Our June Collector Series wines offer what I like to think of as ideal summer wines. But, this month I can’t just choose two. Tie goes to the runner in baseball, and as baseball is the nation’s summer pastime I’m going to adopt that rule this month. So, my first Top Pick belongs to Josh Bergström’s incredibly elegant and pure 2009 Old Stones Chardonnay, a wine that started out great and keeps getting better. This is a tiny production Chardonnay from Bergström, who is best known for his incredible Pinot Noirs. But what most people don’t realize, Josh is equally adept at fashioning compelling white wines, including Old Stones Chardonnay. My second Top Pick is a tie between Josep Grau’s deep, pure 2010 Vespres Montsant and the 2009 Château Fourcas-Borie Listrac Médoc. Grau’s Vespres is born of old vines of Garnacha (80% Grenache) and Samsó (20% Carignan), many of which are100 years of age, and the wine’s got it all going on: an opaque purple robe, a heavenly aroma, and a boatload of flavors that gush from the glass. Equally compelling but totally different in flavor and style is the Fourcas-Borie, a polished, beautiful Médoc from an outstanding Bordeaux vintage. It’s truly a sleeper of the vintage, but just don’t take my word for it. You can ask Mr. Robert Parker and other critics, or better still, taste it yourself. A votre santé.
Don
