Sojourn Pinot Noir Walala Vineyard is 100% Pinot Noir.
This Walala Vineyard resides at 1,200-feet elevation just miles from the ocean in the northern Sonoma Coast. Cool coastal breezes and thick fog helped the grapes mature evenly through the September heat wave.
2022 was a drought vintage that offered only miniscule yields, with small clusters and tiny berries. Sojourn were only able to produce a small quantity of this exceptional Pinot Noir. It offers layers of red fruit aromas with tropical notes.
Review:
"With just 5% whole cluster to give it a touch of added structure and weight, the Walala Pinot Noir from Sojourn is aged in 50% new French oak. Displaying a ruby-red core with a light pink rim in the glass, it boasts pleasant aromas of red and black cherries, marionberries, wet-turned earth, crushed pink peppercorn, dusty flower petals, and sweet baking spices. Tannins are present but sweet and rounded and pair perfectly with the lush acidity that sweeps across the palate. Another winner from winemaker, Randy Bennett, is highly recommended."
- Jeremy Yount, International Wine Review 96 points
Sokol Blosser 'Orchard Block' Pinot Noir 2021 is made from 100 percent Pinot Noir.
VINTAGE HIGHLIGHTS
2021 was the 2nd warmest growing season we have ever seen since 2015. We also got to add a new term to the dictionary: "Heat Dome". Three straight days of triple digit temperatures in late June breaking heat records for the Willamette Valley. Bud break started like usual in the middle of April. We had the driest March through May that the Willamette Valley has seen through 128 years of record keeping! Bloom also appeared on time in early/mid June. While late June brought the “Heat Dome”, our grapes made it through thanks to bloom being finished at all our sites and there still being soil moisture, so they grew like crazy over those three days of hellish temperatures. While July and August turned out to be exceedingly hot and dry, September arrived with little rain which that allowed us to fully ripen the grapes. The hot and dry summer made for fruit that was extremely clean, resulting in excellent fermentations. All in all, mother nature gave us something to be grateful for on our 50th anniversary.
WINEMAKING
The grapes were carefully hand harvested from the Orchard Block (on our Estate vineyard) on September 25th. The fruit was hand sorted to remove any flawed bunches and de-stemmed, half went directly into 3-ton stainless steel fermenters and the other half went in to oak upright fermenters. Fermentation took place over 10-14 days using ambient yeast with punchdowns for cap management. After the long, cool fermentation, the wine was pressed off at dryness and then barrel aged for 16 months in 100% French oak barrels with 17% new oak.
WINE PROFILE
Our 2021 Orchard Block Estate Pinot Noir has bright notes of red cherry, red currant, and a touch of nutmeg on the nose. On the palate, the fruit continues with red cherry, raspberry, and red currants followed by a subtle hint of clove. This is a delicate Pinot Noir with bright acidity with a medium finish.
PAIRINGS
Orchard Block Pinot Noir pairs with a classic roasted turkey, creamy cacio e pepe, and the Oregon favorite, wild mushroom risotto.
Review:
Powerful floral aromatics as violets introduce deep blue fruits, forest floor, and a note of iodine. This old 2.5ha plum and cherry orchard produces wines of depth, elegance and restrained power. The palate is lushly fruited with ripe red raspberries, clove and turned earth. The finish is elegant and long-lived.
Decanter 93 Points
Spinona Bricco Faset Barbaresco is made from 100 percent Nebbiolo.
This single-vineyard Barbaresco comes from Pietro Berutti's 8 hectares of coveted vineyards on the top of the historic hill, Faset. It is 270 meters above sea level with a south, south-east exposure. The vines are an average of 35 years old. Only organic farming practices are used. The natural fertilizer comes from the 100 head of cattle that they have and no herbicides or pesticides are used.
Barbaresco shows a deep ruby red color with garnet reflections. An intense bouquet with hints of ripe cherries, wild berries and spice. White pepper, licorice and mint blend with enticing floral notes. Mouth-filling and well-structured with a full, velvety body and an austere and long finish.
HARVEST: late October. The grapes are harvested by hand in perforated baskets to allow air to pass through the bunches. The pressing is soft. Cold maceration for 24 hours at 12°C (for certain years).
WINEMAKING: Soft pressing with an initial cold maceration on the skins for 24 hours at 12C. Specially selected yeasts are used. Fermentation takes place for 12 to 14 days in stainless steel at 28-29 °C under temperature controlled conditions. There is a pumping over on the skins. After malolactic fermentation, the wine is racked and goes through a delicate pressing to obtain only the best wine.
AGING : 12-15 months in large 25 hectolitre wooden barrels of Allier and Slavonian oak.
REFINING: in the bottle for 12-15 months in a temperature-controlled environment.
Excellent with game, red meats, truffle dishes and aged cheeses.
This single-vineyard Barbaresco comes from Pietro Berutti's 8 hectares of coveted vineyards on the top of the historic hill, Faset. It is 270 meters above sea level with a south, south-east exposure. The vines are an average of 35 years old. Only organic farming practices are used. The natural fertilizer comes from the 100 head of cattle that they have and no herbicides or pesticides are used.
Barbaresco shows a deep ruby red color with garnet reflections. An intense bouquet with hints of ripe cherries, wild berries and spice. White pepper, licorice and mint blend with enticing floral notes. Mouth-filling and well-structured with a full, velvety body and an austere and long finish.
Review:
St. James Winery Blackberry - NV is made from blackberries
10.4% Alcohol by Volume
12.7% Residual Sugar
Is it fresh picked blackberries in a bottle or St. James Winery Blackberry wine? Tough call.
Sweet and delicious served chilled with your favorite dessert or for no reason at all, except to enjoy.
Select Wine Competition Awards:
2011 GOLD San Francisco Chronicle
2010 SILVER San Francisco Chronicle
St. James Winery Velvet Red - NV is made from 100% Concord grapes from Ozark Highlands AVA.
10.5% Alcohol by Volume
12.1% Residual Sugar
Tastes and smells like ripe, just picked grapes.
Velvet Red is fruity and mouth-filling and best served chilled.
Select Wine Competition Awards:
2011 GOLD Wine & Spirits Wholesalers of America
2011 SILVER San Francisco Chronicle
2011 SILVER Pacific Rim
2011 SILVER Finger Lakes International
2011 SILVER Grand Harvest
2011 SILVER Los Angeles International
2011 SILVER Critics Challenge
2011 BRONZE Florida State Fair International
2011 BRONZE New World International
2011 BRONZE Dallas Morning News
St. Supery Dollarhide Estate Cabernet Sauvignon is made from 98% Cabernet Sauvignon, 2% Petit Verdot.
This Cabernet Sauvignon presents with deep, dark reds and purples. Aromas are opulent with ripe blackberry, black plum, cassis, chocolate, and toasted oak. A rich, dense profile follows with flavors of cassis and ripe black fruits, espresso, mocha, and molasses with subtle oak in influence. It is a deep, structured wine with excellent fine-grain tannin.
Review:
100% estate-grown single vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon hails from the winery’s Dollarhide Ranch. The property is known for its steep rolling hills—reaching upwards of 1,100 feet—as well as some flatlands and seven lakes rife with wildlife. Aged for 20 months in 100% French oak (54% new), the wine offers a broad and generous mouthfeel with chewy tannins. The fruit is ripe and almost gobby, becoming more streamlined as it opens up. Dark berries are lush and sweet with hints of brown sugar. Acidity and chalky lift are well defined and have the mouth imploring for that next sip. Refined, elegant, polished, and poised
-Tasting Panels 96 Points
This 100% estate-grown single-vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon hails from the winery’s Dollarhide Ranch. The property is known for its steep rolling hills—reaching upwards of 1,100 feet—as well as some flatlands and seven lakes rife with wildlife. Aged for 20 months in 100% French oak (54% new), the wine offers a broad and generous mouthfeel with chewy tannins. The fruit is ripe and almost gobby, becoming more streamlined as it opens up. Dark berries are lush and sweet with hints of brown sugar. Acidity and chalky lift are well defined and have the mouth imploring for that next sip. Refined, elegant, polished, and poised.
-Somm Journal 96 Points
Tamarack Chardonnay is made from 100% Chardonnay.
Bright aromas of ruby red grapefruit, mango and stone fruit are found in the bouquet while on the palate, the bright acidity of this wine showcases flavors of guava, crisp Granny Smith apples and Asian pears. Combing the best of both cooperage techniques, the combination of aging in stainless steel highlights the fruit while the aging in neutral French oak provides an added complexity to the wine.
Aged 60% in neutral premier French oak and 3% in new premier French Oak 37% stainless steel.Dropped by gravity straight to the press, the juice is pumped directly to barrel or tank and chilled, inoculated with Chardonnay 3079 yeast, primary fermentation started and finished, secondary fermentation started but completed to preferred taste, typically around 50% completion. All fermentation is done in a 58 degree Fahrenheit barrel room.
Walla Walla Valley Appellation: Alderbanks Vineyard
Columbia Valley Appellation: Bacchus and Gamache Brothers Vineyards
Yakima Valley Appellation: Olsen Brothers and French Creek Vineyards
Tamarack Chardonnay is made from 100% Chardonnay.
Bright aromas of ruby red grapefruit, mango and stone fruit are found in the bouquet while on the palate, the bright acidity of this wine showcases flavors of guava, crisp Granny Smith apples and Asian pears. Combing the best of both cooperage techniques, the combination of aging in stainless steel highlights the fruit while the aging in neutral French oak provides an added complexity to the wine.
Aged 60% in neutral premier French oak and 3% in new premier French Oak 37% stainless steel.Dropped by gravity straight to the press, the juice is pumped directly to barrel or tank and chilled, inoculated with Chardonnay 3079 yeast, primary fermentation started and finished, secondary fermentation started but completed to preferred taste, typically around 50% completion. All fermentation is done in a 58 degree Fahrenheit barrel room.
Walla Walla Valley Appellation: Alderbanks Vineyard
Columbia Valley Appellation: Bacchus and Gamache Brothers Vineyards
Yakima Valley Appellation: Olsen Brothers and French Creek Vineyards
Tamarack Ciel de Cheval Vineyard Reserve holds dark and chocolate nauces, spiced with pretty notes of allspice and clove, this wine is round and rich, bursting with ripe berries, combined with an earthy complexity and a velvety finish.
Cabernet Sauvignon makes up half of this blend, with the balance Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot and Merlot
The wine spent 22 months on 75% new French oak with the remaining 25% second vintage French oak. Select barrels from the best forests of Taransaud, Boutes, Quintessance, and Vicard cooperages.
Taylor Fladgate Vintage Port.
On the palate, the wine has beautifully ripe tannins, which integrate perfectly into the mid-palate, providing both structure and volume, and then break out on the finish with a firm wiry, grip. The palate closes with a powerful tide of fresh, complex fruit flowing endlessly through the finish. In the 2018, the Taylor traits of fine fruit and inner power combine seamlessly with the ripeness and depth typical of the vintage.
This is a 6 pack with 2 bottles each from vintages from 2013, 2015, and 2016.
***Tenimenti Angelini Val di Suga Vigna Spuntali Brunello di Montalcino 2016:
The 2016 Vigna Spuntali Brunello di Montalcino is the most brooding of the lineup from Val di Suga and is sourced from the southwest of the region on sandy soils. There are aromatics of black raspberry, licorice, menthol, sage, cinnamon, and iron-rich earth. Its Mediterranean influence is felt on the palate with ripe black cherry, dried herbs, and sun-baked earth. This is the fullest bodied and most savory of the Val di Suga lineup, with more roundness and grip. Its structure will benefit from cellaring for several years and will be great drinking over the next 20 years or more. 2026-2040.
-Jeb Dunnuck 96 Points
***Tenimenti Angelini Val di Suga Vigna Spuntali Brunello di Montalcino 2015:
The 2015 Vigna Spuntali Brunello di Montalcino is more introverted on first opening, with notes of black plum, licorice, dried Mediterranean herb, and sun-baked earth. On the palate, it offers a tart dried fruit character, with a building tannin structure that finishes with tomato leaf, and bitter herbs. The most rustic and burly of the wines in the lineup of the 2015 Val di Suga vintage, it will benefit from allowing some time in cellar to see how this matures and its tarriness develops. Drink 2026-2036
-Jeb Dunnuck 94 Points
***Tenimenti Angelini Val di Suga Vigna Spuntali Brunello di Montalcino 2013:
Plenty of spices and fresh herbs on the nose, such as dried rosemary and nutmeg, to match the underlying dried redcurrants and cranberries. Full-bodied with plenty of concentration, but still shows a very sturdy, tannin backbone and punchy acidity, to drive this through to a long finish. Drink in 2021.
-James Suckling 94 Points
Tenuta di Nozzole La Forra Chianti Classico Riserva is made from 100% Sangiovese.
Located north of the village of Greve in the heart of the Chianti Classico region, the Nozzole estate covers a striking, rugged, mountainous area of about 1,000 acres at 984 feet in elevation. In order to obtain concentration and complexity in the wine, yields are kept low. The grapes are hand harvested, destemmed and crushed. Fermentation is initiated on the skins in temperature-controlled stainless steel tanks, followed by a maceration period to draw out color and tannins. The wine is racked into stainless steel tanks for malolactic fermentation before aging in oak vats and in bottle before release. The wine is bottled on the estate.
The 2020 vintage was characterized by a basically cold period between April and May and by a generally warm and dry climate until July. The initial slight delay of the vegetative cycle has been recovered since the summer. The sudden increase in temperatures, especially for the later varieties where the fruit set had not yet ended, has favored a production characterized by sparse and light bunches. The stable and sunny climate of the months of August and September allowed the grapes to complete ripening in optimal conditions.
Review:
Attractive on the nose with cherries, red berries, dried herbs and baking spices. It’s medium-bodied with fine tannins. Harmonious and poised with a refined character. Weightless and agile. Polished and succulent finish.
-Wine Enthusiast 93 Points
Tenute Mannino Etna Rosso Placo is made from 95% Nerello Mascalese and 5% Nerello Cappuccio. Vines are between 60 and 120 years old.
Nerello Mascalese and Nerello Cappuccio in this classic blend characterized by volcanic minerality. It is a wine with a brilliant ruby red color, an intense aroma with pleasing floral, pomegranate and graphite hints. Elegant tannins and a good juice give off an elegant and sincere tale of one of the best expressions of Sicilian reds.
Tenute Mannino Etna Rosso Vasadonna Prefillossera is a red Etna obtained from old vineyards that give life to the typical grapes of the volcano, Nerello Mascalese and Nerello Cappuccio. The wine, with a beautiful light, presents a ruby red color, hints of good finesse with hints of spices and red fruits, aromatic herbs and mineral notes to the nose. The mouthfeel is full, warm and well balanced with tannins that express all the minerality of the volcano, and its freshness that lead to a long and persistent finish.
Then the wine is aged in French Oak barrels for 2 more years.Manual harvest in the second half of October. Spontaneous alcoholic and malolactic fermentation in stainless steel tanks for 6 months.
The vineyards are located in the districts Bragaseggi in the Municipality of Castiglione di Sicilia, on the North side of the volcano at 620 meters above sea level.
From the most recognized Napa Valley red blend comes a distinct, new wine. Made in the same iconic style as The Prisoner Red Blend, we proudly introduce The Prisoner Cabernet Sauvignon. Redefining taste once again.
On the nose, blackberry, currant, and plum are layered with dried, crushed herbs and licorice. On the palate, cedar, vanilla, nutmeg, and toasted coconut lead as plum and dried blackberries culminate in a lush, full mouthfeel and a lengthy, balanced finish.
Chef Brett recommends pairing The Prisoner Cabernet with Grilled Ribeye or Aged Gouda Cheese.
The Prisoner Wine Company Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir is made from 100 percent Pinot Noir.
From the most recognized Napa Valley red blend comes a bold, new wine. Made in the same iconic style as The Prisoner Red Blend, we proudly introduce The Prisoner Pinot Noir. Redefining taste once again.
A mix of Russian River and Carneros AVAs produces this classic Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir with notes of ripe cranberry, pomegranate, and cherry with clove spice. The palate is driven by rhubarb and cherry with an underlying minerality and spice, which culminates with soft tannins and an elegant, balanced acidity.
Chef Brett recommends pairing The Prisoner Pinot Noir with Mushroom Risotto or Grilled Salmon.
The Prisoner Wine Company The Prisoner Chardonnay is made from 100 percent Chardonnay.
The Prisoner Chardonnay has aromas of vanilla, apple pie and pineapple. On the palate, baked apple, crème brûlée and toasted oak.
The Prisoner Wine Company The Prisoner Red Blend is made from a blend of Zinfandel, Cabernet Sauvignon, Petite Sirah, Syrah, and Charbono.
Bright aromas of ripe raspberry, vanilla, and coconut give way to flavors of fresh and dried blackberry, pomegranate, and vanilla, which linger harmoniously for a smooth and luscious finish.The Prisoner Red Blend was inspired by the wines first made by the Italian immigrants who originally settled in Napa Valley. The Prisoner is now the most recognized red blend, leading the resurgence of interesting blends by incorporating Zinfandel with the unlikely mix of Cabernet Sauvignon, Petite Sirah, Syrah, and Charbono.
On the nose, dried blackberry, dried açai berries, and hints of cedar and tobacco leaf are accented by sweet spices of clove, cinnamon, and nutmeg. Flavors of ripe dark cherry, blackberry coulis, and hints of anise linger harmoniously for a soft, vibrant finish balanced by ripe tannins.
Chef Brett recommends pairing The Prisoner Red Blend with Kalbi Short Ribs or Chicken Mole Tostada.
Vineyards: When you outgrow winemaking tradition, you must forge your own path. And we did. The Prisoner exists because of the collaboration with our growers, many of which have been with us since the very beginning—from the Solari Family Vineyard in Calistoga, where old school sensibilities meet new techniques, to the Korte Ranch in St. Helena, a vineyard whose diligence outlasted the Prohibition and has sustained four generations.
Coleraine derives its name from the Coleraine vineyard, home of John and Wendy Buck of Te Mata Estate. John’s late grandfather was born in Coleraine in Northern Ireland and the name has been maintained through the family home to the wine. Originally a single vineyard wine, from 1989 Coleraine has been an assemblage of the finest wines produced from distinct plots within Te Mata Estate’s oldest vineyards on the Havelock Hills.
Review:
We tasted this a couple of years ago. Aromas of ink, tar, blackberries, blueberries and lead pencil follow through to a medium- to full-bodied palate with firm and medium velvety tannins. Solid with great length and beauty. Needs time to soften but a great wine. Try after 2026.
-James Suckling 97 Points
The 2020 Coleraine is seriously structured, dark and spicy, with great concentration and gravitas. The tannins are so integrated and woven that they feel almost imperceptible. This is spicy and resinous and charry, but its fine and graphite and mineral too. Chalky tannins plume through the supple fruit. Very cool. It's exciting, plush, open weave and sensational.
-Wine Advocate 97 Points
Jip Jip Rocks Shiraz-Cabernet is made from 55% Shiraz, 45% Cabernet Sauvignon
The Jip Jip vineyard is planted in some of the world’s oldest mineral rich soils and in the most temperate of maritime climates. It consistently produces excellent fruit quality from low yielding vines. Great attention to detail with the integration of fruit flavors and fine oak barrels helps produce classic handcrafted wine styles.
Deep purple. Boysenberry and mulberry aromas with a hint of cedar and pepper. Similar berry fruits show through on the opulent, textured palate, with a lingering finish.