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Wine Scores
Below is a listing of the wine review scores we frequently reference in our notes. While these sources remain an excellent source of information, we always recommend that you trust your own palate. Scores in these publications often represent the personal taste of an individual critic, which may not always coincide with your own. We have a huge team of excellent wine professionals that can match wines you've had in the past with new arrivals that meet your flavor profile.
- Allen Meadows - Burghound
- Connoisseurs Guide
- Gambero Rosso
- Robert Parker's Wine Advocate
- International Wine Cellar
- Wine & Spirits
- Wine Enthusiast
- Wine Spectator
- The Wine News
- Malt Advocate
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Staff Favorites - Bryan Brick
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Reviews
2008 Alta Maria Vineyards Santa Maria Valley Pinot Noir
Review Date: 7-7-2010
Possibly the single best wine I tried over the last month was the 2008 Alta Maria Vineyards Santa Maria Valley Pinot Noir. This wine has the perfect combination of high quality, reasonable price and hopefully great demand. From James Ontiveros’, if the name sounds familiar it is because wineries like Loring, A.P. Vin, Dain and Hug use his estate vineyard Rancho Ontiveros. With a denser, riper take on Pinot that has become so welcomed by Central Coast Pinot drinkers this exudes a wonderful blend of black fruits, an herbal streak to add dimension and highlight the ripeness here and balancing earthy tones. Simply put this is an outstanding value.
Price: $22.99
2008 Green & Red "Chiles Canyon Vineyard" Napa Valley Zinfandel
Review Date: 7-7-2010
A new vintage of a hit wine from last year is the 2008 Green & Red “Chiles Canyon Vineyard” Napa Valley Zinfandel. Year after year Green & Red produce some of the best Zinfandels coming out of Napa. Maybe it is their unusual soil type, maybe it is their hillside vineyards or it could possibly be that they just don’t get too manipulative with their superb fruit, whatever it is it keeps working for us here at K&L. Asian spices and cola combine on the fruity yet well in check nose. The soft, pliable and dry palate is packed with fresh blackberry, cardamom, and ripe red currants. Add some typical Zin brambles and you have one heck of a bottle of wine for $20.
Price: $19.99
2009 Kathryn Kennedy Sauvignon Blanc
Review Date: 7-7-2010
The 2009 Kathryn Kennedy Sauvignon Blanc is simply delicious. While we can’t offer you the great “club” price that we had on the 2008 we can still rave about this nationally underrated producer. A touch grassier this year than last with a tangy nose of kiwi and quinine this seems to be a bit on the higher register side of SB. Add a ripe, broad mid-palate of candied lemon and orange peel and herbal notes of marjoram and lemongrass and this really becomes something complex. A long, muscular finish rounds out this tangy refresher. A domestic Sauvignon Blanc that can actually go with oysters quite well.
Price: $19.99
2007 Sausal "Family" Alexander Valley Zinfandel
Review Date: 7-7-2010
In the era of bombastic Zinfandels it really is the one that shows restraint, balance and integration that stands out from the rest. The 2007 Sausal “Family” Alexander Valley Zinfandel is just that kind of wine. Made from 100% dry farmed Zin that averages over 50 years of age this is a classier, more food friendly type of wine. With no residual sugar and plenty of briary blackberry, camphor, white pepper, green tea flavors. Long and building with a deep, dark finish there is a lot of wine here for well under $20. A versatile wine for the family table this will pair as well with a simple burger on the grill as it will with a slow cooked red sauce.
Price: $16.99
2007 Windstream "Sarmento Vineyard" Santa Lucia Highlands Chardonnay
Review Date: 7-7-2010
Oh big buttery Chards, how you make the world go round. How you can please so many with you texture and sheer weight. It is true that K&L can never have too much “big” Chardonnay especially for $20. Next in the seemingly never ending pipeline of California Chard hits is the 2007 Windstream “Sarmento Vineyard” Santa Lucia Highlands which knocked my socks off like the first time I heard Cheap Trick’s Live at Budokan record. With its pleasing nose of lemon blossom underneath the dominating honey and clove components this has richness abounds from the moment it hits the bottom of the glass. Fleshy and full weight with flavors of lemon custard, toasted brioche, butter crème and vanilla this is a perfect inexpensive substitute for any fan of Rombauer, Frank Family or other full throttle Chards.
Price: $19.99
2007 Fort Ross Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir
Review Date: 6-24-2010
Great vintage, great vineyard, great producer is a pretty good formula for making a top flight wine. The 2007 Fort Ross Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir is 100% estate fruit from one of the best vintages in Sonoma County in recent memory for Pinot Noir. If you haven’t ever heard of, or tasted, the wines from Fort Ross this is a perfect wine to show you the class and quality of this somewhat under the radar winery. A nose robustly packed with warm rhubarb pie, Rainier cherry, pomegranate and cedar shows wonderful clarity and poise. The fruit is ample and caressing on the palate with flavors of blood orange, fresh blackberry and a nice Oolong tea and fine white pepper spice. Weightless and airy this is precisely balance in terms of its texture, fruit, acid and tannin. Easily one of the top ten Pinot Noirs I’ve had all year.
Price: $29.99
2007 Walter Hansel "North Slope" Russian River Valley Pinot Noir
Review Date: 6-22-2010
There are just some things that you can count on in the wine business. There is always going to be more than one vintage of the decade in Bordeaux, any wine will be long sold out before it gets 100 points, and Walter Hansel will always produce one of the most delicious and affordable Pinots from Russian River Valley. The 2008 North Slope is no exception to that rule with wonderfully oaken framed red fruits on the nose and a sappy/juicy nature on the palate. This oozes fruit yet seems somehow refined. Plenty drinkable now this is going to be great with a high grade cheeseburger or seared Ahi.
Price: $35.99
2008 Hobo Wine Company Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon
Review Date: 6-17-2010
"Now, don't worry. I'm not a stabbing hobo. I'm a singing hobo." Hobo from The Simpsons. Never has there been a better quote snatched out of a great television show and used totally out of context to describe a wine. The 2008 Hobo Wine Company Alexander Valley Cabernet Sauvignon is not your over the top, “stabbing” wine, it is one that charms with “song.” The surprisingly low 13.1% ABV is the first hint of this wines nature. Carob, cocoa nibs, fresh red currants and fried sage combine gracefully on the nose. Bright and lively with a medium weight, this perfectly expresses the lighter, juicier side of Sonoma County Cabernet. Soft with lovely pliable tannins this wine is packed with ripe plum, cedar, cherry pie and cocoa powder flavors. Easy to drink now yet structured enough for a number of years of rest in a cellar this like hopping a train in Cleveland and finding out it is headed to the California Coast!
Price: $17.99
2008 Clayhouse "Adobe White" Central Coast White Blend
Review Date: 6-3-2010
This is the wine that will keep you fueled and refreshed while sitting or standing for hours on end on a hot day in front of a much hotter grill. A blend of 22% Viognier, 18% Sauvignon Blanc, 17% Grenache Blanc, 16% Roussanne, 6% Chardonnay, 5% Chenin Blanc and 16% Princess, which is somewhat akin to Muscat but has no seeds, is perfect for keeping your thirst quenched. Flavors of honeysuckle, jasmine, cantaloupe and passion fruit are wildly expressive and keep you coming back for more. I’m incredibly tough on blends like this but this one passed with flying colors keeping the acidity high and the residual sugar to a noticeable minimum.
Price: $11.99
2007 Novy Napa Valley Syrah
Review Date: 6-1-2010
Some of you may be more familiar with Novy’s Sister label Siduri which focuses on Pinot Noir from numerous sights in the US. Quietly Novy, the label that Adam and Dianna Lee have made to focus Syrah and Zinfandel, has been cranking out affordably priced offerings from some of the best vineyards in California. The Napa Valley bottling is predominately from the Page Nord Vineyard at the southern end of Napa Valley. Truly Rhone in style, something akin to St. Joseph, this is a wonderfully spicy, savory effort. The nose resonates with its charred meat, mesquite, olive and sandalwood notes. Packed and dense this could use a bit of air if you wanted to drink it right away and would benefit from a year or two in the cellar. Cassis, fried sage, dried meats, black raspberry and cinnamon are all tightly wound yet inviting on the palate. A superfine wave of tannin appears towards the back leaving one to have a hankering for a nice piece of lamb or possibly some cassoulet.
Price: $19.99
2008 Ridge Vineyards "Geyserville" Sonoma Zinfandel
Review Date: 6-1-2010
Over the last 40+ years the “Geyserville” bottling from Ridge Vineyards has been one of the best, if not on many occasions the best, Zinfandel based bottling to come out of California. Simply put, nobody does Zinfandel better than Ridge. Few, if any have the irrefutable track record of Ridge and the 2008 Geyserville only adds to that legacy. A blend this year of 72 % Zinfandel, 20% Carignane, 6% Petite Sirah and 2% Mataro the Geyserville is both instantly accessible and age worthy. The nose is surprisingly ripe fruited with showy notes of briary blackberry, Kalamata olives, cranberry, white pepper and laces of oak toast. As typical for this bottling structure comes in spades on the palate with a dollop of dusty tannins and a long bursting finish. Flavors of clay, anise seed, dried raspberry, mocha and black coffee are perfectly meshed and the sense of weight here is outstanding. It really doesn’t get any better than this.
Price: $29.99
2008 Cadaretta "SBS" Columbia Valley Sauvignon Blanc-Sémillon
Review Date: 5-25-2010
Coming in at 79% Sauvignon Blanc and 21% Sémillon this is one of the wines Mike and I found back in the WA/OR scouting mission of 2008. The 2007 vintage was one of our favorite wines, not to mention loved by most of the customers we talked into buying it, and the 2008 is every bit as good. With bright aromas of grapefruit peel, fresh alfalfa, Meyer lemon and quartz this is a perfect spring-time white. On the palate it adds richness from the Semillon in a waxy, textural way adding dimension and heft to the pomelo, tangerine and crème bruleé flavors.
Price: $19.99
2009 Cep (Peay Vineyards) "Nobles Ranch" Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir Rosé
Review Date: 5-25-2010
Everyone needs rosé this time of year and I’ve already found my go to, the 2009 Cep Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir Rosé ($18.99) is simply crazy good. Lot’s of my friends, and surely customers freak out about the release of the Robert Sinskey Rose every year and rightfully so. It is seriously great, but I have to say that I think the Cep trumps it. With its snappy flavors of rose petal, white cherry and Meyer lemon it is so good I don’t know how I’m going to keep from drinking it a bottle at a time.
Price: $18.99
Jolly Pumpkin Artisan Ales "Bam Biere" Farmhouse Ale, Michigan 750ml
Review Date: 5-25-2010
The Jolly Pumpkin Artisan Ales "Bam Biere" is one of the best work horse beers out there. Made in the style of a Saison this is one of the best interpretations coming out of the US right now. With its yeasty, fruity nose of peach, apricot, fresh bread dough, tangerine and a pinch of clove this is about as traditional as Saison gets. Lightweight on the palate but full of flavor the beer displays flavors of brewer’s yeast, fried plantains, wet earth, savory grassy tones and a bit of drying hoppiness in the finish. The sweet/bitter interplay here is perfect, keeping the beer from ever getting out of balance or cloying white the understated fruitiness builds complexity as it goes. Big time Boosh!
Price: $9.99
2008 Kent Rasmussen "Esoterica" Carneros Pinot Noir
Review Date: 5-25-2010
We are always on the look out for inexpensive, delicious Pinot and this truly fits the bill. Understated but apparent notes of Cinnamon gum, clove and framboise combine on the juicy, forward nose. That same approach is put into action on the palate as well with snappy strawberry and pomegranate fruit backed by a touch of sandy earth. This is surely the forerunner for best inexpensive PN of the summer.
Price: $16.99
2007 Morgan Monterey Syrah
Review Date: 5-25-2010
This impressed me tremendously when I tasted it recently. Maybe it was just me extrapolating what it would be like with that smoked lamb or some of my three meat burgers, but I thought this was one of the best inexpensive Syrahs I’ve tasted all year. The nose sort of says it all with its deep spiciness and its sense of ripe, polished fruit. Fragrant and alive with the notes of green olive, whole black peppercorns, currant and toasted brioche this is much in the Northern Rhone style of say Crozes-Hermitage. Lush and fruity on entry with layers of cassis and black cherry while adding spice from front to back with aspects of roast fennel, tar, and hardwood smoke. Hungry anyone?
Price: $16.99
2007 Chasseur Sonoma County Chardonnay
Review Date: 3-26-2010
One of the best "entry level" Chardonnays on the market is Bill Hunter's Sonoma County bottling. Checking in at less than $30, this is superb, rich yet balanced wine. Packed full of fig paste, cantaloupe, summer squash and butterscotch aromas, this is chock full of goodness on the nose. This complexity is mirrored on the palate, showing plenty of acid-based structure all while displaying richly textured layers of honey, tangerine, cashew, sweet cream and buttered toast. Over the next year this bottle will continue to improve, meshing the oak more fully into the wine; itshould be a great bottle to visit over the next 4-6 years.
Price: $27.99
2005 Carol Shelton "Maple Vineyard-Old Vine" Dry Creek Valley Zinfandel
Review Date: 3-10-2010
Zinfandel is quickly becoming one of the most polarizing varietals in the market. More specifically: what winemakers are doing with Zin is really dividing people. Some winemakers go for the gusto with full-boar ripeness (read: sweetness), their wines tasting like a cross between IHOP’s blueberry syrup and grape Now-N-Laters. Some winemakers, although much more rare, are lashing back against this and making earthy, acid, spice-driven numbers that most people wouldn’t even recognize as Zin. The good news is that The 2005 Carol Shelton “Maple Vineyard” Zinfandel is somehow perfectly placed in the middle of these two styles. A blend of 83% Zinfandel, 10% Petite Sirah, 4% Carignane and a 3% Field Blend of mixed red grapes that includes rare varietals like Alicante Bouchet and Black Malvasia, this Zin has it all. Ripe fruit, structure and spice are all on full display here beginning with the nose packed full of expressive brambly blackberry, dried violet and caramel. The juicy palate resonates with crushed black pepper, baker’s chocolate, pastille and clove leading to the dry, long finish. If you lost your faith in Zin somewhere along the way, this wine would be a perfect place to start getting it back.
Price: $29.99
2006 Arietta "Quartet" Napa Valley Red Blend
Review Date: 2-25-2010
Sure it might not be the best time to gush about a $50 dollar Bordeaux Blend, but there is an amazing amount of value to be found in the 2006 Arietta "Quartet" Napa Valley Red Blend. Andy Erickson is the winemaker and his resume is impressive. At one time or another he’s made wine for Screaming Eagle, Dalla Valle, Favia, Ovid, Dancing Hares and Leviathan. If that list doesn’t impress a Napa wine fan I don’t know what will. The Quartet is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot from a vineyard at the top of Howell Mountain farmed by the renowned grower David Abreu. Big and juicy, the nose integrates the boysenberry, currant and pastille notes seamlessly with expensive, flashy French oak toastiness and spice. Fruit remains the focus of the wine, and while this is surely oak laden and wonderfully ripe, it remains distant from the pitfalls so commonly found in most Napa oak bombs. There is no glycerin-y sweetness here to make this cumbersome, nor is there an abundance of oak taking away from the pretty raw materials on display. What there is, is plenty of intense graphite, cocoa, black currant, gravel, fennel and sandalwood flavors on display, all tied together by a fine dusting of ripe tannins and surprising acidic energy. If you don’t have the money to spend on some of the huge Napa cult wines but want to get a feel for what they are all about, this is a perfect place to start.
Price: $49.99
2007 Parkmon "Debbie's Cuvee" Contra Costa County Rhône Blend (Was $25)
Review Date: 3-11-2009
This blend of Grenache, Carignane, Mourvèdre and Syrah will stand up to any made in France, Australia or here in the good ol’ USA. With a snappy nose of
caraway, orange peel, cherry and black raspberry you can really smell the raw materials here from their new estate vineyard in Contra Costa County. With a pleasing peppery spice and a juicy, easygoing nature full of ripe red berry fruit, this is perfect for a simple cocktail or a nicely done cheeseburger on a school night.
Price: $18.99
2007 Parkmon "Koelmel Vineyard" Contra Costa County Sangiovese (was $25)
Review Date: 3-11-2009
From a small, 12-year-old vineyard in Lafayette planted to the Sangiovese Grosso clone, the same clone as the one used in Montalcino, this wine really sings. Full of fruit at the onset, think fresh cherries, this takes a turn for the spicy, with notes of burnt tobacco coming from the bottom of the glass.
This wine builds steam and picks up weight the longer it is held in the mouth, with sneaky tannin, persistent acid and a peppery finish; this is
truly built for food.
Price: $17.99
