Some highlights from the past weekend:
2013 Farella Merlot (Coombsville). This is definitely a Napa wine, but along with the rich Napa fruit there is a structure and balance and earthiness that I have enjoyed for some time! Farella has joined with Matthew Rorick and Poe in the very enjoyable Outlands tasting room cooperative in Downtown Napa. A very enjoyable place to taste-they have some excellent staff who know their stuff, and I like the gleaming white modern tasting room. The Forlorn Hope Semillon from Yountville is an amazingly bracing oyster wine!
2008 San Fereolo (Dogliani). This lovely, very Italian Dolcetto is all about licorice, herb, a delicious and fresh bitter note, and fantastic earthiness. Delicious! The winery holds its wines for 8 years before release! https://madrose.com/producers/italy/pie ... n-fereolo/ Interesting comparison to the Sam Bilbro (Rhys) Dolcetto we had last week. The latter was very, very young and had quite a tannic kick. Would be interesting to see how it ages!
2013 Preston Family Mouvedre (Dry Creek Valley). Much richer than the San Fereolo, this was still a fine Mouvedre on the plusher side of things. Huge plum fruit, but a touch of earth keeps things interesting.