The Gia Pinot Grigio 2013 is sourced from vineyards located in more than one California grape growing AVA. The Gia on the label is Gia Coppola, the granddaughter of Francis Ford Coppola and Gia wine is one of the Coppola family of wines. Pinot Grigio and Pinot Gris are the same grape, the difference is Pinot…
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The Fire Road Pinot Noir 2013 is sourced from several vineyards located in the Marlborough region, which is in the northeast corner of New Zealand’s South Island. Marlborough is best known for Sauvignon Blanc, just check the NZ Sauv Blanc section of your local wine shop and you will see Marlborough on virtually every bottle. Marlborough…
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The Murrieta’s Well The Spur 2011 is a blend of 31% Petite Sirah, 29% Petit Verdot, 27% Cabernet Sauvignon, 8% Malbec and 5% Cabernet Franc sourced from estate vineyards in the Livermore Valley AVA near San Francisco Bay. Murrieta’s Well was first planted in 1883 and in the 1930s was purchased by Wente Vineyards (they…
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The Apothic Dark Limited Release 2013 is a blend of Petite Sirah, Teroldego and Merlot sourced from more than one California grape growing AVA, but the majority of the grapes came from the Lodi AVA (east of Napa). The Dark is a limited edition for E & J Gallo’s hugely popular Apothic line of Red And White blends. Teroldego is…
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The Murrieta’s Well The Whip 2013 is a blend of 28% Semillion, 24% Chardonnay, 14% Sauvignon Blanc, 11% Orange Muscat, 11% Viognier, 11% Gewürztraminer and 1% White Riesling all grown on Murrieta’s Well estate vineyards located in the Livermore Valley AVA near the San Francisco Bay. Murrieta’s Well was originally planted in 1884 and was…
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The Kim Crawford Sauvignon Blanc 2014 is sourced from vineyards located in the Wairau Valley and the Awatere Valley inside the Marlborough region on the northeast corner of the South Island of New Zealand. The harvest took place in February of 2014 (this post was written October 2014), so this Sauv Blanc went from grapes on the vine to bottles…
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The Columbia Crest Grand Estates Red Blend 2011 is 61% Merlot, 27% Syrah, 6% Cabernet Franc, 3% Cabernet Sauvignon and 3% “other” sourced from vineyards in the Wahluke Slope AVA, the Horse Heaven Hills AVA (both inside the Columbia Valley AVA) and the Columbia Valley AVA of Washington State. Columbia Crest is owned by Chateau…
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The Layer Cake Central Coast Chardonnay 2012 is sourced from vineyards in Monterey (south of San Francisco) and Santa Barbara (just north of Los Angeles) in California. Even though northern California is cooler than southern California, both regions have similar climates due to the influence of the Pacific Ocean, cool breezes and morning fog. Layer Cake…
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Antxiola (pronounced ahn-cho-la) comes to us from the Errasti brothers, owners of Bodegas Zudugarai in Spain. It’s a Txakoli, a very dry, slightly-sparkling, hard-to-pronounce white wine (it’s pronounced chock-o-lee) made with the Hondarrabi grape. Antxiola Hondarrabi 2012 is made with both types of Hondarrabi – 90% Zuri (Basque for white) and 10% Beltza (Basque for…
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The Pere et Fils Cinsault Syrah Rose 2013 (Pere et Fils translates to father and son) is a blend of 70% Cinsault and 30% Syrah grown in the estate vineyards in the hills of the Languedoc of Laurent Miquel, an 8th generation winemaker. Cinsault is a grape that is commonly used in the Languedoc and…
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The Coppola Director’s Sonoma County Chardonnay 2012 is sourced from vineyards located in several of Sonoma’s 16 sub-AVA’s. There are two Director’s Chardonnay, this one, sourced from all over Sonoma County and another sourced from a single AVA, the Sonoma Coast. The Sonoma County Chard lists for $17 (and is often discounted) the single AVA Sonoma…
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The 2012 Four Vines Naked Chardonnay is sourced from vineyards in the Santa Barbara County AVA on the southern end of California’s Central Coast AVA. Santa Barbara is about 1 1/2 hours north of Los Angeles in Southern California, but it gets cooling fog in the morning and while the days can be hot, the…
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The 2012 Novas Gran Reserva Sauvignon Blanc is sourced from certified organic vineyards in the San Antonio Valley DO of Chile. Novas means “birth of a star” and is one of Emiliana Vineyards line of 100% sustainably farmed, organically grown wines. Many of the wines from Chile in this price range (lists for $16, but…
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The 2012 DeLoach Cabernet Sauvignon Heritage Reserve is sourced from sustainably farmed grapes grown in more than one California grape growing AVA. DeLoach was founded in 1975 in the Russian River Valley of the Sonoma AVA and the Heritage Reserve line is their value wine. DeLoach is part of the Boisset Family Vineyards group of…
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The 2011 Raimat Tempranillo is sourced from Estate vineyards in the Costers del Segre DO in the Province of Lleida of Catalonia near Barcelona in Northeast Spain. The climate in Coster del Segre is hot during the day and cold at night and that wide daily variation in temperature allowed the grapes ample time to…
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The 2013 Legaris Verdejo is 100% Verdejo sourced from vineyards in the Province of Valladolid inside the Rueda DO in northwest central Spain near Portugal. Verdejo is THE grape of Rueda and has been grown in the region for over 1,000 years. This Verdejo was fermented in stainless steel vats, then racked (racking is transferring…
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The 2013 Septima Chardonnay is sourced from (50%) two areas in the Uco Vally (one of the elite growing regions in Argentina) and (50%) vineyards near the region of Agrelo in the Lujan de Cuyo district inside the larger Mendoza grape growing area of Argentina. One thing I commonly hear when people talk about Chardonnay is that they do not…
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The 2013 Raimat Albariño is sourced from two sustainably farmed Raimat estate vineyards in the Costers del Segre DO, just west of Barcelona in Spain. This is a young wine, with only a small amount of aging, “on lees,” in stainless steel tanks and is intended to be consumed within 2 years of release. “On lees”…
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Cheap Wine Ain’t Cheap There are tens of thousands of different labels of wine produced each year, Italy alone makes 7,000 separate wines, you add in the wine produced by every single other wine region and you have a mind-boggling number of wine choices. To take this vast amount of wine…
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The 2012 Belle Ambiance Chardonnay is sourced from more than one California grape growing AVA. Belle Ambiance is a new label from Delicato Family Vineyards, they also produce Gnarly Head, Bota Box and HandCraft along with several others. Chardonnay is the wine makers wine, it can be light and crisp or full-bodied and buttery…
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The 2013 Belle Ambiance Pinot Grigio is sourced from more than one California grape growing AVA. Belle Ambiance translates to “beautiful place” and is one of Delicato Family Vineyards wines, their other labels include Gnarly Head, Brazin and HandCraft, they specialize in well priced California wines aimed at the American palate. DFV is family…
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The 2012 Saviah Cellars The Jack Riesling is sourced from two contracted vineyards, Evergreen vineyard, which is one of Milbrandt’s properties (if you are into Columbia Valley wine, Milbrandt’s vineyards will come up often) located in the Ancient Lakes AVA and Elerding vineyard located in the Horse Heaven Hills AVA and both within the larger…
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