Hike. Wine. Repeat.
Il Campo al Mare Bolgheri 2010: a well-structured Merlot-heavy estate-grown super Tuscan wine. Pour it for your friends, who will love its forthright berry flavors, its mildly savory food-friendly appeal, and a beguiling finish that will beg you to "aprire un'altra bottliglia". An inspiring sample sent to me by the good folks at @winechateau. — 11 years ago
This 2009 "Home Ranch" Merlot from Geryserville's Sbragia Family Vineyards shows red stone fruit and a hint of bay leaf. Why, it's plum food-friendly. — 11 years ago
A delightfully unoaked Chardonnay, the way I typically like them, but with a distinctively tropical influence that suggests Roussanne but is actually a 4% Viognier topnote. it is crisp and refreshing on a warm summer afternoon; I would pop this one again. — 10 years ago
A decent Sauvignon Blanc/Semillon blend that features a pleasing white peaches and grass forepalate and a gravel back palate. Pretty darn refreshing after a breezy 15-mile bike ride. — 11 years ago
Dark cherries, cedar, earth. Subsiding tannins, surprising sedimentation, budding opulence! I choose to linger over you, teasing out your nuance, your soul of Bacchus, which very much lurks within your nascent richness. — 11 years ago
Lara Elisabetta Belgrado Barzan
Buon vino toscano2010 Le Nain Violet ("The Purple Dwarf"): deep color, concentrated fruit, velvet jubilance. 100% Grenache Noir by Domaine de la Pertuisane, Cotes Catalanes, Maury, France. — 11 years ago
Bacon fat and boysenberries. Deeply textured. Ty Caton has hit this one out of the park. — 11 years ago
Carmen Stevens is, quite profoundly, the first black woman to graduate from a winemaking program in South Africa. Her Angel's Reserve Chenin Blanc 2013 (Wellington, Western Cape) proves that she learned her lessons well. Exquisitely clean, dry flavors of tangy citrus and guava blossom, refreshing creamy forepalate, crisp acid midpalate, and richly prolonged finish suits this #wine superbly for dishes featuring whitefish or chicken. Like Carmen herself, this wine is 'choty goty'! Received as a sample from @nakedwines. — 11 years ago
Russ Beebe
Wine blogger Winehiker
Oh, the polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons! Que Syrah! — 9 years ago