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Paul Blanck Pinot Blanc Alsace 2016

Paul Blanck Pinot Blanc Alsace 2016

A wonderful value, Paul Blanck’s 2016 Pinot Blanc is a limpid, slightly burnished gold in the glass. Crafted from 100% Pinot Blanc grown in gravel, sand and clay-limestone soils on south-facing slopes, it is a terroir-driven, elegant wine replete with notes of yellow apple, d’Anjou pear, underripe pineapple, line dried-linen, and catmint. There’s weight on […]

Albert Boxler Pinot Blanc Reserve 2014

Albert Boxler Pinot Blanc Reserve 2014

From 50+-year-old vines grown in low-fertility, highly weathered granitic soils, Albert Boxler’s Pinot Blanc Reserve is a treasure trove of ripe pear, apricot kernel and those jarred spiced apple rings that make their appearance during the holidays. Heady spice notes lead into a wine with a story to tell—a vein of quartz wending through a […]

Belondrade y Lurton Rueda 2016

Typically light-bodied, this is a face of Verdejo I’ve not eperienced—Belondrade Y Lurton’s 2016 Verdejo has the unctuousness of a Mosel Spätlese with the fruit profile of a well-crafted Sonoma Coast Chardonnay, such is this wine’s shimmering depth and concentration. Opening with decadent aromas of dried pineapple, ripe cantaloupe, yellow peach, hazelnut, and flan, in the mouth […]

Gramona Cava III Lustros Gran Reserva Brut Nature 2011

Gramona Cava III Lustros Gran Reserva Brut Nature 2011

Very pleased to taste this exquisite biodynamic Cava from Gramona after having visited the winery last year. Pale straw, the 2011 III Lustros Brut Nature is a blend of 75% Xarel·lo and 25% Macabeu. Seven years en tirage has graced it with a degree of depth that’s hard to find in most wines from this […]

Locations NZ-7 NV

Locations NZ-7

Another stellar offering from Dave Phinney’s Locations project, the NZ-7 is fresh, grassy, and quite mineral, owing in part, to the Awatere Valley’s proximity to the Pacific Ocean and the Waihopai Valley’s gravelly soils in combination with a cooler climate. Fresh and elegant, it’s awash in underripe pineapple, boxwood, lemongrass, lime zest, and sea foam. […]

Sea Pearl Sauvignon Blanc Marlborough 2017

Sea Pearl Sauvignon Blanc Marlborough 2017

Sourced from vineyards across Marlborough’s sub-regions, including the Wairau Valley, Sea Pearl is straw-colored in the glass and abundantly layered with aromas of gooseberry, guava, passionfruit, lemongrass, and lime zest. On the palate, it’s fresh and somewhat lighter in body than expected—and yet there is ample concentration of flavor, grapefruit and lemon pith notes give […]

Carlos Serres Rioja Viura Tempranillo Blanco 2016

Carlos Serres Rioja Viura Tempranillo Blanco 2016

From the historic Bodegas Carlos Serres, one of the first wineries to established in Haro, the heart of Rioja, is this blend of Viura and 15% Tempranillo Blanco. Lemon hued, it’s an old-school wine, with restrained aromatics of lemon drop, granulated honey, flint and just-melted candle wax. In the mouth, it’s softly textured—one feels a […]

Finca Viladellops Penedès Xarel·lo 2016

Finca Viladellops Penedès Xarel·lo 2016

Located in the Garraf Massif, a rugged mountain massif that extends to the Mediterranean Sea, the soils found throughout Finca Viladellops’ 60 ha estate are low-fertility limestone-based soils studded with marine fossils and sediment. Aged in stainless tanks on fine lees, the 2016 Xarel·lo offers lilting, subtle aromas of pear and apple, prairie flowers, apple […]

Finca Viladellops Penedès Garnatxa 2016

Finca VilaDelloPs Penedès Garnatxa 2013

A mineral-infused spine creates palate tension as it ripples through the juicy core of this 100% Garnaxta. Inviting aromas and flavors of roasted strawberries, cherry compote, warm raisin bread, loamy soil, and iron shavings wink in and out of an agile profile. On the palate, it’s medium bodied, and yet it feels light on its […]

Otis Kenyon Syrah 2013

Otis Kenyon Syrah 2013

With a quinacridone violet core and that most classic plump, juicy Walla Walla fruit profile, the 2013 Otis Kenyon Syrah has developed nicely. Layered aromas of boysenberry and black fruit rest beneath lighter notes of lavender oil and incense—there is a lovely floral aspect that is certainly appealing. The palate is silky and round, quite […]

CHRISTINE HAVENS
McMinnville, OR

christine@christine-havens.com