Wine & Spirits - Winter 2020 - 98

34TH A N N UA L B U YING G UI D E

Wine & Spirits

CA N A DA W H I T E

salt air, "like being out on a boat." -J.G.
(W&S 8/20) § Kobrand, Purchase, NY
125605

92 | De Martino

125359

93 | Cave Spring

$20

2018 Beamsville Bench Estate Grown
Riesling ^ The July heat and August thunderstorms made 2018 a tricky vintage in
Ontario, further challenged by heavy rain in
October. Yet winemaker Angelo Pavan took
advantage of the intervening sunny days to
coax a ﬁrm, full-bodied riesling out of Cave
Spring's estate vineyard, a parcel that climbs
the slope beneath the Niagara Escarpment.
The vines-the oldest planted 40 years ago-
grow in a stony mix of clay, limestone and
sandstone, with some shale, granite and
gneiss in the mix; the wine tastes as if their
roots literally sucked up the stone, it's so resolutely earthy and ﬁrm. Notes of lime zest
and sour lemon add a bracing brightness to
the austere mineral ﬂavors, while the wine's
extract gives it a rich texture and grip. This
is a riesling for the main course-lake trout
wrapped in bacon would be ideal. -T.Q.T.
(W&S 4/20) § HB Wine Merchants, Hartly, DE

$13

2019 Casablanca Estate Sauvignon Blanc ^
This wine's passion fruit and lime ﬂavors take
it in more of a New Zealand direction than
a minerally Sancerre style. What grounds it
in Chile is the spicy acidity, along with a rich
huitlacoche complexity to the smoky ﬁnish.
Touches of mint make it a refreshing wine
to chill for a riff on pastel de choclo, ﬁlling
the corn pie with spiced chicken rather than
beef. -J.G. (W&S 8/20) § Broadbent Selections, Richmond, VA

125615

92 | Montes

$13

2019 Casablanca Valley Classic Sauvignon
Blanc ^ Aurelio Montes has been exploring
the coast of Chile as far north as Zapallar
(for his Outer Limits sauvignon blanc); this
wine includes fruit from that vineyard, while
focusing on estate parcels in Casablanca. It's
a long line-drive of Asian pear ﬂavor, brisk
and juicy, markedly mineral in its smoketinged acidity. It reminded one taster of fresh
98

WINE & SPIRITS

273894

91 | Bernard Rémy

$43

CABERNET SAUVIGNON

91 | Tabalí

FRANC E WHITE

CHIL E RED
125553

$15

2019 Maipo Valley Pedregoso Gran
Reserva DOM Cabernet Sauvignon ^ The
DOM vineyard is in the coastal mountains
above the Maipo River, a cool, windy site
facing south. That exposure, away from the
sun, gives this wine a bright strawberry coolness while its meaty tannins taste like steak
tartare. Restrained and gentle, the wine lasts
on ﬂoral spice. You won't ﬁnd cabernet sauvignon with this quiet gentleness anywhere
but in Chile. Plus, it's crazy cheap. Buy a case.
-J.G. (W&S 6/20) § Biagio Cru and Estate
Wines, New Hyde Park, NY

CARIGNANE

92 | TerraNoble

SAUVIGNON BLANC

FRANC E SPARKLING
Champagne Grand Cru à Allemant Brut ^
Tight at ﬁrst, seemingly unforgiving in its
armor of brisk acidity, this opens into a wine
that's all chalk savor and red-berry gentleness. Firm and trim, it will develop with a
year in bottle. -J.G. (W&S 12/19) § Shiverick
Imports, Los Angeles, CA

125541

CHI L E W H I T E

choclo, the traditional Chilean corn and beef
pie. Here, it's dark green tobacco and meaty
bitter chocolate against red fruit brightness.
It might sound strange, but it works, especially with chorizo, where the wine's spice
acts as an accelerant to the spice of the cured
meat. -J.G. (W&S 10/20) § Global Vineyard
Importers, Berkeley, CA

$17

2017 Maule Valley Gran Reserva Carignan ^ Marcelo García makes this wine from
a vineyard in Melozal, Cauquenes, where
TerraNoble works with a grower farming
60-to-100-year-old vines. García ages it in
old barriques to mellow the tannins without
creating any barrier to the pure expression of
Maule's great, often overlooked Secano Interior. Those carignan tannins are black against
the red juice, the ﬂavors made vivid by bloodorange acidity. You might ﬁnd pomegranate
or currant tones to the fruit, which feels spicy
and cool at once. A lovely Cauquenes red,
and a steal at the price. -J.G. (W&S 6/20) §
MundoVino/Winebow Imports, NY

CARMENERE
125992

92 | Apaltagua

$17

2018 Colchagua Valley Apalta Vineyard
Selection Gran Reserva Envero Carmenère ^ This wine's green and red tones come
together to parallel the contrasts in pastel de

BUYING GUIDE 2021

ALSACE GEWURZTRAMINER

277682

93 | Willm

$19

2018 Alsace Réserve Gewurztraminer ^ The
wet spring and hot summer of 2018 brought
this gewurztraminer to a heightened state of
generosity. This is not a complex, long-lived
wine. It's just remarkably healthy. Having
returned to this bottle for three days, taken
in by its refreshing cut of acidity, its stony
minerality and bright herbal notes of lemon
verbena and thyme, I ﬁnally gave up and just
wrote, "Ooof, that's good." It's brisk, bright,
generous and ﬂoral, with a meadow freshness. -J.G. (W&S 8/20) § Monsieur Touton
Selection, NY

BURGUNDY
278359

93 | La Chablisienne

$23

2016 Chablis La Pierrelée ^ This is pretty
awesome for a co-op wine, and remarkable
for a simple villages-level Chablis. The fruit
is a blend from all the villages of Chablis,
selected for its delicacy (the co-op makes
ﬁve different villages-level Chablis, each
with a different stylistic intention). At ﬁrst,
this wine seemed old-fashioned and a little
comical in its French ridiculousness, a sixties

http://cavespring.ca/ https://www.alsace-willm.com/?lang=en https://www.monteswines.com/

Wine & Spirits - Winter 2020

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