Rogers & Company is very pleased to announce the addition of two outstanding family-run wineries to our portfolio.  From Serralunga d'Alba in Barolo, Azienda Giovanni Rosso and from north-eastern Napa Valley we introduce Buehler Vineyards.

Since the 1890's the Rosso family have been farming some of the top vineyards in Barolo - Cerretta, La Serra, Broglio, Meriame, Sorano, Costa Bella, Lirano, Damiano and the famed Vigna Rionda.  During the early 1980's Giovanni Rosso restructured the vineyards with the aim towards world-class quality.  In 2001 Davide, Giovanni's son then 27 years old, took charge of the production of the wines with one goal in mind, to produce wines that are perfect representations of their terroir. 

Recent exciting news for the Rosso family is that they have re-acquired 2 hectares of Vigna Rionda following the untimely passing of Davide's uncle Tommaso Canale.  The wines made here represent some of the finest and most sought-after in all of Piedmont.  Other producers of this amazing cru, so well known for its complexity and ageability include Roagna, Massolino and Michele Chiarlo. 

  

Slow Food's 'A Wine Atlas of the Langhe' 2008

Davide's wines are fresh, vibrant and elegant and perfectly reflect what we expect from top Barolo, while being available at value-conscious prices.

Buehler Vineyards traces its roots back to 1972. The property sits east of St. Helena nestled in the mountains above Conn Valley and near the foothills of Howell Mountain.  The estate vineyards are planted mostly to Cabernet Sauvignon and Zinfandel.  Chardonnay is sourced from the Sonoma AVA Russian River Valley.  Buehler's wines represent extreme value in the Napa Valley category.  Excellent fruit sources and deft handling of oak produce supple, complex wines that really deliver.

For more on these wineries, please visit our webpages - Giovanni Rosso and Buehler Vineyards.

In addition to these two new wineries we would also like to announce that we have the 2009 Dominus Estate "Napanook" available.  Napanook is the name of the vineyard on which Dominus Estate is located.  It is one of Napa's most historic and important vineyards, once owned by George Yount who founded the town of Yountville and then owned by John Daniels who also owned Inglenook.  The vineyard was left to Daniels' daughters who entered into a partnership with Christian Moueix in 1981 to form the John Daniels Society and to produce wines from this vineyard in the style of their father's wines from the 1940s and 1950s, which are some of the most famous ever to be made in Napa.  In 1995 Moueix took full ownership of the property.  1996 saw the first release of this "second" wine from Dominus. 

In Robert Parker's Wine Advocate (Dec 27, 2012) Antonio Galloni rated Napanook among Napa's "Super Seconds" which included only six others; Araujo "Altagracia", Blankiet "Prince of Hearts", Bryant "DB 4", Futo "OV", Harlan Estate "The Maiden" and Screaming Eagle "Second Flight".

We are also now accepting reservations for Kapcsandy "Endre" 2009, produced at the historic State Lane Vineyard by the relatively new, but already highly sought-after Kapcsandy Family Winery.   Endre is a blend of just over half Cabernet Sauvignon, with 40% Merlot, and Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot making up the balance. 

The State Lane Vineyard for years provided the backbone to Beringer's "Private Reserve" Cabernet Sauvignon program and in fantastic vintages, was bottled separately as "State Lane Cabernet Sauvignon".  In 2000 Lou Kapcsandy purchased the land, built a state-of-the-art winery, ripped out the vines and replanted the entire property.  This effort was rewarded when in 2007 and 2008 Kapcsandy received back-to-back 100 point scores from Wine Advocate for his State Lane Grand Vin.

Please visit our webpages devoted to these wineries here, Dominus Estate and Kapcsandy Family Winery.

Prices listed here are per-bottle, exclusive of bottle deposit but inclusive of tax. We sell only by the unmixed case. 

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All the best,
Chris.

Rosso's entry-level wine is fermented in cement using native yeasts, aged in large Fontainebleau forest French oak casks for several months and is bottled unfiltered.  It is 100% Nebbiolo and is drawn from the Serralunga d'Alba and Roddino vineyards.

"Rosso's 2010 Langhe Nebbiolo is another gorgeous entry-level offering. Freshly cut flowers, smoke, sweet spices and red berries burst from the glass in this generous, vibrant totally polished Nebbiolo. All the elements are in the right place. The big, intense finish is very much in the style of the year. Anticipated maturity: 2012-2016."

Buehler Vineyards buys fruit from the famed Wood Vineyard and River Vineyard in the Russian River Valley AVA for this wine.  It is matured in a combination of seasoned French and American oak barriques and undergoes complete malolactic fermentation, providing a creaminess and roundness to the wine.

The  Russian River Chardonnay displays abundant floral and stone fruit aromas, flavours of apple and creamed sweet corn lightly accented by toasty, graham cracker sur-lie qualities.  The mouthfeel is creamy and full but the natural acidity of the Russian River fruit carries this velvet textured package to a long, clean finish.

 A step above the Napa Valley Cabernet is the "Estate".  One hundred percent of the fruit comes from the property which is planted mostly to Cabernet and Zinfandel and sits just east of St. Helena near the base of Howell Mountain.  Their fractured terroir displays three different soil types which produce complimentary  characteristics in the fruit.  The wine spends 18 months in barriques, 35% are new French and 5% are new American oak, the rest are seasoned combinations of the two.

The Estate Cabernet is the most age-worthy wine produced by Buehler and may be enjoyed anytime over the next 15 years. Cabernet from this part of Napa always leans toward dark fruit flavours and aromas - blackcurrant, black plums, crushed rock, iron, rich tobacco, dark chocolate. 

My notes from our first tasting were short but concise; "reserved but stacked!, very gentle tannins, very balanced to age, very pure, this is great!  14.1% alcohol. 93+ points."  I rarely give a score this high, but for the money, I think this wine is as good as any from Napa and I suggest that you could slip this wine into a lineup of $100+ Napa Cabernets and nobody would know it was half the price of its competitors.  An outstanding value.

Only 3700 cases of Napanook 2009 were produced in this fantastic vintage.  Wine Advocate gave the 2009 vintage for Cabernet Sauvignon in Northern California 94 points.

"The 2009 Napanook is rich, powerful and seductive. This is a more radiant, brighter style than the 2008. There is considerable fleshiness as the wine opens up in the glass. The 2009 is a very sexy Napanook endowed with tons of personality and sheer class. Despite its generous fruit, there is more than enough underlying structure to allow the wine to drink well for a number of years. In 2009 the blend is 87% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% Cabernet Franc and 8% Petit Verdot. Anticipated maturity: 2013-2019."