2018 Ilaria Malbec Napa Valley

2018 Ilaria Malbec Napa Valley

with No Comment $30-$40CoombsvilleKevin VogtMalbecNapaUSA

ILARIA

2018 MALBEC
NAPA VALLEY

2018 Ilaria Malbec Napa Valley
Brazenly expressing their heritage, Ilaria wines are strategically crafted in small lots to showcase their unique identity. The wines highlight the convergence of exceptional Napa Valley terroir and the farming expertise of UC Davis grads Anna and Mario Monticelli. Their Malbec embodies the soul of Napa Valley and builds on Anna and Mario’s accumulative experience, including Chateau Cheval-Blanc, Bryant, Pina, Antinori, and Trinchero. As Jeb Dunnuck writes, “I’d happily drink bottles any time over the coming decade,” and here’s your chance to make it happen. 
 
Ilaria’s Malbec balances the interplay of Coombsville fruit’s elegance and concentrated Atlas Peak flavors. 15% Cabernet Sauvignon adds strength to Malbec’s supple nature, resulting in a harmoniously textured, full-bodied red. 
 
Born from a combination of volcanic and loam soils, this 2018 Malbec highlights the vintage’s power, along with the vast skillset of Anna and Mario and their ability to produce expressive wines that are terroir-transparent and mindfully balanced. 
 
ILARIA
2018 MALBEC
NAPA VALLEY
Retails at: $42
 
Your Price: $39.99
 
 
“…. Beautiful blue fruits, violets, bouquet garni, and peppered meat-like nuances emerge from the glass, and it’s medium to full-bodied, with a fresh, elegant texture, terrific tannins, and a great finish. I’d happily drink bottles any time over the coming decade.”
92 Points
 
“…. the deep garnet-purple colored 2018 Malbec gives up exuberant notes of plum preserves, blueberry pie and Morello cherries with hints of Sichuan pepper, cardamom and cedar chest. Medium to full-bodied, the palate has lovely freshness cutting through the intense black fruit flavors, finishing with a plush texture and great harmony. 414 cases were made.”
91+ Points
2017 Sebright Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley

2017 Sebright Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley

with No Comment $60-$70Cabernet SauvignonKevin VogtNapaUSA

SEBRIGHT

2017 RESERVE 
CABERNET SAUVIGNON
NAPA VALLEY

2017 Sebright Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley
Intensely captivating, Sebright Reserve Cabernet is magnetic in its delivery, lucidly exposing its site-specific terroir with expert balance and unreplicable charisma. Their Reserve Cabernet comes from their own single-acre Garnett Creek Estate Vineyard, double planted to clone 7, a clone also used by Screaming Eagle. Concentrated with penetrating red fruits, detailed minerality, and a singular focus, at $125, their 2017 Reserve is an incredible wine, but at our price, there aren’t enough superlatives to describe it. 
 
Farmed sustainably, the volcanic ash soils of Sebright’s Estate Vineyard produce intensely flavored berries, yielding just enough fruit for two barrels. The wine is kept for 24 months in new, premium French oak barrels, complimenting the powerfully concentrated flavors. 
 
Veteran Calistoga winemaker Tom Eddy makes the wine, and this exceptional Cabernet Sauvignon perfectly reflects his vast experience. If you haven’t tried Sebright before, and you’re looking for a wine that none of your friends have heard of but will rock them to their core when they try it, this is it.
 
SEBRIGHT
2017 RESERVE 
CABERNET SAUVIGNON
NAPA VALLEY
Retails at: $125
 
 
 
“The 2017 Sebright Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon is a richly focused, exquisitely balanced and impeccably made wine, with a seductive nose of blackberry syrup, red currants, lightly toasted oak, and lovely sweet florals. The intense palate displays its power in a more linear style that’s focused without excess fleshiness. Layers of sweet crushed blackberries and concentrated black cherry juice combine with hints of tobacco, leather, and spice to create an awe-inspiring mouth experience. The lavish finish cuts a swath across your palate, then lingers there for over a minute. A true delight to contemplate.” 
97+ Points
2014 Morlet Cabernet Sauvignon Les Petits Morlet

2014 Morlet Cabernet Sauvignon Les Petits Morlet

with No Comment $90-$100Cabernet SauvignonKevin VogtNapaUSA

MORLET

2014 CABERNET SAUVIGNON 
LES PETITS MORLET 

2014 Morlet Cabernet Sauvignon Les Petits Morlet
Luc Morlet has extensive winemaking experience in France. With that knowledge, he can manipulate old-world principles and techniques and perfectly adapt them to California wines, which sets him apart from the pack. The resulting wines harmoniously balance intensity, richness, and complexity in their youth and have the capacity to cellar gracefully for many years. His 2014 Le Petits Cabernet beautifully displays his remarkable ability. With seven years of age, this wine is enchantingly hedonistic and enjoyable now or over the next decade or more in the future.
 
The Morlet Les Petits Cabernet is a Cuvée style blend constructed from younger vines grown on many iconic properties where Luc sources fruit. Like numerous outstanding 2014 Cabernets, this wine is compelling and highly aromatic. 
 
Luc grew up on his family’s vineyard in France, and he gained extensive experience making wine in Burgundy and Bordeaux before replacing John Kongsgaard as winemaker at Newton Cellars in 1996. In 2001 Luc joined Peter Michael Winery, continuing the legacy of Helen Turley and Mark Aubert, crafting Peter Michael from 2001 through 2005.
 
MORLET
2014 CABERNET SAUVIGNON 
LES PETITS MORLET
 
Your Price: $95
 
 
“The entry-level Bordeaux cuvée is the 2014 Cabernet Sauvignon Les Petits Morlet, which is 75% Cabernet Sauvignon and the balance Malbec, Cabernet Franc, and Petit Verdot in 2014. This cuvée gets younger vine fruit as well as the fruit that didn’t make the cut for the upper cuvées, so the blend changes every year. The 2014 is a beautiful wine in its own right and worth your time and money. Crème de cassis, chocolate, and violet notes all flow to a full-bodied, deep, impressively concentrated effort that shows both the house elegance and purity, and the charming nature of the 2014 vintage.” 
93 Points
2018 Chateau Moulin De La Grangere Saint-Emilion Grand Cru Bordeaux

2018 Chateau Moulin De La Grangere Saint-Emilion Grand Cru Bordeaux

with No Comment $30-$40BordeauxBordeauxFranceKevin VogtSaint Emilion

CHÂTEAU MOULIN DE

LA GRANGERE
SAINT-EMILION GRAND CRU 
2018 BORDEAUX  

2018 Chateau Moulin De La Grangere Saint-Emilion Grand Cru Bordeaux
Neighboring Château Pavie, one of Saint-Émilion’s most revered producers, Château Moulin de la Grangère has founders passionate about organic viticulture, land stewardship, and producing wines with a sense of place from their small yet privileged location. Their wines benefit from consulting winemaker Michel Rolland’s global experience, including hundreds of A-list clients spanning 13 countries. The exceptional 2018 vintage furthers quality, and at $33, their Saint-Emilion Grand Cru Bordeaux is a tangible value worth owning. 
 
Château Moulin de la Grangère sits at the foot of the finest slopes of Saint-Émilion, where they planted their certified organic vines in clay-limestone soils. Like Château Pétrus, the wine is 100% Merlot, and Moulin de la Grangère is made in a story-telling style guided by the vintage and marked with elegance. 
 
Pursuing excellence, the wine team uses vibrating shaker tables to sort the fruit, keeping only the most pristine berries. Aged for around 18 months in 30% new French oak, the 2018 release captures the spirit of the Saint-Emilion, presented with confidence, enchantment, and signature balance.
 
CHÂTEAU MOULIN DE
LA GRANGERE
SAINT-EMILION GRAND CRU 
2018 BORDEAUX
 
Your Price: $33
 
 
“On the nose we discover concentrated notes of red berries, rose, peony and roasted almonds. Beautiful structure without being imposing with silky tannins and very finely woven.”
2018 Hoopla Cabernet Sauvignon California

2018 Hoopla Cabernet Sauvignon California

with No Comment $30 and underCabernet SauvignonKevin VogtNapaOakvilleUSA

HOOPLA

CABERNET SAUVIGNON
2018 CALIFORNIA 

2018 Hoopla Cabernet Sauvignon California
A howling value, Hoopla’s California Cabernet is a mixed breed born from doggone good stock. Proprietor Lindsay Hoopes owns 35 prime acres in Oakville, and her 2018 California Cabernet includes fruit from Paso Robles’ top sites and other meticulously chosen vineyards in Monterey and Napa Valley. Raised by Anne Vawter, whose experience includes working alongside Heidi Barrett as the assistant winemaker at Paradigm for years, at $24, this Cab could become man’s second-best friend. 
 
Hoopla is a cross-breed that includes barrels that didn’t go into Hoopes purebred bottlings from Napa Valley, Oakville, and Howell Mountain. The wine offers a lush coat of smooth red and black fruits, intriguing spice and floral characteristics, toasty oak, and absolutely no bite. 
 
Kenneled for 20 months in French oak, the 2018 release is Cabernet Sauvignon, harnessed with other Bordeaux varieties, offering a rare breed of concentrated, focused fruit, uncommon at this value price. Keep this one on a short leash.
 
HOOPLA
CABERNET SAUVIGNON
2018 CALIFORNIA
 
Your Price: $24
 
 
“The 2018 Hoopla California Cabernet is a ruby red, juicy Cabernet that sings with fresh aromas of blackberries, black plum, and roasted coffee. In the mouth, dense flavors of blackberries, black cherry, and cocoa powder mingle with broad, mouth- filling tannins. The lengthy finish is perfumed with vanilla bean.”
2018 Freeman Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast

2018 Freeman Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast

with No Comment $40-$50Kevin VogtPinot NoirSonomaSonoma CoastUSA

FREEMAN

2018 PINOT NOIR
SONOMA COAST

2018 Freeman Pinot Noir Sonoma Coast
Defined by strength, balance, and inherent complexity, Freeman Pinot Noir embodies the soul of the Sonoma Coast. Setting out to prove domestic Pinot Noir can be both as complex and compelling as Burgundy, proprietors Ken and Akiko Freeman toured hundreds of properties before settling on the western edges of Sonoma County. They hired Pinot-maestro Ed Kurtzman to help bring their dream to fruition. Ed’s ability to shape Pinot Noirs with refinement, balance, and inherent sense of place, was matched with an uncompromising commitment to quality, resulting in exemplary coastal Pinot. 
 
A marriage of 79% grapes from Yu-Ki Estate Vineyard at 1000 feet elevation and 5 miles from the Pacific, and 21% fruit from Campbell Ranch near Annapolis in the northernmost reaches of Sonoma County, this Pinot Noir transparently reflects Ocean influence, Sonoma Coast geography, and soils. 
 
The winery notes that 2018 produced the highest quality fruit that they’ve encountered in their seventeen vintages at Freeman. Ed’s winemaking technique preserves the fruit’s natural expression by aging the wine for just 11 months in mostly neutral barrels. The resulting wine is exquisitely balanced, supple, and intriguing.
 
FREEMAN
2018 PINOT NOIR
SONOMA COAST
Retails at: $45
 
Your Price: $42
 
 
“This bold and distinctive wine impresses with its focused flavors, vivid balance and excellent depth. From a haunting aroma of rosemary, violet and black cherry to vibrant sour-cherry and black-tea flavors, it tastes powerful and pure. Best through 2026”
94 Points “Cellar Selection”
2019 Gamba Zinfandel Starr Road Ranch

2019 Gamba Zinfandel Starr Road Ranch

with No Comment $40-$50Kevin VogtRussian River ValleySonomaUSAZinfandel

GAMBA

2019 ZINFANDEL
STARR ROAD RANCH

2019 Gamba Zinfandel Starr Road Ranch
An oracle of Old Vines, Gus Gamba makes winemaking decisions with a keen focus on preserving the freshness and specific expressions of fruit character. He acts as the human conduit for the vines to tell their best story in every vintage. The 2019s are what Gus strives for; They’re vibrantly detailed, engrossingly complex, and invigoratingly fresh. This vintage will undoubtedly earn monster scores, and given the small production, don’t wait to secure yours. 
 
The historic Starr Road Ranch Zin comes from an organically farmed vineyard planted in 1920 that yields just 1.5 tons per acre of strikingly intense, concentrated, pristinely focused fruit. Cultivated without the use of herbicides or pesticides, Starr Road Ranch relies solely on winter rains as its only source of irrigation, as it has for the past 100 years.
 
Gus and his winemaking team double hand-sort the berries, with only the best making their way into fermentors. Next, the 2019 release spent an impressive 18 months aging primarily in American oak barrels, contributing to the spice characteristics.
 
GAMBA
2019 ZINFANDEL
STARR ROAD RANCH
 
Your Price: $49.99
 
 
“The 2019 Starr Road Old Vine Zinfandel offers a beautiful deep garnet color in the bowl of the glass, with a lush, creamy and dark berry note on the nose, with a hint of black tea and exotic spices. Notes of cola, leather, vanilla and black fruits fill the senses, and round the wine’s feel on the palate. A refined and compelling polished texture is complemented with a bright yet proportional acidity that delicately lifts and balances the wine. The pleasant spicy finish lingers on the palate, woven with a fine texture of subtle woody tones.”
2016 Maroon Special Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon Coombsville

2016 Maroon Special Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon Coombsville

with No Comment $40-$50Cabernet SauvignonCoombsvilleKevin VogtNapaUSA

MAROON

SPECIAL RESERVE
CABERNET SAUVIGNON 
2016 COOMBSVILLE 

2016 Maroon Special Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon Coombsville
Fueled by unparalleled quality and extreme scarcity, the following for Maroon’s Special Reserve Cabernet grows stronger with each vintage. Patronage is furthered by winemaker Chris Corley’s ability to harness Coombsville fruit’s power and deliver it with finesse and elegance. The Special Reserve is created from the top-performing blocks in the vineyard and priced in line with Coombsville greats Favia, Merus, and Meteor at $160 retail; As you can imagine, at less than 1/3 of the retail price, we have great difficulty keeping it stocked. 
 
Deeper and more defined than Maroon’s other bottlings, winemaker Chris Corley introduced as little manipulation as possible during the winemaking process, allowing the remarkable terroir of Maroon’s best Vineyard Blocks to shine.
 
The 2016 Special Reserve is 100% Cabernet Sauvignon and aged for a full 24 months in oak before bottling. If you’re looking for an elegant but powerful Cabernet with plenty of definition and complexity, this is it.
 
MAROON
SPECIAL RESERVE
CABERNET SAUVIGNON 
2016 COOMBSVILLE
Retails at: $160
 
 
 
“The 2016 vintage of Maroon Special Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon has a rich, intense nose with briary wild berries, graphite, fresh sage, and hints of vanilla. The palate is concentrated, with penetrating crushed blackberries, dense black plum, decadent cassis, and an ethereal mouthfeel. It is a concentrated and focused wine with a finish that is elegant, powerful, refined, and long. It is a gift for your mouth now and will continue to drink beautifully for another decade or more.”
97 points
2017 Beaulieu Vineyards Georges De Latour Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon

2017 Beaulieu Vineyards Georges De Latour Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon

with No Comment $100 and overCabernet SauvignonKevin VogtNapaRutherfordUSA

BEAULIEU VINEYARDS

GEORGES DE LATOUR
2017 PRIVATE RESERVE
CABERNET SAUVIGNON

2017 Beaulieu Vineyards Georges De Latour Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon
A wine of grand distinction, BV’s Georges De Latour Cabernet is a liquid legacy epitomizing Rutherford’s distinctive terroir with a transpicuous window into the fragrance of Rutherford and deep connection to the area’s roots. Paid homage by winemaking and fruit selection of the highest level that and even after 80 vintages the wine is as solid as ever. This 2017 offers a choreographed union of power and grace, and with double high-90s reviews, it’s a joy to behold. 
 
Beaulieu Vineyards is a timeless classic, embodying every trait that makes Rutherford so wondrous. Created from vines planted in the early 1900s, George de Latour’s first vintage was in 1936, released in 1940 to honor the winery founder’s passing. 
 
Under the guidance of one of the world’s most iconic winemakers, Andre Tchelistcheff, BV built on a reputation of excellence and achievements. Composed inside the winery’s new state-of-the-art facility, Georges de Latour perfectly balances time-honored traditions with modern technologies.
 
Fun side note, friend and former head winemaker at BV (27 years there) Joel Aiken tastes with us on our tasting panel each week.
 
BEAULIEU VINEYARDS
GEORGES DE LATOUR
2017 PRIVATE RESERVE
CABERNET SAUVIGNON
Retails at: $145
 
Your Price: $125
 
 
“This is one of the most balanced Georges de Latour, offering currants, minerals, fresh herbs and spices. It’s full-bodied with very fine tannins. Long and focused. Subtle and complex. Very elegant and refined in the end. Reminds me of classic, old vintages from the 1960s and 1970s. Drink or hold.”
97 Points
2018 Saint-Galet Chateauneuf-Du-Pape

2018 Saint-Galet Chateauneuf-Du-Pape

with No Comment $30-$40Cotes du RhoneFranceKevin Vogt

SAINT-GALET 

CHATEAUNEUF-DU-PAPE
2018 VINTAGE

2018 Saint-Galet Chateauneuf-Du-Pape
Venerated for marrying power and grace, Châteauneuf-du-Pape wines are the pinnacle of the Southern Rhone Valley, envied for their fruit intensity and garrigue, a French term referring to a savory mix of lavender, juniper, thyme, rosemary, and sage. Their nobility, supreme quality, and scarcity result in prices that start around $50 and climb to over a thousand per bottle. How did we find one for $32? This wine is the direct result of France’s restaurant shutdowns, and fueled by a pause on tariffs, we seized this opportunity.  
 
Eric Bonnet blended this wine, and he is the winemaker at La Bastide Saint Dominique. This Saint-Galet Chateauneuf-du-Pape bursts with black raspberry, dark plum, and new leather, offering supreme balance, energy, and classic garrigue. 
 
Aged in a combination of stainless steel tanks and French oak to best highlight the fruit, this wine reflects the elegance of the 2018 vintage. The Wine Spectator’s Vintage report sights, “Reds are supple and velvety, low in acid, offering flattering, forward fruit.”
 
SAINT-GALET 
CHATEAUNEUF-DU-PAPE
2018 VINTAGE
 
Your Price: $32
 
 
“The nose has an alluring blend of pie cherries, savory fresh herbs, cold smoked meat, violets, and hints of spearmint. On the palate it is rich, supple, and penetrating with a complex blend of black raspberries, Burgundy plums, red currants, kitchen spices, crushed minerals, and a rustic elegance. The finish is smooth and supple, but with enough mouth-quenching acidity to keep it lively and long. I love wines like this because they are a wonderful break from my everyday routine.” 
93 Points