2006 Patty Green, etc.

Greetings from Gosford Wine . . . it seems that fall fell.  Let’s celebrate with some select yummies.

Before the litany of special items begins . . .

Don’t forget our Wine Seminar . . . my good friend Sarah Webb will be visiting with us this Wednesday, bringing select goodies from her already highly selective portfolio.  Her appropriately titled company, Unique World Wines, specializes in hard-to-find wines from across the globe (or: in Unique Wines from around the World).

She’s a superdear friend of mine, and I highly encourage you to come and have some fun with us.  ‘Tshould be a blast.  Bonnie, Sarah, and I will be awaiting you breathlessly.  As usual, please feel free to drop in anytime between six and eight pm any ol’ Wednesday.  No shirt, no shoes, no selfhood.

The 2006 Patricia Green line of Pinots is set to be released in a couple of weeks.  We’ve highly limited allocations of each of the following four wines.  They will not be arriving for up to two weeks.

The Patricia Green Estate Pinot Noir – $36.99/btl.

The Patricia Green Old Vine Pinot Noir - $39.99/btl.

The Patricia Green Croft Vineyard Pinot Noir –  $35.99/btl.

The Patricia Green Balcombe Vineyard Pinot Noir - $39.99/btl.

The reputation of these wines precedes them.  Please keep in mind that our quantities are extremely low.  Please act quickly if you hope to act at all.

As much as it denotes the time for red wines, cold weather also signals Riesling season, and do I have a treat for you . . . the 2003 Riesling from Canterbury House in Waipara, New Zealand; $16.99/btl.  This Riesling is made in the classic Spätlese style - off-dry with nice full weight and an expressive core of nervous acidity – with an extra kick of Southern Hemispheric earthy petrol on the nose.  As they say, Chardonnay is for drinking and Riesling is for aging.  Four years into its life, the Canterbury House Riesling is really shining.  This wine is fantastic, and if it weren’t coming from New Zealand you’d pay ten bucks more per bottle. 

I tasted some brilliant wines from Southern France last week, and I’d love to talk to y’all about them.  I saw fifteen wines from the Rhone, and I honestly could have found a home for every last one . . . but alas, what is life without choice?  These were my favorites, and I think that you will also be pleased.

The 2005 Maison Guyot “L’Alezane,” Vacqueyras, France; $24.99/btl.  This is one of the very best Rhone reds under thirty dollars that I can recall ever having tasted.  Where Gigondas of late has been given toward a sometimes overly abundant fruitiness, Vacqueyras has been making evermore elegant wines.  All of the typical old-school Rhone characters are present here, but with near-perfect balance and restraint, yielding a highly drinkable wine of obvious class and distinction.  This wine is perfect for the holidays: it’s rich enough for all Fall fare, distinctive enough to wow your wine-head buddies, and balanced enough for newbies to enjoy it painlessly.

The 2004 Maison Guyot “L’Envol” Rouge, Cotes-du-Rhone-Villages, France, and the 2004 Maison Guyot “L’Envol” Blanc, Cotes-du-Rhone-Villages, France; both are $19.99/btl.  I’ll defer in this case to the venerable Paul Bocuse.  His four ordinally named brasseries, Nord, Sud, Ouest, and Est, circumscribe the picturesque town of Lyon.  Each has been awarded the prestigious distinction of three Michelin stars.  Needless to say, the man has his pick of the litter when it comes to French wines, and he has both L’Envol Villages wines in each of the restaurants.  I concur with him that these are excellent, affordable wines that are highly versatile at table and abundantly satisfying as cocktails.  As with the Vacqueyras, the value here is tremendous.

The 2006 Maison Guyot “Domaine de Rochevine” Condrieu, France; $49.99/btl.  It’s an indisputable fact that one of the world’s greatest dry whites hails from Condrieu in the Northern Rhone valley of France.  What makes Condrieu amazing is that the high-altitude Viognier produced there has the rich, spicy, floral apricot and peach character you expect from the variety, but all expressed with a vibrance and liveliness which, in the best instances, can really boggle the mind.  You find that you’re asking yourself, “How can this wine have the richness of dried fruit, the juiciness of fresh fruit, and the intensity of preserved fruit altogether?”  It’s actually quite confusing.  Don’t be fooled by the youth of the vintage: Condrieu is the lone great white best drunk very young. 

(On a side note: this wine will absolutely dazzle your Chardonnay chugging cronies. It’s worth buying if only to see their faces when they take their first sip of this monster.)