d’Arenberg Chardonnay, Adelaid, “The Olive Grove”, 2006 – Australia d’Arenberg has a penchant for funny names. Their flagship bottling, for example, is the Dead Arm Shiraz. The Olive Grove Chardonnay takes its name from the olive trees that pop up between rows of vines in d’Arry’s original Chardonnay vineyard. Chester Osborne is the winemaker at [...read more]

Quinta do Feital, Vinho Regional, “Auratas”, 2007 – Portugal The warmer months are here, and I need tasty, big-on-value white wines. Lucky for me, our wine clubs transition to white wines for the summer months. Also lucky for me, we came across this beautiful, golden-hued wine a couple of weeks ago. Portugal is the new [...read more]

Friday March 6th from 5:00 – 9:00 Australia makes its share of mass produced everyday drinking wines.   The country is the fourth largest exporter of wine and many of these wines you might see in gas stations and grocery stores.  Many producers get grapes shipped to them from long distances and make their wines as [...read more]

Yeah, yeah, we get it: you don’t like sweet wines. Well, you just don’t know what you’re missing. Not only is the Noble coming from d’Arenberg – legendary bottlers of Australia’s iconic Dead Arm Shiraz, but the grapes, a wild blend of Chardonnay and Semillon were assaulted by Botrytis.  We loosely define Botrytis as: that [...read more]

This blend of mostly Shiraz with a tiny bit of Viognier is one that has peeked the interest of many of our customers. The blend finds its most well-know expression in the powerful wines of the Côte-Rôtie (the Roasted Slope) in France’s northern Rhône . Wines from the region certainly aren’t inexpensive – but with [...read more]