California wines earn both of my Top Picks this month beginning with Pietra Santa’s 2006 Signature Collection Cabernet Sauvignon, a packed, powerful, yet charming Cabernet Sauvignon with nearly seven years of bottle age. Cabernet doesn’t get much better than Pietra Santa’s Signature Collection at less than $100.00 a bottle. My second Top Pick goes to Girard’s beautiful 2010 Russian River Chardonnay.
For my taste, this Chardonnay offers the ideal combination of fruit, butter, spice, and everything else that’s nice about California Chardonnay. In short, Girard’s Russian River Chardonnay comes across as impeccably balanced. However, I must confess that had it been a different month, I could easily have chosen Girard’s 2010 Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon as my second Top Pick. This youthful Napa Cabernet from a truly great vintage appears to have many great years of drinking pleasure ahead of it.
A votre santé.
Don
