Chateau Belgrave 2009, Located in the northern Willamette Valley, Yamhill-Carlton consists of ancient marine sedimentary-based soils, Mediterranean weather patterns and neatly combed benchlands. Gran Moraine embodies the confluence of these elements, creating a perfect setting to craft classic Burgundian varieties - Pinot Noir and Chardonnay.

Oregon Wine Country, an extraordinary place sculpted by the floods of the last ice age, is a series of valleys much like Burgundy.

Gran Moraine takes its name from cataclysmic floods that occurred in the northern Willamette Valley of Oregon during the last ice age. As the glaciers receded they released a torrent of water from the once giant Lake Missoula. These famous Missoula Floods traveled across the Columbia basin helping to carve out the Columbia Gorge.

The Willamette Valley became an extremely large temporary lake and was left with huge deposits of silt as well as giant boulders with origins in current British Columbia and Idaho. These are known by geologists as erratic rocks. These erratic rock outcroppings boldly manifest themselves throughout our vineyard. They were once part of the giant glacial dam’s moraine – what we refer to as the "Gran Moraine."

Aromas of white peach, macaroon, navel orange, lemon curd, poached pear, rose petal and apricot blossom. The palate has lively acidity, gravely minerality and flavors of Nashi pear, honeydew melon, Golden Delicious apple and flint followed by a long citrus driven finish.

92 points Wine Advocate
The 2017 Chardonnay Yamhill-Carlton has a wonderfully open, inviting nose of honey-drizzled hazelnuts, apple pie, clotted cream, baked peaches, allspice and crushed stone. The medium-bodied palate is creamy textured and savory in character with juicy acidity and a long, textured finish

Tuna steaks with a creamy risotto and asparagus.

This wine of amazing fruit and depth, is from a relatively new vineyard that earned its wings at ABC with the 2013 vintage, the first Runway designated bottling of its own. It has been a success ever since.

Runway Vineyard planted 16 acres of vines in 2008 on a 1,000 acre parcel. It is located about a mile from our winery, essentially next door to Bien Nacido Vineyards. We have watched their development from the beginning. After all, we are very “nosy” neighbors. The vineyard is owned by the 47th lieutenant Governor of California Abel Maldonado. Abel has been doing his own farming for a few years and he knows what is best for his vineyard.

Santa Maria Valley Pinot Noir characteristically has a very fragrant, cranberry, rose petal aroma, and firm structure. The fruit from Runway provides that, yet is richer, darker and more intense. We are now making Runway Vineyard Pinot Noir a large part of our single vineyard Pinot program. The soil there is sandy so once the weather warms in the summer, the grapes ripen quickly. Due to our proximity, we can pick the grapes “just right”.

As with all of our single vineyard Pinots, the wine gets all the TLC needed to ensure optimum quality. It was barrel aged for almost 24 months in François Frères barrels, about 30% new oak.

Wine Advocate: 96 Points
The 2017 Pinot Noir Runway Vineyard is a stunning wine with incredible complexity and depth. Pale to medium ruby, the nose offers loads of angostura-like spices with touches of licorice, cola, mushrooms and a core of red and black berries. The medium-bodied palate is super spicy and layered with a soft frame and bright freshness, and it finishes very long. 400 cases produced.

Jeb Dunnuck: 94 Points
The 2017 Pinot Noir Runway Vineyard comes from a vineyard in the Santa Maria Valley and spent 18 months in 50% new French oak. Its deep ruby yet still translucent color is followed by beautiful sour cherry and ripe strawberry notes. Medium to full-bodied, it offers a round, elegant texture, plenty of underlying structure, and a great finish. It blossoms with time in the glass, showing more spice and floral notes as well as length, and I suspect it will be at its best from 2023-2033.

Marinate and grill some skirt steak with a healthy dose of chimichurri on top!

Always evolving quality, elegance, innovation, evolution... These are the pillars on which the five founding families erected our winery in 1890 and built a way of living, feeling and producing wines of the highest quality that continue to evolve subtly, perfectly adapting to new tastes. This is how the permanent pursuit of excellence started; a pursuit that continues into the 21st century with identical enthusiasm. We draw the best from our winemaking tradition and wisdom —our own cooperage, manual racking, long ageing periods, etc.— and combine it with the most modern winemaking technology. Today, our wines are an international exemplar of the great wines of Rioja and our brands are present in the best restaurants across all continents.

Rioja wines are typically a blend of fruit from its three sub-regions: Rioja Alta, Rioja Alavesa and Rioja Oriental, although specific sub-region (zonas), village (municipios) and vineyard (viñedo singular) wines can now be labeled. Rioja Alta and Alavesa, at the highest elevations, are considered to be the source of the brightest, most elegant fruit, while grapes from the warmer and drier, Rioja Oriental, produce wines with deep color, great body and richness.

Garnet red, medium-high depth, with an elegant palate. The nose stands out for its power, a highly-complex blend of spicy and balsamic aromas of sweet licorice, patisserie, vanilla, cinnamon, cocoa, coffee and nutmeg, and notes of stewed red fruits. Outstanding balance, pleasant freshness and great structure in the mouth, with supple, round tannins. Very pleasant mouthfeel. An ample aftertaste of spicy notes, sweet licorice and ripe fruit makes this a timeless wine, with tremendous laying-down potential.

Blend: 80% Tempranillo, 20% Garnacha
96 points James Suckling
A rich nose of raspberry, crushed strawberry, blueberry, coconut, cedar and sweet spice. It’s medium-to full-bodied with fine tannins and fresh acidity. Creamy, balanced and layered with vibrant, spicy character. Long and polished. 80% tempranillo and 20% garnacha. Drink or hold.

Pair with roast lamb, red meats, barbeques, large game, spicy fish casseroles and smoked and aged cheeses.

The great wine of the property is Château Belgrave, classified 5th Grand Cru Classé in 1855. Thanks to the studies carried out on the property to understand the behavior of the vine according to the nature of the subsoil and its water supply, the Château Belgrave team has acquired a perfect knowledge of the vineyard. The viticultural work, associated with reasoned protection, as well as the harvest have been adapted to this cartography.

Stepping back in time, Chateau Belgrave was not always a vineyard. In fact, under King Louis XIV, it was originally used as a hunting lodge, which is paid homage on the label.

It is also next door to Chateau Lagrange, which is in St. Julien. With just a few meters further during the 1855 classification, and it could have been in St. Julien.

Starting in 1990, Chateau Belgrave moved to a cleaner form of vineyard management, with the elimination of all chemical fertilizers and limiting the use of pesticides, along with harvesting riper fruits and seeking lower yields. In 1993, a major renovation of the wine-making facilities and cellars took place.

The wine expresses all the finesse and personality of this great terroir. Dense and deep, it is distinguished by its aging capacity, its aromatic complexity and its very Saint-Julien character. 

75% Cabernet Sauvignon, 20% Merlot, 5% Petit Verdot
The wine is almost black in color, displaying dark red glints and a delicate purple rim. The complex, intensely fresh bouquet opens on toasty notes, enhanced by powerful black fruit aromas. The wine is all-enveloping and characterized by an elegant, powerful, tight structure and silky, concentrated tannins. It evolves towards an impressively long finish, revealing attractive oaky notes. Magnificent Belgrave, very Saint-Julien in style.
90 points Vinous

The 2009 Belgrave has a ripe red cherry, kirsch scented bouquet with hints of raisin and fig. It is just flirting with over-ripeness...but not over-ripe! The palate is medium-bodied with candied red fruit, a little chewy in texture and perhaps needing more mineralité on the finish. Yet, there is fine density and decent precision on the finish. Maybe give this another couple of years in bottle.

Asian dishes, hearty fish courses like tuna, mushrooms, and pasta as well as a myriad of hard and soft cheeses.

Etienne Daulny owns 15 hectares of vines that are divided into about 50 different plots within the Sancerre wine region. Daulny combines diverse plots from varying types of soil, including clay and flint, Portlandian and Kimmeridgian, into his regular cuvée of Sancerre. But Daulny's cuvée normale is far from normal. After all, grapes from some of the appellation’s most revered vineyards make their way into this cuvée, including old vine plantings at Les Monts Damnés, Les Bois Butteux, and La Perriere. Clos de Chaudenay(the hot spot) is a single vineyard cuvée from a gentle slope just above Verdigny. These southwest facing vines average 40 years of age.

A combination of grapes from various plots (including some of the best vineyards in the appellation) and various types of soil, fermented and aged only in stainless steel tanks, this Sancerre is a perfect representation of its AOC. "Made from 40-year-old sauvignon blanc vines, this Sancerre captures the essence of the grape with floral, mineral and ground coffee bean aromas and grapefruit, white peach flavors. A small percentage was aged in older oak but the fruit from this vineyard is powerful enough to absorb it, giving the wine a bit of texture and body. With bright acidity and fruit, this is a great wine to have with a fish dish cooked with fava beans as well as one where the favas are the main event."

Tasting Etienne’s racy, electric Sancerre makes it pretty obvious that there is a higher purpose to his labor. It’s a terrific white wine, so fine aromatically, with grapefruit and white peach fruit in the mouth and a crisp, fresh finish.

It’s a great choice for a house white, absolutely perfect with all the fish in the sea but just as good with roasted poultry, any kind of goat cheese or just by itself

The estate has been in the same family since time immemorial and has always been handed down by women. The current owner, Jean-Hubert Delon, inherited the estate from his paternal grandmother, Georgette Liquard. Although close to the river, Potensac is situated on a high point of land in North Medoc. Because of this position, the site has been populated since ancient times. The name "Medoc" in fact comes from "medio aquae" which means "in the middle of the waters."

Planted on the best quality soils in the Ordonnac district, the vineyards now extend over 84 hectares on a terroir where the typical characteristics of each grape variety express themselves very distinctly and give the wine superb aging potential.

One of the most—if not the most—famous red wine regions of the world, the Medoc reaches from the city of Bordeaux northwest along the left bank of the Gironde River almost all the way to the Atlantic. Its vineyards climb along a band of flatlands, sandwiched between the coastal river marshes and the pine forests in the west. The entire region can only claim to be three to eight miles wide (at its widest), but it is about 50 miles long.

While the Medoc encompasses the Haut Medoc, and thus most of the classed-growth villages (Margaux, Moulis, Listrac, St-Julien, Pauillac and St. Estephe) it is really only those wines produced in the Bas-Medoc that use the Medoc appellation name. The ones farther down the river, and on marginally higher ground, are eligible to claim the Haut Medoc appellation, or their village or cru status.

While the region can’t boast a particularly dramatic landscape, impressive chateaux disperse themselves among the magically well-drained gravel soils that define the area. This optimal soil draining capacity is completely necessary and ideal in the Medoc's damp, maritime climate. These gravels also serve well to store heat in cooler years.

Another sleeper is the 2016 Château de Potensac, which is 44% Merlot, 39% Cabernet Sauvignon, and the rest Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot, all aged 14 months in 30% new French oak. This beauty is upfront and ready to go, with a dark, rich bouquet of currants, unsmoked tobacco, graphite, and earth. With beautiful concentration and a layered, elegant texture, it’s one of those wines that has ample upfront appeal yet will keep for 15+ years. - 91 points Jeb Dunnuck

A wintry roast of venison and root vegetables.

The owners, Ken & Melissa Moholt-Siebert launched their winery in 2006 with grapes from Ken's grandparents' vineyard, which Ken inherited, and opened the tasting room in October, 2012. The very first wine from Ancient Oak Cellars was Siebert Ranch Pinot Noir, made from grapes on Ken & Melissa's family vineyard in the Russian River Valley. They had always read how finicky Pinot Noir is, it being lamented as the heartbreak grape, for how difficult it is to grow and make into good wine. They never knew anything else.

As it happens, it is not so hard to grow Pinot Noir, if you are in the right place. They started with just a couple hundred cases, then the next year made a thousand, adding some Zinfandel from Pagnano Vineyard, and some Russian River Pinot Noir from other growers, and Russian River Chardonnay. In 2012, they added the Cabernet, Cab Franc and Merlot on Sonoma Mountain.

They source fruit from five family vineyards--three they farm themselves and the other two are farmed by the families that first planted them 30 or more years ago.

In 2014 Greg La Follette joined the team. Greg has degrees in Plant Biology and Chemistry and then wrote a master's thesis on the role of native yeast in sur lie aging. He took his passion for listening to wine and working with native yeasts--methods not suited to large-scale, industrial winemaking, but capable of extraordinary results in small lots under the attentive eye of the vigneron, and built the reputation of a number of wineries.

85% Cabernet Franc, 10% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% Merlot

Named after the 7th century BCE Greek lyric poet Alcaeus, who was a contemporary of Sappho. Alcaeus wrote much about the natural world, and now gives voice to this Cabernet Franc-based blend from Sonoma Mountain. It is full-bodied, with ripe red and black fruit layers, compelling notes of wild blueberries, kirsch and blackberry pie, with rose hip tea and cigar box overtones, and a long, layered finish framed by ripe, grainy tannins.

Vineyards on the thin soils and steep slopes of the east face of Sonoma Mountain produce precious crops of small clusters, which results in great intensity. Winemaker Greg La Follette’s restrained use of oak and the patience to let the tannins mature through passive oxidation in barrel produces wines of pure varietal character that are simultaneously elegant and intense.

Lamb gyros

Y. Rousseau Wines is a dream that began long ago in the South-West of France and continues to grow and evolve today. Yannick Rousseau, French native, founder and winemaker, followed his heart and passion for winemaking all the way to Napa Valley where he met his Texan-born wife, Susan. The two of them bring their combined entrepreneurial savvy to embrace the ebbs and flows of running a family winery with the legacy of their racines, hospitable style, and discriminating artisanship.

Born in Gascony, France to the son of a butcher, Yannick makes his wines with the heart of a Gascon using the earth, elements and fruit of California. Bringing together these passions of place, time and the elements requires hard work with a gentle hand to produce the alchemy of stand-apart wines. Now, he carries forward his winemaking mission still embracing Colombard, Tannat and other favored varietals and blending them to create revived, and even edge-bending wines. His wines are recognized for their qualities of balanced drinkability and food-worthiness while being sought-after by wine geeks from all over.

Tannat’s roots reach through the same French countryside as Yannick’s. As one of the Sud Ouest's hallmark red beauties, it hails from the Madiran region near the Pyrenées mountains. It was the first red grape variety with which Yannick made wine as an intern winemaker in France.

It is generous, bright, robust, complex and well-­structured. The nose is pure, showing ripe blueberries and violet flower along with additional savory notes of black olives and cured meats. The palate is voluptuous, fresh, juicy with silky tannins, and a long finish.

90% Tannat, 10% Syrah. Three days cold soaked, fermented at 78-85 degrees F, aged for 18 months in 35% new French oak barrels (500 l).

This is a great wine to pair with lasagna, venison, Boeuf Bourguignon, eggplant parmesan, cassoulet and juicy burgers.

Four generations of the Renoir family have been involved in wine production in Champagne. Adrien Renoir only just recently took control of the domaine after having the reins passed down to him in 2014 by his father, Vincent Renoir. The two, like many father & son winemakers, have and continue to have quite different views, yet worked together for Adrien’s first two vintages before Adrien took full control in 2016. Although Vincent didn’t agree with Adrien’s push for cleaner farming, noting that it wasn’t achievable so far north in Champagne, he allowed him to make the conversion as long as it was done slowly and cautiously.

The wines now bear the name of the fourth generation on the label, having previously been labeled as Vincent Renoir. At only 29 years old Adrien is already proving to be a force to reckon with in Champagne. He has pretty swiftly adjusted many things at the domaine, including switching to organic farming, adjustments in the cellar primarily increased use of oak for fermentations and aging. Winemaking here is artisanal with ambient yeast fermentations lees stirring and no temperature control. He has also diversified the line-up of bottlings to focus more on the unique parcels and terroirs that his family has cultivated for generations

Verzy Grand Cru - 50% Chardonnay, 50% Pinot Noir
Base vintage: 2016 + 20% vin de réserve (2015) aged in foudre
80% was vinified in inox and 20% in barrel
Elevage sur lies
Bottled May 2017
Dosage : 3.3g/l

This wine has a light yellow color with slightly golden reflections. It is a champagne with very nice fine and light bubbles. On the nose, it is very fresh and very airy, with fruity and floral aromas, such as acacia, honey, and crunchy white fruit. On the second nose, more powerful and winey notes emerge. The attack on the palate is very pleasant, it is fresh and lively, but nonetheless smooth and greedy with brioche and toasted aromas punctuated by very fresh citrus aromas such as lemon and grapefruit. It is a very pleasant and balanced champagne, with its freshness and its deliciousness.

Kettle cooked potato chips...the End. (Perfectly salty, crunchy, it’s a timeless Champagne pairing. If you haven’t tried it yet, it’s time!

The wines of Bass Phillip are endowed with vibrant fruit and considerable delicacy, and evolve and develop dramatically with aeration in a swirling glass or decent decanting. They are never excessive in tannins or alcohol in their youth, and with age, they blossom gracefully to develop an intensity of flavour in the finish framed by strong minerality and natural acidity. Countless tales vouch for how Bass Phillip Pinot Noirs improve in the cellar, sometimes for well over twenty years.

Drinking an aged Bass Phillip pinot is a transcendental experience a dedicated wine lover must experience to fathom just how special these wines are. Immense, soil driven complexity, deliciousness and seemingly endless ageability are compelling reasons why many Pinot connoisseurs consider them legends.

The three wines at the top of the Bass Phillip hierarchy — the Estate, Premium and Reserve Pinot Noirs — have always come from the same original 1979 main vineyard in Leongatha: a 3.5-hectare block, known as the Estate vineyard. Within this vineyard the same rows of vines and sub-plots are used for each of these wines every year, purely because those vines give the best grapes, year after year.

Bass Phillip’s first Pinot Noir was made in 1984, and the first commercial release, comprising the 1985 to 1989 vintages, took place in 1991. The 1989 vintage was the first in which the Reserve, Premium and Estate Pinot Noirs were separately vinified, following five years’ worth of research into the separate vattings, which involved numerous small-batch fermentation trials.

The “17K” is dedicated to becoming the entry-level wine of Bass, accessible to new generations, but also for those who want to enjoy a glass of Bass Phillip on a Tuesday night without breaking the bank! The selection of the fruits is coming from the deepest soils or younger vineyards. Delicate red fruits with purity, the wine is made to provide drinking pleasure straight away

Upon opening the 2019 17K reveals primary red fruits and after half an hour or so the nose becomes much more resolved and interesting, showing its pedigree with bright dark cherries and blood plums along with raspberry notes. The wine has a warmth and deliciousness reflecting the riper nature of the vintage. The palate also reflects the ripe vintage with its sumptuous textural mid palate, finely polished core of tannins and lingering red fruit flavors. Give the wine a little time after opening for the fruits flavors to shine.

Duck.  Any questions?

Gernot and Heike Heinrich founded their winery in 1990 with just one hectare and have steadily grown to 90 hectares today. Heinrich was one of the first in the region to transition from simple white wines to high-quality reds in the early 1990s, and became famous for powerful red blends such as Salzberg, Gabarinza, and Pannobile. In recent years, the focus has turned to Blaufränkisch from the nearby Leithaberg DAC, and to “Freyheit,” a line of natural wines produced with minimal intervention in the cellar. Heinrich converted to biodynamics in 2006 and is a member of Respekt, a certifying body for biodynamic viticulture in Austria. Heinrich today is one of Austria’s most innovative wine producers

Refreshing red-berried fruit meets piquant herbal spice and invigorating pepperiness. Its delineated, compact body swings in cophasal harmony with fine-grained, soft tannins and a delicate, animating acid nerve. A proud representative of its pedigree that cheerfully reveals its edges and corners.

Think smoked sausages and potatoes