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750ml
Bottle:
$14.90
$15.83
12 bottles:
$14.25
Lime juice, chalk, plumeria and peach make for a zippy, yet ripe nose on this bottling. The palate's citrusy core...
750ml
Bottle:
$46.85
$48.79
A rich and chewy red with blackberries, dark plums, currants and baking spices. Full body with firm tannins. Serious...
750ml
Bottle:
$19.19
12 bottles:
$17.48
Meaty nose with dark berries, smoke, grilled meat and hints of chocolate wafers. Medium body with fine tannins. Rich...
750ml
Bottle:
$15.90
$17.50
Light straw in appearance and reveals aromas of lemon, white peach, and jasmine. On the palate, intriguing notes of...
750ml
Bottle:
$59.43
$64.08
12 bottles:
$58.24
Bottled late, the 2020 Perl is based on 91% Syrah and 9% Grenache that spent 24 months in 50% new oak. Coming from...
750ml - Case of 12
Bottle:
$15.52
This blend of 52% Syrah, 41% Grenache and 7% Mourvèdre begins with aromas of dried herbs, dried fruits and cocoa....
750ml
Bottle:
$20.80
12 bottles:
$20.38
Medium ruby in color. Dusty sweet Marachino cherries, blackberry, kirsch, with a hint of vanilla and toasty oak on...
750ml
Bottle:
$52.94
6 bottles:
$51.88
The 2022 Bodyguard is a sleek yet powerful blend of Petit Verdot and Petite Sirah, displaying both opulence and...
750ml
Bottle:
$15.99
Fragrant nose displays scintillating aromas of pineapple, Asian pear, vanilla
crème and toasted almonds, with notes...
750ml
Bottle:
$34.90
$36.01
6 bottles:
$32.41
Defined by the cooler 2021 vintage, this Chardonnay offers beautiful aromas of pineapple and lemon pie accompanied by...
375ml
Bottle:
$77.22
$85.80
The 2020 Soul of a Lion Estate is a deep, dark, nearly impenetrable ruby color. It has a beguiling bouquet that...
750ml
Bottle:
$117.18
$126.00
The 2020 Soul of a Lion Estate is a deep, dark, nearly impenetrable ruby color. It has a beguiling bouquet that...
375ml
Bottle:
$14.94
Always a Petite Sirah-dominated wine, the 2020 Pessimist sports an inky purple color as well as a great, full-bodied...
750ml
Bottle:
$17.92
12 bottles:
$17.56
The dark red color and ruby rim entices the senses with rich blackberry
and boysenberry aromas. Seductive dark...
750ml
Bottle:
$79.12
$81.20
Vivid purple. Powerful, smoke- and spice-accented aromas of dark berry preserves, candied flowers, mocha and olive...
750ml
Bottle:
$55.94
$57.20
The 2019 Estate Blend is comprised of 51% Syrah, 17% Mourvèdre, 14% Grenache, 7% Tempranillo, 6% Graciano, 3%...
750ml
Bottle:
$58.83
$61.20
Lots of blue fruits, ground pepper, candied violets, and chalky minerality emerge from the 2018 Ingenuity, a pure,...
750ml
Bottle:
$20.08
12 bottles:
$19.68
Our 2017 Paso Robles red blend is a brilliant ruby red in the glass. It entices the palate with nuances of cherry...
Chardonnay White Rhone Blends Red Blend Sherry United States California San Luis Obispo Wine
Of all the white wine grape varietals, surely the one which has spread the furthest and is most widely appreciated is the Chardonnay. This green skinned grape is now grown all over the Old and New Worlds, from New Zealand to the Americas, from England to Chile, and is one of the first varietals people think of when considering white wine grapes. Perhaps this is because of its huge popularity which reached a peak in the 1990s, thanks to new technologies combining with traditional methods to bring the very best features out of the Chardonnay grape, and allow its unique qualities to shine through. Most fine Chardonnay wines use a process known as malolactic fermentation, wherein the malic acids in the grape juice are converted to lactic acids, allowing a creamier, buttery nature to come forward in the wine. No grape varietal is better suited to this process than Chardonnay, which manages to balance these silky, creamy notes with fresh white fruit flavors beautifully.
Viognier, an exotic, elusive varietal, originally comes from the Northern Rhone Valley of France, and has captured the fascination of the U.S. wine-drinking public. At its finest, it is full-bodied and nearly golden in color, with a haunting bouquet of peaches, apricots and pears, and a floral quality like no other wine in the world. Many vintners are trying their hand at this varietal, spreading from its American beginnings in Napa Valley and Santa Barbara County to wineries as far away as Virginia. Marsanne and Rousanne, two other important varieties from the Rhone Valley are making waves in the U.S., particularly on the Central Coast of California.
Sherry is made in a unique way using the solera system, which blends fractional shares of young wine from oak barrels with older, more mature wines. Sherry has no vintage date because it is blended from a variety of years. Rare, old sherries can contain wine that dates back 25 to 50 years or more, the date the solera was begun. If a bottle has a date on it, it probably refers to the date the company was founded.
Most sherries begin with the Palomino grape, which enjoys a generally mild climate in and around the triad of towns known as the "Sherry Triangle" and grows in white, limestone and clay soils that look like beach sand. The Pedro Ximenez type of sweet sherry comes from the Pedro Ximenez grape.
Sherry is a "fortified" wine, which means that distilled, neutral spirits are used to fortify the sherry. The added liquor means that the final sherry will be 16 to 20 percent alcohol (higher than table wines) and that it will have a longer shelf life than table wines.
Of all the New World wine countries, perhaps the one which has demonstrated the most flair for producing high quality wines - using a combination of traditional and forward-thinking contemporary methods - has been the United States of America. For the past couple of centuries, the United States has set about transforming much of its suitable land into vast vineyards, capable of supporting a wide variety of world-class grape varietals which thrive on both the Atlantic and the Pacific coastlines. Of course, we immediately think of sun-drenched California in regards to American wines, with its enormous vineyards responsible for the New World's finest examples of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot based wines, but many other states have taken to viticulture in a big way, with impressive results. Oregon, Washington State and New York have all developed sophisticated and technologically advanced wine cultures of their own, and the output of U.S wineries is increasing each year as more and more people are converted to their produce.
California as a wine producing region has grown in size and importance considerably over the past couple of centuries, and today is the proud producer of more than ninety percent of the United States' wines. Indeed, if California was a country, it would be the fourth largest producer of wine in the world, with a vast range of vineyards covering almost half a million acres. The secret to California's success as a wine region has a lot to do with the high quality of its soils, and the fact that it has an extensive Pacific coastline which perfectly tempers the blazing sunshine it experiences all year round. The winds coming off the ocean cool the vines, and the natural valleys and mountainsides which make up most of the state's wine regions make for ideal areas in which to cultivate a variety of high quality grapes.