The Wine Guild of Charlottesville

The Pinnacle of Soave

Posted on Aug 31, 2010 by Kevin Sidders.

Many of our offerings at the Guild are wines that we’ve recently been exposed to, ones that we discover as a result of tasting through dozens of wines from distributors or from sorting through mountains of published reviews and comments from a variety of sources. Other times, however, we actively seek out wines that we have intimate knowledge of and experience with, wines that we are personally invested in and connected to. Today’s offer is in the latter category — a wine that has become a favorite of mine that I sought out and am thrilled to share with everyone.

Over the summer we have offered a broad range of white wines, from easy-sipping inexpensive Sauvignon Blancs and Reislings to awesome closeouts on White Burgundy to solid value California Chardonnay and beyond. Despite all that, we haven’t covered the entire waterfront — today’s wine is of a different category altogether. Soave is a wine that I’m sure many of you are familiar with, a generally inexpensive white wine made in the Veneto region of northeast Italy from the varietal Garganega. Typically Soaves are light, crisp, floral, and minerally — lovely wines to serve with seafood or to sip on the back porch in the summer heat. The two most broadly distributed and reputable producers of Soave are Inama and Pra, both of which make solid value entry-level wines year-in and year-out that you have probably seen on the lists of many of the finer restaurants in town and perhaps enjoyed yourselves.

Soave is a highly under-appreciated varietal, in my estimation, and over the years I have become a big fan because of the consistent flavor profile and relative value of these wines. As I dug deeper in Soave, however, I learned that a couple of producers were making higher-end Soaves using vineyard-designated fruit and more involved vinification techniques (e.g. some oak treatment) to deliver a richer, more expansive expression of the grape. I purchased a few bottles of two of these “luxury cuvees” a couple of years ago, and have been absolutely blown away by them over that time. Just recently I consumed my last bottle of 2006 Pra Soave Monte Grande, and was so moved by the experience that I was determined to track down and investigate the latest vintage to see if it was worth sharing with the Guild membership.

Sure enough, when we were finally able to source a sample of this hard to find wine, the 2007 Pra Soave Monte Grande turned out to be stellar — golden color, a palate of stone fruits, some floral notes and lovely minerality, with just a hint of oak yielding a rich, full-bodied mouthfeel. Antonio Galloni, Robert Parker’s Italian wine reviewer, scored the 2007 Pra Monte Grande the highest of all the Soaves he reviewed back in 2009, when he published the following tasting note:

The 2007 Soave Montegrande (80% Garganega, 20% Trebbiano) was fermented and aged on its lees in 30-hectoliter casks. This richly-textured, generous white expresses the essence of Soave in its fruit, flowers and mint. TheE an expansive style of Soave that achieves notable ripeness and volume without sacrificing the personality of this terroir and its indigenous varieties. This is a beautiful effort from Pra. Anticipated maturity: 2008-2012. Pra is an excellent source for Soave.

If you are familiar with traditional inexpensive Soave at all, this is a much bigger, richer, fuller wine — I’d compare the difference to how a high-end $30 Chardonnay tastes strikingly different from an entry-level $10 bottle. I am totally enamored of the combination of fruit, flowers and minerals in the flavor profile, and thrilled with the wine’s ability to age a few years and grow in complexity even further. And even better, we are getting a healthy volume-pricing discount on this wine from the same distributor as the last couple of offers, meaning that we can bring it to you at a price significantly lower than you can find anywhere in the US:

2007 Pra Soave Classico Monte Grande, Veneto, Italy
Member Price: [Login to see member prices.]
Retail Price: $30.00
Buy Now!

This wine is a highly recommended, a personal favorite, and one I’ll be loading up on myself — I encourage you to join me and see what the fuss is all about…

Your First Gaglioppo?

Posted on Aug 26, 2010 by Will Richey.

As Kevin mentioned in his e-mail on Monday we tasted through a pretty ridiculous line up of Italian wines last week and have much to tell you about. The wine I want to bring you today is made 100% from the Gaglioppo grape. I had never encountered this grape before to my knowledge and was really excited by the wine.

The producer here is iGreco and they are located 150 meters above sea level in the Calabria region of Italy. That’s in the tip of the boot for those of you without a wine map handy. Gaglioppo is a regional grape that is rumored to be a distant relative of the Nebbiolo. There are distinct flavor resemblances in the two grapes but I don’t think they would ever be confused in a blind tasting.

This wine stood out for me and Kevin, it was the final wine in the line up of about a dozen or so wines. One right after the other these wines tasted excellent, correct, identifiable with quality right out of the bottle and all very pleasing to an elegant palate. The iGreco ‘Cata’ then floored us. It was so different and unique and just really well done.

We have been stocking white Truffle oil from the iGreco estate for some time but that was the only knowledge I had of this producer. What they are going for is true regional correctness using indigenous varietals and structuring them in a classic method in the face of an international wine market. This is pretty exceptional in these times as more and more European regions have curtailed their styles to fit with an excepted and professionally condoned palate type.

The ‘Cata’ reminded me of a Sardinian wine, the fruit profile was of dried figs and grapes, it had that almost Garrigue style bramble quality one thinks of when drinking a wine from an arid Mediterranean vineyard. You imagine that fennel and fig grow around these vineyards like weeds (if only Virginia creeper were so pleasant and useful). The body was medium and the palate long and full with a nice long finish of exotic spices.

This is much more than a Pizza and Spaghetti wine even though the price makes it a table wine you can enjoy everyday. This would do far better with grilled meats, lamb in particular, grilled vegetables and stone fired flat breads and sheep’s milk cheeses (I’ll bring some in to match). That is the sort of thing this is. I highly recommend this wine to every palate type and for almost any occasion, it is great food wine but it is delicious and balanced so that it is well on its own.

Do not miss a chance to try something new.

Pricing on this one is funny. We need to get to a certain quantity to give the best price. At this price point, I believe we can make the discount threshold, you will not regret having this wine in your collection so order and help us get this wine at a kick butt price. Without the discount this wine would retail for $19.99 in the state of Virginia. With the discount and your Wine Guild prices it is around $12, an unbelievable value.

2006 iGreco, Gaglioppo ‘Cata’
Member Price: [Login to see member prices.]
Retail Price: $19.99
Buy Now!

Christmas In August

Posted on Aug 23, 2010 by Kevin Sidders.

Today’s offering is quite a bit different from the kinds of things you typically see from us here at the Wine Guild. This offer highlights some truly unique, special, high-quality and well-aged wines that would make outstanding gifts for yourself or the savvy wine lover you want to indulge or impress during the upcoming holiday season.

Will and I were visited Friday by one of our top importer/distributors, who carries a portfolio of some of the best Italian wines. Among those are many of the leading producers in Tuscany. We tasted almost a dozen wines and were uniformly impressed — a few were so exceptional that we will be featuring them as email offers over the next two weeks, so keep your eyes peeled for those.

In addition to the impressive new releases we tasted, however, the salesperson regaled us with tales of the surprising depth of inventory they maintain among many of their premier producers, and how those wines are still carried at quite reasonable prices. That got Will and I intrigued, and when he mentioned that they would soon be offering special discounted pricing on many of these “library” wines to clear out old inventory, we made him immediately turn over his entire catalog and quickly got to work seeing what nuggets we might uncover.

From among their inventory we have handpicked several wines that we believe present exceptional opportunities. These are wines from a couple of the premier producers in Tuscany, are bottles with 10+ years of age that have been quietly sleeping in the warehouse over that period, and in some cases are larger-than-normal formats. These are precisely the kinds of wines that are typically unavailable, except perhaps at auction (with uncertain provenance), or at exorbitant prices (and uncertain storage conditions) from retailers. They are at the peak of their drinkability, and rated outstanding (or better) by major reviewers. In short, these are the kinds of wines that will blow you away, and impress even the most savvy wine friends, colleagues or bosses you may know.

On to the wines:

1999 Felsina Chianti Classico Riserva Rancia:
This wine has a reputation as probably the highest quality Chianti made each year. Since the Guild’s inception, we have offered the 2004 and 2006 vintages of this wine, and the 2004 remains one of my absolute favorite bottles of wine period I’ve enjoyed over the past couple of years. So what of 1999? It was an absolutely exceptional vintage in Tuscany, rated 95 points by Robert Parker. So here we have a top producer in a great vintage — what could be better? How about a large format? This wine is available only in magnums (1.5L, or the size of two regular bottles).

A momentary aside on large formats. I love them. Nothing says “dinner party” better than a magnum of great wine at the center of the table. There’s something about the visual impact of a large format bottle that really emphasizes that something special is happening. And that impact is exactly the same when given as a gift — it truly sets it apart.

In any event, this is a truly special wine, from a great vintage, in its drinking prime, in a great format, at a per-bottle price BELOW what the current release is going for — absurd!

1999 Felsina Chianti Classico Riserva, Sangiovese, Tuscany, Italy (1.5L bottle)
Member Price: [Login to see member prices.]
Retail Price: $100.00+ if you can find it.
Buy Now!

1999 Felsina Fontalloro:
Another world-class wine from Felsina, the Fontalloro is also 100% Sangiovese but includes grapes from a couple of vineyards technically outside the Chianti border and so cannot be classified that way. Qualitatively on par with the Rancia at the pinnacle of their portfolio, the Fontalloro often shows a slightly riper, more accessible style. The 99 Fontalloro actually outscored the 99 Rancia by a point on the Parker scale (though with scores in the 90s I’d argue the differences are negligible), and both wines have similar CellarTracker scores in the low-90s. As is typical, this Fontalloro commands a modest premium over its brother, though again the pre-bottle price here is below the current release:

1999 Felsina Fontalloro, Sangiovese, Tucsany, Italy (1.5L bottle)
Member Price: [Login to see member prices.]
Retail Price: $130.00+ if you can find it.
Buy Now!

1999 Fontodi Chianti Riserva Vigna del Sorbo:
The Vigna del Sorbo is the top Chianti from Azienda Fontodi, one of the most renowned producers in Chianti. Again, the vintage here is the spectacular 1999, and Fontodi nailed it. This wine is 90% Sangiovese, 10% Cabernet Sauvignon, making this a bit more like a Super Tuscan than just a pure Chianti. In addition to the low 90s scores from Parker and CellarTracker (where recent comments include “now hitting prime time” and “how high can you score a Chianti?”), the folks at the Seattle retailer Garagiste recently did a vertical tasting of Fontodi Vigna del Sorbo and made the following comments on the 1999:

The 1999 is singing right now – probably the best vintage of Vigna del Sorbo for current wine-geek consumption. This wine is like catching a ray of light in your hands – it provides the type of experience all of us look for but rarely find.

This wine is offered in 750ml, if that’s your preference:

1999 Fontodi Chianti Riserva Vigna del Sorbo, Sangiovese/Cabernet, Tuscany, Italy (750ml)
Member Price: [Login to see member prices.]
Retail Price: $75.00+ if you can find it.
Buy Now!

All three of these selections are truly special, interesting, wonderful wines that would make fantastic gifts and can be consumed right away at their peak. I know it’s a little early to be invoking Christmas, but offers like this to treat yourself or other important people don’t come around every day. Quantities of these library wines are small, so please promptly let us know your interest in getting your hands on these gems.

Another Bordeaux In Your Life

Posted on Aug 19, 2010 by Will Richey.

Just what you need eh? Another Bordeaux in your life. Well if you are like me than you can not have too many good inexpensive Bordeaux in your life, in fact there is nothing I would rather reach for all year long when I am not tapping into “the good stuff” than a well made under $12 Bordeaux.

Yesterday I tasted a fantastic Bordeaux that is the clear pick for today’s e-mail. After the line up of California wines, After the Spanish, after the Southern French wines and the Rhone came in one of our top Bordeaux suppliers with this little number and it blew them all away. There were some fantastic inexpensive wines tasted yesterday though and let me remind you all again that we usually always have access to some unbelievably great wines in the $6/$7 price range for caterings, parties or large events. Yesterday I tasted some great red, white and rose that were all under $7, some even closer to $5 a bottle, its just that this Bordeaux trumped them all for the QPR (Quality for Price Ratio). That said, I, as well as many others out there, like to keep a case of $6 wine around to stave off the inlaws and ‘don’t care’ guests from drinking my good wines or even my good under $12 house wines. Continue reading…

Spectacular Chardonnay Closeout!

Posted on Aug 16, 2010 by Kevin Sidders.

I am absolutely thrilled with the wine we have to offer you today. I am sure many of you recall fondly the Taz Vineyards Pinot Noir we offered back in March. That was another crazy closeout — a $20 retail Pinot we thought tasted great and offered at under $12. Our customers agreed by ordering a half-dozen cases on the offer, and many came back for more after their initial orders. Offers that successful, characterized by happy customers seeking repeat purchases, are our most satisfying.

In reviewing a distributor catalog the other day looking for good values to offer, I stumbled upon the 2007 Taz Chardonnay and was intrigued (hmmm — solid value producer, great vintage), so I figured I’d investigate. After having to remind the distributor three different times of my interest (and they call themselves salespeople?), they finally showed up the other day with a sample for me to try. It was everything I was hoping it would be, and more: Continue reading…

Moulin-à-Vent

Posted on Aug 09, 2010 by Will Richey.

I have been on the lookout for a great red wine for this time of the season. The whites we have been tasting lately have been so good that many of the reds just haven’t really seemed appropriate. After all it has been one hot Summer. But we did have a nice cool weekend and I don’t know about the rest of you but I can feel Autumn just beginning to to approach.

Last week I was closing up shop at the Guild on Friday when one of our reps dropped by and ask me to taste just one wine in his bag. It was the first of the 2009 wines I have tasted from France. We all know that 2009 is supposed to be the vintage of a life time in Bordeaux, what is almost more important is the fact that it is one of the greatest vintages in a lifetime over most of France. It will be a good year to buy French wine in. Continue reading…

Notes from Last Night’s Tasting: Agosto en España

Posted on Aug 06, 2010 by Evan Williams.

What a sweet summer lineup we had last night…plenty of you dropped by, and even though our 2 air conditioners weren’t quite able to keep up with all that body heat, the chilled-down Txakolini surely was. Our “theme” was August in Spain; what I personally took home from it was an energetic mix of new and old world styling, steeped in tradition yet not afraid of innovation. That, to me, is Spain in a nutshell, and the contrast between the Muga and the Triton illustrated it exquisitely. My favorites: Continue reading…

A Riesling Drinker Says What?

Posted on Aug 05, 2010 by Will Richey.

Got ya…

Rives and I had requested a couple of red wines to taste the week before last. The Rep showed up with about a half dozen or so that we had selected, mostly Pinot Noir, some good stuff. We were looking for some deals on wine that would be good for August.

So as the wines are lining up, out from the bag comes a non descript looking bottle of German Riesling. Our rep smiled and said that it was just a little something she had tasted lately and really enjoyed. Why not? and so we began the tasting with the Riesling. It was excellent, both Rives and I remarked so. But we were eager to taste the reds we had requested and moved on, taking rigorous notes through a very nice tasting. When it was done, we tasted the Riesling again. Damn it was good. We all spoke for a moment on how difficult it is to sell Riesling. Continue reading…

Wine Tasting: A Killer Lineup!

Posted on Aug 03, 2010 by Evan Williams.

I just wanted to get this out so that you had ample time to clear your schedule for Wednesday evening – if just for 30 minutes or so– to taste this extraordinary lineup. Ellen from The County Vintner poured these for Kevin Sidders a couple weeks back and he was so impressed with the lineup as a whole, we’ve decided to bring it back for you.

Honestly, I’m very excited to try these after reading the descriptions below. The Muga’s always been a favorite of mine—there are very few wines for the price (~$20) that age as well and as long as this (if you’ll look at the notes, you’ll see that the upper end of the window is 2026!!!)…and the other ones sound so curiously unique and interesting. All have very sweet price points. Anyway, take a look at the notes, and if you know what’s good for you, you’ll find a little time to drop by on Wednesday evening between 5:30 and 7:30! Continue reading…

A MUST READ!

Posted on Aug 02, 2010 by Kevin Sidders.

The wine we are offering today is one I implore you to pay attention to. I know we throw a lot of superlatives around the Guild because of our excitement over the wines we offer, but today’s wine is without question one of the most fabulous, interesting, satisfying examples I have ever had. Strong words, indeed, but stick with me… Continue reading…

Williams Corner’s Summer Gulpers

Posted on Jul 29, 2010 by David Storm.

Hey everyone! Will finally left me the password for the computer, and now I get to write up a review. Unfortunately for you, I’m a lawyer by training and had all the crativity beaten out of me in law school. I will have you know that this review has been thoroughly researched at a cost of hundreds of dollars per hour, but is only a review and advice. It is not binding in any way, but the recommendations are solid. It may also be protected by copyright as allowed by law, and is intended solely for its recipients. With that, we’ll turn to page 1 of 27 and skip the preamble. Thanks for reading!

Only a hardy few ventured out in the heat for our first July tasting three Wednesdays ago, when Jeff Latchum brought a small but flavor-packed lineup for our enjoyment. Continue reading…

A Screaming Summer Value!

Posted on Jul 26, 2010 by Kevin Sidders.

We’ve got so much good stuff to share with you this week — let’s get started! Today’s offer is another “best of show” example from a recent portfolio tasting from another of our top distributors, this time Elite Wines. While their portfolio is smaller than some, they really scour the globe and uncover a number of new/innovative/exciting brands doing great things. Among the 70+ wines I tasted at their event a few months ago, this one stood out as a perfect summer offering; due to some logistical issues we haven’t been able to offer it yet, but those have finally been resolved and we’re thrilled to finally bring it to you. Continue reading…

A Zin For Every Palate

Posted on Jul 22, 2010 by Will Richey.

A Guild member asked me to source a case of Zinfandel for him a few weeks ago. He was raving about the stuff. When I finally found the wine the price was reasonable enough and the member had turned me on to some good wines before so I ordered a few extra bottles to try myself.

I love it when this happens. We are always looking for great wine and appreciate all y’alls suggestions. Often your suggestions can lead to some of the most interesting finds for us, after all this is a cooperative of sorts, you would not be in the Guild if you didn’t have a sense of good wine, so let us know when you taste something awesome. We’re in this together. Continue reading…

Tasting Reminder…tonight, featuring Kysela and The Southern Hemisphere

Posted on Jul 21, 2010 by Staff.

It’s been quite awhile since Emily Papach and Kysela has joined us to pour their wines, and if you haven’t had the pleasure of trying them before, then that’s even more reason to come on out tonight. We’ll have the AC cranked, and a lineup of cool stuff from Kysela, as well as some cheeses and oils to try. Be there…5:30 to 7:30.