publish on www.wineclass.net, by Keith Wallace

These are the top wines for the next month or so. Grab them when you can!

Bodega Norton 2005 Malbec Reserva (Chile)
PLCB: $12/Outside of Pennsylvania: $13-$20

This wine is everywhere right now, and its worth picking up a few bottles at the current ($12) PLCB price. The structure is aggressively tannic and muscular with a core of bitter chocolate and raspberry. Sweet oak flavors come through in the finish as vanilla and toast.

Graham BeckGraham Beck 2001 “The Ridge” Syrah (South Africa)
PLCB: $15/ Outside of PA: $24
Oddly enough, the best “Chairman Selections” in the PLCB system are not really part of that program. They just arrive without any fanfare. This is one of them. This Syrah drinks like a crozes hermitage. A jet of acidity lifts the intense roasted game flavors with accents of cranberry and blackberry. The finish is dense with briar and smoke, but this medium-bodied beauty never feels unbalanced or overly aggressive.

Aminea 2001 “Monsignore” Aglianico (Italy)
PLCB $18.99 / Outside of PA:$20.19
If you got arrested for disorderly conduct near the Rock Candy Mountain, where would you be thrown into jail? Probably the Cherryville Prison.

Bear with me on this whimsically elongated metaphor, but imagine your sugar momma/daddy slipped you a file through the bars and you started filing your way to freedom? All those filings of iron bars and candy cherry walls as you desperately dug your way to sweet freedom? Yep, thats what this wine is all about.
This is one of the better finds for this varietal in the PLCB state system. Mineral and candied cherry rest upon a fresh core of strawberry and gravelly tannin.

Chateau La Garde 2001 Pessac Leognan
PLCB: $15.99 / Outside of PA: $20
This is a decent Bordeaux at a decent price. While that may not be a ringing endorsement, it is rather hard to find a wine that doesn’t hide behind softened tannins and alcohol. Its tobacco and anise palate is integrated into a medium bodies framework with a solid cedar finish. Of all the wines on the list this month, this is the one I would select for dinner, especially roasted duck or a venison tenderloin.

Luna Vineyard 2003 Canto (Napa Valley)
PLCB $22.99/Outside of PA:$38
A profound example of what can be done with Sangiovese (the grape associated with Chianti) in Napa Valley, but rarely attempted. In the style of a super Tuscan, this is a blend of about 50% Sangiovese with the remainder made up of Merlot and Cabernet Franc. It offers a whirlwind of leather, fresh flowers, and expresso on the nose. On the palate, it is equally complex with layers of bay leaf, cinnamon, and cigar box pushing over a medium-weight body and a refreshing zing of boysenberry. Columbia Crest 2003 “Reserve” Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve (Washington) PLCB $18.99/ Outside of PA: $20-$35 The reserve bottle from Columbia Crest is almost always a solid premium bottle, and the 2003 does not disappoint. It drinks expensively, with the sweet oak and spice and body of wine that has been very carefully made. The lush and expansive fruit, from orange oil to plum to blackberry, is tucked under a anise & burnt earth palate that only begrudgingly give way to a spicy chocolate finish. An incredible value for a Cabernet of this stature. The Luce Returns! A little birdy tells the Wine School that half bottles of the Luce (a fantastic super-Tuscan) is heading back into the state stores. While the bottles are expensive ($20 for a half bottle) this is about half of what these bottles go for anywhere else, including in Italy. Grab them if you find them! Star Lane Vineyard 2005 Astral, Santa Ynez Valley Barrel Sample List Price on Release: $52 My hero Brian Freedman brought this into the school today. This is the first vintage of Star Lanes’s Cabernet Sauvignon runs into the lush blackberry and ecalyptus. The copious fruits sit on a mineral & cedar framework. This will be a Wine Advocate/Wine Spectator darling once its released (expect a 91 points in Spectator and/or a 93 in Advocate). For us, however, it is evidence of what Bordeaux varietals can do in this central coast valley. The Last Two… or Four… wines of this list are from a new find. Wines from Edmounds St. John. showed up on the PLCB shelves a few months ago. With their Rhone-influenced blends and horrible “designed by a demented third grader” labels, I had to pick up a few bottles. Sure enough, this producer is offering serious wines, and the prices in Pennsylvania are much lower than anywhere else in the country. Anyone with a hankering for Mourvedre, Grenache, or Syrah produced in California, make sure to pick up a few bottles, especially their “Shell and Bone” red. At $15, it rocks hard.