Wine By Nine

Red Wine by Ch. Montelena from Napa Valley, California. This wine has a deep, dark color revealing its concentration and extract. Its room-filling fragrance is the pure essence of Cabernet, with ripe cassis and black cherry fruit and the signature earthiness of The Montelena Estate's complex soils. On the palate the wine is full and warm with ripe fruit flavors and layer upon layer of complexity. A velvety-soft texture is framed by a stylish tannic grip, ensuring drinking pleasure now and for many years to come.

Red Wine by Ch?teau L?oville Las Cases from St-Julien, France - Bordeaux. Number 6 on Wine Spectator's Top 100 of 2007! Bordeaux's wet, cool 2004 vintage got lost between the exceptional 2003 and 2005, but Jean-Hubert Delon's St.-Julien estate consistently delivers excellent wines in both great and difficult years. Half of the Chateau's 250 acres are planted in the famous Clos Leoville Las Cases, a gravelly vineyard that gently slopes down to the Gironde river. The wine was fermented in a mix of stainless-steel tanks, oak vats and cement tanks, then aged for about 18 months in oak barriques. Wine Spectator 95 Points Performing better from bottle than it did from cask, this blend of 76% Cabernet Sauvignon, 13% Merlot, and 11% Cabernet Franc has put on weight over the last year. It exhibits the classic style of both Las Cases and St.-Julien in its deep black currant notes interwoven with sweet cherries, wet stones, and toasty vanillin. Made in a structured, medium to full-bodied style with superb concentration, beautiful purity, and admirable symmetry, this beauty is one of the strongest efforts of the vintage. Anticipated maturity: 2012-2028. -Robert Parker's Wine Advocate This super second lives up to its billing. It is rich and concentrated with dark tannins that lie over the ripe, jammy fruit and black, rich chocolate flavors. Acidity and wood are there, but only just hints after the richness of the fruit. A real, magnificent aging wine. -Wine Enthusiast

Red Wine by Ch?teau Cos d'Estournel from St. Estephe, France - Bordeaux. Loads of currant and blackberry, with hints of Indian spices. Full-bodied, with velvety tannins and a long, caressing finish. Round and generous for the vintage. Best after 2011. 15,000 cases made. Wine Spectator 94 points A beautiful example of the vintage, proprietor Michel Reybier and his top-notch winemaker, Jean-Guillaume Prats, have fashioned an exceptional wine displaying a dense ruby/purple color as well as a sweet perfume of boysenberries, black currants, cherries, pain grille, roasted herbs, and licorice. Medium-bodied with impressive density for the vintage, sweet tannin, and outstanding richness and length, it should be at its finest between 2009 and 2020+. Robert Parker, Wine Advocate 92 points Deep red-ruby. Aromas of cassis, plum, licorice and coconutty oak. Round, suave and ripe, with lovely depth of flavor and a pliant, full texture for the year. This doesn't have quite the thrust of the 2006, but it's lively and fresh, and finishes ripely tannic and long. Stephen Tanzer'sInternational Wine Cellar 91 points

Red Wine by Gaja from Tuscany, Italy. Color: Deep red. Aroma: Very clean, opulent aromas, with notes of ripe red fruits evolving into delicate spice and floral perfumes. Taste: Powerful and velvety in flavor with a fleshy and sustained finish and refined tannins. Elegance, finesse and deeply layered nuances are this Brunello's strongest suits. The aromas are tightly etched: The mineral tones are exact and fine, the fruit is fleshy and cushioned by tones of moist tobacco and earth. The menthol notes are divine and penetrating: A beautiful, vineyard-designate wine from Angelo Gaja. Wine Enthusiast 93 Points

Red Wine by Yalumba from Barossa Valley, Australia. The 2001 The Reserve is 74% Cabernet Sauvignon and 26% Shiraz aged for 20 months in 70% new French oak hogsheads. From old vines with low yields, the wine is densely colored and glass-coating. It has a splendid bouquet of smoke, pencil lead, tar, espresso, blueberry, and blackberry. On the palate it remains an infant developmentally with full, ripe tannin, gobs of fruit, and great length. It needs a minimum of 10-12 years of cellaring and will drink well through 2040. - Wine Advocate

Red Wine by Ch. de Beaucastel from Chateauneuf-du-Pape, France - Rhone. The 2005 Beaucastel Chateauneuf-du-Pape is a wine that probably needs 7-10 years of bottle age. Possibly the most backward and closed Beaucastel made since the 1995, the wine has very high tannins, seems totally closed aromatically, but in the mouth is a weighty wine exhibiting a dense ruby/purple color and tight aromatics consisting of new saddle leather, porcini, meat juices, licorice, tar, and black fruits. The wine is full-bodied, powerful, very tannic, and structured in a dramatically masculine, ageworthy style. This is one for the younger generation or those with considerable patience. I can't see it being close to drinkable before 2014 and lasting up to 30 or more years. Robert Parker's The Wine Advocate 94 Points Really dense and locked up now, this is packed with dark fig, currant and blackberry fruit shrouded by layers of tar, hot stone, bittersweet licorice and espresso. The long, dense finish has a great tug of iron buried within it. Best from 2011 through 2030. Wine Spectator 96 Points

Red Wine by Beringer from Napa Valley, California. Since 1981, when Winemaster Ed Sbragia first began blending the most expressive components from Beringer's best vineyards to craft the Private Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon, he and Bob Steinhauer, vineyard manager at the time, worked steadily to identify Napa Valley sites that they thought could be developed into producing the rich, intensely colored and flavored Cabernet Sauvignon grapes that Ed requires for the Private Reserve. In 2002, Ed had six reserve-potential vineyards to draw from, choosing the best lots after vinification and aging for a well-balanced, full-flavored final blend. Aromas of cassis, black cherry, cedar and dark chocolate transition to rich expressions of black fruit, vanilla and brown spices on the palate as ripe supple tannins linger throughout the extracted and long finish. ...This wine is delicious yet promises to age gorgeously for 15-20 years. Ed Sbragia compares it to the 1992 which, by the way, is drinking superbly in 2005, but is one of those rare vintages that has never gone through a closed period. It's always a fascinating education to taste through these component parts, but the resulting blend that Ed Sbragia puts together, the extraordinary Private Reserve, is one of the great Cabernet Sauvignons of California and he has fashioned a succession of beauties since 1991... -Wine Advocate

Red Wine by Ch?teau Monbousquet from St-Emilion, France - Bordeaux. A strong performance in a difficult vintage, the 2002 Monbousquet (60% Merlot, 30% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 10% Cabernet Franc) reveals abundant aromas of espresso, sweet black currants and cherries, damp earth, compost, and new oak. It is a medium to full-bodied, fleshy offering with light tannin as well as a long finish. Drink it over the next 10-12 years. This is the home estate of Chantal and Gerard Perse, who have become the poster children for owners taking a less hallowed terroir and producing sumptuous, high quality wine. Readers should realize that Monbousquet is not meant to be cellared for 20-30 years. It is a beautifully made wine that has performed well in every blind tasting I have conducted, often out-scoring far more hallowed as well as expensive wines. -Wine Advocate

Red Wine by Einaudi from Piedmont, Italy. From superstar cru of Cannubi - Barolo's greatest, most expensive and historical, documented as far back as 1752! The Einaudi family succeeded in purchasing a little over 5.4 acres of this celebrated terroir in 1997. The ensuing Barolo's superb concentration is enhanced and fine-tuned by elevage: 18-20 months in French barriques, 10-12 months in barrel. The result is grandeur and complexity, luscious aromas, layers and layers of velvet, spice, goudron, truffles; long, long finish and a long, long cellar life of over 25 years. Amazing aromas of ripe fruit, like raspberries in a leather basket. Full-bodied, with ultrasoft and silky tannins and a very, very long finish. Still there after a minute in your mouth. Extremely well-crafted. One of the best Barolos ever from here. Best after 2008. 955 cases made. Wine Spectator, July 2004

Red Wine by Stag's Leap Wine Cellars from Napa Valley, California. Planted by the Warren Winiarski Family in 1970, S.L.V. achieved international fame when the very first harvest at the winery in 1973 produced a wine that astounded the wine world by triumphing over some of France's greatest wines in a 1976 blind tasting in Paris, now commonly referred to as the “Judgement of Paris. Thirty vintages later, S.L.V. continues to yield wines of classic elegance and structure. T his history-making vineyard and terroir is beautifully expressed in this 2003 vintage wine. Alluring aromas of cocoa powder and black cherry evolve alongside pretty floral tones and a hint of smoke. Flavors of chocolate, raspberry, and black cherry coat the mouth with a light touch of cedar and truffles that weave through the multi-layered structure for which S.L.V. is renowned. Time will take this wine to even greater heights, but it can be enjoyed now for those who appreciate the robust quality of its fruit

Red Wine by Ch. de Beaucastel from Chateauneuf-du-Pape, France - Rhone. The vineyard is a patchwork of all 13 permitted grape varieties, 70 hectares in all. The soil is the same porous, aerated blanket of Alpine diluvium (rounded stones) on a base of Miocene marine limestone that exists elsewhere on the estate. The vines are on average 50 years old and yields are never more than 30 hectolitres per hectare and often much less. It is a vibrant and healthy vineyard due to years of organic cultivation and close monitoring of the needs of each vine. The red wine of Beaucastel as with Coudoulet de Beaucastel is a structured, intense yet lean drink, thanks in part to the large percentage of Mourvedre - about 30% - in the final cuvee. Its austere tannic backbone and resistant to oxidation help Beaucastel age gracefully. One of the great successes of the vintage and certainly better than their 2003 is Beaucastel's 2004 Chateauneuf du Pape. Deep ruby/purple in color with loads of licorice, smoked game, black cherry and blackberry fruit, along with incense and truffle, the wine has fabulous richness, high tannin, medium to full body, and beautiful length, richness, and purity. This is a beauty and one of the vintage's finest wines. Give it 4-6 years of bottle age and drink it over the next 25+ years. It has the potential to be one of the longest-lived Chateauneuf du Papes of the vintage. Robert Parker, The Wine Advocate Ruby-red. Powerful red and dark berry aromas verge on liqueur-like but are enlivened by zesty mineral and anise accents. Lush, supple and sweet, with deep raspberry and cherry flavors, fine-grained tannins and complicating herb and smoked meat tones. Very smooth on the finish, which is sappy, deep in cherry flavor and impressively long. -International Wine Cellar

Red Wine by Pio Cesare from Piedmont, Italy. Ornato is the name of the estate vineyard owned by the Pio family in Serralunga d'Alba. Ornato is more modern in style than Pio Cesare's traditional Barolo, but still true to its roots. The characteristics of the soil, the microclimate and favourable exposure, allows the grapes to become extremely rich. Fermentation at a slightly higher temperature, together with skin maceration for 12 days, produces a wine with great soft tannins. The first Barolo Ornato was produced in 1985. Since then, it has only been produced in outstanding years. Barolo Ornato has a deep crimson red color and its nose exhibis intense fruit scents. On the palate, the tannins are fat and found, yet also mellow and elegant. Concentrated flavors of ripe fruit previal with subtle hints of tobacco, chocolate and pepper, culminating in a rich finish.