Vinopolis Newsletter 5-31-24

Special Arrivals: Willamette Wonders




Ayres Vineyard.
 

Ayres Willamette Valley Pinot Noir, Oregon, USA 2022 750ml $21.90 special, 24 bottles
Winery Notes “Mother Nature over-achieved with this vintage, allowing them to make an abundance of gorgeous Pinot Noir. You will notice both red and dark fruit profiles: dark cherry, boysenberry, and blueberry come to mind. You will also appreciate spices such as cinnamon and clove. This fruit forward wine also delivers a delicious dose of earthiness.”

 
Average listed price is $27 in the USA
 

Ayres Perspective Pinot Noir, Ribbon Ridge, USA 2022 750ml $30.90 special, 12 bottles available
Winery Notes “A true snapshot of the Ribbon Ridge AVA! Our estate vines pair perfectly with neighboring vines from Armstrong and Lichtenwalter vineyards. Enjoy notes of boysenberry, cinnamon, and dried tobacco.”

 
Westrey Wine Company.
 

Westrey Pinot Noir, Willamette Valley, USA 2021 750ml $24 special, 12 bottles available
Winery Note “A harmonious wine with strawberries and cherries on the nose, and bright, ample fruit on the palate. Very food friendly; we love it with meats straight off the grill.”
 
Westrey Pinot Noir ‘Nadja,’ Willamette Valley, USA 2021 750ml $49 special, 6 bottles available
Winery Note “Our pick of the vintage! Blackberry and cherry fruits are enriched by clove and earth on the palate. It is showing beautifully now, and will age for at least a decade.”

 

 

Bethel Heights Vineyard Estate Grown Pinot Noir, Eola-Amity Hills, USA 2022 750ml $34.50 special, 12 bottles available
Wine Spectator 92 Points “Taut and vibrant, with a steely core of acidity and tannins that drives the flavors of raspberry, cranberry and dusky spices toward the firm finish. Best from 2025 through 2031.”
 
Evesham Wood Willamette Valley Pinot Noir, USA 2022 750ml $24 special, 24 bottles available
Winery Notes “This vintage of the WV blend shows a bright nose with cherry, red apple, fresh flowers, and a touch of loam along with a textural creamy/silkiness component that’s balanced by juicy acid. Showing well now, watch this wine evolve over the next 8-10 years.”
 
Flaneur Wines Pinot Noir, Willamette Valley, USA 2022 750ml $28 special, 27 bottles available
Staff Notes “This pinot noir is juicy, concentrated, and full of darker berry fruit and spice showing on the nose and palate. The structure has bright acidity and a long finish and is very approachable. This wine is ready to drink now and makes the perfect pairing pinot!”
 
Lundeen ‘Mon Pere’ Estate Pinot Noir, Willamette Valley, USA 2021 750ml $26.50 special, 12 bottles available
Winemaker’s Note “Meaning ‘My Father’ in French, “Mon Pere” is meant to honor my father and fathers everywhere while providing tremendous value in a Willamette Valley Pinot Noir. As such, it is the flagship bottling and largest production wine Lundeen makes to be able to reach far and wide with the message of valuing family, integrity, and stewardship. The creation of the wine always begins with grapes from the Lundeen Estate vineyard on which I am a 3rd generation Lundeen raising a 4th.

 
Browse the Willamette on the web! Click here to check out our full Oregon wine selection online
 
Special Collector’s Arrival 

 
Montevertine.

“This is one of the best wines from this vintage in the region for sure.”
–Monica Lerner, The Wine Advocate
 

Montevertine Le Pergole Torte 2020 750ml $234.50 special, 9 bottles available
Vinous 98 Points “The 2020 Le Pergole Torte is a total stunner. Rich, sumptuous and layered, the 2020 possesses exceptional balance and class to burn. The 2020 is an opulent, racy and super-expressive wine with no hard edges and exceptional balance. Readers will find a super-classic Pergole Torte endowed with tremendous fruit purity. Dark-toned fruit, lavender, sage, graphite and spice build into a potent laced with a kiss of French oak and enough tannin to ensure fabulous development in the cellar.”
Wine Advocate 96 Points “This latest vintage of one of Italy’s most important wines has an almost choreographed delivery with dramatic pause and high crescendos as it unfolds over the palate. The Montevertine 2020 Le Pergole Torte feels initially shy, but that is a fleeting impression because its all-around intensity builds beautifully upon dark cherry, blackcurrant, spice, iris root and warm earth.”

 
We have more from Montevertine, click here to shop!
 
New Arrivals
 
 

 
Siduri Wines.
 

 

Like another Vinopolis favorite, Failla, Siduri’s dedication to exploring the best cool-climate Pinot Noir sites on the West Coast, has taken them from their origins in California to the Willamette Valley in their quest. The wines are unfiltered and unfined to make sure as little winery influence interferes with the wine’s terroir as possible.
 

The 2021 Willamette Valley Pinot Noir comes from vineyards in two distinctive appellations within the Willamette Valley: Yamhill-Carlton and Eola-Amity – plus a third vineyard in the Southern Willamette Valley, Maple Grove, that adds structure and richness.
Siduri Pinot Noir, Willamette Valley, USA 2021 750ml $31.90 special, 24 bottles available
Wine Advocate 93 Points “Matured for 10 months in 25% new French oak, the 2021 Pinot Noir Willamette Valley has savory scents of cranberry sauce, blackberries, woodsmoke, tobacco and forest floor. The medium-bodied palate features generous, crunchy fruit and spicy accents. It has a silky texture, mouthwatering acidity and a long, expressive finish. 17,500 cases produced.”

The Willamette Valley Chardonnay is a blend of Maple Grove and Gran Moraine vineyards. About 10% was fermented in stainless steel to preserve floral aromatics with a few vineyard sections fermented in concrete eggs.
Siduri Chardonnay, Willamette Valley, USA 2020 750ml $21.90 special, 36 bottles available
Wine Advocate 93 Points “The 2020 Chardonnay Willamette Valley was matured for 10 months in 25% new French oak. It has youthful aromas of yellow peach and apples, cashews, toast and creamy undertones. The medium-bodied palate features generous, layered flavors delivered in an alluringly creamy texture. It has a foil of bright acidity and a long, energetic finish. 3,600 cases were made.

 
 

 

Domaine Arnaud Lambert Cremant de Loire Blanc NV 750ml $21.90 special, 21 bottles available
90% Chenin Blanc, 10% Chardonnay
Importer Note “Vine Age: Planted in 1990. Terroir: From the Clos of the Château, 60 cm deep silt and clay sand soil on a soft Turonian limestone bedrock. Viticulture: Organic (certified). Vinification: Indigenous yeast fermentation. Aged for 24 months.” 
 

ITALY
 

 
Generations before Sicily became a viticultural hotspot, The Gurrieri family has been tending and harvesting vineyards (and olive trees) in the shadows of the Iblei Mountains, a limestone bed of fertile land called the Val di Noto, in Southern Sicily. While they are growers of exquisite Grillo, it’s the reds we want to bring to your attention today:
 
Cerasuolo di Vittoria, Sicily’s only DOCG is a red blend that must be 50-70% Nero d’Avola with Frappato as the balance varietal. Meaning “cherry from Vittoria” these wines are vivid in red color and red fruit flavor, offering the boldest wine currently from Gurrieri.
Gurrieri Cerasuolo di Vittoria DOCG, Italy 2021 750ml $21.90 special, 12 bottles available
Made of a blend of Nero d’Avola (Frappato 45%, Nero d’Avola 55%), estate-grown in vineyards near Chiaramonte Gulfi, in the Contradas Ponte, Biviere e Fegotto. The soils are a calcareous mixture of clay and sand, at just under 300 meters (1,000 feet) above sea level. The grapes are picked at moderate ripeness (with care to avoid over-ripeness, in other words, in this hot climate) around mid-October; fermentation is carried out with indigenous yeasts, and maceration with the skins lasts for about 3 weeks. After fermentation the wine is aged on the lees in the tank for a further 2 weeks, then racked and aged in a tank for 18 months.
 
Lighter in profile, Gurrieri’s Frappato is a fantastic red wine to drink in the summer months, especially as a beverage while you grill. You see Siciliy is not just a viticultural hotspot, the Southern end of the island is in the same latitude as North Africa. It’s easy to bake under the Sun there. Chill this wine down to see a Sicilian farmer’s favorite way to beat the heat!
Gurrieri Frappato Vittoria, Sicily, Italy 2022 750ml $21.90 special, 12 bottles available
Made entirely of Frappato grapes, planted in 2008, estate-grown in the parishes of Ponte and Fegotto, near Chiaramonte Gulfi. These vineyards are of reddish iron-rich sand interspersed with layers of clay, at about 280 meters (900 feet) above sea level; the climate is very hot but with cooler night-time temperature (which leads to better acidity in the grapes). The fruit is harvested in several passes, at moderate ripeness, normally around the middle of September; the grapes are lightly crushed and fermented at controlled temperature in stainless steel tanks using indigenous yeasts. Maceration is around two weeks. The wine is aged in stainless steel for 9 months before bottling.
 

 
Tenuta delle Terre Nere Rosato Etna, Sicily, Italy 2022 750ml $24 special, 24 bottles available
Wine Advocate 94 Points “I only tasted the 2020 Aguja del Fraile because there is not a single bottle of the 2019 in their cellar. This is their village red that contains around 5% Cariñena that fermented together with the Garnacha using full clusters and a longer maceration of 54 days. They also added some new plots in the paraje of La Isilla in this bottling. It has 14.5% alcohol and a pH of 3.29 coupled with 6.35 grams of acidity. This 2020 fermented in an oak vat (it used to be stainless steel and plastic bins in the past), and that seems to have given it an extra dimension. There’s more fruit and an earthy character, and it has the Italian tannins from Cadalso. It’s more structured than the wines from Cenicientos, wines that develop very nicely in bottle. This is seriously built, with an electric freshness.“
 
SPAIN
 

 
Alberto Nanclares, an economist who loved the sea, moved with his wife to Castrelo, a small town near Spain’s Atlantic Coast, and began to take an interest in the Albarino vines planted on his new property. Interest turned to love which turned to obsession and in 1997 he decided to found his own winery.
 
Silvia Prieto, a local technician and enologist came to work for him as a consultant, but she soon became an equal partner in the operation. The duo has become a phenomenon in the world of Spanish white wines, producing high quality Albarinos with the capability of aging beautifully for years. The essence of their approach is reverence for the vineyards, which includes a commitment to organic farming and native yeast fermentation.
 
Nanclares Y Prieto ‘O Bocoi Vello de Silva’ Albarino, Rias Baixas, Spain 2021 750ml $39 special, 18 bottles available
Wine Advocate 94 Points “The 2021 O Bocoi Vello de Silvia comes from three vineyards and was foot trodden, then fermented and matured in a very old chestnut cask (“bocoi” is a large oak cask). It’s very perfumed and aromatic. It had some time with the skins early on, and that made it very expressive, with a little deeper color and nose. The palate is vibrant and sharp, with 11% alcohol and notable acidity, a little lighter than the 2022. There were 2,500 bottles produced.”
 
Nanclares y Prieto ‘Crisopa’ Branco Tradicional, Galicia, Spain 2021 750ml $59 special, 4 bottles available
Wine Advocate 94 Points “The skin-contact, orange Albariño 2021 Crisopa, sold without appellation of origin, was produced with grapes from Finca Casal (it used to come from the same vineyard as Soverribas), a change they did in 2020. It was foot trodden and fermented with the skins for around one month and put in a 500-liter French oak barrel. The result is different every vintage, and in 2021, it has only 11% alcohol, notes of peach and yellow fruit, with a light to medium-bodied palate and contained volatile acidity, hints of skins and very fine tannins. This is a little lighter and more civilized, with only 11% alcohol, which is the character of the cooler 2021.”
 
Nanclares y Prieto  Albarino Porta Franca, Spain 2021 750ml $49 special, 12 bottles available
Wine Advocate 94 Points “The no-sulfur-added 2021 Porta Franca Aberta is Albariño from a vineyard in Dena. It is expressive and vibrant, with moderate alcohol (12%), very alive and fresh, tasty, with a salty twist. It was bottled directly from one 450-liter barrel that filled some 500 bottles.”
 
…also new from Naclares y Prieto:
 
Nanclares y Prieto ‘Alberto Nanclares’ Albarino, Rias Baixas, Spain 2021 750ml $49 special, 8 bottles available
Producer Notes “Albariño de Alberto Nanclares is Albariño from 8 of Alberto and Silvia’s parcels in Cambados and Portas: Soverribas, Praeira (Facho), Tomada de Juana, Albarellos, Senra, Gandarela, Freixido, and Monte Xago. The vines range in age from 15 to 45 years and the plots are largely east-facing and planted on a mix of decomposed granitic soils and sandy loam.  The grapes were harvested by hand, sorted, and gently pressed without destemming in whole-bunches using a pneumatic press. The juice ferments with its native yeasts in used French oak barrels, then rests on the lees for 9 months, with weekly batonnage for the first month.”