Our weekend wine tastings are on hiatus, but we will still be featuring select wines for discount! Scroll down to explore tasting notes, and purchase any of the wines featured this weekend for 10% off retail pricing.
For a printable PDF of this weekend’s notes, click here!
Louis-Antoine Luyt Pipeño Blanco "Carrizal" 2020
Origin: Chile
Retail: $19.95 | Sale: $17.95
Made in a primeur style for immediate consumption, Pipeño is derogatory slang for "peasant wine" and is usually made with the Paìs grape. Louis-Antoine is largely responsable for reclaiming the term, highlighting unique terroirs and farmers. For Carrizal, farmer Ernesto Soto tends organic, dry-farmed bush vines ranging from 100 to 200 years old on sandy, clay soils rich in decomposed granite, in the Carrizal sub-zone of the small wine region of Itata. Rich and slightly oily in texture, very aromatic like blossoms and honey, deep caramel apple flavors. There's a nice bright acidity that counters the richness of smell, taste, and body. What a texturally luscious, somewhat oxidative but explosively aromatic beauty of a wine! 3 weeks skin-contact, delicately tannic but not visibly orange.
Moscatel | Chasselas
Sémillon | Torontel
Organic
Maysara Autees Pinot Blanc 2018
Origin: Oregon
Retail: $21.95 | Sale: $19.75
Maysara Winery is committed to low-impact, holistic farming methods. They believe is creating wine with intensity, sophistication and elegance while maintaining a purity of both fruit and earth. This lush, complex and layered wine pushes Pinot Blanc to a quality level rarely seen at this price. Citrus, apple and pear fruit flavors great you on the nose and palate. The wine is fermented entirely in stainless steel yet there is an appealing hint of pie crust running through the finish. Juicy and delicious, this is a perfect Chardonnay alternative.
Pinot Blanc
92 Points Wine Enthusiast Biodynamic
Vigna San Lorenzo Col Tamarie Frizzante NV
Origin: Italy
Retail: $26.95 | Sale: $24.25
Alberto dalle Crode has been growing grapes for 13 years and recently began producing his own frizzante. His 4 ½ hectares of vines are located on the highest hill in the Prosecco region, in the small village of San Lorenzo in Vittorio Veneto, northeastern Italy. He is passionate about biodynamic principles and protecting the biodiversity of the land, vineyards are surrounded by woods, olive trees, fruit trees and indigenous vegetation. Deep straw yellow in colour, with aromas of candied ginger, lemon, yellow apple, brioche and chalky minerality. Racy acidity glazes melon, lemon and a trace of eucalyptus. Grapefruit, walnut and hint of mint linger on the dry, crisp finish. Super refreshing.
Perera | Bianchetta | Verdiso | Grapariol | Boschera | Glera Lunga
Biodynamic
J. Christopher J.J Pinot Noir Willamette Valley 2017
Origin: Oregon
Retail: $27.95 | Sale: $25.15
Located in Oregon’s Northern Willamette Valley, J. Christopher Wines is a boutique winery that specializes in Pinot Noir made in the traditional style of Burgundy. The winery is owned by world renowned Ernst Loosen, of Weingut Dr. Loosen in Germany. This second-label Willamette Valley wine is a blend of barrels from the three appellations where they have long-standing grower relations. The winemaking and fruit sources are the same for all of the wines they produce, but through their top-down barrel selection process, they choose the barrels that are most suited to the very approachable J.J Pinot Noir style. It’s an appealing, fruit-forward expression of cool-climate Willamette Valley Pinot Noir.
Pinot Noir
Massimiliano Calabretta Vino Rosso Cala Cala NV
Origin: Italy
Retail: $19.95 | Sale: $17.95
This Calabretta wine hails from the the slopes of Mount Etna, an active volcano that looms in the distance for much of eastern Sicily. The grapes here are primarily the indigenous Nerello Mascalese, with a bit Nerello Cappuccio interplanted. Cala Cala is a completely unique take on these traditional Sicilian varietals. The intense nose is loaded with dried cherry, dusty earth, and dried flowers. The palate is vibrant with clove and orange zest mingling with sour cherry. The fruit and spice hold steady and provide focus all the way through the finish as the tannins and acidity create a balanced finish. Cala Cala means "Gulp, Gulp" says Massimiliano, meaning you should gulp this one down because it's so tasty!
Nerello Mascalese
Nerello Cappuccio