Smart Bottles (Buy Wine)

2003 Domaine du Joncier Lirac 13.00
(special case price: 120.00)

This southern Rhone blend of Grenache, Mourvèdre, and Syrah has evolved into a rich, spicy fruit compote, the vinous equivalent of a slider. Aromas of cassis, stewed fruit, beef broth, cardamom, scrub brush, pine and black pepper threaten to overwhelm all but the most jaded nose. The palate just oozes blackberry jam to the point the tannins have curled up in a ball on the floor and surrendered. Touches of quince and burlap round things out. This is a wine to pour for your Aussie Shiraz-lovin' friends to show them a glimpse of life on the Rhône side of the tracks. How a wine can be this rich and concentrated at a restrained 13.5% alcohol just baffles me.

2005 Bodegas Ateca “Atteca” 15.00

The Atteca is a new collaboration between importer Jorge Ordonez and the Gil family in Spain. It is made with high-altitude, old vine garnacha fruit (the vines are 80-120 years old in this vineyard) that has grown up out of gravelly clay soils that are filled with slate. I had heard rumors of this wine when I was in Spain last year but I never got a chance to try it. So when it first hit the US I emailed Robert Houde, a former sommelier-to-the-stars at Charlie Trotter's who now represents Jorge Ordonez wines in Illinois, and asked him how good it was. “Get all you can of the Atteca," Robert wrote. "It is full-bodied, with black raspberry and meaty, pan-juice flavors, a little white pepper and anise, and a very dry, meaty finish.” After now having tried it three times in the past week I concur. This is a big, powerful wine. When first poured it might seem like a big wall of cassis and tannin has hit your face. But after a bit of air time the Atteca unfolds and those black raspberry, anise, pepper and meat qualities Robert described come through in a big way. All I can say is beautiful. Flippin' beautiful.

2005 Sleight of Hand "The Archimage" (signed) 39.00

When I first tried this wine with winemaker Trey Busch up in Walla Walla it was about 104 degrees F. outside and the last thing I wanted to drink was a big ol' Bordeaux blend. But this bodacious blend of Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon and Petit Verdot quickly won me over. The Archimage, named after either a high priest of the Persian Magi or fire worshipping wizards depending on who's telling the story, has dark, dark fruit that tastes as black as a magician's cape. And it's just as velvety. Throw in some aromas and flavors of cedar grilling planks and fresh-brewed Sumatran coffee to go along with all those blackberries and you've got a wine worth savoring. Sure it has big tannins and 100% new French oak but after a few hours of decanting everything comes together quite nicely. After a few glasses, to steal a line from Eddie Vedder, the Archimage is a wine I just want to take up in my tree to trade some stories with the leaves. Trey only made 150 cases of The Archimage and after threatening him with playing a bunch of Creed albums he graciously agreed to sign every bottle we have.

1995 Mastroberardino Radici Taurasi 26.00
(special case price: 270.00)

Traditional. Rustic. Old school. Call it whatever you like, but lovers of classic Campania wines owe the Mastroberardino family a great debt for almost single-handedly bringing the Aglianico grape back to a place of prominence. The wine has a wonderful brickish color that gives you a hint of what is to come. The aromas of iodine, bone marrow, freshly-turned earth, mushrooms and stones that have warmed in the sun harken back to an older, simpler winemaking time. Once you get the wine in your mouth it is a dazzling display of leather, black truffles, tart cherries and raspberries. Big time leather. Think Jim Morrison's pants from that poster all your girlfriends (or boyfriends) in college had on their walls. This is a complex, austere wine that you will probably love and all your friends will hate. This is for you, my traditionalist friend.

2003 Domaine Albert Belle Crozes-Hermitage Cuvee Louis Belle 26.00

The 2003 vintage in France was a hot one, but in the northern Rhône, where cooler weather can sometimes be a challenge, the warmer temperatures gave winemakers the opportunity to pick perfectly ripe grapes. The color of the Cuvee Louis is a dark crimson and I was very happy to discover aromas of thyme, smoky pork fat and blackberries wafting up out of the glass. The first sip after opening the bottle threw my palate for a loop. Big tannins gripped my tongue and wouldn't let go. I could tell there was some tart blackberry flavor there but my mouth was too busy being slapped around with a leathery club to focus. The structure of this wine makes me think there might be another solid 2-3 years of life here, maybe four. So I threw the rest in a decanter and went about making dinner. BBQ pork sandwiches, using Arthur Bryant's sauce, to be precise. After two hours of aeration the Cuvee Louis was singing a different tune. Instead of Henry Rollins belting out "Rise Above" with Black Flag, the wine was now more like Leonard Cohen crooning "Who By Fire." Nice, velvety blackberries, bacon and violets, all doing a well-coordinated dance with the tannins. A nice wine and a VERY nice price.

2005 Celler Can Blau Monstant 15.00

Llicorella soil is the heart of Spain's Priorat wines, giving them that nice, dusty minerality. Montsant, Priorat's neighbor, has more clay-like soil that is mixed up with some calcium and schist. When you drive on those death-defying little roads in Priorat you look up and see those cliffs with their dazzling colors of yellow, red and brown. That’s the llicorella painting a swath across the walls of limestone, quarts and slate. But there are pockets of llicorella to be found in Montsant and the 35-year old Garnacha vines that help make up this powerful blend grow in just such a pocket near the village of Mas Roig. The Cariñena vines are grown in sandy clay soil and the Syrah vines are planted in predominantly chalky soils. So while some people will call a Montsant wine a “baby Priorat” in order to get you to buy it, this is one wine I would feel comfortable giving such high praise. After an hour of decanting we poured some of this light purple colored liquid into the biggest glasses we could find. The first sniff revealed scents of smoky meat fat, blackberries, some sweet Garnacha grapiness and a whiff of violets. The flavors were big and deep, with lots of sweet black fruit, talc, bacon fat and some nice minerality. Even so, it was still kind of rough around the edges, with a slight tannic bite. We left some for the second day and the wine actually improved, becoming smoother and meatier, with the black fruit becoming more like cassis. The talc had disappeared but there was still a touch of wet rock and a wisp of tobacco could be detected on the finish. This is a big glass of wine for such a modest price tag.

2003 Domaine Côteaux du Languedoc Puech Chaud 22.00
(special case price: 237.00)

I have long been a fan of René Rostaing and his perfumed and elegant Côte Rôtie wines. So when Rostaing and his wife purchased the Domaine Puech Chaud near Nimes I paid close attention and started buying bottles wherever I could. This might be Syrah, Grenache, Mourvèdre and a tiny percentage of Grenache Blanc or Rolle from the Languedoc but there's no mistaking the northern Rhone touch of René Rostaing. When I opened a bottle the other day I was impressed with the slightly funky aromas of earth, minerals, black raspberries and dark cherries. On the palate there is that same mineral and fruit combination, along with just a wee bit of garrigue. The Puech Chaud is silky, slippery and goes down nice and easy. The Puech Chaud is so smooth and elegant that if I close my eyes I swear I'm drinking something from Volnay as opposed to the Midi. But the Puech Chaud is a heck of a lot cheaper than what good Volnay is going for these days, so Pinot Noir lovers should consider loading up on this one.

2006 Maysara Estate Winery “Roseena” Rosè 13.00
(special case price: 132.00)

The Roseena is a freakish blend of Pinot Noir and Pinot Blanc. I had heard about it but I didn't believe anybody would be whacky enough to attempt it. So one hot afternoon I drove out to the winery to check it out with the guy who made it, Todd Hamina. Side-by-side we poured Todd’s new Frankenstein rosè with a bottle of Domaine Tempier's Bandol Rosè . Often times when I do this, new world rosès come across as either cloyingly sweet or thin. The Roseena definitely held its own. The Roseena has a nice pale pink color. Kind of a washed-out Starburst Watermelon candy pink. The Pinot Blanc is really evident in the nose of this wine. It is very pretty and floral, with aromas of quince, cherry blossoms and apricot preserves. But like the Tempier, there is a beam of citrus coming through all the fruit aromas. My first sip was like biting down on an overly ripe peach. With lots of raspberries. There was also a nice bit of orange peel to go with it, pushing it away from sweet and to the tart side. The finish is nice and clean. While drinking this wine with fresh goat cheese there was a distinct dry and mineral quality to the Roseena. Later that night we had it with some salty foods and instead of that minerality we tasted a bit more of that trace of RS that lurks in the Roseena. Good acidity, good fruit and you can tell what type of grapes were used to make it. What more can you ask of a pink wine?

2006 J. Christopher Cristo Irresisto Rosè 13.00

I once had a dream where I walked into El Bulli, expecting the usual multi-course extravaganza from chef Ferran Adrià. But instead of ten courses of cutting edge fare, the waiter brings me one bright red strawberry on a plate. The strawberry had been hit by some kind of laser beam and was covered in crystals. It looked quite beautiful. But that was it for the meal. One strawberry. When I complained, Ferran Adrià himself came out to confront. "It's just one strawberry," I whimpered. He looked at me and said, "but it's the best damn strawberry in the universe." I thought about that dried strawberry when I tasted Cristo Irresisto for the first time. Jamie Ivey travelled all over France trying to find the palest rosè and he wrote a book about his adventures. All he had to do was head to West Linn, Oregon, because the Cristo Irresisto is about the palest pink wine I have ever had. And it is sophisticated and dry and minerally, just like that strawberry in my dream.

2006 Grochau Cellars "Z" White (Columbia Valley) 13.00

Jerry and Butch Milbrandt ride herd over some of the finest vineyards in eastern Washington and those grapes often end up in wines made by wineries such as Syncline, K Vintners and Three Rivers. All of the Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling, Pinot Gris and Chardonnay grapes used by John Grochau in this blend come from carefully hand-selected Milbrandt Vineyards barrels. So to say this a heck of a deal for this price range would be quite the understatement. It's crisp and clean with loads of zesty lemon citrus and a bit of white flowers. Around here it has become our default house white, especially when the staff orders out for Thai food.

2005 Bodegas Naia Naiades 28.00 (750 ml) 60.00 (1.5L)

In mythology the Naiades were seductive water nymphs that frolicked a lot with Dionysus and tricked men into making fools of themselves. Wow. What a perfect name for this wine. Made with grapes that grow on 80- to 100-year-old, ungrafted Verdejo vines, this is a great white wine. Aromas and flavors of white peaches, apricots, lemon peel and honeycomb dominate the glass. But it's not a brisk and frivolous wine like we have become accustomed to with white wines from Rueda. No, this has seen some very sophisticated barrel fermentation and it has the weight, texture and sophistication of a very good white Burgundy or the very best of California Chardonnays. It was one of the very best white wines I tasted on my last visit to Spain and only 100 cases made it to the United States. I won't write anything else about it because if nobody buys it I get to take the bottles home.

2006 Abacela Vineyards and Winery Albariño 21.00

This one of Oregon's rarest, most exotic, most sought after white wines. It was recently released and it tends to disappear quickly. It's fuller bodied and a bit racier than its Galician cousins but boy is this a wonderful white wine. The nose has that grapefruit quality I enjoy in so many Spanish whites, but it is rounded out with aromas of lemon verbena and really ripe peaches. The wine has the crisp acidity I would expect from a stainless steel wine but it isn't exactly lacking in body. The flavors of Golden Delicious (which is what I may start calling this wine) apples, lemon sorbet and wet rocks all coat your mouth in a nice, creamy wave. Crab, lobster, oysters, whatever. If they live in the ocean and have a hard outer shell I'd strongly consider quaffing this wine as you eat them.

2005 Domaine Philippe Faury Condrieu 49.00

To paraphrase Sade, love is the sweetest Condrieu. Or dry in this case. It's like there was a Condrieu laser cannon that shoots beams of apricot and white peach straight at the pleasure center of your brain. This is a powerfully aromatic wine, one that will dare you to stop inhaling and start swallowing. If you can figure out a way to stop concentrating on the fruit you might even notice the traces of honeysuckle and violets. Here is an unfiltered version of Viognier that isn't mucked up with new oak and manages to be voluptuous without being gaudy. Thank you, Kermit Lynch!

2006 Daedalus Cellars Elton Vineyards Grüner Veltliner 19.00

We figured anybody in Oregon crazy enough to graft over a half acre of Müller Thurgau vines with Grüner Veltliner truly deserved our support. This is the wine's first vintage and there were a whopping 125 cases produced by Aron "FX" Hess and Pam Walden at Daedalus Cellars. And what a debut! The wine is highly aromatic with scents and flavors of citrus, pineapple, spicy white pepper and the slightest hint of wet rocks on the finish. Even though the wine was fermented in stainless steel and neutral barrels and no malolactic fermentation was allowed, the 130 days spent on the lees (with vigorous stirring by various Daedalus minions) gives the wine some nice viscosity and texture.

2006 Sleight of Hand "The Magician" Gewürztraminer 15.00

Trey Busch is part Georgia Bulldog, part Pearl Jam fanatic and now, 100% independent Walla Walla winemaker. Trey Busch is out on his own and strutting his stuff with this flashy white. The Magician has wild, spicy aromas of tropical fruit, rose petals and Meyer lemon. The palate has some seriously juicy acidity and on a warm day it's as jolting and refreshing as a slap on the face from a spurned lover. There is that classic spicy fruit quality here, but flavors of yellow apple skins, pineapple and kiwi push this more toward Star Fruit than lychee. The slight touch of residual sugar and its 12.7% alcohol make for a wine you could sip all day long. But don't wait too long, Trey only made 470 cases of The Magician.