Reviews

Shows the ripeness and richness of the vintage, along with a measure of elegance and finesse. Focuses on pure dark berry, cherry and light mocha flavors, with a lingering finish.  –JL

A gorgeous Cabernet, combining rich, firm, vivid raspberry, blackberry, currant and dusty oak flavors with a loamy, crushed rock— and graphite-accented minerality that gives the tannins traction on the finish. Drink now through 2028. – JL

This wine has a foundation of 57% Merlot, followed by almost equal parts Cabernet Sauvignon and Malbec, then smaller percents of Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. Perfumed, it expresses itself in tight, chewy tannins before revealing cedar, pencil shavings and cranberry in a medium-bodied package. —V.B. 

For the vintage, which generally provided rather ripe fruit, this is a bit tight and stiffly tannic. The cherry cobbler aromas and flavors are certainly pleasurable, but finish crisp and firm.  —J.C. 

Notes of cherry and bramble fruit come together with traces of pepper and anise on the nose. With a sip, flavors of blackberries, currants, and cherries interweave with highlights of peppercorns and black licorice. A smooth wine with expressions of lively spice, chicken or lamb kabobs would make a fine pairing.

Fragrances of blackberries, cherries, currants, and spice rise up from a glass. Flavors of bramble fruit, dark cherry, and black currant emerge on the palate alongside accents of pepper, sandalwood, and herbs. Dark and supple with some spicy pizzazz, enjoy a glass with a hot slice of pizza. 

Best Buys Of The Year

Brian Maloney drew on four vineyards to make this delicious zin, the oldest, Saitone, planted in the 1890s and the youngest, BCD, planted in the 1990s; he raised the wine almost exclusively in older barrels. It's cool and fragrant, firm yet silky, the flavors quiet but convincing, suggesting rose, dried strawberry and pink peppercorn. Its slow-building intensity calls for a plate of prosciutto.

This is a new wine from Buena Vista, presenting a blend of varieties that once thrived in Napa Valley - valdiguie from pre-Prohibition vines and charbono - along with petit verdot. The old vines perform well in the warm Calistoga climate, creating a generous red with sour plum flavors and darker fruit, like the blackness of cherry skins. The finish leaves a trace of Napa Valley hillside scrub, a woodsy scent that brings to mind Manzanita and lichen-covered rock. A clean, intriguing red, this will add depth to seared duck breast. 

These vines face east, on the steep hill at the northern edge of Nuits, bordering Vosne-Romanee. They produced a wine of gentle beauty in 2012, with a floral, red-fruited aroma that could pass for a grand cru. Darker notes of black peppercorn infuse the tannins, so the finish is like breathing black spice. This gains intensity as it opens with air, brooding, seductive, yet still refined. 

OFS (“Our Finest Selection”) presents DeLoach’s best lots of the vintage. For the 2012 chardonnay winemaker Brian Maloney drew on nine vineyards throughout the Russian River Valley, from 40-year-old vines at Ritchie and Heintz to DeLoach’s own young, biodynamically farmed vineyard in front of their winery. Generous and powerful, this draws energy from a fresh, earthy current running underneath the fruit, layering the wine’s Rainier cherry and wildflower honey aromas with veins of firm, sandstone-like structure. It has the mineral, baroque, yellow-fruited clarity of classical Russian River chardonnay, bold at the outset, cool and complex in the finish.