Premium Wine Club - September 2012
Learn the finer points to many of the wines we offer each month. Our club wines are expertly researched and selected for quality, value and uniqueness and every one has an interesting history. Here are some of the wines we are offering this month:
Signum Gemini - Italy
2010 Rosso Salento IGT
Since Signum Gemini's inception, their mission has been to become the leading winemaker in Puglia, producing quality, balanced wines. In 2001, Signum Gemini hired world-renowned Australian winemaker Chris Ringland to oversee the winemaking process in Puglia. Chris Ringland, the highly reputed winemaker of Barossa's Three River and Greenock Creek, joined Signum Gemini for the next 4 vintages. The current winemaker is Giuseppe Caragnulo. A native of Puglia, Caragnulo offers the winemaking team at Signum Gemini more than 20 years of winemaking experience in the region and a vast knowledge of the native grapes. Signum Gemini specializes in the Primitivo and Negroamaro varietals. The Primitivo grows in forty to eighty-year-old vineyards. The Negroamaro is sourced chiefly from vineyards around the town of Novoli and Cellino San Marco. This 2010 Rosso is made up of Negromaro and Sangiovese. Visually the wine is an intense, bright ruby red color. It is highly perfumed with strong, lingering sweet fruity notes, persistent with hints of fresh fruit and preserves. The flavor is well-balanced, soft velvety, fresh and fragrant, owing to a pleasant underlying acidity which lends it vigor and persistence on the palate. This wine is ready now and with proper cellaring will age gracefully through 2015. It is ideal with vegetable soups, first courses of vegetables and pasta, white meat and medium aged cheese.
Belle Vallée Cellars - Corvallis, Oregon
2005 Cabernet Sauvignon Rogue Valley
Belle Vallée (Beautiful Valley) Cellars is located in the Willamette Valley of Oregon. Their 18,000 sq ft. winery is located in downtown Corvallis, which is considered to be the heart of the Willamette Valley. The facility is designed to produce twenty thousand (20,000) cases of quality wine per year. Winemaker, Joseph Wright, has worked with many of the vineyard managers over the years, and has developed a great familiarity with the fruit they selectively contract. Joe's style is to blend the wines by obtaining grapes from a variety of top locations within Oregon. This approach helps build complex wines with depth and character beyond the reach of a single vineyard. The 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon is sourced from 100% Cabernet from predominantly Lakeside Vineyard in the Rogue Valley. After fermentation the wine was aged for 15 months in Hungarian and French oak (65% new). The wine is dark, firm, and beautifully structured in the glass. It offers anise, black cherry and mocha aromas. Upon tasting, there is robust mid-palate weight, accompanied by a dark, earthy depth and structure. The wine has a long, smooth finish with caramel, smoke and molasses notes. Prime drinking window is between 2010 and 2015. Only 367 cases produced.
Scoprire - Italy
2011 Trebbiano Del Rubicone IGT
Trebbiano is a white grape which originated in Italy but has successfully migrated to other European wine regions such as Bulgaria, Portugal and particularly France: known as Ugni Blanc. There are also New World plantings in Argentina and Australia, where it was most likely introduced by Italian migrants. Despite being the most widely used white wine grape variety in the world's two most famous and prolific wine-producing nations (France and Italy), Trebbiano remains relatively unknown to most wine consumers. This is because in France it is used primarily for brandy production, and in Italy as a blending component rarely cited on labels. Scoprire is one of the few wineries producing a Trebbiano labeled wine and it does so in a way to showcase all of its luster. This 2011 vintage is made from 100% Trebbiano from vineyards near the Adriatic coast then fermented in stainless steel. Straw yellow in color this is vibrant quaffing wine with clean aromas reminiscent of the sea including green apple and flowers. It is crisp and fruity on the palate with flavors of grapefruit and a hint of herbs. Serve chilled as an aperitif or with lighter fare such as shell fish, grilled fish, sautéed chicken, fettuccine Alfredo, or salads. Drink now through 2014.
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