The Wines of May 2025

Another month, another birthday for me and getting to have sunshine after a week of rain. Just finished a great book about Sherry - author Ben Howkins wrote a very entertaining and illuminating book about a wine I was not as knowledgeable as I should be. Now for the wines I tasted...

NV Louis Morette Grand Reserve Champagne Brut, Epernay, France

Louis Morette Brut is a champagne with a deep golden yellow robe that is magnificent, bright and sparkling. A fresh vintage that is smooth harmonious and endowed with great lingering taste. A clear color with a delightful foam. A lively, mineral nose with hints of brioche. Fresh on the palate, an elegant effervescence and harmonious lemon aromas. The Brut is a blend of 56% Pinot Noir, 38% Pinot Meunier and 6% Chardonnay. Pair it with a classic roast chicken to take your dinner party to a whole new level, or serve with dollops of fresh whipped cream and sliced stone fruit for an effortlessly decadent final course.

This was a little disappointing. Maybe it had too much age, but it didn’t seem as bright as expected. On sale at about $30, it just didn’t hit my expectations.

 

2019 Simi Landslide Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon, Alexander Valley, California

Simi's Landslide Vineyard produced a wine that is youthful, elegant, and with a bright fruit character. Opaque and deep red with a vibrant ruby edge. The nose is very fruit-forward showing cassis, red plum, blackberry, cocoa, vanilla, baking spice, bay leaves, and toasty notes with hints of cedar. Inviting, fresh, and intriguing, this wine will continue to integrate flavors and aromas over time. On the palate, vibrant red berries, cassis, blackberry, and plum. Structured and elegant with balanced acidity. Fresh fruit on the entry followed by a broad mid-palate. Toasty, sweet oak frames the fruit and lends structure. The wine finishes with firm, ripe tannins and bittersweet cocoa. The acid balance makes this wine inviting, rich, and delicious.

This cabernet is excellent – good structure with tannins and black/red fruits and touches of spice and pencil lead. This could have been held for 5 years, easily, but it just went down wonderful with a nice steak. Priced at about $30, this was dynamite. Simi is going to make the Landslide vineyard a separate bottling in the future.

 

2021 M Chapoutier Viognier Combe Pilate, Tain France

Appearance: pale gold with anise tints. Copious fine bubbles.

Nose: bursting with freshness. Notes of citrus and chilled yellow-fleshed and stone fruit.

Palate: Tangy on entry, freshness and good balance on the palate, elegantly coated by the bubbles. Notes of grapefruit peel, bergamot and apricot. Tasty, saline finish.

Pale gold with aniseed-colored highlights.  The nose is delicate with notes of bergamot and flint stone.  Very fresh on the palate, dominated by the typical Viognier flavors.  On the mid-palate, there is good balance between the acidic tension associated with its terroir of origin and the natural full body of the varietal and its ageing.  The finish is savory, bringing out the rustic and mineral overtones

This was bought on close-out but it is a great white wine. Good flavors with the minerality and a good acidic balance. We sell it for like $14, a real steal!

 

2021 Bliss Family Zinfandel, Mendocino, California

This full-bodied red is complete with mouthcoating tannins that are well-met by the voluptuous fruit and oak integration. Full of beautiful notes of blueberry jam, fennel, tarragon, cinnamon, black pepper, violets, toasted wood and forest floor. Pairings might include rare venison loin topped with a mixed-berry chutney and wilted greens. 92 Pts WE

Our Bliss and Feliz vineyards are the source for this Estate grown Zinfandel.  Aromas of Bing Cherries & raspberries, cinnamon, and toasted coconut greet your nose.  This wine has a great entry of red fruit and berry flavors all followed by hints of malted chocolate in the finish.  This wine is easy to drink and very fruit forward.

A very pleasing Zin from the North of California. The red fruits are good, though the spice is a ittle understated. Met the winemaker, Hoss Milone – who makes both Bliss Family and Brutocoa, in Wichita. Great guy with a real big personality. Priced from about $12 – 14, great daily drinker.

 

2019 Brutocoa Slow Lope’n Vineyard Pinot Noir, Anderson Valley, California

First breath of this wine opens to cherries with cinnamon followed by allspice and strawberry owers. In the pallet, cherry cola and cinnamon sticks with bright acidity greet you and roll into the mid with a rich mouth-feel.  The finish is long, with lingering notes of raspberry, cherry, and nutmeg. 

This is a step up in the Bliss/Brutocoa family – a single vineyard Pinot Noir from Anderson Valley. A good blend of red fruits with some spices mid-palate followed by a moderate finish. Enough acidity to go with foods, this a very serious wine. Priced around $25 in our market, a real palate pleaser.

 

2019 Bliss Family Cabernet Sauvignon, Mendocino, California

This is an easy-to-sip, medium- to full-bodied Cabernet Sauvignon. Notes of red and black cherry and plum, black tea, toasted wood, dusty forest floor, and fresh and dried violets are woven together by a sandy tannic texture and generous acidity, with a clean finish.           89 Pts WE

Aromas of bright red fruit and cinnamon. This Estate Cabernet Sauvignon is an easy-to-drink wine with a great balance between tannins and fruit with a long tobacco cherry finish.

An easy drinking Cabernet – nice dark fruits with some herb undertones. Not a very long finish and modest tannins – better with food than stand-alone. Good for the $15 price tag.

 

2020 Carm Tinto Douro DOC, Portugal (Organic Red)

With wood aging, this full, red-fruit and berry-flavored wine has a fine structure that gives a juicy character beside the firm tannins. Drink the wine from 2024. Suitable for vegans. 88Pts WE

Warm flavor, denoting firm tannins with a smooth texture and a very persistent finish. Very fresh and elegant with notes of wild berries and black cherries, in balance with seductive nuances of liquorice, being complexed by the discreet notes of wood.

Organic grapes are used for this wine. The tannins are fading, but the red berry fruit still stands out. Pleasant wine at about $20, worth a try.

 

2017 Bellicosa Cabernet Sauvignon, North Coast, California (Daniel Cohn Winery)

Appetizingly smoky in aroma and flavor, this beefy and full-bodied wine emphasizes savory spicy notes like black pepper, toasted oak and beef jus layered over red and black cherries.    89 Pts WE

Bellacosa Cabernet Sauvignon harkens back to a time when wine was expertly crafted in small batches by artisans whose passion was to make the most memorable wine; an era in California when vineyards were family farmed and wines were made by hand in pursuit of purity, flavor and finesse. Bellacosa embodies the connection of soul and experience; a subtle force that brings people together. Rich, velvety and complex, it is a beautiful expression of Sonoma Cabernet; a wine to savor, share and create lasting moments together.

This is drinking really well at this time. Vibrant red and black fruits with some spice on the palate. Moderate finish with well integrated tannins. We are closing it out, but it is only around $20. Super bottle to have right now.

 

2022 Kiona Old Vine Chenin Blanc, Columbia Valley, Washington

It is unbelievable to me that this Chenin Blanc, fermented in a combination of stainless steel, amphora and French oak, costs $19. It has bit of body to accompany voltaic acidity and aromas and flavors of melon, cotton candy, almonds, lemon and coconut water. The dry wine positively floats on the palate. Sip with Yaquina Bay oysters and Kate Bush records.     91 Pts WE

This wine felt like it had gone through malolactic fermentation and had lost its minerality. More like a Chardonnay than a Chenin – was a real crowd pleaser at the wine group dinner. Retail was $18, we sold all we had and could get at $13.

 

2020 Chateau Buena Vista Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast, California

Soft and sultry aromas of strawberry, sandalwood and quince swirl from the glass of this Pinot with some coaxing. The palate is fresh and vivacious, giving flavors of cherries, almond skin, fresh mint leaves and sarsaparilla before a soft and plush finish. 90 Pts WE

Another crowd pleaser was this Pinot Noir. For me, the nose was not the usual fr this grape, but the palate came through with cherry and raspberry flavors. I got a little hole in the middle of tasting it and the finish wasn’t very long. It did go well with a salmon dinner. Tannins were mostly gone, not one to age for very long. Original price was $40, we sold all of it for $20.

 

2023 Argiano ‘Non Confunditur’, Tuscany, Italy

91           James Suckling 

Some wet herbs to the peppery berries and cherries. The juicy, medium-bodied palate is coated with fine, even tannins. Good, medium-long finish to close with a peppery edge at the end. Drink now.

91           Wine Spectator                

Taut and linear in profile, this red delivers black currant, black cherry, vanilla and peppery spices. Tightens up on the finish, where the chalky tannins linger. Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Sangiovese. Best from 2025 through 2036.

A modest nose leads to a mouth filling batch of red/black fruits with integrated tannins and a medium finish. A very nice blend that could be held for a few years – sale priced at $20, a good bottle to have on hand for an Italian feast.

2022 Frog’s Leap ‘Flycatcher’ Red Blend, California

This balanced blend incorporates notes of prune, fig, fresh and dried black cherry and plum, coffee bean and dried forest floor alongside mouthcoating tannins, modest acidity and warming alcohol. 89 Pts WE

The inaugural vintage of Flycatcher consists of old vine Zinfandel from vines planted in 1963 at the Five Starr ranch in the Mokelumne River sub-AVA of Lodi, steeply-sloped Petite Sirah and aromatic, earthy Merlot from a duo of unlikely vineyards in the Yorkville Highlands area of Mendocino, and some fabulous Syrah from an outcropping of volcanic tufa soil in the Carneros district of Napa. Warm, generous fruit from the Zinfandel combines with great backbone and spiciness from the Sirah-Syrah sisters. Merlot (grown at a high elevation) adds acidity and an earthy-floral top-note that helps invite the next sip.

Blend: 33% Zinfandel, 31% Petite Sirah, 22% Merlot, 14% Syrah

A modest nose and a very light color, leads to a palate of mostly red fruits with some earthiness and minor tannins. Probably not one to hold too long, the finish is moderate.  A fun kind of wine – normal price is about $30.

 

Hope all is well - keep popping those corks and I'll meet you out behind the grapevines.