2016 – Page 3

WHAT’S IN A NAME?: REMARKABLE 2016 RHONE

What’s in a name? Well, with wine, a couple of words on the label can make an enormous difference in one’s expectations of the bottle, and the price. Sometimes those ‘words’ can work against you. Take the term ‘Cotes du Rhone’. Thanks to years of history, a Cotes de Rhone is considered to suggest a wine is an ‘entry level’ offering, and a lot of people do not have great expectations of something with such a title. Exceptions to that thinking abound in the Rhone, however, where a few feet and an invisible line drawn can totally change what the wine from a particular place is allowed to call itself, but not what is in the bottle.

We don’t mid working a little harder to get our point across. Things like Chateau Rayas’ Fonsalette or Vieille Julienne’s Clavin are notable exceptions that don’t fit neatly into the standard definition of Cotes du Rhone. They are exceptional wines that come from exceptional parcels that happen to be just outside the line. A few feet over and they could be called Chateauneuf, and the price would be substantially higher. Today’s offer, the Domaine de la Janasse Cotes du Rhone Les Garrigues 2016 is another of those that is exceptional ‘Chateauneuf’ in everything but name.

Les Garrigues is a 2.5 hectare plot of 100 year old Grenache vines located in the village of Courthézon and just outside the boundary of Châteauneuf-du-Pape. The soils here are a fine, pebbly, red clay covered with gnarled, mistral-blown vines. In terms of terroir, this is more classically Châteauneuf than Côtes-du-Rhône and the Garrigues is made in a similar fashion as the estate’s Châteauneufs – 25% whole cluster fermentation in oak vats, a 21 day maceration and daily, manual pigeage followed by aging in foudre.

This is a powerful mouthful showing deep kirsch and even rolling into blue fruits which gave us the impression there was Syrah in it (there isn’t). Absolutely packed, flecked with notes of anise, spice, and a little garrigue, this is a muscular version that conforms to this once-in-a-lifetime vintage’s profile with layered fruit that is at once plush and lifted, supple tannins and well tucked in acidity. It definitely ‘scored’ as well as a lot of ‘real’ Chateauneufs, and one has to even give it a little upward room as it was tasted alongside two ‘wine-of-the-vintage’ candidates in Jansse’s Chaupin and Vieille Vignes offerings and their best regular cuvee ever in 2016.

This was as high a number as Jeb Dunnuck has thrown Garrigue going back to his Advocate days, “Bottled in February (slightly earlier than the Terre d’Argile), the 100% Grenache 2016 Côtes du Rhône Les Garrigues boasts awesome notes of kirsch liqueur, crushed rocks, framboise, pepper, and graphite. This sexy, full-bodied, yet incredibly elegant red has building tannin, a seamless, silky texture, and no hard edges. Pure, elegant and seamless, it’s a thrillingly satisfying wine…94 Points.”

From Joe Czerwinski, robertparker.com, “There was only one 32-hectoliter foudre (now bottled) of the 2016 Cotes du Rhone Les Garrigues, an all-Grenache cuvée vinified with 50% whole clusters. It’s floral and herbal on the nose, with bold flavors of blackberries and licorice. Full-bodied and richly concentrated, it boasts supple tannins balanced by hints of brine and fresh acids. It’s easily the equal of many Châteauneufs… 93 Points.”

That last line is exactly our point. It is the equal of many Chateauneufs (better than a lot of them, too) and a spectacular effort even within the context of this historic vintage. At $39.98 it is priced like a lot of Chateauneufs, granted. But what a wine! In our minds it is Chateauneuf in the glass even if it doesn’t say it on the label. Just another superb effort from Janasse and a bargain in their lineup. Good hunting.

ANOTHER NORTHWEST CABERNET VALUE

It appears that more folks in the wine industry have gotten the message that more quality, value-priced reds are needed in the marketplace. In truth, it seems we have seen an increase in offerings over the last year or so. Not all of them are good, but there are certainly more exciting Cabs and blends to be had these days at lower fares. There has been a pretty steady stream of ‘contestants’ out of Washington, and more interesting options at that from some of the newer, more boutique players.

Washington has tremendous potential as a source of value Caberenets. Chateau Ste. Michelle and Hedges, for example, have been consistent players in that arena for decades. We taste a lot of others offerings that you don’t see because, while their intentions are good, the finished wines are kind of boring. Sure they have great color and power, which will win you a lot of friends in some circles. But they are often kind of drying on the finish and lack real definition in the midpalate. If you are only going to have half a glass with dinner to get your daily dose of resveratrol, that’s fine. But if you actually enjoy drinking wine like we do, you need a little something more.

Our never-ending search ran across Ryan Patrick Cabernet Sauvignon Rock Island 2016. Founded as a family winery in 1996, Terry Flanagan named it for his two sons Ryan and Patrick. They were one of the first to plant grapes in what is now the Ancient Lakes AVA more or less due north of the more recognized Wahluke Slope. The winery was sold to Jerry and Butch Milbrandt in 2011, owners of Wahluke Wine Company. Since 2012, according to one source, the winemaker has been Jerry Santo, Washington State grad (go, Cougs?) by way of Canoe Ridge. Yet his name does not appear on the website under ‘meet our wine team’.

Do you need to know all that? Probably not, but it is important to understand that the winery’s philosophy is surely part of the reason this wine stands out among Cabernets of this price range. From their own website, “Intuitive winemaking is the art of letting the fruit speak for itself. It’s minimalist intervention combined with consistency of style…artisanal winemaking where the grape is at the center. Many wineries use static recipes for their wines…Batch-tinkering approaches have resulted in (our) varietals and blends that have justifiably become famous for how they out-perform their price point.”

The Ryan Patrick Cabernet Sauvignon Rock Island 2016 is a blend of83% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Merlot, and 2% Malbec that is aged 22 months, 50% in American oak barrels and 50% in stainless steel tanks. The grapes come from six different vineyards across three appellations, Wahluke Slope, Snipes Mountain, and Yakima Valley. For those that care, the alcohol is listed at a somewhat modest 13.5%.

If you haven’t thought about it, it is important to understand that the ripening process in Washington grape-growing is different than California. The roughly two- hour-longer sunlight hours and lower average temperatures present a growing season that has more in common with Bordeaux than California, though ripeness here is clearly not a problem.

As expected, there is deep color and notes of bing and black cherry in the nose with flecks of vanilla and espresso. The palate leans a little darker fruit-wise with aspects of black currant, blackberry and black cherry in the relatively weighty entry. A touch of dark chocolate, some graphite notes, baking spice and a touch of savory on the finish, the difference between this one and your typical ‘$20 Cab’ is in the detail.

A FRIULANO TO REMEMBER

Wines like this are why we come to work. Finding something new and special, something unique and one of a kind, is one of the things that makes wine exciting to us. As we have confessed a few times, we are particular fans of the whites of northeastern Italy in general, and Kerner and Friulano in particular. Truth be told we would love to be in a world where we could send out an email on something like this and share it with a large group of folks. However, in truth, we have a lot of other more commercially viable goodies in our bag and there isn’t much of this to buy (only about 250 cases per year production) even if it did ‘light it up’ in an offer.

Suffice it to say that, as we did the research on this wine, one of the quotes from the importer was, “One of the best white wines I’ve drunk from Italy.” Hey there are a lot of folks in our industry that consistently overstate their case. But this experienced British ex-pat is not one of them. We can say without reservation that it is one of the best Italian whites we have had in quite a while.

The I Clivi Friulano Brazan 2016 is 100% Friulano from a single hillside vineyard in Collio with marl and sandstone soils, located in the far northeast of Italy near the border with Slovenia. The vineyard has vines that are 80-years-old and the yields are very low. All of the wines are grown organically, and are cleanly but very naturally made using only native yeasts and minimal intervention winemaking. This Friulano is not macerated on the skins and sees 18 months on the lees. This producer makes whites with surprising longevity. The day we tasted this one we also had one from the 2000 vintage that was quite expressive still, though our preference was for this brighter effort with a bit more cut to the finish.

The aromatics and entry are reminiscent of a premier Cru Chablis with citrus and mineral tones, with the more unctuous, dried apricot character more common with this grape working in concert on the palate. Expressive, distinctive and mouthwatering, a sensation with food (though we had no trouble enjoying it by itself), and a sleek, deceptively long finish, this Friulano got our attention the way few such whites do. It’s a little more money than typical ‘market’ Friulanos but takes the experience to another level. A must.

MAS MONASTERIO MAGNIFICO

It would be very easy to go off on some long-winded rant about the Ribera del Duero in general and Hacienda Monasterio specifically. This area has been producing wines for a couple of millennia and probably became more focused as a region way back in the 12th Century. But the official D.O. of the regions only became official in 1982 which is when we started seeing examples in the U.S.. They clearly didn’t have the marketing savvy of Rioja, nor the identity. But some of the best wines in Spain, indeed the world, come from here.

Vega Sicilia, founded in 1864, is sort of the de facto ‘flagship’ of the region, but there are a few other superstars that also carry the proverbial torch. Probably the fastest rising one was an estate assembled by Danish winemaker Peter Sisseck, whose top wine Pingus, only created in the mid-90s, is now one of Spain’s most revered and expensive bottlings. Sisseck essentially searched the land for vineyards in his spare time from his ‘day job’, which was the founding and development of Hacienda Monasterio. We have followed this wine for a long time and it has only continued to get better and better, these days we believe achieving the quality level of a classified Bordeaux, maybe a 2nd or 3rd growth.

Hacienda Monasterio has been on an upward trajectory since the beginning, which is no small fact since it was pretty much one of the stars of the region almost out of the gate. The styling is modern, but plenty of care is taken to let the true terroir of the Ribera, aromas of chocolate, mineral, orange peel and tapenade and a core of intense dark red and black fruits on the palate, shine through. To quote the importer, “It is a testament to the terroir of Hacienda Monasterio that throughout the evolution towards a more elegant style of winemaking, it still retains all of its power and intensity, deepened and enriched by greater finesse and complexity.”

We wrote an email that was a virtual love letter about the 2015 in February of last year, complete with appropriately enthusiastic scores like a 95 from Jeb Dunnuck and 94 from Wine Advocate, ending with Dunnuck’s words that, “Even at $50, it’s a smoking value!” Our take was, as people who have been following this estate for some time, we were comfortable saying that it may have been the best and most seamless and complete effort of Monsaterio we have ever had as well as one of the best red wine options for this kind of price from anywhere in the world. We sold it for $39.99 and it vaporized…as well it should have.

We were recently presented with the 2016. Sadly, there wasn’t enough juice for us to consider sending out a full-blown email offer, but that didn’t stop us from buying all they did have. Why? Well, once again, it got strong praise. The 94 from Wine Advocate was actually a little higher given that there was a ‘plus’ attached. Also the words were strong, “The Crianza is now simply the 2016 Hacienda Monasterio, a powerful wine from a large vintage where the vines delivered a good crop of ripe grapes, even when the grapes were harvested early… This is a generous and ripe wine with a juicy texture, ripe flavors and abundant, round tannins. It feels very young and undeveloped, and the wine seems to have the stuffing and balance for a positive development in bottle.”

Jeb Dunnuck hasn’t issued a review yet but we would be surprised if it wasn’t the same or higher as the last one. In point of fact, the 2016 is a notch better, with a more complete and seamless texture, great fruit, and plenty of stuffing. It is the best Monasterio we have ever tasted in this series, period, and thanks to a market quirk, we are able to offer it for $5 a bottle less! Enough said.

WHITE TABLECLOTH COSTIERES?

We have been following Michel Gassier’s work for over two decades, and he along with Grenache virtuoso Philippe Cambie, have established an enviable track record going back to the days when the wines were under the Chateau de Nages label (Michel’s home estate). Since 2006, the Nostre Pais reds have garnered 90-and-above scores all but twice, and on every vintage both great and small since 2010. As we have said many times about this wine that, at its normal ‘upper teens’ pricing, selling this kind of juice at this kind of price never gets old.

When it comes to wine, Michel Gassier ‘gets it’. When we visited his estate in 2000, he was already experimenting with micro-oxygenation, pretty advanced for the times and the region. Most folks don’t really have a feel for where Costieres de Nimes even is, but this guy has been A-game for a long time and, because he is working with a less than famous appellation, there is somewhat of a limit to what he can charge. That makes it an ideal scenario for consumers.

The Nostre Pais program has been like clockwork getting Wine Advocate scores predominantly between 91 and 93 points, even in difficult vintages. The exercise here is about introducing his newest red which we believe is among his best ever. We’ll also submit that Nostre Pais 2016 represents another level of refinement in his winemaking. White tablecloth Costieres des Nimes? Why not? Yet the wine is still at very palatable prices given the performance.

We are very pleased with this newest Nostre Pais wines overall, and with this red we see an even more notable step up. Typically in this part of the world, whether deliberately or not, size does matter for the critics. The region’s wines can sometimes be a bit direct and one dimensional and strictly rely on ‘punch’ to impress. This Nostre Pais is a notch better than their very fine efforts from past vintages, but here expect more balance, seamlessness and elegance. It plays well above its appellation and is more akin stylistically to a Chateauneuf from the cooler northern area. Very classy and complex, this is not your father’s Costieres.

One again, ‘the critics agree’. The Wine Advocate’s notes are, “A Grenache-led blend (55% Grenache Noir,25% Syrah, 10% Mourvèdre, 5% Carignan, and 5% Cinsault to be exact), the 2016 Costieres de Nimes Nostre Pais features compelling aromas of crushed stone, black olive and blueberry. It’s medium to full-bodied, with crunchy, fresh fruit and silky but firm tannins. It should drink well through 2025.”

Once again, the comments were quite consistent, with Jeb Dunnuck offering, “…Orange peel, black raspberries, exotic flowers, spice, and a limestone-like minerality all flow from this elegant, seamless, medium to full-bodied 2016 that has both freshness and richness. It’s a no-brainer purchase and will drink nicely for 5-6 years.”

Both pundits gave the Michel Gassier Costieres De Nimes Rouge Nostre Pais 2016 91-point reviews, but we actually think this one deserves better. Balance and refinement might have even put it the Nostre Pais at a little bit of a disadvantage in an arena that favors chunkier wines. We like this one even better than the critics for its polished presentation. It reaches another level stylistically and plays above its price point even more than its predecessors. This is a ‘wine for all seasons’ and a definite must for value and versatility. Like the man said…a no brainer.

HESS CABERNET: TASTE THIS ‘LION’ THIS WINTER

We have been selling Hess wines for a long time. There have been many incarnations, ups and downs, and an import company that brings in wine from the southern Hemishpere (including Hess’ own Argentine label from the ‘high country’ of Salta). There has probably been a little confusion along the way, too, as the name Hess is on a lot of different bottles…Hess Select, Hess Collection, Lion, Lion Tamer, Lioness (their ‘crest’ is a lion). There are ‘small batch bottlings’ of all sorts of things from Albarino to Gruner Veltliner to Orange Muscat. There are many different Cabernets (what is an ‘Allomi’, anyway) and an art collection.

There’s a lot to sort through, though most of it came later. They started out being known for their Cabernet and Chardonnay, and sometimes those classics get lost in the very busy picture. We aren’t going to try to explain all the permutations and combinations of the ‘Hess’ experience. We are simply going to mention that the 2016 Hess Collection Cabernet Sauvignon Mount Veeder is the best effort we have had from them in a long time.

Yes, it is rich and polished, bestowed with well infused notes of high quality oak, and has plenty of stuffing, though that sounds like a lot of Napa Cabernets. A couple of things make this one stand out in the crowd. First is the wine’s layered complexity and elegance. As soon as one says elegance, though, a lot of ‘Cabernet types’ read that ‘light’. Not at all. The wine has power in its cassis, plum and dark berry fruit component, but it also has perceptible layers from that ‘Veedery’ savory/spice component and chocolate notes that speak more of a ‘chocolatier‘ than a common chocolate bar. They got all of this one and it commanded our attention in a way few have.

Even better, at a time when the winery put forth their best Cabernet effort in some time, they also decided to dial back their pricing (via a special offer) to reach a broader audience. How refreshing and totally un-Napa that is.

Apparently Wine Advocate’s Lisa Perotti-Brown is of a like mind, ‘
The 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Estate Mount Veeder aged for 22 months in 75% new French oak. No 2017 vintage of this wine will be made. Deep garnet-purple colored, it delivers a very serious nose of baked plums, crème de cassis, dried mulberries and dark chocolate with nuances of tapenade, chargrill, licorice and menthol with a waft of tree bark. Medium to full-bodied, the palate is built like a brick house with a solid structure of firm, grainy tannins and oodles of freshness supporting the taut, muscular black fruit, finishing on a provocative mineral note. ..95 points.”

She only has it a point or two above prior recent efforts but we think the ‘style points’ here merit a greater separation. In any case, this Cabernet, at this price, is a treat!

2016 MÁQUINA & TABLA PÁRAMOS DE NICASIA BLANCO CASTILLA Y LEON 2016

If ever a wine needed subtitles, this would be it. But there are a lot of fun, esoteric things emerging from the wine world today simply because they are there and someone was convinced enough of the wine to bring it to market. The label is very ‘camp’, the red waxed tip closure visually appealing, and the appellation Castilla y Leon reasonably familiar to fans of Spanish wines as a broad area containing other more delineated regions within it like Ribera del Duero. This particular wine is labeled 2016 Máquina & Tabla Páramos de Nicasia Blanco Vino de la Tierra de Castilla y Leon, a rather wordy delineation that essentially means ‘freedom’ because the wines bearing the “vino de la tierra” nomenclature operate outside the strict guidelines of more specific Dos like Ribera and Rueda.

Most of the examples we have seen bearing this banner, probably the most famous of which is Mauro, are red. Though with the dark glass and red cap might give one an impression otherwise, this is pink wine, though one with a personality all its own. The stated goal here is to produce wines with a connection to centuries-old tradition, in this case making a ‘Clarete’. The wine is made by blending the free-run juice of Garnacha, Tempranillo, and Malvasia which here creates a wine that isn’t very pink and has more in common with a white wine from Savennierres or a dry version of a still ‘blanc de noir’. They use the term ‘Clarete’ rather than Rosato because they feel it suggests a wine that is more substantial and serious than your garden variety pink wine.

This juice comes from 8 hectare vineyard located outside Villaester within the D.O. of Toro. Called Pasiego, this site is a mix of 50-60 year old, ungrafted vines of Tinta del País (the local clone of Tempranillo), Garnacha and Malvasía on sandy soil over a clay/limestone subsoil. The color of this wine comes from the natural hue of the free-run juice of the blend, which is roughly equal parts of the three varietals. It has volume, texture, and verve, and can hang with more serious dishes. It sees 8 months in four-year-old barrels.

Luis Gutierrez of Wine Advocate took a walk on the wild side as well, saying of this unique juice “…It has a serious profile, especially on the palate, where it’s somewhere in between a light red and a full-bodied white, with serious chalky tannins and consistency to stand up to food and a few years of aging in bottle. It’s tasty and supple, serious and not banal…91 points.” Definitely not banal, this is also the type of distinctive effort that the broad marketplace doesn’t even know exists. It’s definitely something that has a place on the table and makes a great foil for a surprising array of dishes. A must try.

FIRST THE CAB, THEN THE CAUSE

For virtually as long as we have been in the wine business, we have been exposed to what we call ‘cause’ wines. It isn’t a brand new idea to create a product, in this case a fermented beverage, where some or all of the proceeds go to some worthy charity. Believe us we tell you we have seen every conceivable presentation of wines like that. But no matter how worthy the cause, we are wine merchants and our first allegiance is to our customers. Over the last three decades plus, we have abided by one simple rule…if we pitch a wine to you, it’s because we believe in the quality of the wine and the price charged.

This is where virtually every ‘cause’ wine fails…the wine itself. The folks creating these labels, passionate crusaders that they might be, don’t seem to give enough thought to the fact that, eventually, someone will drink the wine that they had been induced to purchase. In virtually every case where we have tasted, the wine is ordinary. Our job isn’t to sell people ordinary juice under the banner of some noble cause. In fact, in our history, we have never done that because we’re simply no good at saying “buy this forgettable juice to support (insert worthwhile charity here)”.

That is what makes this one of the most unique offers we have ever done. Why? Because Cristie Kerr created the ultimate ‘everybody wins’ scenario. Cristie is one of the most accomplished athletes in women’s golf, with 19 LPGA Tour wins, seven Solheim Cup wins and her first European title at the French Open. What, as Wine Spectator queried in an article published in October, 2017, is her “celebratory drink of choice?” Wine. She also had a desire to call attention and raise money for a cause that was important to her, breast cancer research.

She figured that, somehow, as many have done before, the wine and the cause could be combined in some meaningful way. Only unlike so many before her, Cristie didn’t just go to some ‘tank farm’ to buy some random juice to put in the bottle and slap a label on it. Instead, she connected with accomplished stars, Napa elite Suzanne Pride and winemaker Sally Johnson of Pride Vineyards. Together, under the Kerr banner, they created the Curvature wine label with the 2006 vintage. All of the proceeds to go breast cancer research, already to the tune of $3.5M at the time of the article mentioned previously.

What’s gets us involved in this particular instance is the fact that we can actually recommend the wine that this project is offering as wine, specifically this Kerr Curvature Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley 2014. Made by Sally Johnson at Pride, this wine is 88% Cabernet Sauvignon and 12% Merlot and sees time in French oak barrels that are 60% new. The grapes are all from the prestigious Oakville appellation sourced from a specific vineyard that ‘can’t be revealed’.

Does that sound like some afterthought ‘charity wine’? Of course not, and it doesn’t taste like it either. There’s a very seductive nose of dark chocolate, black cherries and plum layered with subtle licorice, savory herbs, and toast. It is velvety and round in the mouth with ripe, palate-coating tannin and flavors reminiscent blackberry jam and coffee, with a spicy and long finish.

For our part, we negotiated this solid $59 Cabernet into a barnburner of a $35 Cabernet with the intent to ‘spread the message’ as far as we can with a limited production Cabernet. Not only is this the first time we have actually gotten excited about any kind of ‘cause’ wine, it is the ultimate ‘win, win, win’. Kerr gets her name and wine out among serious aficionados. You get a lovely, well made, serious Napa Cabernet made by an accomplished winemaker at a steeply discounted price and critical research gets some needed funds.

This is not some innocuous ‘token’ bottle as a participation gift. These ladies did it right and this is legit juice to be enjoyed. Buy it for the wine. Buy it for the deal. Buy it for an important cause. There is no ‘down side’.

EPIC, ‘ALMOST PERFECT’ RWT

We have been on the Penfolds trail for a very long time, going back to the 1980s when few people in this market even knew what it was or paid attention to Australian wine at all. We bought closeouts of Bin 389, 407, and even Grange back in the day at our first location. Tasting them back then, we became fans pretty quickly. How could you not? At the time the wines had plenty of pure, in-your-face fruit, supple tannins and honest flavors. They not only had charm, but they delivered value.

A lot has happened since those days. There were years of following Grange in the same way we followed top Bordeaux (the 1998 was a particular benchmark for us and before the prices got anywhere near where they are today). There was a period where the wines began to take on a very commercial demeanor and showed signs of excessive acidification. There was another period where the prices on what you might call the bread-and-butter mid-range wines increased 3 to 4 fold as they became white-hot in the Asian market. There was also a period where the direction of the winery, and its corporate owners, was a little sketchy based on financials.

Fast forward to today. Prices on some items still seem a little out of sync with the marketplace, and the current distribution scenario, in California anyway, is not exactly what we would expect for mega-volume premium players like Penfolds, Berigner, and BV. But with respect to the juice itself, Penfolds is all systems go under the steady hand of winemaker Peter Gago.

Given that, our mission today is to explain why this brilliant effort of Penfolds Shiraz RWT is not only a great wine that belongs in everyone’s cellar who can pay the freight, but is actually something of a deal at its $139.98 price. First, the company spiel that RWT Barossa Valley Shiraz presents an admirable alternative to the multi-regional sourcing and American oak maturation that are hallmarks of Grange. It is intended to express the best of a single region, Barossa Valley, and is done entirely in French oak.

From Penfolds, “The initials RWT stand for ‘Red Winemaking Trial’, the name given to the project internally when developmental work began in 1995. Naturally, now no longer a ‘Trial’, RWT Shiraz was launched in May 2000 with the 1997 vintage. Its style is opulent and fleshy, contrasting with Grange, which is more muscular and assertive. RWT is made from fruit primarily selected for its aromatic qualities and lush texture. The result is a wine that helps to redefine Barossa Shiraz at the highest quality level…”

The standards for this wine are high, and the 2016 vintage offered the opportunity to shoot for the stars qualitatively. In a recent visit, Barossa winemaking dignitary Dave Powell (founder of Torbreck, and recently his own Powell label) said of the vintage ‘I didn’t have to do anything…the fruit was so outstanding.’ Aged in French oak (72% new), RWT offers hints of vanilla and cedar, but more than anything, it showcases the region’s bold berry and plum fruit. The sleek, rich oak veneer is a fine backdrop to this powerful but polished fruit, and from first whiff, you know this is a special wine.

Don’t just take our word. Jeb Dunnuck made quite the case for the 2016 RWT in his own publication, “The 2016 Shiraz RWT is a brilliant, brilliant wine, and I suspect the finest version of this cuvee ever produced. Thrilling notes of black raspberries, crème de cassis, toasted spice, mint, and espresso all emerge from this deep, rich, powerful Shiraz. With massive concentration, it still glides across the palate with no sensation of heaviness or rusticity, building, perfectly ripe tannins, and incredible opulence and intensity. It shows more grilled meat notes with time in the glass and is a monumental Barossa Shiraz that flirts with perfection… 99 Points.”

It is all of that, as well as one of the greatest wines we have tasted this year. As to the price, these days that kind of money will get you a good Bordeaux (but not a First or super Second Growth), a competent small production Napa Cabernet (but not any of the elite names), or one of the best Shiraz wines on the planet at one-fifth the price of its more famous stable-mate. The choice seems clear. It is a mouth-filling, legend-in-the-making must for those who relish big, bold, stylish reds.

RHONE 2016: AN IMPORTANT NEW/OLD FACE

At this point we’ll presume that you have heard us wax poetic about the 2016 vintage in the southern Rhone on multiple occasions, so we’ll cut right to the main story. Even in a place with the long history of the Rhone, there are new stories and exciting new things to discover. The land, of course, has always been here, and farmhouse from which the property takes its name, St. Antonin, has been in references back to the time of Napoleon and was built in the 17^th Century. What made the big change at this property, and likely the reason you re hearing about it today is the new ownership circa 2014.

A number of serious Rhone domaines have looked to this area, called Plan de Dieu, as a place that provided terroir that is not unlike Chateauneuf itself and offers the opportunity for expansion. But here estates with contiguous holdings of clay, galet, and sand soils, don’t come up very often. When this one did, the Sabon family was on it. Now there are a few Sabons in the Rhone. But this particular family of Sabons are the folks that own the iconic Domaine de la Janasse in Chateauneuf.

This new domaine of 15 hectares, plus a couple of hectares of Chateauneuf transferred from Janasse to the Clos St. Antonin estate, are under the control of daughter Isabelle along with her father Aime. Certainly the succession of vineyard land (Napoleonic law and all of that) had a part in the creation of this project, but we are only focused on the juice itself. On that score, Clos St. Antonin is off to a whale of a start. These are only their second releases and, while the timing couldn’t have been better with respect to vintages, it is clear that Isabelle Sabon has quite the touch.

As we tasted through the lineup, we mused that her wines showed a deft hand and a certain refinement yet still delivered a substantial mouthful of rich, savory fruit. Brother beware, the lady has skills. The Clos St. Antonin Cotes du Rhone 2016 is a polished bargain at its price point and, as we have said on a few occasions with specialty Cotes du Rhone in 2016, her Clos St. Antonin Cotes du Rhone Villages Plan de Dieu 2016 could hang with the ‘bigger fish’ and outscored a number of Chateauneufs. The proof is in the glass.

Made from 80% Grenache, the balance Mourvedre and Syrah, all from 30-50 year old vines, it is raised in concrete tanks, foudres and neutral French oak demi-muids. We’ll let Jeb Dunnuck do the play-by-play, “…the 2016 Côtes du Rhône should be sought out by savvy buyers. Ripe, rounded, and incredibly sexy, with lots of kirsch and blackberry fruits, garrigue, and mineral notes, it has impeccable balance as well as purity of fruit. It’s a knockout Côtes du Rhône to drink over the coming 3-4 years.

This up and coming superstar of an estate was created by Isabelle and Christophe Sabon (of Domaine de Janasse) in 2015. The estate is located in the Plan de Dieu, northeast of Châteauneuf-du-Pape, yet they have access to some prime terroirs in Châteauneuf-du-Pape in the La Crau and Font du Loup lieux-dits. These are legit, awesome wines, and savvy readers need to get on board!... 91 Points “

Of the Plan de Dieu, “Even better, the 2016 Côtes du Rhône Villages Plan de Dieu has to be one of the great wines from this appellation, which comes from an ocean of vines located on the valley floor between Vacqueyras and Cairanne. Made from 50% Grenache, 30% Mourvèdre, and 20% Syrah brought up in foudre and demi-muids, it offers awesome notes of cassis, blackberries, spice box, and licorice. Ripe, full-bodied, and powerful, yet also balanced and pure, do your best to latch onto a few bottles…94 Points.”

Yes the field is crowded right now. But even in this current (though diminishing) sea of glorious southern Rhones, these are significant efforts. They are lush, engaging, pure and hedonistic, yet at the same time are beautifully aligned and somehow more precise than most. Like the man said, “savvy readers need to get on board.”