Wines

The Chemin des Moines de Vergy is a surprisingly powerful, concentrated Pinot Noir due to its low yields and its Vosne clones. The wine has all the requisite spice of its more illustrious neighbors down the hill but also carries a wonderful piquancy noting its higher elevation roots. It’s not unlike the hillside Vosne wines which are becoming all the rage now, a finer version of perhaps Petits Monts or Damaudes. The wine becomes more, ahem, Burgundian with air as the spice notes broaden and a touch of underbrush enters the fray, the perfume building and the wine getting silkier.

38% grenache blanc 35% sauvignon blanc 14% grenache gris 8% albariño
5% vermentino from mostly Paso with a touch of SLO Coast. Hand-harvested, native yeast fermenetd, 9 months aging in 80% stainless steel tanks, 20% neutral barriques.

Winemaker Notes:

Coquelicot Vineyard, Santa Ynez Valley - 170 Cases 

PH 3.5 TA 5.4 Alcohol 13% Picked 10-4-2022 Bottled 6-06-2024

Certified CCOF Organic. 100% whole cluster fermentation, native yeast, fermented in a tall steel open top fermenter, foot stomped, free run gravity fed daily, then gravity fed back over the top for a very long slow fermentation over three weeks.

Aged in a large Puncheon on the lees until bottling. This wine is a stunner! Bright fruit, earth and spice.

93 Points! Another appellation wine, the 2023 Chardonnay Russian River Valley is a bright golden yellow color and offers notes of poached yellow apples, toasted spice, almond, chamomile, and lemon curd. The palate is full-bodied and elegant, as is characteristic of this vintage, and has an even and floating feel on the finish. It’s ripe and has a more pithy texture, but it’s well-detailed and more immediate. - Audrey Frick, jebdunnuck.com

94 Points! The 2023 Pinot Noir Russian River Valley is also from the Russian River Valley. It’s a bright ruby color and boasts a seductive perfume with notes of fresh leather, ripe cherries, sweet spices, and forest earth. The palate is medium-framed and has a focused and bright feel, with refreshing, mouthwatering acidity, ripe tannins, and a gently tapering, spiced finish. - Audrey Frick, jebdunnuck.com

96+ Points! Moving back to the Russian River Valley, the 2023 Pinot Noir Jennifer's Vineyard is a medium ruby color and is more expressive, primary, and floral in this vintage, with notes of mixed berries, crushed roses, and sweet herbs. The palate reveals more tension and brightness and is more approachable and open than the nose suggests, with bright acidity, well-defined tannins, and hints of citrus and dried herbs on the finish. I would give this one another year to allow its more savory and layered depth to unfold. - Audrey Frick, jebdunnuck.com

93 Points! The 2023 Zinfandel Jolene's Vineyard was matured for nine months in 48% new French oak. It has explosive aromas of wild berries and cherries, peach and apricot, fennel and earth. The full-bodied palate is generous and expressive with layer after layer of fruit and spice. It has a powerful frame of powdery tannins, mouthwatering acidity and a long, perfumed finish. - Erin Brooks, robertparker.com

95 Points! Pouring a dark magenta/purple color, the 2023 Zinfandel Russian River Valley is deeper, offering notes of black cherry cordial, dark chocolate, lavender oils, wet stones, and dark sappy earth. The palate is full-bodied, with a broad-shouldered tannic structure that has an even feel, while refreshing acidity holds this wine together. It’s well-structured and has the ability to age over the coming 10 years. - Audrey Frick, jebdunnuck.com

From the winery: 98% Sauvignon Blanc, 1% Albarino and 1% Muscat Canelli - 88% stainless steel fermented with the remainder barrel fermented in neutral French oak and Acacia barrels. Largely from the Stewart Ranch with its toes in the estuary south of the city of Napa. It is a late developing site and its tropical flavors, crisp acidity and cool climate chemistry add zip to the lovely riper Windy Flats Clone 1 grapefruit character. After ferment, the wine was racked to neutral oak, acacia, and stainless-steel barrels to rest until bottling in January after a brief fining and settling.

This comes from vines planted just after the turn of this century. Soil is thin and shallow, made up of schist and gneiss on top of granite, and harvest is by hand on the early side because the aim here is to have a Viognier with freshness and tension rather than voluptuousness. Ferments are spontaneous and two-thirds of the wine is aged in steel while the rest is brought up in older barrels and demi-muids.

99 Points! This wine is truly excellent, showing a mineral-edged nose with pure energy and tension. Aromas of struck match, citrus blossoms, crushed stones and salted nuts. The palate is taut, with no hard edges and driving acidity that keeps you salivating for minutes. Closing in on perfection. Drink or hold. - JamesSuckling.com

Saignée of Pinot Noir. Meticulously crafted from Pinot Noir sourced from Hyde Vineyard.

A true Sancerre killer! Great value here...

92 Points! Inviting, leafy nose with hints of smoke, mint and apple, palate of nettle, white currant and a lifted lime acidity. - Decanter World Wine Awards

95 Points! This Mosel riesling kabinett is a miniature masterpiece of delicacy. I love the aromas of wildflowers and herbs that are married to a wealth of mineral nuances on the light- to medium-bodied palate. Although a hint of sweetness is perceptible, this has quite a firm core, yet is very filigreed at the long, pristine finish. Drink or hold. - JamesSuckling.com