wineunleashed.com - This month's Wine Club selections

AUGUST SELECTIONS

This month we are shipping the monthly selections starting August 27th.

1. Everyday Libations

2006 PRAXIS, VIOGNIER, LODI, CALIFORNIA - Viognier is a typical white wine from the south of France. Well, this beauty is from Lodi! It's true to the varietal characteristics (aromatic, tropical fruits), but is slightly fuller in body than a Voignier from France. It would be terrific with crab with a mango salsa—the wine will really open up. The fruity invitation and ending also make it a delight to sip without food. No oak, all stainless steel to preserve the fruit. 800 cases made.

2007 BERGER, GRüNER VELTLINER, KREMSTAL, AUSTRIA - Berger is a solid value producer. If you want to taste the true varietal of something—Berger does it. Here is Veltliner exposed! This is the perfect counterpoint to some of the richness we all have had of late. Perfect with Vietnamese, Chinese and Indian food—the high acid style cuts right through the rice wine vinegar in the sauces. It's the perfect food wine, what doesn't it pair with?! 1 liter bottle.

2006 DE MARTINO, CARMENéRE, "LEGADO", MAIPO VALLEY, CHILE - Some WU members have expressed an interest in more wines from Chile. This one is 90% Carmenère and 10% Cabernet Sauvignon with up to 12 months in french oak. The style is modern since it's more fruit forward, and a very interesting example of this varietal. It still has a green nose but it is higher pitched compared to others. The winemaker, Marcelo Retamal, was voted "Best Winemaker," in 2004 in the Guide to Chilean Wines. This bottle is an incredible value—it has complexity and the ability to age in the cellar a couple of years. That is getting harder and harder to find these days!

2006 MAS DE BRESSADES, GRENACHE/SYRAH, COSTIèRES DE NîMES, FRANCE - This is one of my favorite value wines from France. Parker sums it up the best, "...a vin de plaisir (a wine of pleasure). While neither pretentious nor complex, it is broad and expansive, fleshy, and loaded with jammy red and black fruit scents as well as flavors. A joy to drink." The Grenache-Syrah is a unoaked wine that consists roughly of equal parts of both varietals. This wine always shows extraordinary fruit and spice and a wonderful finish of cracked black pepper. The Grenache vines are 25 to 60-plus years old.

4 bottles / cost: $56.50 + tax, S&H
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2. Company's Coming

2006 SONO MONTENIDOLI, VERNACCIA DI SAN GIMIGNANO "FIORE", ITALY - For a very elegant version of Vernaccia, you must try Fiore. It's made from the free-run must that emerges from the destemmed grapes before they are pressed. It ferments in steel and rests long on the lees, acquiring character and a unique, long, round finish.

2005 CANIHAN FAMILY CELLARS, CABERNET FRANC, SONOMA VALLEY, CALIFORNIA — This is a great example of what California does best. In capable hands, this inaugural vintage is a showstopper and a great value—even the SF Chronicle agrees with me. I also love the fact they could charge more but choose not to. Only 150 cases made of this stunner from the cool Carneros Valley. It smells of spice, eucalyptus, cherry fruit and tobacco. On the palate, it's smooth and soft with mellow tannins. This is already sold out so only existing members will be able to get this one!

2 bottles
cost: $49 + tax, S&H
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3. For The Cellar

2001 MONTENIDOLI, SONO MONTENIDOLI, TOSCANA, ITALY - This is a wine that you can lay down in your cellar. Personality and a fabulous food wine. Here is some info from their website: "At Montenidoli, the best bunches of Sangiovese are vinified separately with a long maceration on the skins. Each year, the Tonelleries Taransaud sets aside the new barriques in which the wine matures and stabilizes; it's bottled unfiltered to maintain its intense, powerful personality intact. It's called Sono Montenidoli because it represents the spirit of the land, the hills overlooking San Gimignano and facing Chianti Classico: I am what I am."

"It saw the light in 1971, and in 1975, Luigi Veronelli praised it at length in one of his first wine reviews. In 1979, Krista Klauke called Sono Montenidoli 'one of the Paladins of the Italian Wine Renaissance,' in Alles Uber Wein. In 1988, Horst Dhom selected 60 great Italian reds, including Sono Montenidoli, for Frankfurter Allgemeine. In 1999, Der Feinschmecker ranked Sono Montenidoli among the hundred best wines in the world."

cost: $100 + tax, S&H (two bottles)
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