The varietal: 100% Chardonnay
Why you should buy it: It’s about as Burgundian a California wine as you’re likely to encounter. The combination of an uncommonly cool growing season and some nifty tricks with malolactic fermentation resulted in a very crisp wine that is high in acidity.
What it tastes like: Tropical fruits, butter, lemon, a little vanilla…there’s lots of stuff going in there, baby!
What to serve it with: How about some grapes? Or is that just plain mean?
Say this and sound smart: The barrels this wine was stored in were stirred by hand three times a week to enrich the wine with viscous manoproteins and polysaccharides released from the fermentation lees.
The price: $25
Ghost Pines Cabernet Sauvignon 2005
The blend: 80% cabernet sauvignon, 7% syrah,4% petite verdot, 4% malbec, 4% merlot
Why you should buy it: This new venture sources fruit from vineyards in Napa and Sonoma Counties … plus, did you see all those varietals in the blend – these guys are WORKING IT!
What it tastes like: If blueberry pancakes smothered in Aunt Jemima syrup were a wine instead of a delicious breakfast dish, it would taste like this. The Ghost Pines cab is a big fat dense beefy red that you can totally jam out to. Jam? Get it?
What to serve it with: Beef. It’s what’s for dinner.
Say this and sound smart: A Ghost, or Grey Pine, is a tree indigenous to Northern California.
The price: $23
Tenuta di Arceno PrimaVoce 2004
The blend: 85% merlot, 15% cabernet sauvignon
Why you should buy it: Because the ’04 merlot grape
crop in Tuscany was exceptional. The PrimaVoce is a
Super Tuscan, and super things are cool. Superman.
Super Bowl. Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious. See
what I mean?
What it tastes like: Have you ever enjoyed a Right
Bank Bordeaux? This tastes like one of those. Think
chocolate-covered cherries on a bed of roses.
What to serve it with: Sausage. Lots and lots of
sausage. I’m talking “crowd at a UFC championship
fight” amounts of sausage.
Say this and sound smart: “PrimaVoce means ‘first
voice’ in an opera.”
The price: $20
Website: www.tenutadiarceno.com
The grape: Take a guess.
Why you should buy it: Because malbecs made in America (this one’s from Monterey County) are a rare breed indeed, and Lockwood’s inaugural vintage knocked our socks off. The lesson here – don’t buy cheap socks. Get the good ones with the strong elastic.
What it tastes like: Blueberries sprayed with firm tannin sauce (if such a thing existed).
What to serve it with: We had the Lockwood malbec with a grilled cheese sandwich and it was supercalifragilisticexpialidocious.
Say this and sound smart: The idea that palladium or titanium might catalyze fusion stems from the special ability of these metals to absorb large quantities of hydrogen (including its deuterium isotope), the hope being that deuterium atoms would be close enough together to induce fusion at ordinary temperatures.
The price: $14
Website: www.lockwood-wine.com
RED by St. Francis 2004
Why you should buy it: Because it's a really tasty table wine at a great price. Plus, it's got a cool label ... twelve of them, actually.
The blend: 60% merlot, 29% cabernet sauvignon, 7% cab franc, 4% zinfandel
What it tastes like: It's got a strong red wine quality to it
What to serve it with: Braised short ribs, pasta puttanesca, pizzetta, lasagna. Perfect for a laid-back dinner with friends.
Say this and sound smart: Having the fewest wants, I am nearest to the gods.
The price: $13
