Page 5 - Our Table to Your's

Wine: 2006 Brovia Barolo Garblet Sue
Region: Piedomont
Sokolin Price: $69.99/btl
Rating: 95 RP

This week, our virtual wine journey kept us planted in Italy, but moved us northwest of Tuscany to the Piedmont region, which borders France. The Piedmont area is home to two important wines - Barolos and Barbarescos. Nebbiolo is the predominant grape in both of these wines, which grows almost nowhere else in the world. It is truly home to the Piedmont region. The Nebbiolo grape is known for its supreme power, muscle, high tannin, grip and can take your palate by storm. Barolos are wines meant to be aged, and they can last for a very long time. In fact, Barolos must legally be aged for a minimum of three years before they can even be released.

We are selling three Barolos produced by the Brovia family - the Garblet Sue, the Ca'Mia & the Villero. Of this producer, Robert Parker said, "The Brovia family

Wine: 2000 Lynch Bages
Region: Bordeaux
Sokolin Price: $249.99/btl
Rating: 95 RP

Wine: 2000 Leoville Barton
Region: Bordeaux
Sokolin Price: $179/btl
Rating: 95+ RP

With the upcoming 2010 Bordeaux futures campaign just around the corner, drinking Bordeaux is particularly at the forefront of our minds right now. We thought we'd put our thoughts into action, so we pulled the corks on a couple of bottles from the 2000 vintage to determine how they are currently drinking. Side by side, we sipped on 2000 Lynch Bages and 2000 Leoville Barton with grilled lamb slices and garlic mashed potatoes. These wines are already 11 years old, yet are still considered babies by wine aficionado standards. Top Bordeaux wines have incredible longevity as compared to other wine producing regions. Time just does amazing thing to its wines. Sometimes a little

Wine: 2002 Louis Roederer Cristal
Region: Champagne
Sokolin Price: $225/btl
Rating: 97 RP-HG

At a recent dinner party with some wine loving friends, someone brought a bottle of 2002 Louis Roederer Cristal, more commonly and simply referred to as just "Cristal." Lucky us! Louis Roederer is one of the most prestigious and well-known houses in all of Champagne, France, located in the city of Reims. True champagne can only come from Champagne, France, and any other bubbly produced elsewhere is referred to as sparkling wine.

Champagne is often categorized into 2 groups - non-vintage and vintage, with the majority of champagne falling under the non-vintage category. Vintage champagne is a higher quality champagne than non-vintage, and must be aged longer than non-vintage. It is also made of higher quality grapes. A cuvee prestige champagne is even a step above vintage champagne in terms of quality, and

Wine: 2008 Expression 44 Pinot Noir Eola-Amity Hills
Region: Oregon
Sokolin Price: $28.99
Rating: 92 WS

As the 2010 Bordeaux futures campaign is ramping up, we decided to make a quick jump over to the US before we return to writing about Bordeaux wines. A lot of noteworthy wine action is always developing in the US, and the domestic wine market continues to grow at many levels, including our rate of consumption according to an article Decanter magazine recently published. The article stated, "The US overtook France to become the world's biggest wine-consuming nation in 2010." We find this fact just plain fascinating. To overtake a heavyweight like France, where wine is so deeply rooted in the culture, is simply astonishing.

The consumption of Pinot Noir still seems to be on the rise in the US. It seems that more and more consumers favor this grape since it is typically lighter, softer and not as full bodied as other grape varietals that can really coat your

Right around this time every year, the Bordeaux futures campaign starts heating up big time, especially if the vintage is a great one. To get in the spirit of the campaign, we always like to take this time to sample some of our favorite producers of back-vintage Bordeaux. And lately, back-vintage Bordeaux has really been pushed to the forefront of the wine market due to the increased demand from Asian consumers and the high release prices of the more recent vintages. If you've been following any of our blogs or subscribe to our email lists, then these words probably sound familiar. With the 2010 vintage in particular, we expect the prices to be high and with the weak dollar, it will be even worse for US customers.

Taking all of these factors into consideration, back-vintage Bordeaux, for the most part, is a smart wine buy for both the wine drinker and collector. For the drinker, the beauty is that the wine has already spent considerable time aging and doesn't require the patience

Wine: 1988 Mouton Rothschild
Region: Bordeaux
Sokolin Price: $525/btl
Rating: 91 RP-HG

Last Wednesday, Robert Parker published his scores and tasting notes of the 2010 Bordeaux futures. Every year at this time, members of the trade - from producers to retailers - anxiously await the release of his scores. We constantly check our smart phones waiting for Parker to announce to the world how each chateau ranks. And last Wednesday, Parker confirmed what the buzz has been the last few months - that 2010, in fact, was another good vintage, which also marks the fourth great vintage of the first decade of the new millennium. To be able to produce four superb vintages in ten years is a pure testament to the excellent winemaking skills of the Bordelaise. And on this day, we thought it would be appropriate to honor, toast and enjoy the fruits of their labor by opening up a bottle of back vintage Bordeaux, and a first

Wine: 2008 Sette Ponti Oreno
Region: Tuscany
Sokolin Price: $24.99/btl
Rating: 93 JS

Summer is right around the corner, and so is our new summer catalog that is filled with gems cover to cover. If you'd like to receive a copy, you can sign up right on the home page of our website under catalog/email sign-up at www.sokolin.com.

In Dave Sokolin's message on the inside cover, he makes mention of our unofficial motto here at Sokolin - 'we sell the world's most expensive wines, and the least expensive wines that taste like them.' He goes on to say, 'When you frequently taste the world's best wines, you can isolate those similar qualities in wines that cost a fraction. That's exactly what we do for our clients on a daily basis.' Uncovering these wines and bringing them to our clients is definitely an exciting aspect of this business. Thinking about Dave's comment, a select handful of wines come to

Wine: 2008 Pian dell'Orino Rosso di Montalcino
Region: Tuscany
Sokolin Price: $29.99/btl
Rating: 93 RP

In our last blog, we mentioned that our unofficial motto here at Sokolin is that 'we sell the world's most expensive wines, and the least expensive wines that taste like them.' Well, our savvy buyers managed to hit another home run when they located a 2008 Tuscan wine that is such a deal it's almost too good to be true. The 2008 Pian dell'Orino Rosso di Montalcino is a wine that tastes much more expensive than it actually costs, and after tasting it, it has now been added as a favorite on a very short list of under $30 wines. This wine received 93 points RP and is priced under $30! You don't see this kind of points-to-price ratio very often in this business.

As we said last time, Tuscany has produced a string of great vintages since 2004, and of course, the 2008 vintage was no exception. While Rossos

Wine: 2010 Guado Al Tasso Scalabrone Rosato
Region: Tuscany
Sokolin Price: $16.99/btl
Rating: 92 DS

Wine: 2008 Gagnard Delagrange Chassagne Montrachet La Boudriotte
Region: Burgundy
Sokolin Price: $49.99/btl
Rating: 93 WS

Summer in the Hamptons has officially begun! This past weekend, we were invited to an outdoor lunch held in Amagansett. The weather was beautiful and sunny, and it really felt like the perfect summer day. Since the lunch was sort of a picnic, a wide variety of dishes were served - from fried chicken to honey baked ham, potato salad, tossed salad, pasta salad, salsa, guacamole and chips...all the usual picnic food. When you're in the wine business, people never ask you to bring food to any gathering...only wine. But hey, we are happy to do it!

When selecting a wine to go with such a wide variety

Wine: 2008 Paul Hobbs Pinot Noir Lindsay Estate
Region: California
Sokolin Price: $84.99/btl
Rating: 95 RP

This past weekend with our out of town guests, we tasted the fruits of a pure winemaking genius, Paul Hobbs. He has to be one of the most fantastic winemakers in all of California and is known for his wines from single vineyard estates. He currently produces wines from ten different vineyards and we decided to taste-test the pinot noir from the Lindsay Estate Vineyard. This vineyard is located in the Russian River Valley AVA inside Sonoma County. Due to the cool climate, the pinot noir grape does very well in this area, and the Lindsay Vineyard is planted completely with pinot noir. If you are wondering who Lindsay is, this estate is actually named after Paul's great grandmother.

The 2008 vintage overall was a very good vintage for Cali pinot noir, although admittedly not as good as the