There are a handful of varietals that I find too intriguing to ever turn down. Petite Sirah and Charbono are two, the third is Cabernet Franc. What they have in common I suppose aside from being red of course, is varying degrees of scarcity. If you go from tasting room to tasting room in Napa as one example you’ll find lots of Cabernet Sauvignon. However you’ll be able to count the number of times you run across these varietals in a day on one hand. That’s only part of the story though. Lots of other varieties are even harder to come by and I don’t chase them to the ends of the earth. These wines each has something that makes them both unique and interesting in many cases. So when someone offers me a taste, it doesn’t matter when or where, I nod my head and say, “yes please.” Today I’ll look at a Cabernet Franc from Napa Valley producer V. Sattui Winery.
The V. Sattui Winery 2007 Cabernet Franc was produced using fruit mostly sourced in Alexander Valley. This wine is mostly Cabernet Fran (93.8%) with small amounts of Cabernet Sauvignon (3.9%) and Merlot (1.4%) blended in. The fruit came from two vineyards; most from Ramazzotti in Alexander Valley and a smaller amount from Henry Ranch on Mt Veeder. Fremenation took place in open top stainless steel. Barrel aging followed in a combination of new (50%) and used (50%) French oak. 637 cases of this selection were produced and it sells for $30.
Blueberries and plum lead the nose of this 2007 Cabernet Franc along with hints of leather. The palate is loaded with rich, layered berry flavors. Blueberry, red and black raspberry and blackberry each make their presence known. Droves of earth, cherry, pepper spice and dusty baker’s chocolate are part of the finish which has excellent length. Firm tannins yield with some air.
This wine is a fine example of Cabernet Franc. The small amount of Cabernet Sauvignon makes its presence known in the structure of this wine. This is a very solid value for $30.
Nero d’Avola isn’t one of those grapes that you hear people talking about a lot. Certainly it isn’t discussed the way people do Cabernet Sauvignon, Sangiovese or Pinot Noir to name a few. And I suppose there are numerous reasons for that. That said this southern Italian grape should get a bit more attention than it does. The wines it produces are often good values that work well with everyday foods. Today I’ll look at one from the 2009 vintage.
Nals Margreid 2007 Pinot Grigio Punggl DOC Alto Adige. This single vineyard wine is 100% Pinot Grigio. Half of the grapes for this wine were fermented and aged in large oak barrels, the other half in stainless steel tanks. At release this wine had a suggested retail price of $24. The 2009 is the current vintage of this particular wine. The 2007 features lots of yellow fruit flavors throughout a round and sweet but well balanced palate. It shows off the juicy flavors that are prevalent with relatively small production Pinot Grigio treated with care; as opposed to the vast array of anonymous Pinot Grigio that hits US shelves by the boatload.
$40. Apple, limestone and minerals are all present on this wine. Its overall style in many ways brings to mind aged Burgundy. The purity of fruit and length of finish are both impressive. 
The two red grape varietals that dominate the landscape both figuratively and somewhat literally in Spain are Tempranillo and Garnacha. Often times one or the other dominates either a blend or is bottled as a single variety with small percentages of other grapes. Today I’ll look at a blend where the two key red varietals from Spain play equal roles.
Syrah is one of those varieties that belong to the world. What I mean is that it flourishes in quite a few places and the expression of it can be wildly different and yet quite valid. Syrah gown in California, France and Australia often has very little in common, flavor profile wise. Italy isn’t the first, or even the second place I think of when this grape comes to mind, but there are some pretty interesting examples of this varietal emerging from there. Today I’ll look at a release from Antinori, one of the classic Italian producers.
In the early 90’s when I first started visiting Napa Valley a handful of producers were of specific interest to me. I’d visit them time and again because they had one or more wines that I enjoyed regularly and I was also always eager to taste smaller production things that I couldn’t get on my shelf back home. Franciscan Estate was one of those producers. Their Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Chardonnay were the three wines I drank with the most regularity, but I really enjoyed the majority of their portfolio quite a bit. As happens from time to time they slipped off my radar a bit of late. The number of wines out there are practically dizzying in number, making it difficult to always go back and revisit. So when current releases of Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc from Franciscan landed on my desk recently it felt like it does when an old friend you haven’t seen in awhile calls or rings your doorbell, or these days, pokes you on Facebook. Regardless of how they reach out, the reaction is usually the same you want to know how they’re doing. And that was exactly what I was wondering about 
The Franciscan Estate 2009 Chardonnay was produced using fruit sourced in Carneros and southern Napa Valley. This wine is 100% Chardonnay. Fermentation took place in barrel followed by 7 months of aging in small French and American oak barrels; 20% of them were new. Just fewer than 59,000 cases of this wine were produced and it has a suggested retail price of $18.
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I’ve been tasting through quite a few Malbecs lately and I’ll present some of the noteworthy ones here every week or so for a couple of months. Argentina’s Michael Torino Estate makes several tiers of wine. One of those tiers is Cuma. This word means clean and pure in Aymara a local language that predates the Inca’s. This range represents their organic offerings. Today I’ll look at the Malbec from that tier. In addition to Malbec they also produce a Cabernet Sauvignon and a Torrontes in that range.
More and more over the last few years I’ve been impressed with wines from the Santa Cruz Mountains. I’ve taken a few looks at some wines from Cinnabar and the time has come to revisit them. 
South America has been coming on strong with Pinot Noir. It’s perhaps the most fickle of all red varieties. Where it’s grown and how it’s treated after that is often the source of great debate. When Pinot Noir is well made it can inspire great acclaim and adulation. 
