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Louis M. Martini Sonoma County Cabernet Sauvignon 2013

Louis M. Martini Sonoma County Cabernet Sauvignon 2013

One of Napa Valley’s best kept secrets, Louis M. Martini’s 2013 Sonoma Cabernet Sauvignon is brimming with juicy blackberries, blackcurrants, and cassis. Leather, dried leaves, and trail dust along with an attractive top note of vanilla round out the nose. It’s sleek and softly textured on the palate with fine tannins and a medium+ finish. […]

Golan Heights Winery Mount Hermon White 2016

Golan Heights Winery Mount Hermon White 2016

Breezy notes of orange blossom, white peach, and Opal apples. It’s crisp and fresh on the palate, with a burst of lemon-tinged acidity that promises springtime as it gracefully unwinds to a leisurely finish. Lots of drinking pleasure in this modestly-priced white blend of Muscat Canelli, Sauvignon Blanc, and Viognier from Galilee. 13.5% ABV | […]

Cantine Umberto Bortolotti Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore Brut NV

Umberto Bortolotti Valdobbiadene Prosecco Superiore Brut

Umberto Bortolotti’s exquisite line of Proseccos, their non-vintage Valdobbiadene Brut is the sweetest of the line, all have feature attractive creaminess at the core and a mousse that is notably finer than most Proseccos I’ve tasted. It opens with a garland of white flowers, acacia honey and honeydew melon. Here, the creaminess is upfront, gradually […]

Cantine Umberto Bortolotti Rive Di S. Stefano Montagnole Valdobbiadene 2016

Rive Di S. Stefano Montagnole

Umberto Bortolotti’s stylish 2016 Rive Di S. Stefano Montagnole Valdobbiadene qualifies as one of the best Proseccos I’ve had in recent memory. Aromas of fresh Williams pear, green apple, and white grapefruit pith are held aloft by ultra-fine, diaphanous bubbles. At 2 g/l residual sugar, it feels perceptibly dry and crisp. Calcium-rich marl limestone soils […]

Cantine Umberto Bortolotti Piai Alto Valdobbiadene Rive Di Rolle 2016

Cantine Umberto Bortolotti Piai Alto Valdobbiadene Rive Di Rolle 2016

From a single 2.65 ha parcel on the steep slopes of the Rive DOCG, the 2016 Umberto Bortolotti Piai Alto Valdobbiadene Rive Di Rolle is awash with delicate, tender aromas of acacia flowers, acacia honey, that swirl ’round white peach and Asian pear. It’s round and creamy upfront, with a delicate honeyed character that can […]

Domaine de Roche-Guillon Fleurie 2014

Domaine de Roche-Guillon Fleurie

Crushed raspberries, pie cherries, cranberries, and underbrush waft from the glass. Beguiling secondary notes of dried violets, lilacs and potting soil lend perfumy complexity. It’s a light, nimble Gamay—classic Fleurie—with lifted red fruit tightly wound round a mineral vein of iron ore followed by loamy soil, and bay leaf. 13.0% ABV Domaine de Roche-Guillon 8.8 […]

Lucien Albrecht Crémant d’Alsace Brut Rosé NV

Lucien Albrecht Crémant d'Alsace Brut Rosé NV

The season of lights continues with this mercurial Cremant d’Alsace from Lucien Albrecht. Glinting copper and rose gold in the glass, it’s an expressive wine, trimmed with apricot and quince, red berries and spice—notes that rise and tumble through an alluvion of cascading bubbles. In the mouth, this 100% Alsatian Pinot Noir is fresh and […]

Lubanzi Chenin Blanc 2016

Lubanzi Chenin Blanc 2016

Here’s a wine with a philanthropic twist. With the pledge to give back 50% of the profits to the hands that made it, Lubanzi is a relatively new brand—conceived of, and launched by two friends who met while studying abroad as exchange students at the University of Cape Town. Their first release, a 100% Chenin […]

Lapostolle Cuvée Alexandre Apalta Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon 2013

Lapostolle Cuvée Alexandre Apalta Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon 2013

The 2013 Lapostolle Cuvée Alexandre Apalta Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon is furnished in fruit-forward that run the gamut from black currants to blueberries along with toast, cedar and woodspice. Concentrated, ripe, and fairly powerful in the mouth, making this an ideal steak wine, the finish is herbaceous—a hanging note where bell pepper and cracked black pepper […]

Catena Zapata Catena Cabernet Sauvignon 2015

Bodega Catena Zapata

I had the pleasure of interviewing Dr. Laura Catena last year for an article that charted the research she’s doing at the Catena Institute in studying the effects of high elevation on indigenous varieties and on international varieties like Cabernet. Of course, it’s great fun to taste a wine like this after such a rousing […]

CHRISTINE HAVENS
McMinnville, OR

christine@christine-havens.com