Dry and lean in the nose with hints of celery, pear puree and anise. On the palate this junmai is soft and creamy on the palate with rich, savory flavors of mocha, hazelnut, spicy vanilla, ending with crisp acidity.
POLISHING RATIO: 80%
ALCOHOL: 16-17%
SMV +/-: +2.0%
ACIDITY: 2.10%
RICE KOJI: Yamadanishiki
RICE KAKE: Yamadanishiki
YEAST STRAIN: Koshi Ibuki
FOOD PAIRINGS: Ideal with rustic Italian food, cheese and tomato centric or creamy pasta dishes
CHEESE PAIRINGS: Italian Raschera, Pecoria Reggiano
An inky purple hue, the wine offers fragrant aromas of ripe, brambly berries and plums, edged in notes of walnut husk and cedar. The palate explodes with intense flavors of redcurrant and cherry, fanning out in a broad, silky wave that mingles vibrant fruit flavors with accents of espresso, chocolate and graphite, and lingers on the long finish.
Review:
A new project from the Indelicato family (Black Stallion Winery) and consultant Thomas Rivers Brown, the 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon is a ripe, full-bodied effort, loaded with scents of cherries, baking spices and dark chocolate accented by subtle herbal shadings. It's supple and expansive on the palate, culminating in a long, mouthwatering finish that combines a touch of warmth and a dusting of silky tannins. It should drink well for more than a decade.
- Robert Parker's Wine Advocate 95 Points
Saumaize Michelin Pouilly Fusse Premier Cru La Marechaude is made from 100 percent Chardonnay.
A beautiful Pouilly-Fuisse from "La Marechaude" parcel that Saumaize-Michelin acquired in 2013. Planted on clay and limestone slopes and hand harvested, this Chardonnay offers fresh and elegant notes of white flowers, crisp, citrus and exotic fruits. Powerful and mineral on the palate with a fantastic balance, finesse and freshness. The exceptional terroir brings minerality and juicy flavors of stone fruits, peach and melon supported by subtle toasty notes.
It is now a Premier Cru.
Saumaize Michelin Pouilly Fusse Premier Cru La Marechaude is made from 100 percent Chardonnay.
A beautiful Pouilly-Fuisse from "La Marechaude" parcel that Saumaize-Michelin acquired in 2013. Planted on clay and limestone slopes and hand harvested, this Chardonnay offers fresh and elegant notes of white flowers, crisp, citrus and exotic fruits. Powerful and mineral on the palate with a fantastic balance, finesse and freshness. The exceptional terroir brings minerality and juicy flavors of stone fruits, peach and melon supported by subtle toasty notes.
It is now a Premier Cru.
Schwarz Nitschke Block Shiraz is made from 100 percent Shiraz.
This Bethany vineyard was planted by Jason Schwarz's parents in 1968 and has been tended to by the hands of his family ever since. The vines are dry-grown and produce small crops of intensely flavored fruit.
A display of the purest blood-plum and black cherry, with cracked black peppercorn and streaky bacon over some seriously fine oak. Some subtle herbaceous qualities, nettle and thyme bring life to an otherwise immense nose. Very juicy on the palate, deeply flavorsome, long and with mouth-coating tannin for a very textured, very focused Barossa classic.
Slow cooked beef ribs, grilled meats, wild game and grilled vegetables.
Review:
"All the good stuff: dry-grown and fermented under the aegis of wild yeast; a smattering of whole-bunch seasoning (25%), French oak (20% new), conferring poise, freshness and authority. As far as Barossa shiraz goes, this is benchmark. Plush but nicely taut. A stream of boysenberry fruit and violet scents sashay to a samba of thyme, tapenade and smoked meats, nicely avoiding any sense of reduction, or clunky jam. This is smart. Very. - Ned Goodwin"
- Halliday Wine Companion (August 2020), 96 pts
Schwarz The Schiller Shiraz is made from 100 percent Shiraz.
The Schiller Shiraz is a wine rich in both flavor and history. The 400 Shiraz vines planted by Carl August Otto Schiller in 1881 are something to be treasured. Earmarked for bulldozers in 2006, a last minute reprieve would see these Ancestor vines remain in the ground. The grapes are hand-picked from the sixth generation Schiller family vineyard at Hallett Valley in the Barossa. Jason first made this wine in 2008, and since then it has been his flagship wine.
Opens quickly to luxe fruits, black plum & fruits of the forest, building in layers of toasty smoked bacon, tobacco leaf and Mediterranean herbs with nuances of spice and earthy tones. A luxurious palate of old vine fruits, savory overtones and fine slippery tannins. A long harmonious finish.
Review:
Schwarz Thiele Road Grenache is made from 80 year old 100% Grenache vines.
Thiele Road is a dusty track that crosses Bethany Creek at the foot of the Barossa Ranges. It is home to Jason Schwarz's family's 70 year old, deep rooted Grenache vines that produce wines with complex flavours and plenty of character.
Bouquet: The nose is floral and expressive with raspberry and pepper.
Palate: Red fruits, spice and earth with beautiful balance and structure. Medium weighted with fine acidity. A wine built on complexity and packed with interest.
Planted in 1941. The gnarled, old vines continue to produce fantastic fruit and the quality out of the 2014 vintage was evident. The vines are handpicked, 10% whole bunch and the remainder de-stemmed and into an open fermenter. Before too long the wild yeast population on the grapes kicks off fermentation and that continues with daily gentle pump overs and hand plunging until fermentation is complete and the flavour profile is just right. The wine is then basket pressed and matured in seasoned French oak for 18 months before bottling. Not filtered or fined.
Review:
"This is an intriguing, full-weighted wine of compelling dry extract and savory, forceful length. Far from the archetype, or at least what I had construed that to be in these parts. Smoky and ferruginous, with aromas of Islay peat from a wild ferment and old vine je ne sais quoi. A darker brood, lathered with clove, anise, brush smoke and iodine, over the usual red fruited paradigm. The finish, biltong meaty and a tad drying. That said, this may well be reduction as the wine opens beautifully with time, boasting oodles of personality. Drink or hold. - Ned Goodwin MW"
- James Suckling (August 2023), 94 pts
Siegel Gran Reserva Carmenere is made from 100% Carmenere.
The grapes for the Gran Reserva wines are the product of a careful selection of Siegel's best vineyards in the Colchagua Valley, harvested by hand, and revealing a strong expression of the land.
An intense violet red, on the nose the wine is intense and displays notes of spices, black fruit and dark chocolate. ln the mouth it has smooth tannins and a long finish.
It pairs well with creamy pasta dishes, soft cheeses and pork based recipes.
Siegel Gran Reserva Pinot Noir Leyda is made from 100 percent Pinot Noir.
The grapes for the Gran Reserva wines are the product of a careful selection of Siegel's best vineyards in the Colchagua Valley, harvested by hand, and revealing a strong expression of the land.
Our Gran Reserva wines represent the union of tradition and innovation in two generations. The grapes are sourced through careful selection of our best vineyards. Siegel Gran Reserva Pinot Noir is coming from Leyda Valley.
This Pinot Noir shows a light red color, aromas of roses and fresh fruits such as strawberry and cherry. The wine presents soft tannins and good acidity.
Salmon, light pasta dishes, and salads.
Siegel San Elias Carmenere is made from 100 percent Carmenere.
The nose shows beautiful red and dark fruit aromas, earthy notes and violets with balanced acidity. Supple and round in the mouth, juicy tannins, good concentration.
The wine pairs well with full flavored cheeses and lamb.
Siegel San Elias Chardonnay is made from 100 percent Chardonnay.
This Chardonnay has a light yellow color with green highlights. The nose shows fresh and intense tropical fruit aromas of pineapple, citrus, herbs and a touch of honey. On the palate it is lush, smooth and well-balanced with good acidity and lovely tropical fruit flavors.
Sonoma Bench Pinot Noir comes entirely from the heart of the Russian River Valley, and Green Valley AVA situated on Burnside Rd.
This Pinot Noir shows a deep ruby/garnet red color. The aromas are fresh with raspberry, red fruits with a soft earthy tone. There are vanilla notes from French oak barrel aging. The pallet is lush with roundness, texture, and fruit purity. Tannins are balanced and the finish is firm and refreshing. The length of the wine is elegant and shows harmony and textural balance. 2021 was an exceptionally short harvest in Russian River Valley.
Enjoy now or cellar for 3-5 years,
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 cherries
10.4% Alcohol by Volume
13.5% Residual Sugar
Sweet and tart, St. James Winery’s Cherry Wine is better than rip cherries fresh from the tree. Tastes great with grilled pork or, for dessert, with milk chocolate.
Select Wine Competition Awards:
2012 GOLD Los Angeles International (92 points)
2012 GOLD Taster’s Guild
2012 SILVER Dallas Morning News / TexSom International
2013 SILVER San Francisco Chronicle
2012 SILVER Long Beach Grand Cru
2012 SILVER Indy International
2012 SILVER San Diego International
2012 SILVER New World
2012 SILVER Pacific Rim
2012 SILVER Riverside
2012 SILVER Houston Rodeo
2012 BRONZE International Women’s
2012 BRONZE NextGen
2012 BRONZE San Francisco International
2012 BRONZE Lone Star International
2012 BRONZE International Eastern
2012 BRONZE Florida State Fair International
Made from peaches
9.5% Alcohol by Volume
13% Residual Sugar
Our Peach wine brings fresh from the orchard peach flavors and aromas to your glass. It’s the next best thing to biting into a perfectly ripe peach.
Serve chilled with spicy cheeses or your favorite dessert.
Select Wine Competition Awards:
2011 SILVER San Francisco Chronicle
2011 GOLD Florida State Fair International
2010 BRONZE Indiana
2010 SILVER Tasters Guild International
2010 BRONZE San Francisco Chronicle
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
This Concord sweet red wine is a tribute to the Concord grapes grown in the Ozark Highlands along Missouri’s Historic Route 66 for over 115 years.
When Italian immigrants settled in the St. James area, they planted vineyards. By the 1930s, over 1,000 acres of grapes dotted the landscape. When Prohibition started, grape vines across the state were ripped from the ground. The Italians in the Ozark Highlands region approached the situation differently and were key to keeping Missouri’s wine industry alive.
“Instead of destroying their vineyards during Prohibition like others in Missouri, the farmers formed a fruit grower’s association in order to keep growing and selling grapes, along with other fruit, to stores in St. Louis,” said Peter Hofherr, St. James Winery chairman and CEO. “During WWII, a long-term contract with a prestigious juice, jam and jelly company helped make the local Concord grapes famous. The farmers even negotiated to be allowed to sell small quantities or quarts of fruit to individuals. They set up grape stands and sold grapes to those traveling along the highways.”
Every year during harvest, Italian descendants from the St. James area still carry on this tradition by setting up Concord grape stands along Historic Route 66 to sell their fruit to travelers.
The Concord wine is juicy and sweet, with an intense grape jam flavor and light finish. Serve it at refrigerator temperature, over ice or mixed with a club soda to create a light, grape spritzer
Pair with peanut butter cookies, soft cheeses, or roasted pork chops.
Stags Leap Wine Cellars S.L.V. Cabernet Sauvignon is made from 100% Cabernet Sauvignon.
Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars stunned the world in 1976 when its 1973 S.L.V. Cabernet Sauvignon bested some of Bordeaux’s first-growth wines in a tasting in Paris. It was the winery’s first commercial vintage, a wine produced from young, three-year-old vines. While the “victory” over the French in “The Judgment of Paris” continues to be hailed throughout the world – and the winery is still humbled by the achievement – Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars enters its golden anniversary year with a commitment to producing more complex and age-worthy wines. No resting on laurels, no autopilot, no complacency, but rather a drive to ensure the next 50 years are even more glorious than the first 50.A step back in time puts Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars’ current and future plans in perspective.
The estate was founded in 1970 with the purchase of orchard land in what is now the Stags Leap District AVA in southeastern Napa Valley. Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot grapes replaced the prunes and walnuts, and the winery was built in 1972. A wine was made there in that year, but it was the 1973 S.L.V. Cabernet Sauvignon that impressed – and shocked – a panel of experts on French wine. In the 1976 Paris Tasting, a blind tasting, they chose S.L.V as the finest red wine in the group, without knowing its provenance. The outcome brought international recognition to the infant Stag’s Leap Wine Cellars, the nascent Napa Valley wine region, and the entire American wine industry and put all on a path to worldwide renown.
S.L.V. Vineyard S.L.V. soils are predominantly volcanic in nature and contribute multilayered structure, concentration and spicy intensity, often referred to as the “fire-like” elements. S.L.V., also known as Stag’s Leap Vineyards, is the winery’s first vineyard. Planted in 1970, this vineyard achieved international fame when three-year old vines from the 1973 harvest produced a Napa Valley wine that triumphed over some of France’s greatest Bordeaux in a blind tasting among French wine experts in Paris. This history-making Stags Leap District vineyard continues to produce wines with complex black fruit and berry character, spicy intensity, excellent structure and complexity, promising long life and ageability. Today, the property encompasses roughly 35 acres of Cabernet Sauvignon and 1.5 acres of Cabernet Franc. The vineyard soil is volcanic and alluvial with good drainage, and benefits from warm afternoons and cool evening breezes.
Review:
All from the estate S.L.V. Vineyard in Stages Leap and aged 21 months in 90% new French oak, the 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon S.L.V. sports a deep purple/ruby color to go with a Saint-Julien like notes of blackcurrants, damp earth, tobacco and lead pencil. With medium to full-bodied richness, ripe, sweet tannin, beautiful purity and a great finish, it’s another terrific wine from this estate that can be drunk today of cellared for 15+ years.
-Jeb Dunnuck 95 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 Firehouse Red is 29% Cabernet Sauvignon, 22% Syrah, 22% Merlot, 11% Cabernet Franc, 5% Malbec, 3% Sangiovese, 2% Grenache, 2% Cinsault 1% Petit Verdot, 1% Counoise, 1% Mourvèdre and 1% Carmenere.
Deceptively sweet aromas of strawberries, raspberries and rose petals. The flavors are dark, rich, lusciously mouthwatering, with cherries, boysenberries, tart plum skins, hints of leather, sweet pipe tobacco, and coffee beans. The tannins are firm, but not a bit edgy and the finish lingers with just a touch of anise. A truly lovely vintage.
Tenute Cisa Asinari Marchesi di Gresy Gaiun Martinenga Barbaresco 2016.
Bright garnet red with slight orange reflections. Intense and pleasant hints of plum and cherry blend sinuously with balsamic nuances of mint, tea leaves, dried flowers and blond pipe tobacco.
Grand Veneur Cotes Du Rhone Les Champauvins is made of 70% Grenache, 20% Syrah and 10% Mourvedre
Intense, brilliant garnet-red colour. It reveals lovely fruit, loads of body and a heady bouquet of ground peppers, raspberries cherry liqueur, currants, and spice box. Full-bodied and dense, it tastes more like a "baby Châteauneuf" than a Côtes du Rhône.
A complete wine, rich and elegant, thanks to the harmony of all the elements which make it up.
Drink between 1 and 6 years.
Soil type DOMAINE GRAND VENEUR “Les Champauvins” stretches on 34 ha classified in Côtes du Rhône. The plots are located in the northern border of Châteauneuf du Pape, exactly from 3 meters outside the appellation. A small lane of rocks going through the rocky plateaux has been decided to be the AOC limit in 1936. Here, soils are made of red clay and rocks (pebbled stones of quartz). The quantity of rocks can be amazing as they can completely cover the soil (see picture). In summer and during the day, the rocks temperature will increase to 55°C. This accumulated heat will be get back to the vines during nights . Day after day, this unique phenomenon allow the grapes to reach a perfect maturity and produce a unique wine. Winemaking & Ageing Traditional, in stainless steel vats. Harvest crushed and destemmed. Fermentation in temperature controlled vats at 28°C. Eighteen-day vating period with “pigeage”. Grenache is aged in concrete vats, Syrah and mourvèdre in 4 years old barrelsntense, brilliant garnet-red colour. It reveals lovely fruit, loads of body and a heady bouquet of ground peppers, raspberries cherry liqueur, currants, and spice box. Full-bodied and dense, it tastes more like a “baby Châteauneuf” than a Côtes du Rhône. A complete wine, rich and elegant, thanks to the harmony of all the elements which make it up.
Review:
"A velvety, poised and focused Cotes-du-Rhone with aromas of red berries, warm spices and a touch of bark. Full-bodied with round, ripe tannins. Creamy texture with a juicy and delicious core of bright berries funneling through to the lively finish with excellent length. From organically grown grapes. Drink or hold."
- James Suckling (May 9th 2024), 92 pts
Nivarius Rioja Tempranillo Blanco is made from 100% Tempranillo Blanco.
"Nivarius" is a Latin term that defines the natural well where the snow was kept all year round. Nivarius wines benefit from altitudes above 700 meters, a northern orientation and the influence of the continental climate that make wines of character, fresh, with natural acidity. They are produced with minimal intervention and respectful of the biodiversity to reflect the expression of the terroir.
Nivarius is a 100% Tempranillo Blanco from vineyards in Albelda de Iregua and Montes de Clavijo, at an elevation of over 700 meters, resulting in a fresh, unctuous and perfectly ripe wine that is both lively and pleasant to drink.
Straw-yellow in color with a with greenish rim. Good intensity on the nose, hints of pome and stone fruits accompanied by subtle aromas of white flowers and minerals. Fresh and well-balanced on the palate with stone fruit flavors, dry fruits, and a long finish.