Espelt Garnacha /Espelt Grenache Old Vines Emporda Review
I’ve been thinking that I want to share more wines around the $10 price point that I feel offer great value. While some of the wines I’ve featured in recent posts have represented value in their own respect, they may have been a little out of reach as an everyday drinker. Wines around the $10 price point don’t have to be insipid and uninteresting, but sadly they often are.
Clos Apalta 2005 | Casa Lapostolle
I must admit I have high expectations for this wine. The Casa Lapostolle Clos Apalta 2005 not only received a 96 point score from The Wine Spectator but they also recognized it as the #1 Wine of their annual ‘Top 100’ in 2008.
This Clos Apalta is produced from one of the best recent vintages in Chile’s Colchagua’s Apalta sub-valley. Wine Spectator has even credited Casa Lapostolle’s Clos Apalta bottling with establishing Chile as a premier red wine growing region. How could you not be curious about this wine with such glowing accolades?
Waterstone Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2009
I have to admit that I am a sucker for a good mystery, especially when it relates to wine and where the fruit is sourced. It’s always exciting to find a wine that is relatively inexpensive yet made with fruit from well pedigreed growers or producers that charge considerably more for their wines. Take the Pine Ridge Encantado Red Blend I recently reviewed for example.
I feel like these opportunities are few and far between in the wine world. As a consumer we usually have a good idea where the fruit used to make the wine was sourced (particularly when estate grown), or we have little to no idea (the winery sources their fruit from various growers). But with the Waterstone Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon 2009, it is rumored that the fruit was sourced from declassified Harlan Estate lots!
While I really enjoy single-varietal wines, like a 100% Cabernet or a 100% Malbec, I find that they sometimes lack something or that they can be one-dimensional. The Cabernet might be too tannic and need to some age to soften and the Malbec might lack the underlying structure to withstand cellaring. They don’t benefit from the harmonization that blending can bring to a wine. But today’s specimen has been fashioned by none other than Laura Catena: the Bodega Monteviejo Lindaflor ‘Petite Fleur’ 2009 Red Blend from Mendoza, Argentina.
HALL Merlot Napa Valley 2007 | HALL Winery
Yesterday while perusing my local Costco wine selections I came across one of my favorite combinations: a great vintage from a great producer at a great price and the icing on the cake was that the Hall Merlot had scored particularly well.
Now in general my theory on critic’s scores is that they are best used as a guideline rather than a rule. With that being said, if 93 points from the Wine Enthusiast is any indication, then the Hall Merlot Napa Valley 2007 is at least worth some serious consideration.
Finca Villacreces Pruno 2010
Recently there has been a lot of buzz about this wine because of an interesting trifecta of superlatives. The estate of Finca Villacreces, in the Ribera del Duero region of Spain, lies on some very desirable land adjacent to one of the most famous Spanish wine producers in history: Vega Sicilia. Lauded by critics and highly sought after by collectors, the wines of this estate typically sell for several hundred dollars per bottle. Now you might be thinking that the Finca Villacreces Pruno 2010 is out of reach, but alas, it probably isn’t.
Ardente Winery Cabernet Sauvingon ‘Grande Riserva’ 1997
Today I am excited for two reasons: This is my first post and I am drinking a 1997 Napa Cabernet. I thought to myself,”How better to inaugurate this blog than to open a Cabernet Sauvingon from one of Napa’s best vintages?”
The Vintage
Considered legendary by most, and overrated by some, Napa Valley’s 1997 vintage is certainly a memorable one. Many Napa cult Cabernet’s command significant premiums for the 1997 vintage versus other vintages. According to Napa Valley Vintner’s, which publishes a vintage recap on the growing conditions and the success of the harvest, “A temperate summer with moderate, steady temperatures allowed the fruit to reach optimum maturity with good hang time for the full development of character and flavors.”
