In January, The International Wine of the Month Club’s Premier Series is delighted to offer four exciting world-class wines from around the world, beginning with the concentrated 2021 La Planta Ribera del Duero. This textbook Ribera del Duero reveals its charm, beginning with a deep cherry red and violet-rimmed color and tantalizing aromatics. Bright red raspberry and cherry scents waft from the glass to greet the nose. In the mouth, the medium-bodied, yet boldly flavored 2021 La Planta Ribera del Duero reveals both elegance and concentration as it entertains the palate with a delightful mélange of red fruits, cacao, and dark spices. Supple tannins and a light patina of oak from spending 6 months in American and French oak barrels provide an ideal frame for the wine’s savory notes. Enjoy!
Our next Premier Series feature is the 2022 Château La Gabarre Bordeaux Blanc, another great success from the Gabard family who continue to fashion superb Bordeaux Blanc by blending Bordeaux’s two most important white grape varieties: Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon. The 2022 Château La Gabarre Bordeaux Blanc delights the eye with its brilliant sun-splashed color and entices the nose with a sensuous bouquet of citrus, freshly cut melon, and mango, all infused with a delightful touch of Sauvignon Blanc herbaceousness. The wine’s sensual appeal continues in the mouth where a mélange of suffused fruit and minerals flow gracefully across the tongue. Add the gentle roundness and refined texture from Semillon, and this classic Bordeaux Blanc delights from start to finish. In fact, we found the 2022 Château La Gabarre Bordeaux Blanc truly hard to resist. Salut!
This month’s next special red wine is the elegant, charming 2020 Bodega Renacer Punto Final Malbec Reserve (92 Points – Tim Atkin MW and 90 Points – Wine Advocate). Produced organically from vines more than 50 years of age and arrayed in a regal violet robe, while offering heady aromatics, the 2020 Bodega Renacer Punto Final Malbec Reserva had us from the very first sip. Enchanting scents of blueberry, strawberry, and woodland violets mingled with light earth and spice tones greet the nose. The wine’s berry flavors and heady aromatics carry through to the mouth where they flow on fine-grained tannins. As an added delight, chocolate and roasted coffee tones emerge with aeration to complement the wine’s juicy fruit and floral tones. Elegant, yet full of flavor, the 2020 Bodega Renacer Punto Final Malbec Reserva reminds us of the finest Malbec wines of Cahors, the original Malbec of southwest France. Aged for ten months in French barriques and bottled unfiltered, this organically produced vegan friendly Malbec combines the best of New World and Old World Malbec, making it fascinating and hard to resist. Enjoy!
Rounding out this month’s Premier Series is the 2022 Gruber Röschitz By Nature Niederösterreich Riesling. This graceful Riesling bears no resemblance to the Rieslings of yesteryear. Pale yellow in color and delicately floral with the scents of white peach, green apple, and lemon zest, the organically produced 2022 By Nature Riesling exudes vitality and charm. Initially soft and delicate in the mouth, almost spritely, Gruber’s 2022 Röschitz By Nature Riesling graces the palate with lovely floral flavors before the wine’s minerality and refreshing acidity emerge in the form of a citrus twist. The youthful, but balanced, 2022 Gruber Röschitz By Nature Riesling comes together nicely, finishing with a flourish and exiting with verve and vitality. Enjoy!
The International Wine of the Month Club’s Collectors Series is proud to offer three exceptional wines from three world-renowned estates and appellations. This month’s odyssey begins with the 2020 Domaine Raspail-Ay Gigondas. Domaine Raspail-Ay continues to fashion outstanding Gigondas and garner tremendous critical acclaim, including for the estate’s 2020 Gigondas (95 Points – Vinous and 95 Points – Jeb Dunnuck). The 2020 Raspail-Ay Gigondas is ripe, succulent, and scented with dark cherry, raspberry, and exotic floral tones. Floral, herbal, and downright seductive, the 2020 Domaine Raspail-Ay Gigondas coats the mouth with rich berry tones, deft touches of sandalwood, and garrigue. Expansive and powerful in the mouth, the 2020 Raspail-Ay Gigondas just keeps on coming, delivering a boatload of flavors, all beautifully wrapped in lush tannins. Dominque Ay and family have quite possibly fashioned their greatest wine to date in the superlative 2020 Domaine Raspail-Ay Gigondas. Salut!
Next in line is the highly allocated 2021 Chartron et Trebuchet Beauroy Premier Cru Chablis. Crystalline, structured, and supremely elegant, the brilliant 2021 Chartron et Trébuchet Beauroy Premier Cru Chablis embodies the very best attributes of the venerable Chablis appellation (97 Points – Decanter). It is sensuous and beguiling with intense citrus and floral scents infused with the region’s distinctive minerality – the very hallmarks of the greatest Premier Cru Chablis. Expressive and round in the mouth, the 2021 Chartron et Trébuchet Beauroy Premier Chablis delivers its full, rich flavors with laser-like precision. Add Chablis’s propensity for imparting a faint savor of the sea from the region’s Kimmeridgian soil and Chartron et Trébuchet’s 2021 Beauroy Premier Cru Chablis beckons from the time it is poured clear through to its long, lingering, perfectly dry finish. This is Premier Cru Chablis at its best. Although still in its infancy, the 2021 Chartron et Trébuchet Beauroy Premier Cru Chablis offers exciting drinking pleasure now, though it will surely continue to improve in bottle to provide superb drinking pleasure for a decade or more. Enjoy!
Completing this month’s Collectors Series is an exceptional Burgundian Pinot Noir, the aromatic, lithe, and quietly seductive 2021 Domaine Gille Grandes Creusottes Bourgogne Côte d’Or Pinot Noir. This wine truly highlights young Matthieu Gille’s consummate winemaking skills. Sporting a bright ruby color as well as the juicy scents of wild strawberries and red raspberries, this wine had us on the first sip. Yet, the best was still to come. Smoothness and grace are the calling cards of Domaine Gille’s 2021 Grandes Creusottes Bourgogne Côte d’Or Pinot Noir, which graces the palate with feminine charm, perfumed fruit, and juicy acidity. This 2021 Burgundian Pinot Noir is traditional red burgundy, so there’s no brawn or mouth puckering tannins to contend with, only the delicate, pretty essence of unadulterated Pinot Noir. Enjoy!
