This is wine provides amazing value - consumed nice and cold the minerality is palpable, the acidity and sugars in perfect balance.  Cold smoked salmon anyone? 

 

 

 

If you haven't tried good Grüner Veltliner yet, you really must.  This is a sommeliers' and (like me) wine nerd's favourite white.  The most versatile wine you'll find.  If you must have only one type of white wine at home - make it Grüner.

Consider this combination of wine descriptions for Grüner - full bodied, yet low in alcohol, usually 10-12%.  Dry!  High acidity.  Aromas and flavours of beautiful flowers, fresh herbs, white beans!, lettuces, ground white pepper, yellow bell peppers and earth.  Contradictories that combine to present one complete and deliciously refreshing wine.

Weingut Hirsch is one of Kamptal's most exciting and anti-establishment wineries, making outrageous wines from biodynamically farmed fruit.

"Citrus oil richness; exotic inner-mouth perfume of bittersweet flowers and resinous green herbs; and tropical lushness of papaya and pink grapefruit aren't what I would have expected from an entry-level and alcoholically light Grüner Veltliner. But I'm not complaining! Buried in there somewhere are more Veltliner-typical hints of lentil and white pepper. This finishes with a rush of refreshing juiciness supporting a welter of flavour. (Although the labelling has changed, this basic Hirsch bottling, formerly designated with a nickname and number, retains the same cellar approach and sources: almost entirely from the estate, plus bio-dynamically farmed fruit from one northerly neighbour.)  2015-2018"

 

 

A single vineyard selection of 25 year-old Chardonnay vines from the "Jurosa-Gris" vineyard, which is barrel fermented (500 litre tonneaus) and then allowed to rest on the lees (yeats cells) for 11 months in the same barrel with judicious stirring. 

The end result is a very rich, very long, harmonious wine.  Because the wine is fermented in barrel, the oak notes are not as obvious on the nose or palate as they would be had this wine been fermented in steel tanks and then put into barrels to age.

This is one of my favourite Chardonnays, and I think an amazing value in what should be considered a region where some of the world's best whites are made, Fruili in north-eastern Italy.

I believe the review below really underestimates this wine that I have drank twice, both times offering my own opinion of 92 points.  I think the price makes this a very compelling deal.

 

 

 

Thirty-nine years ago, this wine bested the greatest Chardonnays from the US and France in the original "Paris Tasting", and little has changed since.  Still one of Napa's "blue-chip" Chardonnays - always reliable, always age-worthy, always delicious.  Barrel fermented, non-malolactic, little manipulation.  The essence of Napa's cool southern vineyards.

"You know you're doing something right when, after 45 years of Chardonnay winemaking, they name a California Chardonnay style after your winery, the "Montelena style." In short, it means a non-malolactic, minimally oaked Chardonnay. This estate has long made one of the best examples of a quiet, restrained Chardonnay that ages for 20 or more years"

 

 
The Barbera grapes grown in the Barolo area of Piedmont give full structure, plummy, spicey and complex flavours.  You'll find blackberries in the aroma and a hint of toasted tobacco.  Perhaps surprisingly, this ages quite well.  Proof that not all delicious red wines have to break the bank.

 

 

The Santa Rita Hills are a sub-region (sub-appellation in wine-speak) of a sub-appellation.  Within Santa Barbara County one finds the Santa Ynez Valley and within that are the Santa Rita Hills, a viticultural area of only 48 square miles. 

Twenty million years ago marine sediment was pushed up into the sky forming a mountain range like we find on the west coast today.  Over the next 12 million years tectonic action actually turned the mountains to run east-west.  It is the most clearly lateral valley between Alaska and South America.  This east-west direction pulls marine air and fog from the Pacific into the valley, cooling the region.  This and the poor, calcium rich soils makes for one of the world's best cool-climate viticulture areas for Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. 

The fruit is harvested - only at night - from the Lafond Vineyard and the Burning Creek Vineyard.  The crop produced 16 different fermentations which after blending were aged in mostly older barriques and puncheons. Only 2,835 cases were made.  This is complex, exciting, artisan Pinot Noir at its best.

 
Originally the "second" wine from Goldeneye (Duckhorn Wine Company), Migration is now a brand not tied to any one vineyard fruit source, but rather, "spreads it wings" and explores all California's diverse Chardonnay and Pinot Noir growing appellations.

 

For decades, it has been the goal of Frog's Leap to produce a Rutherford estate-grown Cabernet Sauvignon. Inspired by the early Cabernets of Inglenook and Beaulieu Vineyard, they have spent the past 20 years finding, farming and obtaining highly sought after land in Rutherford-with particular attention to the Rutherford Bench.

It all began with the acquisition of the Red Barn Vineyard in 1994 on Conn Creek Road. The next piece of the puzzle was contracting longtime vineyardist Frank Leeds' family owned Chavez-Leeds vineyard on the iconic Rutherford Bench.  This gave the first proof of how complex and connected dry-farmed, organically-grown Cabernet Sauvignon could be.

Finally, in 2007, they purchased the historic Rossi Vineyard located in the very heart of the Rutherford Bench. This 50 acre dry-farmed vineyard was purchased by the Rossi family in 1906 (!) and is located only a stone's throw away from the two vineyards that were the original inspiration - Inglenook and Beaulieu.  This vineyard is an agricultural treasure and produces some of the best Cabernet in Rutherford.

Don't let the name and motto fool you, "Time's fun when you're having flies!", this is serious Cabernet from an epic vintage and dollar-for-dollar represents probably the best value Cabernet I have.  Drink anytime and cellar for 15-20 years.

 

 

Continuum's 63 acre vineyard sits adjacent to Ovid's high on Pritchard Hill, more than 1,300 feet above sea level.  The soil here is rocky, dusty, volcanic in origin and iron-rich.  The top soil is meager, it retains water poorly and thus the crops are small (less than 2 tons/acre) and grapes are tiny.  This makes for very powerful Cabernet. 

Sumptuous yet brilliantly balanced the 2012 Continuum is flush with black cherry and mulberry fruit with complex flavours of graphite and espresso.  Full bodied and opulent, 2012 is polished, supple and harmonious; delicious today or cellar it to enjoy its evolution for decades to come.  The blend is 78% Cabernet Sauvignon, 11% Cabernet Franc, 6% Merlot, 5% Petit Verdot