Country: | Greece |
Region: | Crete |
Winery: | Lyrarakis Estate |
Grape Type: | Mandilari |
Vintage: | 2014 |
Bottle Size: | 750 ml |
Siegel Ketran Red Blend is made from 35% Syrah, 30% Petit Verdot, 25% Carmenere, 10% Cabernet Franc
Ketran is coming from the Mapuche Language and it means "plowed earth". In fact, Earth was plowed by fire from the volcanic acitivity. Ketran is a tribute to the volcanic soils that gave birth to the fantastic terroir of Los Lingues, located at the foothills of the “Cordillera de los Andes".
The wine is clean and bright in color.
The wine displays a very aromatic and elegant nose of ripe black fruit, prune and dried fig.
The mouthfeel is smooth and the length to the finish is quite exceptionnal, with sweet and fleshy tannins, balanced by a perfectly integrated acidity which gives the wine some freshness and emphasizes the presence of fruit and its ability to age.
Coming from the volcanic soils of Los Lingues, at the foothills of the Andes mountain.
The wine went through ML fermentation, it was then aged 24 months in French Oak barrels.
The wine has been slightly filtered before bottling.
Review:
"2014 is the second release of Siegel's top red wine, made from a four-way cuvée of Syrah, Petit Verdot, Carmenère and Cabernet Franc. Plush, spicy and smoothly oaked, with some tannic backbone and a glossy finish. Needs time. 2021-30"
- Tim Atkin MW (Chile 2019 Special Report), 94 pts
Ketran is Siegel’s most ambitious wine. Debuting with the 2013 vintage, it’s a selection of the best barrel lots from Los Lingues in the Andean zone of Colchagua. The blend works very well, especially if you let the wine breathe for a few hours beforehand. The oak steps aside, and the aromas of fruit and herbs take over in a red with firm, sharp tannic structure that leaves room for the acidity—not very prominent in a warm year, but still present—to achieve balance. This blend is for the cellar.
-Patricio Tapia - Descorchados 94 Points
is made from 74% Malbec, 13% Cabernet Franc, 12% Petit Verdot, 1% Merlot
Vineyard Notes
Red Phoenix Red Blend is made from 57% Zinfandel; 14% Petit Verdot; 12% Petite Sirah; 7% Syrah; 5% Merlot; 5% Cabernet Sauvignon.
With European origins dating back centuries ago, blended red wine is once again having its day in the sun. Red Phoenix Red Wine Blend represents the essence of this well-deserved resurgence. Unbound by a single varietal or appellation, and given more flexibility with vintages, winemaker Joseph Smith skillfully showcases six distinct varietals in this luscious and layered wine. Unlike traditional red blends, Red Phoenix is both barrel aged and barrel fermented, adding structure, balance, and a new dimension to a wine that is rooted in tradition and soars on the palate.
APPELLATION
75% of the fruit is coming from Lodi AVA, while the remaining 25% are Napa Valley AVA's fruits.
Coastal aromas of fresh fruit and lush florals coupled with a deep ruby color intrigue the senses. Bright, bold flavors of cherry and blackberry ascend on the palate while showcasing subtle, smooth tannins. The wine crescendos with anise, chocolate and toasted oak, offering depth and complexity, as velvety flavors continue to linger and evolve throughout the long, rich finish.
Review:
"This rich, velvety, mature and full-bodied wine was made from 93°/o Cabernet Sauvignon. Concentrated blackberry and blueberry flavors are generously accented by milk chocolate. While rather tannic, the mouthfeel is full but not tight. -J.G. "
- Wine Enthusiast (November 2022), 90 pts
Red Phoenix Red Blend is made from 57% Zinfandel; 14% Petit Verdot; 12% Petite Sirah; 7% Syrah; 5% Merlot; 5% Cabernet Sauvignon.
With European origins dating back centuries ago, blended red wine is once again having its day in the sun. Red Phoenix Red Wine Blend represents the essence of this well-deserved resurgence. Unbound by a single varietal or appellation, and given more flexibility with vintages, winemaker Joseph Smith skillfully showcases six distinct varietals in this luscious and layered wine. Unlike traditional red blends, Red Phoenix is both barrel aged and barrel fermented, adding structure, balance, and a new dimension to a wine that is rooted in tradition and soars on the palate.
APPELLATION
75% of the fruit is coming from Lodi AVA, while the remaining 25% are Napa Valley AVA's fruits.
Coastal aromas of fresh fruit and lush florals coupled with a deep ruby color intrigue the senses. Bright, bold flavors of cherry and blackberry ascend on the palate while showcasing subtle, smooth tannins. The wine crescendos with anise, chocolate and toasted oak, offering depth and complexity, as velvety flavors continue to linger and evolve throughout the long, rich finish.
Review:
"This rich, velvety, mature and full-bodied wine was made from 93°/o Cabernet Sauvignon. Concentrated blackberry and blueberry flavors are generously accented by milk chocolate. While rather tannic, the mouthfeel is full but not tight. -J.G. "
- Wine Enthusiast (November 2022), 90 pts
Early to bud and early to ripen, the 2014 vintage was our third drought year in a row. Dry, even temperatures marched the grapes along at a steady clip all year and created a wine with beautifully integrated fruit, acidity, and tannin.
Dense and dark magenta in color, this is a lithe and energetic vintage with lifted aromatics and a purity of fruit that lights up the medium-bodied tannin structure. The nose promises fresh black fruits, cherries and a touch of graphite, and the palate completely delivers. Juicy blackberry, plum, and bright cherry explode in the mouth, and develop into savory notes of baked black fruit and fresh pencil shavings on the mid-palate.
Eagle Summit Vineyard’s signature eucalyptus appears on the back palate to brighten the fruit, showing fragrant peppermint and warm, toasty spices through the finish. Whether you open it young or wait a few decades, this vintage does Howell Mountain proud--sophisticated and smart, with a rustic wild side.
Cresta Velia Cabernet Sauvignon Howell Mountain is made from 100 percent Cabernet Sauvignon.
Aged in 100% French oak (86% new)
• 100% Cabernet Sauvignon from Eagle Summit Vineyard on Howell Mountain
• Equal amounts of clone 4 and clone 7
• unfined and unfiltered
Review:
"The 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon is 100% Cabernet aged 20 months in 86% new French oak, with the typical suspects in terms of cooperage – Darnajou, Taransaud, and Remond. This opaque purple-colored wine has plenty of mulberry and blackcurrant fruit along with hints of blackberries, camphor and incense. The are some notes of unsmoked cigar and licorice as well. Ripe, medium to full-bodied and luscious, it is a classic to drink over the next 15 or more years. - RP"
- Robert Parker's Wine Advocate (Issue #228, December 2016), 90 pts
The Cabernet Sauvignon Casey’s Lakeview is similarly inky bluish/purple to the rim. Tasting like blood, this wine is dense and rich with lots of chocolate, espresso, earth and spice. It is deep, full-bodied, and again, a masculine style of wine that needs at least 4-5 years of cellaring and should keep for 25 or more years.
Lakeview Vineyard is the winery’s mid-block vineyard planted to a combination of clone 6 & 337 Cabernet Sauvignon on 101-14 rootstock. Excellent drainage from the rocky and chalky soils plus plenty of sunlight throughout the day produces wines of bold character with mouth filling flavors.
Organic farming methods are used to produce this Cabernet Sauvignon Casey's Lakeview vineyard. Vines are 17 years old. Ageing in French oak barrels (85% new) for 20 months, then 12 months in bottle prior to release. Non-filtered.
Review:
"The 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon Casey's Lakeview Vineyard is the most overt of these wines. Superripe black cherry, plum, chocolate and licorice add to an impression of flamboyance that sits on the edge of being too much. The effects of the drought are felt in the wine's slightly roasted profile. - Antonio Galloni"
- Antonio Galloni's Vinous (December 2016), 91 pts
Lyrarakis Mandilari Plakoura Cretian Red is made from 100% Mandilari
Description: The rare low-yield Plakoura vineyard is the equivalent to a Premier Cru slope at 500m. Altitude, with sandy, stony soil. The head-trained pruning in combination with the north-east exposure of the vineyard and plenty of sunshine, ensures that the grapes reach optimum ripeness at the time of harvest. Very thorough cultivation helps us achieve extremely low yields, succeeding in vinificating a very concentrated wine with a deep red color and an excellent structure, which will age for a long time.
Tasting Notes: Deep, intense red color. In the nose, complex aromas of juicy plums, toffee and licorice are superbly balanced by the chocolate and vanilla notes provided by its ageing process in oak. In the mouth it is well concentrated with a lively lingering finish. This wine has an excellent bottle ageing potential that can overpass 10 years.
Alcohol: 13% ABV
Acidity: 5.62 g/L
pH: 3.5
RS: 2.11 g/L
Region: Plakoura vineyard, Karkadiotisa area - central Crete
Soil: Sandy-loam with a good amount of stones
Sun Exposure: North East
Pruning Technique: Head trained, spur pruned
Altitude: 500m above sea level
Irrigation: Not irrigated
Yield: 5tn/ha
Varieties: 100% Mandilari
Winemaking: Green-harvested in August. Harvested by hand during the second week of September, defined by berry sensory assessment to obtain a proper fruit and aromatic balance. Fermentation with selected yeasts at temperature between 25°C and 28°C. The wine was aged for 12 months in both new and used oak barrels and then stored in bottles for 9 months before being launched commercially.
Food pairing: Grilled red meat, game and piquant cheese.
The Lyrarakis Estate is a family winery which has been producing high quality wines since 1966 with a strong focus on rare local varieties and producing single variety wines.
The family is credited with the revival of two ancient Cretan varieties, Dafni and Plyto while a third “vineyard treasure”, the indigenous Melissaki, is recently added to the credits.
Surrounded by the idyllic setting of the vineyards and the Lassithi mountains we offer you the opportunity to enjoy nature and discover local varieties and wines distinguished by the uniqueness of their origin and heritage.
The founders of the Lyrarakis Estate decided 40 years ago to get actively involved with winemaking in their native land. The company now known as GEA (Alagni Agricultural Enterprises) was founded in 1966. The family has always used its privately owned vineyards. At that time, the dominant varieties included Vilana, Kotsifali and Mantilaria. After careful selection of the Vilana strain, the first organised planting of this particular variety was completed and served to supply the farmers of the region. But the family’s grape-growing did not stop there. In the late 1980s, there was an attempt to save two rare native varieties, Dafni and Plyto, from the Phylloxera blight. Efforts were ultimately successful as indicated by the wines of the same name first made available by the Lyrarakis company in the early 1990s.
The village of Alagni, from which the Lyrarakis family originated, is located in the heart of Heraklion Prefecture, in the most mountainous area of Crete’s Peza region with the extensive wine-producing tradition (stone-carved wine presses from the Venetian era are scattered throughout the region).
Today, the family vineyard is 15 hectares (37 acres) and produces seven single-variety wines from native grape varieties: The selection of products is rounded off with combined vinification of native and foreign varieties, the best-known of which include Kotsifali-Syrah and Cabernet-Merlot.
Redolent of strawberries and roses, fragrant and medium bodied. Refreshing, tart finish.
Average age of the vines: 30 years old (between 20 and 60 years old). Skin contact maceration: between 2 and 5 days depending on the parcels.
Beaujolais-Nouveau has been very popular with almost every Thanksgiving dish - from turkey to ham, green beans to mashed potatoes, and gravy to cranberry sauce.
Franz Prager, co-founder of the Vinea Wachau, had already earned a reputation for his wines when Toni Bodenstein married into the family. Bodenstein’s passion for biodiversity and old terraces, coupled with brilliant winemaking, places Prager in the highest echelon of Austrian producers.
Smaragd is a designation of ripeness for dry wines used exclusively by members of the Vinea Wachau. The wines must have minimum alcohol of 12.5%. The grapes are hand-harvested, typically in October and November, and are sent directly to press where they spontaneously ferment in stainless-steel tanks.
Zwerithaler is a sub-site of Buschenberg and sits to the east of Weißenkirchen. The name Zwerithaler, meaning "nestled between the valleys," is a near monopole of Weingut Prager. It has a complex soil of paragneiss with alternating layers of dark and calcareous rock. Zwerithaler Kammergut is a 0.34-hectare parcel planted before WWI. The wine from these ungrafted, 100-year-old vines was bottled separately by Prager for the first time in 2015.
Light greenish yellow, silver reflections. Fine savory, delicate nuances of anise, tobacco notes, delicate yellow fruit, a touch of mango and honey blossom. Full-bodied, juicy white apple fruit, well-integrated, silky acidity structure, finesse and long persistence, saline finish, lingers for minutes, Veltliner at its best.
-Falstaff 99 Points
"The aromas of this old-vine gruner veltliner leap out and shake you to the core. Full-bodied and full of weighty and balanced layers of papayas, mangoes, nectarines, chives, white tea and oranges. Fantastic concentration, giving so much pleasure already, but it will keep blossoming if you give it time. From vines planted in 1907. Sustainable. Drink or hold."
-James Suckling 98 Points
Jean-Claude et Nicolas Fayolle Hermitage Rouge Donnieres is made from 100% Syrah.
Made from 40-year-old vines planted on granitic and rocky soils in the Lieu dit "Les Donnieres" at the bottom of the Hermitage's hill.
Intense inky ruby red color.
The wine has plenty to offer with red and black fruit aromas, as well as a good minerality.
The finish is very long, clean and juicy and offers a great spicy mouthfeel.
Soil is clay, silica and round pebbles.
Hand harvested in small crates. The grapes are then pumped into tanks (full cluster, not destemmed).
It will stay in this tank for 15 days for the skin contact maceration and the Alcoholic fermentation.
Tey will also use the "rack and return" technique (delestage).
Then the wine is transfered into neutral French Oak barrels where the wine will complete the Malo-Lactic fermentation.
Delicious with grilled red meat such as venison or lamb and most cheeses.