Wine Pick of the Week
Pinot Grigio Gallo Family Vineyards California Alcohol: 11.5% Suggested Retail: $ 11-1.5L, $ 6-750ml (approx.) “Taste California Travel selects wines for this feature for a number of reasons. Often It’s because we want to tell you about the most impressive wine we’ve tasted in the last seven days and recommend it. At other times our ‘Pick’ will have been chosen because it’s a good taking-off point to begin discussion on some aspect of the enjoyment of wine. Today’s Pick is such a case.
Published in
Wine Pick of the Week
Tagged under
2013 Ensemble Ḗcluse Wines & Lock Vineyard Paso Robles Alcohol 14.9% Suggested Retail: $44 “This week’s ‘Pick’ is the product of Steve and Pam Lock, who’ve been growing fruit for other wineries for most of the last two decades. When the quality of their grapes became obvious when vinified by others, the Locks began to make a small quantity of wine under their own label. They’re red wine specialists and on their Central Coast vineyards they produce grapes native to Bordeaux and France’s Rhône Valley. They also grow Zinfandel, a relatively All-American variety. Their wines are bottled under…
Published in
Wine Pick of the Week
Tagged under
2014 Claim Jumper Rosé Riverbench Santa Maria Valley Alcohol: 12.1% Suggested Retail: $42 “This sparkling wine is made in the méthode Champenoise from 100% Pinot Noir grapes that were estate grown in the Santa Maria Valley of Santa Barbara County. The location on California’s Central Coast receives considerable marine influence and is cooler than many realize. As such, it is prime growing country for Chardonnay and Pinot Noir.
Published in
Wine Pick of the Week
2014 Fumé Blanc Robert Mondavi Winery Napa Valley Alcohol: 13.5% Suggested Retail: $20 "The Robert Mondavi Winery has made a lot of their 2014 Napa Valley Fumé Blanc (54,528 cases). That’s a good thing because it tastes great and will expose many consumers to this style of wine.
Published in
Wine Pick of the Week
Tagged under
2013 Cabernet Sauvignon Écluse Wines & Lock Vineyard Paso Robles Alcohol: 14.9% Suggested Retail: $40 “In spite of its French-sounding name, this week’s wine ‘Pick’ comes from some very good red wine country on California’s Central Coast. Écluse is actually the French equivalent of the surname of the owners of Écluse Wines & Lock Vineyard, Steve and Pam Lock.
Published in
Wine Pick of the Week
2013 Rendition Écluse Wines & Lock Vineyard Paso Robles Alcohol: 15.2% Suggested Retail: $38 “Rendition, the identity Écluse gave to the wine we’ve chosen as this week’s ‘Pick,’ is what’s called a ‘proprietary name.’ The custom in America is to label wines by the name of the predominant grape used. Under current law, this means 75% or more of such variety. But what if a winery makes a wine that contains less than that percentage of an easily-identifiable grape variety? A wine that is mostly Cabernet Sauvignon—but less than the magical 75% standard—would have to be called ‘Meritage’…
Published in
Wine Pick of the Week
Tagged under
California Brut Rose N/V Korbel Champagne Cellars California Suggested Retail: $13.99 “For a long time rosé wines got no respect. But things have changed. Pink wines are hot—if not that exact shade of pink. ”Korbel Champagne Cellars, which has been producing sparkling wine in Sonoma County since 1882, recently came out with new packaging for their California Brut Rosé. It embraces pinkness. New packaging technology has allowed them to envelop the entire bottle in pink. The winery defines the new bottle wrap as ‘limited edition,’ so we presume that the duration of this presentation may depend on its…
Published in
Wine Pick of the Week
Tagged under
2013 Sauvignon Blanc Woodbridge by Robert Mondavi California Alcohol: 12.9% Suggested Retail: $ 6.25 (750ml), $ 12 (1.5L) “Woodbridge wines are good quality, value-priced options from the second label of the Napa Valley winery founded by Robert Mondavi 50 years ago. Woodbridge is just north of the city of Lodi and is included in the Lodi American Viticultural Area (AVA). “The Mondavi family has a long history with the Lodi and Woodbridge growing regions (both the late Robert and his brother, Peter, the 101-year old patriarch of Charles Krug Winery, graduated from Lodi High School in the early…
Published in
Wine Pick of the Week
Tagged under
2013 Rainstorm Pinot Gris Rainforest Winery Oregon Alcohol: 12.5% Suggested Retail: $14 “Though Oregon produces some very good Chardonnay, Pinot Gris might well be considered the state’s signature white wine. Pinot Gris is the same grape variety as Pinot Grigio, though Oregon generally makes this grape more in the manner of the Alsace region in France (where it’s called Pinot Gris), than in the style of Italy (where it’s called Pinot Grigio).
Published in
Wine Pick of the Week
Tagged under
2004 Cabernet Sauvignon HALL Wines Napa Valley Alcohol: 14.5% Suggested Retail: $55 (current 2012 vintage) “This week’s ‘Pick’ is a wine you’re not likely to find. Pictured is an etched bottle of a 2004 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon presented at the 2007 groundbreaking for the new HALL facility in St. Helena (the company spells its name in all caps). Many wineries have been built in California in the last couple of decades, and many have celebrated grand openings on their completion. Few of them have attracted media and friends of the owners to celebrate just the plan to…
Published in
Wine Pick of the Week
Tagged under
2013 Riesling Covey Run Columbia Valley (Washington) Alcohol: 11.6% Suggested Retail: $ Unknown “We purchased this wine for $4.99 at a supermarket in the state of Washington. On the 1st of January of 2016 we attempted to find out more about it, including the suggested retail price. We found the Covey Run website was three years out of date. It gave information about the 2009 vintage of this Riesling and said that its retail price was $9. The listing of an out-of-date vintage for the Riesling wasn’t a lone aberration. Other wine varieties seemed similarly out of date.…
Published in
Wine Pick of the Week
Tagged under
2012 Brut Rosé Domaine Carneros By Taittinger Carneros Alcohol: 12.3% Suggested Retail: $37 “Good sparkling wine is appropriate for celebrating the new year. It’s also appropriate for just celebrating life in general and is a treat too frequently thought of as only for special occasions. “Sparkling wine is the generally accepted term that encompasses all wines containing bubbles, from pricey top-of-the-line imports through the cheap stuff served at all-you-can-eat Sunday brunches. Most California producers have agreed that the word Champagne refers to products that come from a particular part of France and should no longer be appropriated by…
Published in
Wine Pick of the Week
Tagged under
2013 Old Vine Zinfandel Dry Creek Vineyard Dry Creek Valley Alcohol: 14.5% Suggested Retail: $32 “Some issues here could be confusing. Dry Creek Vineyard and Dry Creek Valley might sound redundant. And ‘Old Vine Zinfandel’ sounds good, but what does that really mean? “Opening this bottle at dinner with a relative, I was asked if it had any connection to the Dry Creek Ranch golf course. It doesn’t, but the question wasn’t unreasonable since the course is located on the northern fringe of Lodi, an area south of Sacramento that is known to produce good Zinfandel.
Published in
Wine Pick of the Week
Tagged under
Deviation Quady Winery California Alcohol: 15% Suggested Retail: $ 25 (375ml) “This wine is definitely a candidate for the answer to the, ‘What’s the most unusual wine you’ve ever tasted?’ question sometimes posed of wine writers. We dug this small bottle out of the cellar this week. It had been there for several years. Not being a vintage-dated bottle, we can only guess that this wine would have been made sometime from 2006, the year Andy Quady first produced Deviation, ‘til 2010. Might a more-recent example of this wine be better . . . or worse? We couldn’t…
Published in
Wine Pick of the Week
Tagged under
2014 Chardonnay CK Mondavi California Alcohol: 13.4% Suggested Retail: $6.99 “Chardonnay is America’s most popular white wine variety. There’s plenty of it out there and most options at this end of the price continuum are sweeter and less desirable than the 2014 CK Mondavi Chardonnay. “In this wine we found aromatic aspects reminiscent of cantaloupe, pear and pineapple. The nose is also somewhat floral, likely from the 4% Moscato grape component. Wine can evoke many different taste memories. As he tasted the CK Mondavi Chardonnay, this reviewer recalled lemon curd in England and pineapple pies made by his…
Published in
Wine Pick of the Week
Tagged under
2013 Scarlet Five CK Mondavi California Alcohol: 13.6% Suggested Retail: $6.99 “Blended wines are the latest ‘hot category’ in the wine business. Scarlet Five is what would be called a Bordeaux blend because, though its grapes were grown in California, their varieties are all native to this part of southwestern France. Predominately Cabernet Sauvignon (55%), Scarlet Five also includes Merlot (28%), Petit Verdot (13%), Cabernet Franc (3%) and Malbec (1%).
Published in
Wine Pick of the Week
Tagged under
Tawny Reserve Porto Quinta Do Noval Portugal Alcohol: 20% Suggested Retail: $20-25? “Earlier this week a blustery night put your reviewer in the mood for an after-dinner drink—something that would warm the soul. There was the bottle of Irish whiskey (Bushmill’s Black Bush), but he was in more of an English mood. "Foraging in the cellar, he found a bottle of Port. The front label indicated it was Tawny Reserve Porto from the firm Quinta do Noval. Their wines are marketed in the U.S, but since the back label was all in Portuguese, the bottle was likely a…
Published in
Wine Pick of the Week
Tagged under
Zinfandel (N/V) Barefoot Lodi Suggested Retail: 750ml $7, 1.5L $10.* *average retail prices nationwide “Recently we saw long-time wine writer Dan Berger’s comments about Barefoot Zinfandel and figured with his recommendation it had to be good. It is. “Fruit for this wine comes from the Lodi appellation, which is about 45 miles south of Sacramento. In recent years vineyard acreage has increased hugely in the area. Though many varieties are grown successfully here, Zinfandel has always been regarded as Lodi’s signature grape.
Published in
Wine Pick of the Week
Tagged under
2014 GSM Hahn Family Wines Central Coast Alcohol: 14.5% Suggested Retail: $14 “GSM is California shorthand of the day for a blend of three grape varieties native to the Rhône Valley of France. However, in this case the Grenache (65%), Syrah (31%) and Mouvèdre (4%) were grown on the Central Coast of California. If Bordeaux-based varietals (Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, etc.) have accounted for most of your wine budget lately, Rhône-style wines are certainly worth a try.
Published in
Wine Pick of the Week
Tagged under
2005 Aleatico Generations of Sonoma Sonoma Valley Alcohol: 16% Suggested Retail: $30 (375ml) "Our Wine Pick of the Week is usually the best product we’ve tasted in the past week. Typically it comes from a fairly familiar category—Chardonnays, Cabernet Sauvignons, etc. However, sometimes we opt to tell you about a particular wine because it’s just so unusual. Such is the case for this week’s featured wine. “Attracted by the distinctively narrow shape of the bottle, we discovered the Generations of Sonoma 2005 Aleatico on a rack in our cellar a few days ago when searching for something else.…
Published in
Wine Pick of the Week
Tagged under
More...
2013 Lytton Springs Ridge Vineyards Dry Creek Valley Alcohol: 14.3% Suggested Retail: $38 “Legally, the 2013 Lytton Springs isn’t a Zinfandel. In 1973 the law was changed to require any bottle defining itself by a varietal name to contain not just 51%, but 75% or more of the named grape. Since this wine contains just 74% Zinfandel (along with 16% Petite Sirah, 8% Carignane and 2% Mataro, also known as Mouvèdre), it doesn’t qualify as a Zinfandel according to the authorities. However, most knowledgeable consumers would rate is as one of the best Zins out there. “Perhaps we…
Published in
Wine Pick of the Week
Merlot Stimson Estate Cellars Washington State Alcohol: 13.5% Suggested Retail: $11 (1.5 L) “Merlot is sometimes described as a wine for people who would like Cabernet Sauvignon--if only it were a bit lighter. That’s an oversimplification, of course, and some Merlot can be quite substantial—big and powerful, though maybe in an elegant way. “The Merlot grape has its roots in Bordeaux, where it is often blended with Cabernet Sauvignon. However, In Pomerol it is the predominant grape variety and it also plays a major role in the wines from adjacent St. Emilion. Top French examples of this variety…
Published in
Wine Pick of the Week
Tagged under
2012 Cabernet Sauvignon Dry Creek Vineyard Dry Creek Valley Alcohol: 14.5% Suggested Retail: $25 “Taste California Travel and its predecessor publications have been following the wines from Dry Creek Vineyard for a long time. We’ve appreciated their white wines made from the Sauvignon Blanc grape, whether they carried that varietal identity or the Fumé tag. And, of course, we’ve always been high on their Zinfandels (editor’s note: The Dry Creek Valley in Sonoma County is a place name carrying an AVA designation. Within that Dry Creek Valley are many wineries, one of the most prominent being Dry Creek…
Published in
Wine Pick of the Week
2012 Cabernet Sauvignon Wild Meadows Columbia Valley (Washington) Alcohol: 13.5% Suggested Retail: $11 “Containing 76% of the grape, this wine qualifies to be labeled as Cabernet Sauvignon (75% or more is the legal requirement). It also contains Merlot (12%), Syrah (11%) and Tempranillo (1%). Nothing wrong with any of these grapes and, in fact, it’s not a bad bottle of wine, especially at the price (we found it on sale at a Rite-Aid drug for about $6.50). However, it doesn’t taste like Cabernet Sauvignon.
Published in
Wine Pick of the Week
Tagged under