Albamar is a brand produced by William Cole, based in Casablanca Valley in Chile. Thanks to a maritime influence, Casablanca Valley is a cool-climate region. And William Cole is focused on cool climate wines. On the nose, this wine has good intensity with aromas of mostly pear, but also with some white peach and soft […]
While most of the wines in this latest series have been “new world” style chardonnay, I had this single bottle of French chardonnay on hand and really had no better place to write about it. So while some of you might find this out of place in this series, I don’t really care. It’s my […]
This isn’t the first time we’ve reviewed the X Winery Carneros Chardonnay. We’ve previously reviewed the 2007 vintage, which was exceptional. And I have to admit that I’m tardy with this review as they’ve already released their 2009 vintage. But you may still come across a bottle of this in your local shop, so I […]
Over the past few months we’ve received a surprising number of boxed wine samples. I suppose it shouldn’t be a surprise since we are all about cheap wine. But even though we’re into cheap wine, we’re still finicky and definitely prefer to review good, cheap wine (or call it “inexpensive wine” if you have a […]
When you’re looking for a California Chardonnay, you may seek out one from Russian River Valley, Napa Valley or Sonoma Valley. But there’s another region you should consider, Santa Barbara County. This region is far south of the Sonoma/Napa wine country. In fact, the southernmost part of the county is just over 100 miles north […]
The wines of Espiritu de Chile are estate bottled at the Aresti Winery in Chile, one of the two companies that have partnered to produce Espiritu de Chile. The other company is A. Racke from Germany. Aresti has a history of wine making in Chile going back to 1951 and they now have nearly 1,000 […]
Montevina got their start back in 1970 and they’re based in Sierra Foothills in Amador County, California. While they have 400 acres of estate vineyards, they also source some of their grapes from other growers. The literature available on their Chardonnay doesn’t state whether the grapes are from their vineyards or sourced. It also doesn’t […]
When I write about European wines it’s fairly common to come across producers with a rich history, passing down vineyards for several generations. But most producers in the US have a much shorter history. Concannon is an exception to that rule. Established in 1883, Concannon is the oldest continually operating winery in California under the […]
I’ve been a big fan of Chilean wine for a while. Their Cabernet Sauvignon, Carmenere and Sauvignon Blanc in particular have impressed me, but I haven’t come across a lot of Chilean Chardonnay that wowed me. However, this one is pretty good. The Apaltagua winery is located in the Apalta region in Colchagua Valley, Chile. […]
Boxed wine seems to be taking on new shapes lately with both the shape of the containers and the quality of the wine inside. There are several wines on the shelves these days in what’s been named Octavin packaging. It’s an eight-sided box (an octagon) and is really just a new shape for bag-in-a-box packaging. […]
