Romariz Fine Ruby Port is aged in oak for three years. Fruit and pepper character, well balanced, and ample body
Romariz Fine Tawny Port is a blend of aged ports, nutty, ample and very well balanced.
Rudi Pichler is among the elite growers of the Wachau producing wines of precision, power, and longevity. Grüner Veltliner and Riesling make up 95% of the production with the remaining 5% shared between Weißburgunder and Roter Veltliner. Rudi Pichler belongs to the prestigious Vinea Wachau and vinifies under the strict parameters of their codex.
Yields are kept low between 30 and 35 hectoliters per hectare with botrytis carefully removed by hand. Grapes are crushed by foot and receive between three and 36 hours of maceration on the skins. Vinification is entirely in stainless-steel tanks and malolactic fermentation is avoided.
Hochrain, a name meaning "high place," is a southeast-facing terraced vineyard in Wösendorf sitting between 200 and 300 meters of elevation. The vineyard consists of an unusually high content of loess, a mineral-laden soil that produces wines that are especially broad and rich.
Review:
“A stunning wine for this grape that is also rather easy to understand. The Reine Claude plum and peppery nose is complex, but already charming. As exciting as the simultaneously creamy and succulent mid-palate is, what makes this medium- to full-bodied gruner veltliner really stand out is the extremely long, crushed rock finish.”
James Suckling 96 Points
Chateau Sainte Catherine Bordeaux Blanc is made from 67% Semillon and 33% Sauvignon (Sauvignon Blanc and Sauvignon Gris).
A clear and brilliant color. The first nose reveals the minerality of our terroir (limestone subsoil). Fruity and delicate aromas come to sublimate this nose in a second time. On the palate, the wine is round and charming with sustained aromas throughout the tasting. (Small red fruits and white flowers).
Chateau Sainte Catherine Bordeaux Blanc is made from 67% Semillon and 33% Sauvignon (Sauvignon Blanc and Sauvignon Gris).
A clear and brilliant color. The first nose reveals the minerality of our terroir (limestone subsoil). Fruity and delicate aromas come to sublimate this nose in a second time. On the palate, the wine is round and charming with sustained aromas throughout the tasting. (Small red fruits and white flowers).
This Junmai Daiginjo has a beautiful nose full of banana, melon and star anise. The all natural brewing process gives this sake a bright fresh palate of plum, lime and minerality with a clean dry finish. A very food friendly sake, and is thought to be best after the meal with a light, smooth, rich cow's milk cheese.
POLISHING RATIO: 40%
ALCOHOL: 16-17%
SMV +/-: +1.0
ACIDITY: 1.2
RICE KOJI: HATTANISHIKI
RICE KAKE: HATTANISHIKI
YEAST STRAIN: PROPRIETARY YEAST
FOOD PAIRINGS: Poached Lobster, Seared Scallops, Tofu, Steamed Dumplings
CHEESE PAIRINGS: Brillat Savarin, Cambozola, Dulce Latte Gorgonzola, Mimolette
Sake By Kysela has been a project in the making for three years now. In the end, we selected a Sake made from the famous Yamada Nishiki rice produced in the Southern Prefecture of Shimane. Flavorful, rich, and clean; this sake is best as an aperitif or with seafood like fluke, dover sole or halibut. Kanpai!!!
Woodsy honeycomb, nutshell, and mushroom patch aromas with a satiny fruity-yet-dry medium-to-full body and a delicate savory mushroom stock, chestnut, and golden beet driven finish. A fine choice for tempura. 91 Points -Beverage Tasting Institute
RATING: 91 points (Exceptional)
CATEGORY: Junmai Ginjo Sake, Sake
ALCOHOL BY VOLUME: 15.4%
TASTING LOCATION: In Our Chicago Tasting Room
TASTING DATE: Dec-05-2012
WINE ID: 200767
Savory nuances of toasted quinoa, banana bread, and nutmeg are present in the nose. On the palate, this sake is layered, lifted and complex, with flavors of plantain, dried cranberry, nougat, white Mushroom and almond.
POLISHING RATIO: 60%
ALCOHOL: 15-16%
SMV +/-: +3.0
RICE KAKE: 50% WAKAMIZU 50% LOCALLY FARMED JAPANESE RICE
YEAST STRAIN: PROPRIETARY
TASTING NOTES: This fresh, subtle Honjozo has a lovely nose of cantaloupe, leek, fresh clay and pear. With just a hint of sweetness, the palate is light bodied with alluring flavors of burnt caramel, chalk and marsh-mallow and a classic Honjozo clean, dry finish.
The fanciful name "Otoko no Yujyo", represents a feeling for which the sake was made, to honor brotherly love, between comrades.
PREFECTURE: TOCHIGI
POLISHING RATIO: 65%
ALCOHOL: 15.0 - 16.0%
SMV +/-: +8.0
ACIDITY: 1.4
RICE KOJI: HITOGOKOCHI
RICE KAKE: TOCHIGI 14
YEAST STRAIN: KYOKAI 901
FOOD PAIRINGS: Versatile with all foods, Grilled Fish, Paella, Smoked Fish, Fried Fish or Fried Chicken
CHEESE PAIRINGS: Foggy Morning, Prima Donna, Domaine de Village
TASTING NOTES: This fresh, subtle Honjozo has a lovely nose of cantaloupe, leek, fresh clay and pear. With just a hint of sweetness, the palate is light bodied with alluring flavors of burnt caramel, chalk and marsh-mallow and a classic Honjozo clean, dry finish.
The fanciful name "Otoko no Yujyo", represents a feeling for which the sake was made, to honor brotherly love, between comrades.
PREFECTURE: TOCHIGI
POLISHING RATIO: 65%
ALCOHOL: 15.0 - 16.0%
SMV +/-: +8.0
ACIDITY: 1.4
RICE KOJI: HITOGOKOCHI
RICE KAKE: TOCHIGI 14
YEAST STRAIN: KYOKAI 901
FOOD PAIRINGS: Versatile with all foods, Grilled Fish, Paella, Smoked Fish, Fried Fish or Fried Chicken
CHEESE PAIRINGS: Foggy Morning, Prima Donna, Domaine de Village
This unpasteurized sake is exciting and lively with a nose full of citrus, apple blossom and shizo. The palate is equally as bold featuring fresh persimmons, marshmallow and slightly underipe stone fruit. The finish is clean showing soft minerality.
POLISHING RATIO: 60%
ALCOHOL: 15.5
SMV +/-: +5.0
ACIDITY: 1.6
RICE KOJI: GOHYAKUMANGOKU
RICE KAKE: KOSHI IBUKI
YEAST STRAIN: K1801
FOOD PAIRINGS: Sushi Nigiri with fatty fish, oysters, omelettes, Lighter Italian, Chinese or French dishes
CHEESE PAIRINGS: Mildly ripe Coulommiers or Brie, Italian Raschera
Juicy & Refreshing. Full of fruity flavors with clean sweetness. Brewed with Hitogokochi, the special sake rice harvested in Nagano, and natural water slowly filtered down the Japan Alps. In 1866, toward the end of the Edo period, Matsujirou Kurogouchi and his family started a small sake brewery currently called Senjo named after Senjo Ga Take, a 3000-meter peak in the Japanese Alps. Today Senjo Brewery strives to combine art with science and old skill with new technology by adding modern twits to the rich historical traditions of Sake brewing.
Pair with Deep-fried fish with sweet & sour sauce, Young sweetfish tempura (chiayu tempura), Caesar salad.
Segries Clos Jean Alesi Cotes du Rhone Rouge is made from 1/3 each of Grenache, Syrah and Mourvèdre.
This wine was originally called Segries Lanzac Clos Hermitage Cotes du Rhone Rouge
This 3.5 hectare vineyard, located in the famous “Quartier de la Chartreuse de Villeneuve-les-Avignon”, has been owned by the Formula 1 race car driver Jean Alesi since 1995. It is managed by Château de Ségriès.
This wine is a blend of 33% Grenache, 33% Syrah, and 33% Mourvedre sourced from 40-year-old vines. It was fermented in concrete vats then aged for nine months in 5% new oak barrels. The wine is a very grapey color in the glass. There is a light nose of tightly packed black fruit, dried herbs, pepper, and licorice. In the mouth there are tight-grained blue fruit, fine, powerful tannins, and a little strawberry flavor breaking loose. With air the wine reveals pencil and pepper flavors along with the structure for aging.
Yield: 40 hl/ha
Age of the vines: 40 years.
Vinification: 21 days skin maceration in temperature controlled concrete vats
Ageing: 9 months oak aging -5% new French oak from Seguin Moreau cooper and 95% of 1 year old barrels.
Delicious with roast meat, grilled vegetables, strong cheese and chocolate desserts.
Segries Cotes du Rhone Rouge is made from 50% Grenache, 30% Syrah, 10% Cinsault, 10% Carignan
The wine is ripe, rich and round, with black raspberry, white pepper and spice flavors. True Cotes du Rhone in a Bistro style.
Segries Lirac Rouge Cuvee Reservee is made from 50% Grenache, 30% Syrah, 10% Cinsault, 10% Mourvèdre
Dark garnet in color. Expressive Red fruits and spicy. Sweet tannins and good length
Ageing up to 10 years
Vineyards Clay and limestone Area: 24 hectares Age of Vines: 80 years Yeild: 24 Hl/Ha Production: 570 Hl Harvest and VInification Harvest by hand and 100% destemmed. Maceration for 21 days in cement tank - Fermentation with controlled temperature at Château de Ségriès.
Pairs well with Stews, Grilled meats, Game, Various cheeses
Review:
The 2022 Lirac Cuvée Réservée is also brilliant, with a juicy, layered, incredibly Provençal profile that has so much to love. Ripe black cherries, leather, peppery garrigue, and spice notes all give way to a medium to full-bodied, round, lush Southern Rhône that's balanced and has beautiful fruit as well as outstanding length. Based on 50% Grenache, 30% Syrah, and the balance Cinsault and Mourvèdre, destemmed and brought up in concrete, drink bottles over the coming 5-7 years.
-Jeb Dunnuck 93 Points
The grapes for this wine come vineyards in the villages of La Horra, Gumiel de Izan and Moradillo from 12 to 80 year-old vines.
Displaying a good vibrant deep cherry red color with fragrant, clear notes of cherry drop and violet there is a beautifully unadorned yet brooding quality to this; it feels deep, vinous and vibrant, flecked with bright red fruit notes, sweet earth and a darker, more spiced character on the finish.
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
Made from cranberries
7% Alcohol by Volume
15% Residual Sugar
Crafted from real cranberries for an authentic fruit taste. Fruit forward style and nicely balance of sweetness and tartness with a clean finish. Seasonal offering for consumer enjoyment in November and December, a time of year where Cranberry recognition and use is at its highest.
St. James Winery fruit wines are the most awarded fruit wines in the USA offering the taste profile that consumers love: sweet, vibrant and authentic.
Sweet and tart with bright, festive cranberry colors, aromas and flavors. Our Cranberry wine offers refreshing, freshcranberry acidity with a nice, long cranberry finish. Enjoy with your holiday turkey or mix it up for a festive cocktail!
St. James Winery Strawberry is made from blackberries
11.4% Alcohol by Volume
13.4% Residual Sugar
Fresh picked strawberries never tasted this good. Our Strawberry wine, made from sweet vine ripened strawberries, is excellent served cold especially for dessert with pound cake or milk chocolate.
Select Wine Competition Awards:
2012 GOLD San Francisco Chronicle
2011 BEST OF SHOW San Diego
2011 BEST OF CLASS Pacific Rim
2011 GOLD Dallas Morning News
2011 GOLD Grand Harvest
2011 GOLD Winemaker Challenge International
2011 SILVER Monterey
2011 SILVER Florida State Fair International
2011 SILVER Los Angeles International
2011 SILVER Riverside
Delicate fruit with hints of peach and mineral. Complex and juicy.
Luis XIV Fondillon Oro 50 years NV is made from 100 percent 100% Monastrell (Mourvedre). Only 24 9 liter cases produced.
The wine is produced in the village of Cañada, in the subarea of Alto Vinalopó in the province of Alicante. Made from 100% Monastrell planted on traditional dry land as bush vines, at 550-580 meters above sea leval and enjoying a Mediterranean climate with great marine influence due to the easterly winds.
Fondillon 50 years is mahogany in color with orange tile rim, medium layer and great density. On the nose, it has a very deep aroma of old wood, black tea and carob. In the mouth, it has a sweet entry balanced by a rich high acidity. Its aromas are long, almost eternal and very intense. It tastes like old mahogany, a very old barrel and bygone times.
Bottled in December 2019.
AGEING:
CASK NAME: Saboners.
AGEING: Aged more than 50 years (single barrel).
TYPE OF WOOD: 19th-century American oak barrels
CASK SIZE: 70 “cántaros valencianos” (805 litros).
ANALYSIS:
GLUCOSE AND FRUCTOSE: 34 gr/litre.
VOLATILE ACIDITY: 1.35 gr/l.
ALCOHOL: 16.2º (NO ADDED ALCOHOL).
FREE SULFITES: less than 10 mg/litre.
TOTAL SULFITES: 76 mg/litre.
Review:
Dark mahogany color, candied fruit aromas, fruit liqueur notes, spicy, varnish, acetaldehyde, bakery, complex. Fine solera notes, bitter flavors."
- Penin 2022, 99 pts
"The NV Fondillón Luis XIV has the subtitle Edad Superior a 50 años (over 50 years old), and it's a dark mahogany, bottled from a single barrel that has the specific profile of a very old wine greatly concentrated by age, which tends to make it similar to other very old and concentrated wines, be it a Mediterranean rancio or a very old Moscatel. It has notes of bitter chocolate, coconut and iodine, carob beans (algarroba) and some bittersweet sensations. It's dense and concentrated, and the palate is pungent, with very intense flavors and a bitter twist in the finish. This has 16.3% alcohol, 6.45 grams of acidity and 34 grams of sugar, but it comes through as very dry. The wine is long and extraordinary, but it just doesn't have any Fondillón character after decades of concentration by evaporation. The price is ludicrous. Only 435 half-liter bottles were filled in December 2019. - Luis GUTIERREZ
- Wine Advocate (September 2020), 95 pts
"Fondillón is an extraordinary treasure of Alicante, a rare product, made from late harvest, non-botrytised grapes, unfortified, but with a final alcohol of no less than 16%. Intense, aged, but not sweet (deliciously not more than 45g/l). Fab with cheese or dark chocolate. The wines have to be a minimum of 10 years; this release is more than 25 years. The project is a revival by David Carbonell of Vins del Comtat and two local families. Very limited quantities. - Sarah Jane Evans MW"
- Decanter (December 2021, My top 10 Spanish fine wines of 2021), 95 pts
This classy and poised Pinot Noir displays an array of dark berry notes, including raspberry, blackberry, blueberry, and ripe cherry, along with a hint of baking spices. Balanced tension and refined tannins on the palate make the wine both elegant and effortlessly delicious, with subtle flavors of cedar and cassis lingering on the finish.
Review:
Bright and perfumed aromas of raspberries, potpourri and orange peel. The palate is medium-bodied with fine tannins and bright acidity, giving notes of blackberry bush, dried herbs and earth. Balanced and fresh.
- James Suckling 93 Points