Country: | United States |
Region: | California |
Winery: | Bonny Doon Vineyard |
Grape Type: | Grenache Blanc |
Vintage: | 2017 |
Bottle Size: | 750 ml |
Opaque color. Very rich, dark chocolate aromas with some black cherry and mature fruit coming through. There is also a pleasing freshness to the port originating from its floral and cistus (rockrose) bouquet. The Quinta de la Rosa Vintage 2017 is a powerful wine with much potential but at the same time elegant and generous on the palate. Full of flavors, very complex with fine tannins that gives the wine a nobility and persistence. A great vintage made to give pleasure now and in the next few decades.
Review:
The 2017 Vintage Port was bottled a few weeks before tasting after spending 18 months in used tonels. It is a field blend, mostly Touriga Nacional and Touriga Franca, coming in with 98 grams per liter of residual sugar. Wonderfully aromatic and filled with flavor, this got plenty of aeration and didn't blink even a little. It was still vibrant and expressive. Aeration only made it more tannic. It is also delicious. This is potentially a great Port, and it seems like the best I've seen from La Rosa. This is sort of approachable in the near future, but it really needs (at least) a decade of cellaring. It has a lot of muscle and should age well.
-Wine Advocate 95 Points
Very floral in profile, with violet and lilac accents leading off, followed by a decidedly red-fruit spectrum of raspberry, cherry and red currant coulis flavors that race throughout. Has grip, but this is more reliant on acidity, showing a nearly piercing feel as the tightly focused finish zips along, leaving a mouthwatering impression. Delightfully idiosyncratic. Best from 2033 through 2050. 112 cases imported. — JM
-Wine Spectator 95 Points
This is a rounded Port, showing layers of black fruits, ripe tannins and spice. At the same time, it does have a solid structure that will allow it to age. The acidity comes through at the end. Drink from 2028.
-Wine Enthusiast 95 Points
The Grade Napa Cabernet Sauvignon Winfield Vineyard is made from Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon.
“This wine expresses a focused balancing act of dark, rich black fruit, and a fine tannin structure, illuminated through the core with a laser-like acidity. The wine displays a deep purple-red hue with a cranberry halo. Aromas of cassis, cinnamon, citrus oil, roasted meat, and lilac swell from the glass.
“The palate is marked by a wave of jet-black brambly fruit up front, followed by an exotic spice mid-palate and a long, complex finish that lasts and lasts expressing notes of flowering jasmine, and oolong tea. The silky tannins hold everything together and will certainly allow this wine to evolve in the cellar for at least 7-10 years.” - Thomas River Brown
Review:
The 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon Winfield Vineyard is an absolutely gorgeous wine that conveys a striking interplay of richness, power and nuance. Silky and restrained for this site, the Winfield offers up a compelling melange of red fruit, iron, cedar, tobacco, rose petal and dried herbs, all in a mid-weight style that is incredibly appealing. The Winfield is a selection taken from Blocks 1, 4 and 5.
-Vinous 94 Points
All older vintage wines have been purchased from a single collectors cellar. Pictures can be requested before shipment.
All older vintage wines have been purchased from a single collectors cellar. Pictures can be requested before shipment.
The 2021 Shafer Hillside Select is crafted exclusively from grapes grown on Shafer's rugged hillside vineyards, where steep, rocky soils push the vines to produce low yields of intensely concentrated fruit. The unique terroir, combined with Napa Valley's hallmark climate of warm, sunny days and cool nights, contributed to a vintage with exceptional structure, lush tannins, and deep, vibrant color. The 2021 growing season exemplified these conditions, allowing the grapes to mature beautifully by early September, resulting in a wine with refined, pure aromas and flavors that reflect the richness and elegance of the vineyard.
“Such a beautifully balanced wine with tremendous staying power and expressive Stags Leap ironstone minerality with heady sagebrush and conifer notes with white pepper and walnut husk. The wine has an impressive depth of red-toned fruit on the mid-palate framed by tannins that practically dance across the palate, exuding length, tension, and power. Huckleberry and black cherry fruits, black truffle, dried violets, graphite, and salted dark chocolate are all framed by racy acidity, which keeps everything fresh and lifted. The 2021 releases mark Elias Fernandez's 38th vintage as Shafer's winemaker. He was hired by John Shafer in 1984, two weeks out of UC Davis.”
-Decanter, 99 Points
“The 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select was tasted as a barrel sample. Deep garnet-purple in color, it charges out with powerful notes of creme de cassis, plum preserves, and juicy blueberries giving way to an undercurrent of tar, candied violets, and star anise. The full-bodied palate is concentrated and impactful, delivering a firm, grainy texture and well-knit freshness to support the generous black and blue fruits, finishing long with loads of mineral and exotic spices sparks. This is impressive!”
-The Wine Independent, 98-100 Points
“As always, the 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon Hillside Select is 100% Cabernet Sauvignon that will spend 28 months in new barrels. Its deep purple hue gives way to a behemoth of a wine that has incredible cassis, black raspberry, and even blue fruits to go with loads of camphor, minty herbs, graphite, and darker chocolate. It's full-bodied, concentrated, yet pure, flawlessly balanced, and has a great finish.”
-Jeb Dunnuck, 97-99 Points
The 2017 Brunello has certainly enjoyed the benefits of a careful selection in the parcels (including the Millecento vineyard). The wine has a wide nose. It maintains crisp fruit and floral notes. In the mouth it is elegant, complete and supported by an excellent acidity.
Review:
Aromas of ripe berries and plums with some flowers and nutmeg follow through to a full body with round tannins and a juicy finish. Slightly chewy, but friendly and succulent. Excellent 2017, despite the dry growing season.
-James Suckling 94 Points
Bonny Doon Vin Gris de Cigare is made from 57% Grenache, 18% Grenache Blanc, 9% Mourvèdre, 6% Roussanne, 5% Carignane, 5% Cinsaut
No oak.
This wine is quite emblematic of the great sea change that has occurred at Bonny Doon Vineyard since the sell-off/ draw-down of the Ginormous Doonamath, whereby we have essayed a most sincere effort to make “quieter” wines in a more natural, less manipulated fashion. As such, this Vin Gris is made from bespoke grapes and is not a byproduct of red wine production, per se. We harvested at the appropriate ripeness level for its style. The essential principle here is that less is truly more. The wine does not overwhelm one with fruitybombasticity; it’s charms are seductively subtle. An extremely elegant and complex Vin Gris de Cigare.
The ’17 Vin Gris is a return to form from recent vintages, and a true expression of a proper Vin Gris, which is to say a pale pink wine made with the scantest skin contact. As a result, the wine is somewhat lighter and more delicate on the palate with minimal astringency and perhaps more of a floral aspect than doonright fruitiness. The perfume of this wine is subtle, haunting, not vulgar or tawdry, like some of the louche rosés de la nuit. Enfin, this wine is all about elegance and restraint. Rosehips, cassis, fraises de bois, citrus rind, with a wonderfully austere stony finish.
The wine does not overwhelm one with fruity-bombasticity; it’s charms are seductively subtle. An extremely elegant and complex Vin Gris de Cigare.
The Grenache for our Vin Gris came from bespoke sections of the Alta Loma Vineyard, harvested at the appropriate maturity level for this elegant style of wine. About 24% of the wine is composed of traditional white Rhône varieties in substantial part from the Beeswax Vineyard in the Arroyo Seco district of Monterey, adding a surprising richness and foundation. We also employed the practice of postfermentation bâtonnage—the stirring or re-suspension of yeast lees—to give the wine a certain creaminess of texture.
Varietal Blend: 57% Grenache, 18% Grenache Blanc, 9% Mourvèdre, 6% Roussanne, 5% Carignane, 5% Cinsaut.
Appellation: Central Coast
Vineyards: 41% Alta Loma, 13% Beeswax, 11% Bokisch Ranch, 8% JD Farming, 6% San Miguel, 7% Cass, 5% Gonsalves, 4% Scheid, 3% Wente, 1% Rancho Solo, 1% Ventan
Alcohol by Volume: 13.2%
TA: 4.5 g/L
pH: 3.42
This wine just begs for oysters or stone crab.
Review:
- Wine & Spirits Magazine (June 2018), 90 pts, BEST BUY - YEAR'S BEST ROSES
A barrel fermented, old vines Verdejo made in a style different from what we typically see in this white varietal. It has a remarkable complexity, resulting in the smoothness and depth of a high-end white. Very suitable for cellaring.
Golden yellow color with greenish reflections. Complex, toasty aromas of nuts & dried fruit. Large, creamy, spicy, balanced and voluminous.
Rice with fish, cooked seafood, grilled seafood, baked white fish.
"The eponymous 2020 Ossian was produced with Verdejo grapes from old, organically farmed vines around the village of Nieva (Segovia), a zone where phylloxera didn't reach. They consider 2020 their finest vintage to date, with a big change from 2018 and when they have achieved a much better understanding of their vineyards. It has notes of pit fruit and sweet spices, with good weight on the palate, moderate alcohol (13.5%) and ripeness and good freshness and balance. It's serious and with potential to develop in bottle. 80,000 bottles produced. - Luis GUTIERREZ"
- Robert Parker's Wine Advocate (January 31st 2023), 94 pts
The grapes for this wine were grown in the Oak Knoll District of Napa Valley, where soils are transitional from gravel to silty clay loam. The climate is moderate to cool with marine air until mid-morning and frequent late afternoon breezes that maintain cooler temperatures and ensure a longer growing season. Chardonnay from this region showcase flavors of crisp apple, mineral notes and tropical fruit with good acidity.
Aromas of lemon curd, sweet butter, brioche and sun-ripened peach mingle with notes of nutmeg and vanilla bean. The palate is creamy, with zesty lemon overtones and minerality persisting on the finish.