We have several inspired offerings in store for you this month, but I have to admit the French really did their homework this time around.  Consequently, my two Top Picks this month go to Château Laplagnotte Bellevue’s stunning 2010 St. Emilion Grand Cru and Verget’s outstanding 2011 Pouilly-Fuissé.  For starters, Château Laplagnotte Bellevue is a splendid property whose star continues to rise.  Secondly, the 2010 vintage turned in a command performance in Bordeaux, and the folks at Château Laplagnotte Bellevue took full advantage of the splendid weather conditions throughout the vintage and fashioned their finest wine to date.  Furthermore, Château Laplagnotte Bellevue’s full throttle St. Emilion Grand Cru drinks great now but will pay even greater dividends if allowed to rest for at least several more years in bottle.  It will then provide outstanding drinking for up to a decade or more.  And then, there’s Verget’s gorgeous 2011 Pouilly-Fuissé.  It’s the real deal.  Most other Pouilly-Fuissé producers can only dream of fashioning a wine as pure and flavorful as this.  So, what can you expect from this wine?  Let’s say elegance, flavor and supreme drink ability: Verget’s Pouilly-Fuissé is the kind of wine I want to drink all night long.  Taste and see for yourself.  A votre santé.

This month’s Top Picks provide a little personal drama.  For starters, Querciola’s Barbera d’Alba and Domaine de la Collonge’s Macon-Fuissé have been perennial favorites, but then so have Casa Silva’s delicious Reserva Carmenère and Lawson’s Gewurztraminer.  Yet, I have to admit that one would be hard pressed to find a better Barbera d’Alba than Querciola’s 2010.  Ripe, juicy and bursting with flavor Querciola’s 2010 Barbera d’Alba charmed the panel with its array of crisp abundant flavors.  Consequently, it gets my first Top Pick.

That said, I love good Carmenère, so it would be easy for me to choose Casa Silva’s excellent 2010 Reserva Carmenère as my other top choice, but I wouldn’t be able to sleep tonight if I did.  Why?  It’s not that the wine is undeserving.  To the contrary, nobody consistently turns out better Carmenère than Casa Silva.  However, Lawson’s Dry Hills Gewurztraminer is unquestionably the finest New or Old World Gewurztraminer I have had the pleasure to drink in quite awhile, so it wins Top Pick this time around.  I think it’s difficult to get Gewurztraminer just right – not too sweet, not to bitter – but Lawson’s managed to arrive at the perfect spot for my taste.  More importantly, it paired superbly with a variety of dishes and made believers out of many who were prepared not to like Gewurztraminer.  In short, Lawson’s hit a home run with their 2010 Gewurztraminer.   A votre santé.

This month’s first Top Pick goes to Pietra Santa’s 2009 Sassolino.  Winemaker Allesio Carli has fashioned an exemplary Super Tuscan style red in California from Sangiovese and Cabernet Sauvignon grapes that should absolutely not be missed.  And although this year’s Sassolino could be labeled as Sangiovese (as it contains 80% of that varietal), Pietra Santa has wisely stuck with Sassolino, the wine’s proprietary name.  Sassolino is its own wine.  The 2009 Sassolino comes across as rich, powerful, and beautifully polished.  It’s a pleasure to drink now, and if previous vintages of Sassolino are any indication, Pietra Santa’s 2009 Sassolino will evolve over the next five or more years and provide even greater joy with each passing year.  My other Top Pick causes me a bit of anxiety because Nidia’s 2011 Verdejo and Edgebaston’s Honey Pot drink beautifully in their respective categories and have garnered a lot of friends.  Nonetheless, I have to go with Edgebaston’s 2010 The Berry Box as my second Top Pick: it’s an artful blend of grapes that expresses everything good about blending multiple grape varieties and the work that David Finlayson is doing on the Cape of South Africa.  Juicy, tasty, and downright delicious is how I describe it.  A votre santé.

Don

I really like the variety as well as the quality of this month’s features, so I may as well throw a dart at the labels of this month’s offerings and whatever labels the first two darts land upon get to be Top Picks.  All right, I suppose that won’t do.  Consequently, it would be a crime to leave out Querciola’s 2008 Barolo.  Barolo is one of Italy’s top two wines.  Among Italian wines, only Brunello di Montalcino can compete in price, quality, and overall regard with Barolo.  Secondly, 2008 is an excellent vintage in Barolo and should not to be missed by serious wine lovers.  And most importantly, Querciola fashions beautiful, elegant Barolo.  So, Querciola’s 2008 Barolo merits the honor of this month’s first Top Pick.  Now, it gets more complicated.  Morgadio’s 2011 Albarino could easily serve as the poster child for Albarino, Spain’s top white grape variety.  But Losada’s 2009 Bierzo Mencia is simply knock out gorgeous.  Our tasting panels couldn’t get enough of this Mencia, made from the ancient Mencia grape variety that has really come into its own in the last decade.  So, if I have to choose, Losada’s 2009 Mencia gets my other vote for Top Pick.  It is one of a hand full of wonderful Mencia wines that have convinced me of the greatness of the varietal.   A votre santé.

 Don

This month’s two Top Picks have earned a place at my table, and from the recent reviews of these wines quite a few folks will wish they had discovered these beauties when we did, before their reviews came out in the international press.  For starters, the 2006 Valenciso Reseva Rioja earns this month’s first Top Pick.  A worthy successor to Valenciso’s outstanding 2005 Reserva Rioja, one would be hard pressed to find better Rioja than Luis Valentin’s suave, complex, age worthy 2006 Reserva.  It’s almost a shame to drink this newly released Reserva now, as it has such a great life ahead of it, but better now than never.  For members who are patient enough to give this collectable wine a bit more time in bottle, the word sublime will be more than fitting.  My second Top Pick goes to Silvio Grasso’s elegant, regal 2008 Barolo.  Wow!  One gets a lot of bang for the buck from this wine.  Grasso’s style of Barolo weds power to finesse, and in doing so Federico Grasso captures in this wine the ultimate expression of La Morra, traditionally the most elegant of Barolo wines.  I truly enjoyed this beautiful Barolo just recently, even at such a tender age.  But I also want some of Silvio Grasso’s 2006 Barolo in my cellar so I can enjoy this noble wine as it evolves over the next 5-10 years.  My Top Picks are not meant to detract from the magnificent 2009 Gini La Frosca.  It is a captivating white wine, and at its peak of perfection. So, if you really want to live right, invite a couple of friends over and serve a bottle of the 2009 Gini La Frosca as an opening act to Silvio Grasso’s Barolo.  You’ll be glad you did.  A votre santé.

Don

This month’s first Top Pick is a no brainer.  The 2009 Château Barreyre clearly stands out as an extraordinary example of what Bordeaux can deliver for a price most of us can afford.  The prodigy of an overachieving Petit Château in a fabulous vintage the 2009 Château Barreyre delivers everything one could ask from a top notch Petit Château: an alluring  aromatic profile, plenty of up front cassis fruit, a nuanced complex mid-palate, and just enough ripe tannins to further its development for several more years.  Drink this wine happily now and over the next four or five years.  My second Top is more problematic.  The 2011 Vesevo Falanghina is a delicious white wine from Italy’s Campania and the finest Falanghina we have tasted from this excellent winery.  However, two other outstanding features make this month’s second Top Pick a tough choice.  Bisci’s 2011 Verdicchio Matelica remains a personal favorite because I find it simply hard to resist as an aperitif or accompaniment to seafood, but then there’s the exuberant 2011 Gormaz Ribera del Duero: it may just be the best value in Tempranillo from Spain’s legendary Ribera del Duero.  So, who gets the crown?  It truly depends upon one’s preferences and what accompanies the wine, but pushed to make a decision I have to opt for Vesevo’s 2011 Falanghina.  Falanghina is an ancient varietal that is little known in America.  It’s excellent with seafood and holds up well to spicy sauces.  If you have never tried a Falanghina, it’s about time you did. 

A votre santé.

 Don

With Rhône wines on my mind and a plethora of splendid wines from the Rhône Valley from which to choose, my first Top Pick this month is a no brainer.  Domaine du Vieux Lazaret’s 2009 Châteauneuf-du-Pape covets the first spot.  It’s a wonderful Châteauneuf-du-Pape from an outstanding vintage.  Enjoy it now or lay it away for a couple more years to gain further depth and complexity.  The second Top Pick is a bit more challenging.  Why?  Caggiano’s 2011 Fiagre is a unique wine that offers tremendous personality as well as pleasure, but then there is Château St. Eulalie’s splendid 2009 cru Livinière La Cantilène from the finest area of the ancient appellation of Minervois.  So, my second Top Pick depends upon whether I am hankering for a delicious white wine or an equally satisfying red wine.  In an ideal world, one serves both wines on the same evening with respective courses, and both become Top Picks.  Come to think of it, that’s my plan, and I’m sticking to it.  Why not try it, too?  A votre santé.