(53% Cabernet Sauvignon, 35% Syrah, 12% Merlot) When wine lovers think of South Africa, they probably imagine Rust en Vrede, even if they’ve never actually heard the name. Here is the gorgeous white Cape Dutch architecture set in...
2019 Conterno-Fantino Barolo Sori Ginestra
I first fell in love with this family operation, now over a decade ago, while visiting the Fantino’s sleek winery perched high above the town of Monforte d’Alba for a group tasting event. ...
2019 Baker & Hamilton Cabernet Sauvignon, Oakville
It’s rare that we get so excited about new Napa Valley Cabernet projects with price tags north of $100, but thanks to our deep and abiding love for winemaker Françoise Pechon (as...
2019 Le Cinciole Petresco IGT Toscana $74.99 with shipping included on 6 bottles
From the heart of Panzano-in-Chianti’s Conca d’Oro, the sun-bathed amphitheater in the heart of the Chianti Classico region, comes this bellwether of the Super...
You’ve probably already read a lot about vintage 2019 in the Barolo and Barbaresco zones, it’s the first of a stunning triumvirate of harvests that will eventually include 2020 and 2021. That’s some tough company in which to stand...
With a Tuscan-centric wine list in our old restaurant and a wine store traditionally loaded with Brunello di Montalcino and the like, you could say a lot of Sangiovese Grosso has flowed under the bridge here at PRIMA over our 45 years in the biz...
Some of us have been around long enough to remember when Beringer first developed their property deep in Knights Valley in the 1960s. Few before that had thought to plant a vineyard in that singularly inhospitable chunk of rattlesnake-ridden rocky...
Tasting Notes: Cherry, raspberry and dried herb aromas laced with hints of vanilla and tobacco. The palate has a charming weight and velvety texture filled with intense flavors of black cherries and blackberries, all elevated by a lovely backbone...
One of the best Barolo discoveries I’ve made in a while! Expensive but worth it!- JR
shipping included on 4 bottles or more
Whether I’m travelling in Piemonte speaking with actual people or lurking on various social...
2016 Siro Pacenti Brunello di Montalcino Pelagrilli
Wine Spectator: A pure and focused version, with cherry, strawberry and currant fruit shaded by mineral and tobacco accents. Vibrant and harmonious, this is all about the fruit, with a...
2016 San Felice Campogiovanni Brunello di Montalcino
Wine Spectator: This red is intense, featuring incisive aromas of macerated cherry and plum, leather, earth and juniper flavors. A tad rustic, burly tannins line the finish, yet stay fresh and...
This wine showcases an intense, deep garnet color with alluring violet highlights. The nose reveals a harmonious blend of depth, concentration, complexity, and finesse. You'll be delighted by the enticing aromas of red and black fruits like...
61% Syrah, 38% Grenache, 1% Viognier Dry, hot eastern Washington State was, some thirty years ago, considered to be the next Promised Land (after the Napa Valley) for Cabernet Sauvignon and its brethren in America and, it’s true, the Columbia...
Reports of the demise of the great Australian Shiraz are premature. The best are still among the best wines in the world and this McLaren Vale classic costs the same now as it did 20 years ago!
I first visited Colin Kay at Kay Brothers back...
The word ‘schiavenza’ in the Piemontese language means ‘sharecropper,’ and in the not-so-long-ago olden days, sharecropping was how most of the vines were farmed in the Langhe. The farmers who eked out a meager existence...
Generous high-toned raspberry and red cherry fruits, violet-floral, candied plums, creamy oak, sweet appeal. Palate – Sweet and creamy cherry fruit, gentle tannins, medium body, gravelly earth, an approachable wine with long finish.
Harvest...
Most people don’t associate Cabernet Franc with South Africa but it has been in the ground here for centuries. The Raats family of Stellenbosch has made the grape their raison d’etre (along with some excellent cuvees of Chenin Blanc) as...
A claret sort of blend, with 20% merlot meshed to even parts cab and cab franc, dried in the traditional fashion for nigh on two months. A wine of latent power, the tannic mettle serving to compress prune, alpine amaro scents, licorice root and camphor...
2019 Ostatu Ecobal, Rioja Alavesa
Growers for a large part of their 250-year history, it was husband and wife, Doroteo and Maria Asuncio Saenz, who initiated the push toward estate-bottled wines back in the 1970s at Ostatu. The winery also...
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When Paul Hobbs set out to create a value-priced stable of wines to balance out his high-priced estate and single-vineyard offerings, he approached the project with the same single-minded intensity and meticulousness...
Our search for Napa Valley Cabernets at good prices has taken us down yet another enticing rabbit hole. This time we popped out at the doorstep of Master Sommelier Ian Cauble who you might remember for his featured roles in the Somm and Into the...
Is Barolo going to the dogs?????
One of the pioneers of organic viticulture in Piemonte, Pietro Berutti’s La Spinona is probably one of the best producers of Barbaresco and Barolo you’ve never heard of. But with one of the...
I remember when the wines of Tikal first hit the marketplace some years ago, creating quite a stir with their glamorous wines, distinctive packaging and attractive pricing. Tikal also has a connection to the most famous producer in all of...
The Cabernet Sauvignon (Millen Vineyard) and Merlot (Pyaleh Vineyard) were grown organically by Shaunt and Diego, classmates of Sonoe’s at UC Davis, who are converting conventionally grown small vineyards into healthy organic ones throughout the...
2019 Paolo Scavino Barolo Prapo Pre-Arrival $79.99, $84.99 in stock price
The amazing 2019 Barolos are arriving soon! Fasten your seatbelts because it’s a fabulous and unique vintage; one that, paradoxically, will appeal to both lovers...
2019 Paolo Scavino Barolo Ravera Pre-Arrival $79.99, $84.99 in stock price
The amazing 2019 Barolos are arriving soon! Fasten your seatbelts because it’s a fabulous and unique vintage; one that, paradoxically, will appeal to both lovers...
2019 Paolo Scavino Barolo Monvigliero Pre-Arrival $79.99, $84.99 in stock price
The amazing 2019 Barolos are arriving soon! Fasten your seatbelts because it’s a fabulous and unique vintage; one that, paradoxically, will...
The southern DOC known as Montepulciano d’Abruzzo is one of the most confusing to newcomers to Italian wine, starting with the grape variety itself. Montepulciano is very often confused with the town in Tuscany of the same name and the wine made...
Large and in charge, Matteo Ascheri is one of those people you meet in Barolo who are just Piemontese to their very core and he’s revered enough locally to be serve as the president of the Barolo-Barbaresco Consorzio. They’ve been in the...
Blend: 43% Caberbet Sauvignon, 31% Merlot, 21% Cabernet Franc, 5% Petit Verdot
The Follies stay in the the Southern Hemisphere with the delicious Meerlust Red Blend from South Africa with a wine that is essentially the second label of their iconic...
100% Chenin Blanc
Whew! Is there any white wine made anywhere in the world more scintillating than a bone-dry Chenin Blanc from the Loire Valley? The best are just packed with personality and offer up not only amazing, concentrated fruit...
NOSE: Pure and powerful, this wine opens with fresh blueberries, blackberry pie and cassis. ˜e endless dark fruit is complemented by a range of baking spices: vanilla at first, but also clove and cinnamon.PALATE: The first sip instantly reveals the...
40% Cabernet Sauvignon, 40% Cabernet Franc, 20% Merlot - The wine is then aged in French barrels for two or three years, then racked into Slavonian oak barrels for four more years.
Our allocations of this round of Ciacci Piccolomini’s much-coveted Brunellos is pitiful but you, our best Italian wine-loving customers, deserve the 4-1-1. Ciacci, thanks to their position in the southernmost, warmest part of...
Think Argentina is all about Malbec? Think again! Cab Franc loves the Mendoza’s high altitude, abundant sunshine and desert-like conditions. Here it develops a thicker skin and more color, as well as the kind of tannins one might...
PRIMA Notes: The 2019 Langhe Nebb, we’ve loved it ever since it first went into the bottle and it has only gotten better with the extra time in the bottle. While Chiara sometimes glibly calls her Nebbiolo a ‘Baby Barolo,’ I...
The bluest of Chateauneuf du Pape bluebloods, the Vielles Vignes cuvee from Grand Veneur is, once again, the highest rated wine of a very, very fine vintage in the Southern Rhone. Established in the northern part of Châteauneuf-du-Pape, in...
Prima Note :In honor of Brandon leading a group of PRIMA customers to Mendoza next February (now is the time to sign up, folks) and, in honor of Women in Wine month, we give you Susana Balbo’s absolutely delicious, ultra-dark and savory Cabernet...
The star of the show when presented horizontally with her two other 2018 Barolos, Chiara’s 2018 Cannubi is sort of a benchmark for this iconic vineyard- the ultimate blend of everything we think of as Classic Barolo and ditto for Cannubi...
Winery Notes: The deep ruby/purple-hued 2019 A.V.A. Red Blend of Cabernet Franc checks in as 68% Cabernet Franc, 23% Cabernet Sauvignon, and the rest Petit Verdot and Malbec. It’s a ripe, medium to full-bodied, incredibly silky expression of this...
The smallest production in Sean’s cellar is the wine he calls ‘Uno,’ referring to the single grape variety used in the wine. This is the flagship, Riserva-style wine of the estate and is sourced from the best Sangiovese grapes...
Let’s finish our tour of the Southern Hemisphere in South Australia. Kilikanoon is located in the town of Penwortham, situated in the rolling hills of the Clare Valley, just a two-hour drive north through the much warmer Barossa Valley from...