Review Date: 3-5-2013

The Chehalem Ridgecrest was the star of this past Saturday's California vs. Oregon Pinot Noir tasting. This bottle of Willamette Valley Pinot Noir had the power that one would expect for a top end bottling from one of the best producers in the state, but its biggest advantage over the rest of what we tasted was complexity and depth. This Pinot has it all; bacony, catnip like oak, wild, brambly fruit, a great savory quality on the palate and fantastic acidity and length. What a star bottle!

Review Date: 3-5-2013

The 2010 vintage in Oregon is very exciting to me, with lots of focused, detailed wines with great acidity. The St Innocent Zenith Vineyard is a great example of this, with wild, blackberry fruit framed with some fancy oak that comes together perfectly on the finish. This is great for drinking now with plank salmon, or for putting down in the cellar for a few years!

Review Date: 3-2-2013

"My dear Fortunato, you are luckily met. How remarkably well you are looking to-day! But I have received a pipe of what passes for Amontillado, and I have my doubts." So says the villan narrator to the hapless Fortunado in Edgar Allan Poe's Cask of Amontillado. Luckily with this bottle of Jalifa, the pleasure of the real thing is clear, and there is no live burial at the end of the bottle. The ancient Williams Humbert is from a solera founded in 1821 and has the complexity one can expect from a VORS bottling at the top of a great producers range. I had this at home as an aperitif with a simple dish of nuts and it was the perfect way to end the day. I was lost in another time, and it never ceases to impress me the way that a great Sherry like this has the power to relax me by switching my focus away from the day to day and on to the greatness of the wine in front of me. This old Amontillado still has plenty of briny freshness on the nose from its days as a fino. It also has a pure marcona almond nuttiness that seamlessly weaves itself from the bouquet to the flavor. The texture is perfect, grain free, medium weight and carries the immense complexity of the wine effortlessly. The finish is near endless, and though the wine has no sweetness whatsoever, it is richest on the back end. What a great bottle!

Review Date: 2-28-2013

This is a very unusual Highland and unusually good. The Glenmorangie Ealanta has a bright gold color and a surprisingly fresh nose that reminded me immidieatly of a vanilla cake coming out of the oven with its sexy barrel spice. This whisky has great sweetness on the palate and an exotic finish that caught me by surprise... I was blown away to find cumin flavors on the end, and impressed with the overall balance of this 19 year old. Great stuff!

Review Date: 2-28-2013

This is a big dram of whisky! The Laphroaig Triple Wood has a deep golden color and a very rich doughnut house nose with bass note peat. On the palate this single malt is oily and textural with lots of glycerol sweetness, but the bright, briny peat elements bring it into balance. This is manly Islay to drink by the fire on a cold night!

Review Date: 2-28-2013

Last night Cinnamon and I had this rich bottle of Rioja with thick cut pork chops and rice pilaf spiked with some good sour cream. It was a great match, and this very rich, more modern style wine had an opulence that did not interfere with the food friendliness of the bottle. I only decanted it 15 minutes ahead since we both had just come home from work, and we were hustling to get food on the table. That little bit of time in the decanter was all the wine needed to taste great. The Miguel Merino has a very dark color for Rioja and a nose full of the vanilla that I always look for in wines from this region. It also has a lovely coffee or even mocha like flavor running through the ripe black fruit that is at its core. This wine manages to have great sweet primary fruit without getting exagerated and to show some flashy wood without being taken over by it. We loved it with the food and the bottle disappeared far too quickly!

Review Date: 2-27-2013

This is my favorite of the super strong Waterkloof Circumstance line of wines that we are representing here at K&L. This Stellenbosch Chenin Blanc has not only great fruit for drinking tonight, but the structure for ageing. Chenin is the national white wine grape of South Africa, and traditionally was called Steen here with history going back to the 17th century. The old vines used in this wine can handle the oak that is used in the elevage of this wine, and I believe it will evolve like the old vine Chenin from Chalone; slowly and beautifully. This wine has great cantaloupe like fruit and electric acidity. It is a steal at $20!

Review Date: 2-27-2013

This almost black Syrah impressed me at our recent South African tasting along with the rest of the Waterkloof Circumstance range. The nose is full of mint and pepper and the palate has classic Syrah blueberry fruit, but without the sugar and high alcohol that is all too common in new world wines. If you love big, smoky Syrah, but don't like the sugary heaviness of a lot of the big scoring bottles, this is very worth trying!

Review Date: 2-27-2013

South Africa is a treasure trove of well priced wines that have a ton of character and we are lucky to be representing a top winery like Waterkloof. The Circumstance Cabernet Sauvignon from Stellenbosch has the virtues of both the old and the new world with lots of rich black fruit but also a refreshing, drinkable, food friendly structure that one rarely encounters outside of Bordeaux. When I tasted it at our recent South African staff tasting it immediately reminded me of the 1994 Leoville Barton that I drank with my father over the weekend because of its fresh, ready for steak finish. Time to through a bone-in rib eye on the grill and pop this Waterkloof open!

Review Date: 2-27-2013

Fans of Joseph Swan, Eyrie and other classic West Coast Pinot Noir take note- this is a fantastic bottle of wine. This pale ruby colored Pinot has a high quality, effusive nose of cinnamon and savory red fruit. On the palate, the savory character opens up even more, with wonderful sweet cherry fruit to balance it. This wine is classic Pinot and will provide a lot of pleasure with a wide range of foods. I can't wait to try and fool Cinnamon by serving it to her with a roast chicken this coming Sunday... Hopefully she doesn't read this review!

Review Date: 2-26-2013

The Waterkloof Circumstance Sauvignon Blanc has built up quite a following with our savvy customers and today at our South African staff tasting I got to find out why. This wine has a great slate like nose with high quality white fruit and a touch of fresh cut grass. On the palate it has plenty of white melon fruit but the finish is dry and snappy.

Review Date: 2-26-2013

Cinnamon and I drank this last night with an English cheese course of Stilton, Cotswold and cheddar, reliving our first trip to London together. On that trip, we had made a pilgrimage to Neal's Yard Dairy in the old city and bought a similar cheese course to pair with the very first bottle of Gonzalez Byass Matusalem that we had ever tried. Since then, we have been lucky enough to drink it on many occasions, but last night was one of the best. This sherry has a dark mahogany color and the perfume of a wine of a great age. The rich figgy flavors are countered by cheddar like piquancy that made the pairing perfect. The finish is very focused and driven, with rancio notes as well as pure chalky minerality. This wine is plenty sweet, but I will never tire of it, it is dangerously refreshing!

Review Date: 2-26-2013

Can you imagine being able to buy a top producers, top wine at the peak of its development anytime that you want it? Think of 8 year old half bottle of Domaine Leflaive Puligny-Montrachet "Clavoillon" sitting on K&L's shelf for under $20 and that will give you an idea of the type of value the Valdespino Inocente Single Vineyard Fino offers. Cinnamon and I drank this last night with tapas that I through together with oil packed tuna, mayonnaise and sherry vinegar on top of crackers. The great average age of the Inocente gives the wine a classic marcona almond nose and a dry, concentrated palate impression without being austere. This wine balances great complexity with easy drinkability like a great bottle of tete de cuvee Champagne. You can't afford not to try it!

Review Date: 2-26-2013

Cinnamon and I spent our honeymoon in El Puerto De Santa Maria at the bottom of the Sherry triangle, and revisiting wines from the area is always a special treat to me. The finos from this area have a rich body, almost to match that of Jerez, but also a saline quality to compete with Manzanilla. I found the Grant La Garrocha to be a great example of the style of this sub region, with aged complexity on the nose and in the mouth, matched by excellent sea breeze snap. We drank this bottle with some excellent hummus from Oren's in Palo Alto as well as some sliced thuringer. This fino went down a little too easy... I might have hogged the half bottle!

Review Date: 2-26-2013

I feel guilty for consuming too much of our allocation of this wine, but never when I am drinking it! I have had many great bottles of this, and one of the most memorable was not from the K&L allocation, but rather off the wine list at Bistro 7 in Epernay. I was dining alone, and it felt extra special and decadent to order a bottle just for me off of their fairly priced list. It went spectacularly with the rabbit terrine and even better with the seared turbot. The Bonville Prestige has ripe, round white fruit balanced perfectly by old vine top terroir, Avize chalk. This wine has texture to beat most of over $100 bottles of Champagne on our shelves!