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February 2004 Collector´s Club
2000 Masset Winery Cabernet Sauvignon
Gee, here´s a surprise - another good Washington State winery! The
winemaker, Greg Masset, makes very small quantities of these wines, and the quality
is outstanding. He sources his fruit entirely from Yakima Valley. Since
Greg is a chef, he makes his wines to be food-friendly, something which I´m
happy about; his wines have an elegance to them that´s sometimes absent.
It´s ready to drink, and will easily hold for five years in your cellar.
Try it with rib roast. There´s a limited quantity left at $19.75.
2002 Michel Tete Julienas
This wine, made from the Gamay Noir grape, is from the Beaujolais region of France,
which is the southernmost area in Burgundy. For some reason, wines from this
region remain a good value - possibly due to the Beaujolais Nouveau craze.
Seems that not a lot of people take the region seriously, which is a real shame -
these are excellent, powerful wines. It runs $18.00, and there´s a good
supply. It´s ready to drink, and will hold for a couple years. Try
it with pork roast or salmon. By the way, Julienas is the name of the village
the wine comes from.
2000 Domaine du Monteillet Saint-Joseph
I´ve always been a fan of Northern Rhone wines, and this Syrah is an excellent
example of a good vintage. It comes from the right (west) bank of the river,
and is the largest appellation in the north. You have to be somewhat picky with
Saint-Josephs, as some of the wines can be quite bland; soil types vary considerably
in those areas. This shows what happens in a good area. It runs $16.00,
and is quite tasty. As with most syrahs, it´ll take some age quite well,
and also drink well young. There´s a reasonable amount of it around.
Lot 2002 Plan Pegau
The name of Pegau is probably quite familiar to those of you who are
Chateauneuf-du-Pape fans; Domaine de Pegau is one of the great houses in that
Southern Rhone region. If you are one of those fans, you´ve also probably
heard of the horrible rains that hit the region around the 2002 harvest.
There´s little Chateauneuf available. The good news is most of what
would have gone into the top cuvees has gone instead into wines like this: good,
solid wines that sell for reasonable prices (in this case, $15.00).
There´s probably going to be quite a few of these good-value wines available
from this soggy vintage.
2002 Nga Waka Martinborough Sauvignon Blanc
This North Island New Zealand winery consistently produces very high-quality wine,
and we´ve been able to get this sauvignon blanc at a significant sale price -
it´s normally $19.75. For this month it´s $15.00, and it´s a
good bargain. Try it with crab cakes. There´s a reasonable supply.
2003 Fairview Paarl Sauvignon Blanc
This wine´s only $8.00? It´s honestly a bit of a steal.
We´ve been seeing stronger and stronger South African wine, and the prices are
still wonderfully low. There´s plenty available.
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