Page 38 - Staff Tastings

Thanksgiving is only a few days away, & dinner party season is ramping up too. Just about every weekend for the next couple of months will be spent with friends and family eating, drinking & celebrating the season. For me, dinner party season kicked off this past weekend. I was invited to a small dinner party with some close friends, & I was very excited to pick some great wine to bring. Since I was going with my girlfriend, I had to pick two nice bottles for this evening. I already had one bottle in mind that I've been dying to try, and that was the 2008 Sassicaia. The 2008 vintage has received great praise from the critics receiving 97 points from James Suckling & 96 points from Robert Parker's Wine Advocate. I knew it was going to be a bit on the young side, but it's always nice to try wines at different stages in its life cycle, so you can see for yourself how it changes as it ages.

For my next pick, I was racking my brain trying to figure out what else

This year's Thanksgiving table was once again one to be very thankful for! Lots of delicious food, great family and of course, some excellent wine. Being an American holiday, it's a perfect time to enjoy American wines!

One wine that I thought truly stood out this year was the 2005 Ramey Chardonnay Hudson Vineyard. David Ramey has been making amazing Chardonnays for many years, and this vintage was no exception! This single vineyard offering from Napa is truly an American "Grand Cru". David Ramey uses Burgundian barrels with native yeasts and no filtration, so these wines are very rich and full of flavor. The 2005 Hudson that we enjoyed this holiday had an amazing nose of honeyed pear, tropical fruits and toasted almonds. It was full-bodied and had a great mouth-feel with perfect balance and rich fruit that lingered on the finish for nearly a full minute. And with the turkey and trimmings, what an incredible pairing! Everyone else at the table agreed as well.

At a recent staff tasting, I had the opportunity to taste a handful of amazing wines from a few legends including Stag's Leap, Heitz and Frederic Magnien. I'd like to share my thoughts with you.

Believe it or not, the time leading up to such an event is as much fun as the actual event! The anticipation for the wine builds during the day knowing that at dinner, I will be in for a surprise. We usually aren't told what the wine line-up looks like until we arrive at the restaurant. This time, upon arrival, I noticed a full box of assorted bottles, and I knew I was in for an adventure. For the most part, this night was all about Burgundy! In fact, the wine of the night was from Burgundy.

However, before I talk about the Burgs, I want to diverge a bit and focus on a battle from 1997 and from the soils of California involving two outstanding wineries: Stag's Leap and Heitz. Cask 23 is the cream of the crop for Stag's Leap and is one of their most famous wines. I've tasted

The wine world is vast and seems to be ever expanding - new regions, new varietals and even old varietals rediscovered. Wines aged in oak barrels or with NO OAK whatsoever, and sometimes with just a little oak.

All of these things have merit and are fun to discover and think & drink about. Some are passing fads (Aussie critter labels) and some may be here to stay (Argentinian Malbecs, I hope).

But no matter how far away I stray (Slovenian Pinot Noir? Oh yeah!), there is one wine I come back to over and over again: Cabernet Sauvignon. Cab Sauv is the king of the wine world and for many reasons. It can grow almost anywhere. And while certain places do it better than most (Napa Valley and Bordeaux), it is still very good in other places (NY State? Sure!). 

I'm glad people and places are challenging the King. Drinking and thinking about wine would be boring without pioneers in places and with grapes. But I drank a Cabernet this week, last week,

Evening Land Vineyards is, to be blunt, an enigma.  Any of the labels they produce in the US could be mistaken for a great Red or White Burgundy.  (They also produce a very small amount of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay in Burgundy.)  Dominique Lafon has shaped a team of experts who fully utilize the Californian terroir while maintaining the traditions of Burgundy to produce some of the finest wines the United States has to offer.

Last night, I was happy to open a bottle of the '09 Evening Land California Pinot Noir Blue Label with dinner. This wine could easily be consumed without food, but I chose to enjoy it with a meal - and I'm glad I did! 

I was even more excited to try out this wine because it's from the 2009 vintage - an outstanding vintage for California Pinot Noir. Wine Spectator has called 2009 "...a defining vintage for California Pinot Noir..."

Living on the East End of Long Island, one has access to a bounty of great ingredients for cooking, from wonderful local produce to various fish and shellfish from the ocean and bays. If you are a hunter (or in our case, fortunate enough to have a friend who is), there is plenty of venison to be had as well. I know numerous chefs who argue that our venison is "as good as it gets" due to two main reasons: a diverse, healthy diet and relatively flat ground to keep the muscle growth and tension in check. So upon recently being gifted some lovely cuts, I decided to serve them up with a blackberry compote, providing sweet-tart fruit to contrast the flavor of the meat. The only remaining factor was to determine which wine to serve with it?

...and that's when I remembered, we just checked in some 2007 Barolo. I extremely enjoyed every sample of '07 Barolo I tried at tastings throughout the fall, reaffirming the various reports I had read about the caliber of the vintage. Due to a

When does Bordeaux rate 98 points by Robert Parker and still stay priced around $200/bottle? The answer is RARELY. However, the 2005 Pape Clement has done just that. Not to mention this wine is from the legendary 2005 vintage! And Robert Parker said the 2005 Pape Clement is "Probably the greatest Pape-Clement ever made..." Other 98 pointers from this vintage are already priced well over $1,000/bottle. Even better, 2005 Pape Clement is just starting to show its true colors and will continue to drink for another 30+ years. That's truly incredible. This is a wine for the ages. Drink now or hold for decades, whichever you prefer.

In a recent tasting, our panel found this wine (after a nice 3-hour decanting) extremely polished and full of vibrant dark fruits, smoke, chocolate, wonderful acidity, and the list goes on and on.  In fact, we had over 30 descriptors for this magnificent wine - talk about concentration and complexity. 

As we said goodbye to 2011 last week, I thought about how it was a year filled with the release of some amazing wines. Immediately, these came to mind: 2006 Brunellos, 2009 Northern Rhones, 2008 Tuscans, 2009 California Pinots, & not to forget, the 2007 Barolos. Many of these new releases were some of the best wines released for the regions & varietals that I mentioned above. 

With that being said, I thought I'd compile a list of my top five wines from 2011, which are listed below.

1. 2008 Sassicaia: James Suckling gave it a whopping 97 points & said, "...This is the best young Sassicaia in years. It's the new 1988..." 1988 was a legendary vintage & trades for $450+ per bottle. Our current price of $169 for the 2008 vintage is a sick deal & should not be missed! This is a wine that should be in every wine collector's cellar.
   
2. 2006 Valdicava Brunello

In March last year, renowned wine critic, James Suckling, paid a visit to the Sokolin offices as part of his Retail Tasting series on www.jamessuckling.com.

We were excited to learn that just yesterday, James posted his Most Popular Videos of 2011 on his site, and the video of his visit to Sokolin took the #1 spot!

If you haven’t already seen the series on his site, check it out; his premise is very simple: Show him five wines we believe are worthy of 90 points or higher, for under $30. “No problem,” we said. We selected two whites and three reds for James to taste. The results? Five for Five!

The video is concluded with James tasting Waterstone, a staple wine of Sokolin and an absolute staff and client favorite in the value category ($19.95). James scored this wine 92 points and said “I score much lower wines that cost 5 times the price!” - James Suckling

For those of you looking for

With the ever growing craze for older wines, I have to say that I am loving older Rhones! I have been searching recently for back vintage wines from the Rhone region and have been picking up and drinking as many as possible to further understand and taste the greatness Syrah and Grenache can offer.

Last week when I was out to dinner at a local steakhouse, I had the chance to enjoy a Chateauneuf du Pape produced by Beaucastel, which is one of the great Rhone producers. Robert Parker has said, "...Beaucastel represents the highest level of serious, artisanal winemaking...Beaucastel is the most atypical wine of Chateauneuf du Pape, so different, it almost deserves its own appellation." - Robert Parker

This wine was from the 2000 vintage, and it was absolutely amazing! When you think about a wine drinking in its "prime," this is how I felt about the Beaucastel Chateauneuf du Pape. Cherries and red fruits encompassed the nose, but not before the Asian spice took its