The PRIMA Vini VINE Monday, December 2nd
The PRIMA Vini VINE
Monday, December 2nd
PRIMA Vini Dublin- 6890 Village Parkway,
Dublin, CA 94568, 925-945-1800
Mondays, 10- 5, Tuesday through Saturday, 10–6
NOW OPEN SUNDAYS, Noon-5pm!
(Come see Brandon, Tadd & Teddy)
Open 24-7 at www.primavini.com
No. We don’t know how it got to be December either. But it certainly seems we have somehow reached the final sprint towards whatever it is that awaits us all in 2025. But we’re not letting 2024 get off that easily! We still have a month left with which to make your year-end holidays more joyful (and less stressful). You could start by taking advantage of our Cyber Monday offerings- 20% off of everything in our Spirits Department and our world famous ‘Dealer’s Choice’ sale that includes a hefty 15% discount and inclusive shipping as well. Maybe get ahead of the holiday stress curve and send those gift recipients of yours a wonderful case of best wine and have enough left over in your holiday budget for a case for yourself. Hey, Santa deserves to be taken care of too, right? One of PRIMA’s three excellent wine clubs make great gifts too. You can give one for as long as you like and there’s never any cost to join or leave. And no matter which option you choose, the wines are expertly-chosen, unique and fine values. Or peruse some of our non-wine options. We’ve still got those wonderful three-dimensional topo maps of Barolo, Barbaresco and the Langhe wine with which to decorate the cellar of the Italian wine lover on your list. Or the amazing Durand- the only cork removal device we’ve ever seen that could safely extract the cork from a 1931 Fontanafredda Barolo! We have several olive oils and the really great Badia a Coltibuono Aceto Vivo red wine vinegar in stock, too. Gift wrapping and card enclosures are always on us and all the packing and shipping is hand-done by one of the PRIMA team. Everything is always accomplished with love, care and personal attention! It’s the true joy of shopping small!
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We know you’ve been waiting with bated breath for our annual 2024 for 24’ Wines of the Year list to appear. Thanks for waiting! The first installment is below and the rest will appear as the week unfolds. We love making this best wine list and know you enjoy reading it too.
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And it’s Last Call for this year’s Champagne Extravaganza! The seminar is sold out but there are still tickets available for the Walk-Around Tasting featuring 20 of our favorite Champagnes. It’s the highlight of our calendar every year and we can’t wait to see you. Dress festive!
IT’S CYBER MONDAY at PRIMA
ALL SPIRITS ARE 20% OFF (ho, ho, ho!)
https://primavini.com/spirits/
No code required—discount auto-applies at checkout. Ends anytime!
AND
It’s PRIMA’s Famous DEALER’S CHOICE SALE-
At LEAST 15% off plus included shipping
Choose From The Usual Three Options
OR Our New NUMBER FOUR:
A) Buy one 12-bottle case at $320, after discounts
https://primavini.com/dealers-
B) Buy one 12-bottle case at $480, after discounts
https://primavini.com/dealers-
C) Buy one 12-bottle case at $600, after discounts
https://primavini.com/dealers-
D) Roll your own…..give us your budget (over $600) and we’ll make it extra special!
Email us at : info@primawine.com
E-Mail us your preference and what sort of mix of red or white you’d prefer. We can accommodate regional requests- like all-Italian or all-French too, but remember it’s dealer’s choice!
We’ll set the wine aside immediately for pick up or to be shipped right away.
*some exclusions apply
ON THE PRIMA Vini Calendar
Saturday, December 7th-
PRIMA’s 37th Annual Champagne Extravaganza
The highlight of PRIMA’s social calendar is not that far off! Save the date and use the links below to grab your tickets. They’re selling out fast.
*A Sit-Down Seminar entitled ‘Champagne- The Elements of Style’
focused on the amazing diversity of Champagne with a panel of experts and six fabulous Champagnes
12 PM- 1 PM, Limited to only 18 attendees /WAIT LISTED, CALL OR E-MAIL TO GET IN LINE
$125 per attendee, plus tax (includes access to the Grand Tasting that follows)
Can’t make it in person? The seminar will be available on Zoom (including all the seminar wines). E-mail frank@primavini.com for more information
*PRIMA’s Famous Walk-Around Grand Tasting*
THIS JUST IN! OYSTERS ARE BACK! Our friends from CaliCrab will be on hand during the tasting with plenty of your favorite bivalves to accompany your bubbles.
1:30 - 3:30 pm
Bubbles as far as the eye can see and, of course, great nibbles too.
$75 per attendee, plus tax
https://primavini.com/walk-
This year featuring multiple cuvees of:
Gaston Chiquet Blanc de Blancs
Marc Hebrart Cuvee Mes Favorites
Marc Hebrart Brut Rose
Charles Heidsieck Brut
Charles Heidsieck Blanc de Blancs
Gosset Brut Reserve
Gosset Brut Rose Reserve
Bruno Paillard Grand Cru Blanc de Noirs
Bruno Paillard Rose Extra Brut
Henri Giraud Esprit Brut Nature
Henri Giraud Dame Jane Brut Rose
Alexandra Sainz Brut Heritage
Alexandra Sainz Brut Millesime
Alexandra Sainz Pinot Noir Brut Nature
Philipponnat Brut
Philipponnat Brut Rose
Duval-Leroy Brut
Colcombet Brut Eclat
Colcombet Brut Sabre
Explore the fascinating cheeses and wines from the Austrian, Italian, and French Alps
through a tasting experience for the ages.
December 12th - 7:00 PM – 9:00 PM
This class is at The Cheese Parlor in Livermore
Just 4 tickets left!
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ANY TIME WE’RE OPEN
COME SEE WHAT WE’RE POURING IN THE PRIMA Vini WINE BAR!
We change the wines we pour by the glass week frequently so there’s always something interesting and fun open. Or pick a bottle up off our shelf, wine fridge or Enoteca! If it’s under $50 on the shelf, there’s only a $15 corkage and if it’s over $50, hey, we’ll waive it! Or do what the ‘Back to School Moms’ did last week and bring your own group, a bunch of your favorite fixins’ from one of our fine local restaurants and take over the place!
It’s PRIMA’s ’24 for 24’ Best Wines Of The Year
2024 was another banner year for our shelves here at PRIMA as the confluence of great vintages and inspired winemaking the world-over presented us with an embarrassment of riches from which to choose. With feedback from our bustling wine bar to account for, as well as your opinion based on anecdotal feedback and actual sales, we inevitably focused on the wines that made us the happiest- wherever they came from and whatever they cost. The fact that there are so many wines from Italy here (and notably fewer from the New World) reflects our personal preferences. After all, we make no claims to impartiality like some wine journalists claim (but really know better). But to make it to this list, a wine not only had to be good, it had to be VERY good and, not only VERY good, but fairly priced as well (we’re cheapskates here). We found an awful lot to discuss as we were making the list as everyone lobbied for their favorites. But we finally got there, just in time for your year-end enjoyment!
As usual, we’ll be releasing our lists in installments- 6 at a time, Monday through Wednesday, 5 on Thursday and the much-anticipated announcement of Wine of the Year will be on Friday.
Have fun.
24) 2022 Domaine Francine et Marie-Laure Serrigny Bourgogne Aligote
$31.99
Everyone who has tried this, simply loves it! As old school as their label, this ancient property near the town of Savigny-Les-Beaune has been run since 1995 by Marie-Laure Serrigny and her younger sister Francine who hew to tradition as closely as possible in order to properly do justice to a legacy of old vines that would be the envy of anyone in Burgundy. The oldest on the entire property are neither Pinot Noir nor Chardonnay, rather two positively ancient parcels of Aligote planted sometime just after the turn of the twentieth century, during Burgundy’s post-phylloxera restoration. At well over the century mark, these vines produce the most prized wine in the cellar, a white that shows just what is possible when inspired winemaking and old vines come together. Aligote is (in)famous for its pronounced acidity and intense minerality. In the olden days, that would be just about all you’d get! But, thanks to climate change, recent summers are yielding riper fruit and, therefore, better concentration, so Aligote is finally having its moment in the sun (if you will). But Aligote gets to another entirely different level here. Fermented on its native yeast and aged in older barrels, the approach is deceptively simple for a wine with this much depth and character: Great shimmery pear and Golden Delicious apple fruit, a beautifully subtle texture that expands as the wine warms and all of Aligote’s hallmark acidity. Only 200 cases were produced!
23) 2022 Cascina Fontana Langhe Nebbiolo
$42.99
Mario Fontana is a very cool guy. His tiny cellar is a one-man show at the highest part of the Perno road in Monforte d’Alba, right next to Reppublica di Perno, one of our favorite restaurants in the area. The laconic but genial Mario calls himself a ‘traditional iconoclast’ who has, over the years, passed on several lucrative opportunities to ply his winemaking trade with bigger, fancier cantinas in order to concentrate solely on making his own wines, his own way, at tiny Cascina Fontana. Mario is totally committed to making his three-total-cask production of Barolo wholly within the confines of the region’s most time-honored traditions. He is, after all, related by marriage to the Mascarello family, and just like his late in-law uncle Bartolo and his daughter Maria-Teresa, he would rather do things the way they’ve always been done in Barolo than follow any fad or fashion. And his wines definitely show that sense of rugged individualism. Mario farms three different vineyards- two in nearby Castiglione Falletto (Villero and Mariondino-Valetta) that have long been in the Fontana family, and a third, Giachini in La Morra, came into the family through Mario’s wife, Luisa. In addition, Mario farms smaller parcels dedicated solely to the production of a truly delicious, really distinctive Langhe Nebbiolo made in the ‘Baby Barolo’ style. One is in the historical Castello vineyard located that the Fontanas have farmed for nearly a hundred years, just up the hill from Castello di Sinio. Additionally there are three Fontanta-owned parcels in Castiglione Falletto: Lirano, Mombello and Il Pozzo. The grapes are vinified for a much shorter period (two weeks) than those destined to become his much-coveted Barolos. This results in a wine that is fresher than a young Barolo but no less harmonious and elegant, with a beautiful balance of tannin, fruit and acidity. There is a wonderful sweet core of dark, dusky Nebbiolo cherries, plums and mulberry and all the amazing wild nettle, cinnamon spice aromatics one expects from the grape swirling in a medium-bodied red that drinks beautifully already. I truly bonded with this wine over a traditional lunch with Mario in Perno where it married beautifully with our pasta and, when we compared it with a 1975 Nebbiolo Mario’s father made, you can see the path this wine has taken over the years. Under the radar, still well priced, and a wine I think will cellar wonderfully, I purchased all I could get in California- but that’s not much!
22) 2022 Rudi Pichler Gruner-Veltliner Federspiel Wachau
$33.99
Choosing our wines of the year is always a very collaborative effort and when we queried Fran about some of her choices and she advocated for this minty, minerally Gru-Vee and there was a groundswell of support from everyone else on the team. Jade waved her hand wildly while Brandon reminded us that this bone dry, crunchy Austrian white is practically the Mueller house wine! The name Pichler is synonymous with the top wines of the Wachau: F.X.’s, for their incredible single vineyard offerings and good ol’ Rudi for making a high-end, super focused, addictingly delicious Gruner the rest of us can afford! This ain’t your mama’s Gruner! It not only has the scintillating acidity and verve one expects from the grape, but it’s also sneaky rich, textural and deep. Great with all kinds of fried foods (this will really make your schnitzel stand up and take notice!), it’s also great with herby salads- maybe with some goat cheese rounds- and with all things porky and poultry. While it’s not the cheapest white in the store, it’s truly dynamite, and will even improve for the next five or six years in the back of your cellar. There were some among us who even wished this were higher than #22 but, like the college football playoffs this year, someone’s gotta be unhappy.
REPEAT WINNER
21) 2022 Louis Jadot Bourgogne Blanc
$19.99
Affordable but tasty white Burgundy is an essential- like the little black dress of your wine fridge. The successful candidate should be inexpensive enough to open any night of the week, go well with any sort of food, taste great by all itself and, just as importantly, taste authentically like fine Burgundy and not, say, a richer, oakier California Chardonnay. You know this wine because you buy hand-truck loads every time we offer it. But, in case you don’t, this is not the Louis Jadot Bourgogne Chardonnay so readily available throughout the United States. That’s a fine bottle indeed, but not at all in the same league as this. The Jadot Bourgogne Blanc is a different, more exclusive cuvee created by the Maison expressly for restaurants and quality retailers (like us!) from top notch vineyard sources that run the length of the Burgundy appellation, but with more fruit from Meursault and other vines from the Cote de Beaune in the blend. Also, unlike the Bourgogne Chardonnay, a good portion of the final wine spends eight months in barrel giving it a richer texture and a hint of woodsy vanilla that gives it more of a sense of gravitas, weight and helps accentuate the mineral finish. My wife, the Rittmaster family’s final arbiter in all things Burgundy and a big fan of all of Jadot’s wines, commented again, after we killed yet another bottle with dinner, that it ‘was weighty like a California Chardonnay, but tasted like a really nice white Burgundy,’ and ratified the purchase of yet another case for our own larder. Done! Maybe, we’re thinking, you should do the same. I think this is the third time this wine has made it to our list so that should tell you something.
20) 2021 Uccelliera Rosso di Montalcino
$29.99
Sure, there were a lot of Brunellos we tasted this year- mostly from the 2019 vintage- that truly amazed us, but we tend to spend your money like it was ours, and this wine seems like a very good use of our hard-earned wine dollars. Uccelliera’s popular Rosso di Montalcino is one of the top examples of Tuscan Sangiovese every vintage- it is even always notably successful in what are considered less-successful vintages- but in a near-perfect, historically exciting vintage like 2021, we have something extra special: a punchier, zingier, richer Rosso than even the benchmark 2016. We think it’s could be one of the best ever produced at this august locale! Located in the warmer southern section of Montalcino- right across the street from the equally famous Ciacci Piccolomini where Uccelliera owner/winemaker Andrea Cortonesi used to man the cellar, this artisanal cantina has earned an enviable reputation for its rich, dramatic Brunello di Montalcino (the 2019 of which we still have in stock) and a Rosso that wa-ay over delivers for the price. Always made for immediate gratification, the 2021 Rosso will, indeed, thanks to its very dark, rich black cherry and dried blueberry fruit and lovely cinnamon spice, certainly gratify immediately, but with its great natural acidity and concentrated fruit, we think it will be a great cellar candidate as well. Old bottles of Uccelliera Rosso never disappoint. Your Bistecca will thank you.
Vinous: Darkly alluring, the 2021 Rosso di Montalcino slowly comes to life with a beguiling blend of mentholated herbs, pine shavings and dried strawberries. This sweeps across the palate with textures of pure silk, soothing all that it touches with ripe red fruits and rosy inner florals guided by vibrant acidity. It finishes structured, potent and long, punching well above its weight class, as licorice mingles with savory spices through the youthfully tense finale. This is next-level Rosso di Montalcino. In a word, spellbinding. 93 points
Wine Spectator: Rich, vibrant and complex, this Rosso delivers cherry, raspberry, iron and Tuscan scrub flavors. This is harmonious and firms up nicely on the finish. Fine aftertaste. Drink now through 2030. 2,933 cases made, 1,000 cases imported. 92 points
19) 2022 DuMOL Pinot Noir, DuMOL Estate Vineyard, Russian River Valley
$119.99
I remember when DuMOL, hitherto well-known for their fabulous single-vineyard offerings from purchased grapes, first planted what would be their first Estate vineyard back in 2004. I was taken there by then-owner Michael Verlander who was proud as can be. What a gorgeous site! And, being DuMOL, you knew they were going to do a great job. In fact, while they planted nine acres, for the wine destined to be the flagship for this seminal Russian River Valley Pinot Noir specialist, they decided to dedicate only the three best for this bottling. All Calera clone and farmed without irrigation and completely organically, this 800-case production is truly the essence of what winemaker and DuMOL partner Andy Smith does best! It’s voluminous, with all kinds of lifted aromatics- raspberry, mulberry, black cherries, violet pastilles and hibiscus flowers- on a frame that is rich, lavish even, without being at all blowsy or heavy. There’s also great mineral drive to its complete finish. And so young! If you’re going to drink this now, decant it. But, still, why would you want to wait for something this hedonistic and fun to drink? A top-notch Pinot Noir from a top-notch operation, we’re pleased to have associates since the beginning and we’re really proud to be able to put in our list of top wines for the year. Limited.