Miracoli Borgo Montepulciano d'Abruzzo 2018

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Cortenova Montepulciano d' Abruzzo  is made from 100% Montepulciano d'Abruzzo

Deep ruby red color with violet highlights and a pleasant and fruity bouquet. Full bodied, soft tannins and good acidity.

Cortenova Montepulciano d' Abruzzo is made from 100% Montepulciano d'Abruzzo

Deep ruby red color with violet highlights and a pleasant and fruity bouquet. Full bodied, soft tannins and good acidity.

Excellent with pasta dishes and red meats.

Lima Vinho Verde Rose is made from 75% Souzao, 15% Borraçal and 10% Espadeiro.

It is a blend of 75% Souzao (same as Vinhao), 15% Borraçal (which is also known as Caino Tinto) and 10% Espadeiro:

Souzão (or Sousão or Vinhão) is a Portuguese wine grape that is used in the production of port wine. While originating in the Minho regions, it is used primarily in Australia, California and South Africa. In Portugal, it is also an authorized planting in the Douro, and Dão-Lafões area (Vinho do Dão). The grape is known for the deep color it produces in a wine as well as its coarse and raisiny taste.

Caiño tinto (also known as Borraçal) is a red Galician wine grape variety that is also grown in Portugal's Vinho Verde wine region where it is known as Borraçal. In Spain, it is a permitted variety in the Denominación de Origens (DOs) of Rías Baixas and Ribeiro where it produces highly perfumed wines with noticeable tartness and high acidity.

Espadeiro is a red Portuguese wine grape planted primarily in the Minho region for making Vinho Verde. It is also grown across the border, in Spain, in Galicia where it is used to make light bodied wines.

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Weinkeller Erbach Riesling (liter) is 100 percent Riesling. 

Round and refreshing wine with light touches of lemon and lime on the nose. Slightly sweet mouthfeel, with juicy and fruity flavors.

Alain Jaume Tavel Rose Le Cretace is made from 60% Grenache, 30% Syrah and 10% Mourvedre

Rosé de saignée (bleed technique) with a vibrant ruby color, complex and elegant, notes of crushed strawberries and rose petals.

Tavel Le Cretace Rose gives up vibrant wild strawberry, watermelon, crushed flowers and hints of spice to go with a medium-bodied, layered and seamless profile on the palate. A classic rose from this appellation, enjoy this beauty with food over the coming year or two.

 Pair with roasted and/or spicy Turkey, sushi, seafood and grilled fish, asian food.

Review:

"The most interesting rosé from Jaume is the company's 2018 Tavel Le Crétacé, a blend of 60% Grenache, 20% Syrah and 10% each Cinsault and Mourvèdre, sourced from a single supplier. Berry-scented, floral and fun, it's medium to full-bodied, even a bit creamy on the palate, then fresh, zesty and spicy on the long finish, Tasted twice (once blind), with consistent notes. - Joe Czerwinski"

- Robert Parker's Wine Advocate (Issue #245, October 2019), 91 pts

Bonny Doon Le Cigare Volant Cuvee Oumuamua  is made from 52% Grenache, 35% Cinsault, 13% Syrah.

As our story unfolds, we learn that with the 2018 vintage, there has been a fundamental change in the style of Le Cigare Volant. Not that there was anything at all “wrong” with the thirty-four vintages preceding the current one, mind you. For a number of reasons, mostly, alas, drearily fiscal/economical, the older style of Cigare has unfortunately proven to be a not particularly sustainable proposition at least from a financial perspective. The “new” Cigare, with a re-adjustment of the encépagement, by which we have dropped Mourvèdre from the mix and elevated the percentage of the (greatly underappreciated) and quite brilliant variety, Cinsault, creates a style of wine far more approachable and seductive in its youth.

“Cuvée Oumuamua?”
We call this cuvée, “Oumuamua,” (or “scout” in Hawaiian), so named in light of the recent mysterious cigar-shaped object/visitor to our solar system, initially imagined to be some sort of asteroid, but believed by none other than the chairman of the Astronomy Dept. at Harvard University to possibly be a sort of probe, perhaps a solar-powered light-sail, sent on a kind of reconnaissance mission to check us out. (Ok, this last part is a bit of interpolation.) Anyhoo, it has been agreed that this was a very, very strange object that recently came to visit. And it appears that it may have arrived in the very nick of time, to bring a sort of much-needed revitalization to our planet, and by metaphoric extension, to the Cigare brand itself.

TASTING NOTES
 The color is a deep, vivid violet-red, owing in part to the lower pH of the wine. On the nose, the wine has a haunting kirsch nose (I suspect that’s the Cinsault), along with associated small red fruit (red and black currant) and perhaps a suggestion of blackberry. My colleague, Nicole Walsh and I toil away at the Cigare blend every year, and while the blend will change (sometimes radically, as it has this year), we share an idea of the Platonic form of Cigare, and the ‘17 certainly embodies that form. It goes something like this: Juiciness, fruit (but not confected or overripe), brightness, exuberance, joy, and not least, a sense of savoriness. I realize I’m not speaking orthodox wine parlance. We look above all for balance and for liveliness, for vinous qi. This wine is still incredibly young and just wants to jump out of its shoes.

INEYARD | PRODUCTION NOTES
The Alta Loma Vineyard in the Arroyo Seco area of Monterey County, was planted years back to one of the earlier selections of Tablas Creek Grenache clones, typically not a great selection for imparting real backbone or structure to the wine, but capable of making a wine that is enormously pretty and fragrant; in cool years, the fragrance of cassis or black currant is almost overpowering; most surprisingly, the Grenache in cool years from this vineyard is profoundly black in color. The Cinsault was sourced from the Loma del Rio Vineyard, a vineyard, under a previous nom de guerre (San Bernabe), we know quite well. This was the first year of production for the Cinsault and it was thinned multiple times both for enhanced concentration and evenness of ripening. The cooler climate gives the Cinsault a wonderful articulation of flavor, but what is most noteworthy is the fact that we were able to coferment the Cinsault with Syrah from the equally cool Mesa Verde Vyd. in the Santa Ynez Valley. Something magical happens when Syrah and Cinsault marry; the healthy tannin titer from the Syrah seems to give more structure to the Cinsault, helps to stabilize the color, and in general, insures that the blend will not evanesce tout de suite into the aetherial plane. The spicy, licorice component from the Syrah is a perfect foil to the Griotte cherry derived from the Cinsault.

Appellation: Monterey County
Vineyards: 48% Alta Loma, 35% Loma Del Rio, 6% Mesa Verde, 6% Zayante, 4% Rancho Solo 1% Lieff
Alcohol by Volume: 13.5%
TA: 6.1 g/L
pH: 3.62
Production: 11,500 cases
Cellaring: Drinkable upon release (6/19) with ageability of 7-10 years