand estates and manor houses. In the tradition of those merchants past we are thrilled to carry on the legacy of Claret!

What the heck is Aquitaine?
The Region of Aquitaine's Old Province of Gascony
Gascony, which is now known as the Pays Basque, is located in the Region of Aquitaine which is the most southwestern region of France. It is an historical region which had its greatest extent in the Middle Ages.

The name Gascony comes from the Basques who were in the area in the sixth century. It was part of the Carolingian Empire after it was conquered by the Franks.  Henry II, of

England, ruled Gascony in the 1100's. As part of Aquitaine the land was fought over by the French and English during the Hundred Years' War.

Benton Lane Willamette Valley Pinot Gris

This wine explodes with apples and peaches! Tastes of a "southern garden" where honeysuckle and nectarines take pause then hurtle into titillating grapefruit.
A long and taunting finish that can be measured in minutes!

Only 5,042 cases made!

County Line Pinot Noir

Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir at it's finest. Bright Straw-cranberry meet then get down and boogie and at the end light up a little cigar, take a romp in the forest then toast some cinnamon and spice. 

Another worthy note: a Radio Coteau 2nd label!

This is a VERY special price and VERY VERY limited!

You have been warned!

Tanterra Tannat

Tanterra Tannat 

For the geeks:

Stygian, swarthy and sumptuous with sagacious, fathomless fruit essences which coalesce with chocolate, a trace of aged rare Turkish tobacco, oak and tannin; 
ending in a wicked and fervent finish.

For the rest of us:

Does not Suck!

What is Tannat?

I am a fan of style over region or grape. Many wines can emulate other types of more popular regions or styles thus providing better quality to price! 
Also, it is where the word "tannin" comes from!

The Tannat vine was introduced to Uruguay by Basque settlers. Tannat in Uruguay is more elegant and softer then elsewhere with blackberry fruit notes. "Old vines" are descendants from the original cuttings brought over from Europe and with new clones are being utilized to make blends. 

What is sustainability grown?

Sustainability goes beyond the farm and looks at how the farm affects the community surrounding it.