Whites:
2006 Drystack Cellars, Sauvignon Blanc Rosemary’s Block:
Tropical scents and flavors but with excellent cut, good viscosity and balance with an underlying mineral streak. A personal favorite.
2003 Abbazia Di Novacella, Kerner:
Kerner is an ancient grape, probably more from Austria than the Alto Adige. This has an expansive nose and potent flavors with a smooth texture and a minerality that keeps it from being flamboyant. A rich wine with honeyed tones.
2005 Pieropan, Soave Classico:
A pretty, lightweight wine with much more delicate flavors than the rest of these whites and lighter in the mouth as well. Much as I enjoy Soave, I think I like Pieropan’s single vineyard bottlings better.
2005 Caprai, Grechetto dei Colli Martani Grecante:
100% grechetto, this has a resinous quality to accent its white fruit and excellent acidity; flavors are citric and mineral and the structure is taut; long finish. My first grechetto and so fully flavored for a lean wine I will look for it again.
Reds:
1996 Lynch-Bages:
I last tasted this three years ago when its most striking quality was how “California” the flavors and structure seemed; it is now Bordeaux, or more precisely, Paulliac with leather, tobacco, mint/sage, underbrush tones with clean black and red fruits all in a focused, mid-weight package with good grip and balance. Still youthful and linear but this showed pretty well after several hours in the decanter.
1996 Feudi San Gregorio, Serpico:
100% aglianico, it was fragrant and spicy on the nose with earthy elements in the back ground; big wine but not ponderous with solid black fruit and earth accents, a bit monolithic now, I suspect this still needs years to resolve. Even so, well-balanced and certainly of its place.
1996 Dom. Clavel, La Copa Santa:
A little more new world in style than the foregoing reds with some oak on the nose with dark fruit and pencil shavings; worsted texture on the palate and good density and balance and fine length. A little more polished than I like but well-made and quite good with pork roast.
Best, Jim