On deck for wine tasting next week at VRW:

Wine Advocate 92-94 Points
2020 Faiveley Les Charmes Chambolle Musigny Premier Cru

 The 2020 Chambolle-Musigny Premier Cru Les Charmes is perfumed and elegant, soaring from the glass with scents of roses, peonies, orange rind and sweet red berries. Medium to full-bodied, velvety and sensual, with melting tannins, succulent acids and a saline finish, it's one of the most ethereal wines in the range. $220

2020 Faiveley Les Rugiens Pommard Premier Cru

Producer Notes: Deep ruby red hue. The nose and palate are in perfect harmony and reveal aromas of black fruits, oak and spice. The attack is powerful and underpinned by direct, velvety tannins. This wine offers good structure and aromatic persistency. Serve with: Game stew, shoulder of lamb, duck confit, mature cheeses. $220

2021 Gentry Howell Mountain Cabernet Sauvignon

Producer Notes: This 100% Cabernet Sauvignon from a single biodynamic vineyard on Howell Mountain is made by a very acclaimed winemaker (who must remain nameless) who describes the wine as vibrant, shows the power and restraint of Howell Mountain. First, a powerful bouquet of rose petals, African violets and lavender greet your nose. Next, wanting to show its true colors you will find balanced fruit attributes of Bing cherries, plums and cranberries on the palate. A mountain wine at heart, graphite and iron are also ever-present. In an effort to show its youthfulness, this medium bodied wine with lively acidity and inviting freshness finishes with energetic yet refined tannins. $70

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Taste Chardonnay: 2022 Morgan Metallico, 2021 Kistler Les Noisetiers and 2020 Ramey Hyde at Vintage Reserve Wine for $15 per person.
Tuesday, January 9th. Available 12:00 noon -5:45 PM

2022 Morgan Metallico Chardonnay

Winemaker Notes: Metallico’s aromatics are intense with green apple, pear, and apple blossom. The palate has ripe fruit flavors of sweet lemon rind and quince. This wine encompasses a light-medium body with bright acidity and a long finish. $24 Our Price $19.99 (Available GT)

2021 Kistler Les Noisetiers Chardonnay

Winemaker Notes: The Les Noisetiers is a combination of three Sonoma Coast sites (Vine Hill Vineyard, Dutton Ranch, and Trenton Roadhouse) and emphasizes the area’s sandy Gold Ridge soils. The vinification draws on techniques used in Burgundy. The result is one of the most luxurious and complex white wines made in this county, possessing a minerality rare in New World Chardonnay. $75

Wine Advocate 97 Points
2020 Ramey Hyde Chardonnay

The 2020 Chardonnay Hyde Vineyard is mineral-driven and powerful and offers a strong sense of place. Its aromas segue from iodine and saline to creamy citrus. The medium-bodied palate explodes with concentrated, savory fruit and tones of beeswax and flint. Its acidity is racy yet seamlessly integrated, and it has a very long, shimmery finish. It tastes clean and has what it needs to age, but because of the challenges of the 2020 vintage, I would lean toward drinking it on the younger side after a couple of hours in a decanter. $90

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Taste 2018 Bodegas Izadi Rioja Reserva, 2018 Bodegas Beronia Rioja Reserva and 2021 Bodegas y Viñedos Raúl Pérez Bierzo Tinto ‘Ultreia St. Jacques’ at Vintage Reserve Wine (VRW) for $10 per person.
Wednesday, January 10th. Available 12:00 noon -5:45 PM

Wine Spectator 91 Points
Bodegas Izadi Rioja Reserva 2018

A polished red, layering supple tannins with an aromatic overtone of star anise, mocha and graphite. Fresh and medium-bodied, revealing black cherry coulis and fig cake notes, with a spiced finish. Drink now through 2027. 30,000 cases made, 7,000 cases imported. $22

Wine Spectator 90 Points
Bodegas Beronia Rioja Reserva 2018

A classy red, fresh and fragrant, with notes of bay leaf, pepper and tar-tinged mineral accenting crushed cherry and blackberry fruit flavors. Shows good focus, with lightly chalky tannins in a medium-bodied frame. Tempranillo, Mazuelo and Graciano. Drink now through 2026. 50,000 cases made, 3,500 cases imported. $25

Wine Advocate 93 Points
Bodegas y Viñedos Raúl Pérez Bierzo Tinto ‘Ultreia St. Jacques’ 2021

The biggest volume of the winery is the 2021 Ultreia Saint Jacques, which represents some 170,000 bottles, and according to Raúl Pérez, it's the most difficult wine to make here. They now work a lot to produce this wine, a blend of 11 wines selected from the 17 they made. It's a wine that represents Bierzo and is from a year when they used more grapes from sandy soils. It has 13.16% alcohol and a pH of 3.66; it's serious and restrained but juicy and easy to drink. Seventy percent of the wine matured in barrel and the rest in troncoconic oak vats. $30

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Taste 2022 Louis Latour Pouilly Fuisse, 2020 Faiveley Beaune 1er Cru Clos de l'Écu Monopole and 2021 Domaine de la Solitude Chateauneuf-du-Pape at Vintage Reserve Wine (VRW) for $15 per person.
Thursday, January 11th. Available 12:00 noon -5:45 PM

2022 Louis Latour Pouilly Fuisse

Winery Notes: Pouilly-Fuisse is the name of a village in the Maconnais producing highly distinctive Chardonnay wine. The vineyards producing this wine are part of a breath-taking landscape where the limestone and heavy clay soils combine to create a unique 'terroir'. Average vine age for our Pouilly-Fuisse is 30 years. Our ’22 release has a brilliant pale yellow color. Its floral nose evokes scents of acacia and honeysuckle. Round and ample on the palate, it reveals aromas of yellow fruits. $35

Wine Advocate 91-93 Points
2020 Faiveley Beaune 1er Cru Clos de l'Écu Monopole

Aromas of raspberries, cherries, sweet spices, raw cocoa and peonies preface the 2020 Beaune 1er Cru Clos de l'Écu Monopole, a medium to full-bodied, concentrated and vibrant wine with tangy acids, melting tannins and a long, saline finish. This is very promising. $125

James Suckling 94 Points
Domaine de la Solitude Chateauneuf-du-Pape 2021

A stunning Chateauneuf with stacks of ripe blackberry fruit, generous body and concentrated fine tannins. Together with the pronounced minerality, they give this a stunning velvety texture right through the remarkably long intense finish for the challenging 2021 vintage. From field blend vineyards growing on 50% galet cobblestone soil and 50% sandy soil. Grenache is dominant, followed by syrah, but mourvedre, counoise and vaccarese also play an important role. From organically grown grapes. $53

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James Suckling 91 Points
2020 Zenato Valpolicella Superiore

Super-clean aromas of spicy red fruit and perfumed oak follow through to a medium-bodied palate with well-integrated tannins and a well-ordered finish. All nicely in place. $17 Our Price $15.79 (Available GT)

Wine Spectator 90 Points
Faiveley Joseph Faiveley Bourgogne 2020

This sleek, taut red is penetrated with a beam of cherry and strawberry fruit flavors supported by vibrant acidity and refined, chalky tannins. Elegant, showing fine balance and length. Drink now through 2027. 3,300 cases imported. $43 Our Price $24.99 (Available GT and VRW 1/10/24)

Antonio Galloni, Vinous 92 Points
2019 Le Pich Napa Cabernet Sauvignon

The 2019 Cabernet Sauvignon Le Pich is a terrific introductory-level wine from Julien Fayard. A rich, opulent wine, Le Pich offers up a compelling mélange of black cherry, plum, chocolate, cloves, new leather and licorice. This bold, sumptuous Cabernet delivers the goods, big time. The 2019 is one of the best editions of Le Pich I can remember tasting. Drinking Window: 2022-2034. $60 Our Price $49.95 (Back in stock GT)

Wine Advocate 97 Points
2019 Domaine Serene Pinot Noir Evenstad Reserve

Medium ruby, the 2019 Pinot Noir Evenstad Reserve has pure, layered aromas of cranberry, pomegranate and raspberry with accents of tobacco leaves, graphite, mushroom and forest floor. The medium-bodied palate is harmoniously structured and seamless with delicate, perfumed fruit and a very long, spicy finish. This strikes a fine balance between a fruity, savory and earthy character. $105 Our Price $88.99 (Back in stock GT)

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Taste 2021 Lingua Franca Eola-Amity Hills Estate Pinot, 2019 Theorize Napa Cabernet Sauvignon and 2018 Taub Family Rutherford Cabernet Sauvignon at Vintage Reserve Wine (VRW) for $15 per person.
Friday, January 12th. Available 12:00 noon -5:45 PM

Wine Spectator 95 Points
Lingua Franca Pinot Noir Eola-Amity Hills Lingua Franca Estate 2021

A compelling, multilayered red, with lilting raspberry and cherry flavors that expand to reveal fresh violet and earthy mineral accents, which build tension toward refined tannins. Drink now through 2032. 1,698 cases made. $60

2019 Theorize Napa Cabernet Sauvignon

Winemaker Notes: 100% Cabernet Sauvignon. Dark ruby with touches of royal red and garnet. A beautiful balance of spices like nutmeg, thyme with cherry pie, cedar, vanilla bean, touches of coconut and molasses, gingerbread. Fresh but lush entrance evolving on ripe sweet fruit like cherry preserve macerated strawberries lingering on tannins and cinnamon. $50

Wine Enthusiast 93
2018 Taub Family Rutherford Cabernet Sauvignon

Well structured and dense with fruit and oak-spice flavors, this full-bodied wine wraps significant velvety tannins around black cherries, black currant and mint notes. Perfumed with cedar and cinnamon on the nose, the wine is smooth on the midpalate and lingers on the finish $70

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Taste 2019 Domaine Carneros Brut, Delamotte Brut Champagne NV and 2020 SCHRAMSBERG Brut Rosé North Coast at Vintage Reserve Wine (VRW) for $15 per person.
Saturday, January 13th. Available 12:00 noon -3:45 PM

Wine Spectator 93 Points
Domaine Carneros Brut Carneros 2019

Alluring for its sleek polish and precision, this sparkler has tiers of Asian pear, strawberry, fresh almond and ginger flavors that unfurl slowly. Drink now. 25,000 cases made. $36

Wine Spectator 91 Points
Delamotte Brut Champagne NV

A delicate, mineral-driven Champagne, with an underpinning of chalk, smoke and oyster shell layered with notes of poached apricot, citronella and beeswax. Lively and persistent on the finish. Chardonnay, Pinot Noir and Pinot Meunier. Drink now through 2026. 6,250 cases made. $71

Wine Spectator 93 Points
SCHRAMSBERG Brut Rosé North Coast 2020

Generous yet steely at the core, with fragrant raspberry, rose petal and gingerbread accents that dance on the long, zesty finish. Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Drink now. 15,750 cases made. —Tim Fish. $50

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Vintage Reserve Wine (VRW)
1552 E. Champlain Drive, Ste 109 Fresno, CA 93720
Via Montana Center (NE Corner Shepherd and Champlain-Two doors south of Big 5) www.vintagereserve.biz 559-878-3953
Tuesday-Friday 12:00 Noon-6:00 PM
Saturday 12 Noon-4:00 PM

The Grape Tray (GT)
6023 N. Palm Avenue Fresno, CA 93704
Opus One Center (NW Corner Bullard and Palm)
www.grapetray.com 559-226-6828
Tuesday-Friday 10:30 AM-5:30 PM
Saturday 10:30 AM-4:00 PM