Smart Bottles (Buy Wine)
When I was a young lad living temporarily in London, I watched my dad stand in line at a shop in South Kensington to buy a bottle of champagne. As we stood there, a lovely young woman walked by and said in a very proper accent, “ooh, that’s a smart bottle.” I filed that tidbit away, vowing to use it myself one day. At Storyteller, “smart bottles” are primarily wines that we keep in stock at all times.
Any time you drop you can count on finding some interesting, very nicely priced bottles to take home with you. Or they might be wines that were offered as “one time” only prices by local distributors/importers. Or they may just be as scarce as they are good and you’d be smart to buy them while you can.
If any of these bottles appeal to you just email or call us toll free and tell us how many you would like. We’ll get back to you ASAP in order to collect your shipping and credit card information. Or you can always drop by the store.
2007 Domaine Tempier Bandol Rosé 36.00
Is it the greatest rosé on the planet? Is it one of the best wines on the planet, period? In the words of the legendary Kermit Lynch, I cannot imagine a day without Domaine Tempier's rosé . The 2007 is awe-inspiring, like a perfect pink icicle sent here to refresh our palates. The 2007 is nice and minerally, more like the 2005 than the 2006. Break out the oysters!
2007 Biggio Hamina Deux Vert Vyd. Melon de Bourgogne 14.00
If you are looking for a plush white wine that makes friends easily, stop reading. This wine is not easy. It is the quiet, smart guy with steely grey eyes that always hung out on the fringes of every college party. But once you figured out his dry sense of humor and got to know him better, you had a friend for life. Or you married him. This wine takes a bit of time to figure out as well, but once you do, it could be your house white for the summer. The Melon de Bourgogne grape has had a long, unusual trip from Burgundy to Oregon, with side trips to the Loire Valley (where it is known as Muscadet) and California (where it is frequently, and incorrectly, known as Pinot Blanc). But it does appear to be resting comfortably near Yamhill, Oregon in the sustainably farmed confines of Mike and Patty Green’s Deux Vert Vineyard. The Biggio Hamina version of this wine is really good, but it is challenging. It is briskly aromatic, with aromas of musk melon, quinine, citrus and wet rocks. It is bone dry and although a lot of people throw around the phrase “steely acidity,” this wine truly earns the description. Visualize a big iron girder and you are in the ballpark. And while there are fruit flavors like white peach, lemon and a very crisp green apple, there is a mineral-saline quality here that can only be described as crushed sand dollars. To help tame this frenetic outlier of a wine we highly recommend finding some nice, fatty seafood dishes–something along the lines of Dungeness crab, scallops wrapped in bacon or Umi rolls should do the trick. So shed those Pinot Gris chains and get going.
2003 Radikon Oslavje 40.00
The wavy, hazy, dark golden color of the Oslavje reminded me of watching heat waves rise off the concrete during a hot Kansas summer. But there was nothing Kansas about the nose of this wine. Aromas of waxy peach and quinine caught my attention, but it was the dusty rocks and cool cellar floor earth that kept bringing me back for another sniff. The palate was brisk and aggressive, with steely acidity and big time tannins. In other words, the tight flavors of apricot, persimmon and bitter almonds had a nice diving board to jump off from. I still can't believe this is 500 ml. of Sauvignon Blanc, Chardonnay and Pinot Gris.
2003 Radikon Jakot 40.00
Small bottle (500 ml.), big provocation. The 2003 Jakot makes you think in a way that no other Tocai Friulano can. From its hazy copper color to its whacked out finish that reminds me of dill pickle juice dripping off my favorite deli sandwich, this wine will make you sit and ponder. The aromas of what can only be described as hops and peach leather might remind you of a Belgian peach lambic. The flavors of almonds, brioche and white peach will make you stop thinking and start making "mmm" noises to yourself. Dry. So very dry that the peach flavor didn't remind me of fleshy fruit, it was more like drinking peach fuzz. Don't buy this wine, it's not for you.
2006 Antica Terra Willamette Valley Pinot Noir 46.00
This wine is made with 52% Antica Terra Vineyard, 35% Shea Vineyard, 11% Croft Vineyard and 2% Amity Hills Vineyard fruit. And if you ever get a chance to visit the little town of Amity you should check out the Antica Terra Vineyard. It is so rocky that as you walk through it (or up it as the case may be) it will be a toss up as to whether you are in Chateauneuf du Pape or in the Sea of Tranquility. When I first sniffed the Willamette Valley Pinot Noir from Antica Terra I immediately thought of brambly dark raspberries that my cousins and I used to pick alongside various dirt roads in the Oregon countryside when we were kids. We usually couldn’t wait to get home to wash the fruit before we started eating so the raspberries always had this wild, brambly and dusty (definitely dusty) quality that sticks in my mind to this day. That brambly/briary fruit quality is in the nose of this wine, along with a bit of smoke and lavender. Unlike a lot of wines from this vintage, the Antica Terra is not so plush on the palate that the fruit threatens to overwhelm all else. Don’t get me wrong, this is a very smooth and seductive wine, with lots of tart cranberry and dark raspberry fruit flavors. And tons of minerality. But there is also a nice jolt of acidity and some silky tannins here to keep everything in balance. After a few hours in my glass I noticed the fruit began to get darker, reminding me more of blackberries. And a very nice earthiness began to appear after about four hours of decanting.
WE ARE ALL SOLD OUT of 2006 Botanica and futures on the 2005 Lillian White Hawk Vineyard Syrah. If you would like to be contacted when future vintages arrive please contact us via email.
1999 Radikon Oslavje Riserva 99.00
This is a rare treasure. All I’ll say is Radikon’s wines age really, really well. Made with 20% Tocai, 40% Chardonnay and 40% Sauvignon Blanc, this wine is beginning to take on notes of figs and walnuts as it leaves infancy and looks toward the pre-teen years.
2005 Foundry Vineyards Artisan Blend 34.00
Mark Anderson may be a wizard with metal (he owns the world famous Walla Walla Foundry) but he has a pretty deft touch with Cabernet Sauvignon as well. There were a whopping 127 cases made of this wine and it is 100% Cabernet Sauvignon from the Stonemarker, La Tour and Dwelley vineyards. This wine is made with their five best barrels from a very strong 2005 vintage. It is elegant and restrained, with very fine tannins bumping up against some even finer black cherry fruit. This is one heck of a wine for this price range!
2002 Eyrie Reserve Pinot Noir 49.00
Light and elegant, just like all Eyrie Pinot Noirs, but this version is even more majestic than most. The cherry fruit, acidity and tannins are in perfect harmony. But one sip and you will know this wine has a lot more to offer over the next few decades. To me, this is one of the greatest Oregon wines ever made. To think it has the potential to age as gracefully as the 1975 and 1976 Eyrie South Block wines positively makes my knees weak. Here is your chance to taste history. Get a six-pack and you will receive a 10% discount. Buy a case of 12 bottles and the discount will be 15%.
2004 Owen Roe Slide Mountain Vineyard Cabernet Franc 64.00
David O’Reilly made a whopping 127 cases of this wine and I was amazed to discover there were a few bottles tucked away in the Owen Roe library. Let’s just say they have been liberated. Slide Mountain Vineyard is owned by Bruce Morford and it is a pretty special place in the Yakima Valley. The Cab Franc from Slide Mountain is as polished as a campaign trail stump speech and it may be the best example of Cabernet Franc from Washington State that I have tasted. It’s spicy and mouth-coating, with tons of blackberry and blueberry fruit characteristics. I liked the bit of smoke and tobacco on the nose and I really liked the nice bittersweet chocolate note on the very long finish.
2007 Biggio-Hamina Cellars Yamhill Valley Vyd. Pinot Blanc 14.00
The nose is all about the Meyer lemons and talc. This wine coats the mouth with flavors of white peach, citrusy lemon and what some people might describe as meringue. In some ways it even reminded me of the lemon tart (with the all-important butter crust) they used to make at the original Honey Bear Bakery in Seattle’s Wallingford neighborhood. But get this, the wine is quite dry, quite crisp and clocks in at 13% alcohol. So your brain is telling you after a few sniffs that you are about to experience something off-dry and then your tastebuds sound the dry alarm. On top of that, there is a nice dose of chalky minerality on the finish. This wine is just flat out fun and a joy to quaff. Along with J. Wilkes and Amity, it is one of the three best West Coast examples of Pinot Blanc I have had to date. And as far as being awesome with food, just try it with some crab cakes, spring rolls or, best of all, grilled shrimp wrapped in bacon.
Riedel Oregon Pinot Noir Glass 15.00
This is the glass designed specifically by Georg Riedel for Oregon Pinot Noir. It made its debut at the 2007 International Pinot Noir Celebration and it really does make a difference! We will ship this glass anywhere in the United States. For a set of six we lower the price to 13.50 each and for a set of 12 the price per stem drops to 12.00.
2005 Ash Hollow Malbec 36.00
Steve Clifton of Brewer-Clifton and Palmina fame made this wine and it is the best example of New World Malbec I have ever tasted. Aged for 16 months in French oak, the aromas and flavors are a spicy combination of boysenberries and bittersweet dark chocolate, with just a hint of smoke and tar. And while the wine is silky and smooth, there's some nice tannic backbone here thanks to the 16% Petit Verdot that Steve blended with the Malbec. Only 150 cases were produced of this first vintage. If you are any kind of fan of Washington wines, then you must try this bottle.
2003 Domaine Alain Chabanon Les Boissières 32.00
Les Boissières is a blend of 88% Grenache, 8% Carignane and 4% Mourvedre and the vines are, on average, about 21 years old. Alain only allows four weeks of maceration with the Les Boissiers but he ages it for 36 months in stainless steel. And boy is it delicious. It has a very nice ruby color, a bit lighter than the Campredon, and the aromas of rosemary, brambleberries, black currants and freshly cut hay just smell like the Languedoc countryside in the summertime. And over an hour it begins to take on some meaty notes. But once the Les Boissières is in your mouth, that is when the fun begins. It is elegant and lithe, with flavors of black raspberries and pipe tobacco in an old leather pouch. The Les Boissières has wonderful acidity and every indication it will age gracefully for another 5-7 years. Unfiltered and unfined, this is a wine that would make Kermit Lynch smile from ear to ear.
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!
