Virtuoso Life - May/June 2008 - (Page 64) TASTING NOTES Contrucci, “while the clean taste complements the bouquet with a correct balance of fruit and acidity. The wine finishes dry and long, exhibiting terroir-driven notes of lime and minerality.” I would follow this excellent white with one of the up-and-coming pinot noirs from Central Otago. Santa BarBara, California San Ysidro Ranch Jerry Lee is manager and wine director at The Stonehouse, the restaurant at Santa Barbara’s bucolic San Ysidro Ranch, a classic California hideaway nestled in the Montecito hills (J.F.K. and Jackie honeymooned here). Lee re-created the wine list from scratch after a kitchen fire destroyed the cellar in 2005. He picks the highly regarded 2005 Bonaccorsi Pinot Noir, Cargasacchi Vineyard ($60 retail) from the burgeoning Santa Rita Hills appellation – a hot spot for contemporary practitioners of pinot noir. “This wine is superb and doesn’t miss a beat,” says Lee. “It comes from a small 16-acre vineyard and is a pure vineyard expression: rich, exotic aromas of wild black raspberry and ripe plum on the nose, and earth, spice, and a powerful finish in the mouth.” The late Michael Bonaccorsi – a former sommelier himself at Wolfgang Puck’s Spago in Beverly Hills and a friend of mine – founded the label in 1999; since his untimely death in 2004, the project continues under the guidance of Jenne Lee Bonaccorsi. Situated in a rustic nineteenth-century citrus-packing house, Stonehouse offers a wine list rich in local selections. “This wine is important to us at Stonehouse,” says Lee, “because of its expression of the Santa Rita Hills; it gives our customers a great sense of what a Santa Barbara County pinot noir should be on the palate. Plus, its rich, concentrated fruit is a superb complement to chef John Trotta’s juniper-dusted loin of venison.” Burgundy, franCe Georges Blanc & Spa Fabrice Sommier, head sommelier at Georges Blanc, selects the 2005 Blanc d’Azenay Mâcon Azé ($25 retail, available later this year), from an estate created by the celebrated Michelin-starred restaurateur. “This Burgundian chardonnay is the very model for a wine of instant pleasure,” Georges Blanc’s provincial retreat in Vonnas, just north of Lyon, is a pilgrimage stop for gourmands. 64 V I RT U O S O L I F E
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