On deck for wine tasting next week at VRW:

2019 Saddleback Oakville Cabernet Sauvignon

Winemaker Notes: On the nose, pleasing aromas of cassis, blackberry, bay leaf, cocoa, light oak and Earl Grey leaves. On the palate, it approaches with a velvety, silky tannins with a full mouthfeel. The well balanced minerality ends with a highly structured, but soft, strawberry, pomegranate and coffee finish. The tannins smoothly grip you on the first taste, but pleasantly soften into a gracefully spectacular wine. $80

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Taste Staglin Estate: 2022 Salus Chardonnay, 2019 Salus Cabernet, 2016 Estate Cabernet, 2020 Estate Cabernet and 2019 Resa Petaluma Gap Pinot Noir at Vintage Reserve Wine (VRW) for $35 per person. Hollis Nelson, Staglin Family Vineyard West Coast Sales Manager will join us for our Halloween tasting! (Limited: We will open two bottles of each wine for this tasting)
Thursday, October 31st. Available 3:30PM -5:45 PM

2022 Staglin Salus Napa Chardonnay

Winemaker's Tasting Notes: The 2022 Salus Chardonnay marries a complexity and refinement uncommon for the region with a dash of richness. Energetic honeysuckle and lemon zest aromatics open the experience. The first sip bursts with brightness and flavors of quince, grilled peach, lemon verbena, and subtle brioche before tastefully transitioning to a long finish of steadfast texture and composed acidity. This wine shows glimpses of the ripeness that the California sun has to offer and the restraint that we practice in the cellar. $60

2019 RESA Petaluma Gap Sonoma Pinot Noir

Winemaker Notes: The beautifully balanced Pinot Noir offers soft aromatics of cherries, currant and forest floor and that fresh rain feeling. The palate mimics the aromatics with soft tannins and fresh acidity. $100

2019 Staglin Family Salus Napa Cabernet

Winemaker Notes: Welcome to High Definition Cabernet – the 2019 Salus is a generous and deliciously detailed display of exuberant dark fruits dynamically supported by a range of floral, earthy and herbaceous characters. Lifted floral notes slide into resinous rosemary underlain by tilled earth and powdered porcini mushrooms complexed with a puff of gunpowder, graphite and criollo cigar wrapper. Bursting blackcurrant and ripe raspberry deepened by crushed cacao nibs and fresh licorice root envelop the palate before sliding silkily through a delightfully delineated and lengthy exit. The hint of grip and grit on the finish portends a rewarding and delicious life for this wine. $115

Wine Advocate 97
2016 Staglin Family Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon Estate

Deep garnet-purple colored, the 2016 Cabernet Sauvignon Estate bursts out of the glass with beautiful black cherry compote, warm cassis and freshly crushed blackberries scents plus touches of chargrill, violets, dark chocolate and pencil shavings and a waft of English lavender. Full-bodied, the palate features great intensity combined with fantastic freshness, textured by soft, finely grained tannins and lifted by the most gorgeous floral perfume, finishing long and layered. Beautiful wine. $300

Karen MacNeil 95 Points
2020 Staglin Estate Cabernet Sauvignon

Staglin has long been one of Napa Valley’s A+++ wines, and a winery that hits homeruns year after year. 2020 was perhaps the most challenging year the Napa Valley has ever seen. Those wineries affected by smoke made no wine (for the most part). But the vineyards that were already harvested (or by luck of site and orientation were not affected), made stellar wine. This is one of those incredible wines. It’s an exquisite Cabernet with long swaths of blackberry and incense aromas and flavors. For this vintage, Staglin also used less new oak than it usually does, which has given the wine an extra lift of energy and vitality. Farmed organically. $325

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Wine Spectator 92 Points
Vilmart Brut Champagne Grande Réserve NV

(Review Published 9/2/2024)

Vivid acidity creates a mouthwatering frame for the white raspberry, blood orange, salted Marcona almond and star anise flavors carried on the lightly chalky mousse of this sleek and focused Champagne. Lightly briny and lingering on the finish. Pinot Noir and Chardonnay. Disgorged July 2023. Drink now through 2029. 750 cases imported. $72/750ml. Half Bottles $50. In Store Price $20.95/375ml (Available GT and VRW)

 2022 Alma Cattleya Sonoma Pinot Noir

Winemaker Notes: Harnessed within its medium ruby core, this Pinot Noir packs pure aromas of berry pie, pomegranate, and spicy sandalwood. Rich and textured on the palate, the senses are dazzled with fruit driven flavors of macerated blackberry and mulberry that pair seamlessly with more savory notes of dried herbs and hints of fresh earth. The youthful acidity and fine-grained tannin offer an exciting and approachable finish to this luscious wine. $30 (Back in stock GT 11/1/24)

Jeb Dunnuck 96 Points
2019 Rhys Pinot Noir Alpine Vineyard

I loved the 2019 Pinot Noir Alpine Vineyard, a spicy, perfumed, more ethereal Pinot Noir from a great vineyard in the Santa Cruz Mountains. Revealing a translucent ruby hue as well as notes of ripe cherries, strawberries, sappy flowers, spice, and sappy underbrush, it hits the palate with medium-bodied richness, silky yet building tannins, no hard edges, and a great finish. It's one of the most balanced, complete wines in the lineup and will keep for 10-15 years. $135 Our Price $124.99 (Available GT and VRW)

2021 Pont Neuf Le Pont Russian River Chardonnay

Winemaker Notes: A handsome wine, always rich and assertive, Le Pont Neuf evolves slowly in the bottle with new aromas and flavors emerging as the young wine develops. The tasting experience is one of energy and movement where a subtle hint of one aroma is replaced by one after another as it evolves in the glass. Seductive aromas of honeycomb, crystallized lemon peel, and Freesia are accompanied by a pliant and luxurious mouthfeel. A fine thread of minerality runs through this wine, giving structure and making it fit to age for at least a decade. Le Pont Neuf is a wine that leads to inspired cooking. In Burgundy, we would opt for a creamy lemon and thyme-scented blanquette de veau, roast pork or fine recipes of meatier, flavorful fish. Drink now - 2035. 70 cases produced. $90 (Available GT)

Wine Spectator 96 Points
Viña Don Melchor Cabernet Sauvignon Puente Alto Puente Alto Vineyard 2021

A remarkable effort that channels the finesse of the vintage with rich, muscular edges, offering a base of graphite and cassis notes that gather around elegant layers of dried rosemary and white pepper. The richly textured core of raspberry and plum flavors show precision and just enough acidity to keep things sailing onto the finish around well-integrated tannins and touches of cocoa. Best from 2026 through 2040. 18,300 cases made, 5,000 cases imported. $175 (Available 12/6/24)

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Taste Napa Cabernet Sauvignon: 2022 The Vice The House, 2021 Turnbull and 2021 Spottswoode Lyndenhurst at Vintage Reserve Wine (VRW) for $20 per person.
Friday, November 1st. Available 12:00 noon -5:45 PM

James Sucking 92 Points
The Vice Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley The House 2022

Crushed blackcurrants and blackberries with notes of sweet spices and wet stones. Full and creamy with fine tannins and a deep core of fruit. Velvety and succulent. Try from 2026. $35

Jeb Dunnuck 94 Points
2021 Turnbull Napa Cabernet Sauvignon

The appellation 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley is a killer value that should be snatched up by readers. Ripe black fruits, roasted herbs, chocolate, and some spicy wood define the bouquet and it s full-bodied, has fine tannins, a glossy, layered texture, and outstanding length. It certainly has a modern edge, but is impeccably made. Enjoy bottles over the coming decade. $50

Jeb Dunnuck 94 Points
2021 Spottswoode Cabernet Sauvignon Lyndenhurst

The second wine of this incredible estate, the 2021 Cabernet Sauvignon Lyndenhurst reveals a deep purple hue as well as a great nose of assorted currants, black cherries, tobacco, and lead pencil. It's beautifully concentrated, has medium to full-bodied richness, and ripe tannins, all making for an undeniably delicious, classic, balanced Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon to drink over the coming 10-15 years. $110

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Taste 2022 Talbott Sleepy Hollow Chardonnay, 2017 Siduri Pinot Noir Soberanes Vineyard and 2022 Paul Lato Pinot Noir Lancelot Pisoni Vineyard at Vintage Reserve Wine (VRW) for $15 per person
Saturday, November 2nd. Available 12:00 noon -3:45 PM

Vinous Media 92 Points
2022 Talbott Sleepy Hollow Chardonnay

The 2022 Chardonnay Sleepy Hollow Vineyard is a richer, more forward style of Chardonnay. A lovely hug of spicy French oak wraps around a sweet, ripe pear fruit core. Textural intensity is the order of the day-this wine spent much of its maturation period on the lees, which softened its edges in a really pleasant fashion. A forgivable tick of heat emerges on the finish, but this is attractive enough to look past that. $35

Jeb Dunnuck 93 Points
2017 Siduri Pinot Noir Soberanes Vineyard

From a site just beside Gary's, yet planted in 2008 and 2009, the 2017 Pinot Noir Soberanes Vineyard was completely destemmed (Adam doesn't like the stems from younger vines) and spent 11 months in 40% French. It offers plenty of black cherry, scorched earth, black raspberry, and forest floor notes as well as a medium to full-bodied, rounded, nicely textured, layered style on the palate. $55

Jeb Dunnuck 96 Points
2022 Paul Lato Pinot Noir Lancelot Pisoni Vineyard

All destemmed and brought up in 65% new barrels, the 2022 Pinot Noir Lancelot Pisoni Vineyard is more closed and reserved yet blossoms with air, revealing high-quality red and blackberry-like fruits, some earthy mineral and floral notes, medium-bodied richness, a pure, focused mouthfeel, ripe tannins, and a great finish. This beauty has a terrific sense of elegance, as well as minerality, and it will evolve beautifully over the coming decade. It's an incredibly refined, elegant, seamless expression of this site. $105

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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