Just when you think you know what to expect from a type of wine, along comes one that surprises you with a delightful difference.  This Saturday we are pouring five French wines that transcended our expectations and brought a smile to our lips.  We think they will to yours too.
 
Moncontour Sparkling Vouvray Tete de Cuvee  $20
100% Chenin Blanc
From 30 year old vines this Loire Bubble is aged for 18 months on its leas.  Nut and toast aromas lead to a smooth palate, with creamed apple and delicate orange zest flavors. Behind the crisp acidity, there is a mature feel, giving roundness to the delicious aftertaste.
 
2015 Michel Vattan, Sancerre Cuvée Calcaire  $23
Sauvignon Blanc
From a limestone vineyard of 30-year-old vines, the Vattan has racy aromas with mineral accents, citrus and blackcurrant leaf. Its well-integrated palate is supported by fine freshness, seductive fullness, succulence, precise, delicate aromas and drive.
 
2014 Vignerons des Monts de Bourgogne, Bourgogne Rouge  $18
Pinot Noir
This is a great little Pinot Noir from a cooperative.  Nothing fancy here just a bouquet of red fruits a crisp silky mouthfeel and a crisp finish. 
 
2011Chateau Le Bourdieu Medoc  $22
50% Cabernet Sauvignon, 50% Merlot
A good Bourgeois: very pure and feminine on the nose with crisp red berries, redcurrant and candied orange peel. The palate is full but not cloying with layers of red fruit, leading to a solid finish.  You can watch a Sommelier blind taste this here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=snPRPusaB-8  or you can try it on Saturday.  We won’t be spitting.
 
Dumangin, Ratafia Champenois  $40
78% Pinot Meunier, 22% Pinot Noir
Very unique Ratafia Champenois (Ratafia de Champagne) is made from grape must ‘fortified’ with Champagne distilled spirits  It is made with 4 simultaneous types of aging of different durations: Traditional barrel 6 years, Solera barrel 5 years, Vino Santo barrel 7 years, Vat 3 years.  Made by a great Champagne maker this liqueur has wonderful fruity aromas as well as a very distinguished wood note.  18% alcohol by volume

Madrona Wine Merchants offers free wine tastings featuring 4-5 selections on a theme every Saturday from 2 until the bottles run out and on Sunday we offer a mini-tasting of two wines all day from 11-5.

Fall has slipped into town this weekend here in Madrona.  The evenings are arriving earlier and there is a fresh feel to the air.  We might even get a touch of rain.  It is a perfect time to enjoy some good wine and we have two great opportunities this weekend at the wine shop.

Saturday we are featuring wines from Illahe Vineyards an organically farmed winery from Oregon that makes some distinct whites and some fabulous Pinot Noir.
2016 Gruner Veltliner $18
2016 Pinot Gris $18
2016 Viognier Willamette Valley $18
2015 Estate Pinot Noir $23
2014 Project 1899 Pinot Noir $ 68

Sunday, we are pouring a pair of organic wines from the Ovieto region in Italy.  Altarocca is at 350m above sea level, higher than its neighbors, and consequently has a longer ripening season.  The grapes are all farmed organically and the wine made in a straight forward fashion.   

2015 Cantina Altarocca Orvieto Classico  $11
Grechetto, Procanico, Malvasia
Delicate and pleasant, with notes of fresh fruit and flowers. Refreshing, fragrant and persistent, with a hint of acidity and minerality.

2015 Cantina Altarocca Librato — Ovietano Rosso  $14
70% Cabernet Franc, 30% Canaiolo
Intense and harmonious in the nose, rich with notes of red fruit and a vegetable scent. In the mouth is full and balanced, with elegant notes of fruit and smooth tannins. No oak is used during the wine making to highlight the fruit.

Madrona Wine Merchants offers free wine tastings featuring 4-5 selections on a theme every Saturday from 2 until the bottles run out and on Sunday we offer a mini-tasting of two wines all day from 11-5.

Illahe Vineyard has 60 acres of vines with seven varieties.  The vineyard is one nine vineyards situated in the Mount Pisgah area, with silty clay loam soil unique to this area only.  Illahe makes wine as naturally as possible from the soil to the bottle. This requires working by hand on small lots with age-old techniques and materials.  Besides being organically farmed, they don’t use enzymes or additives, and don’t fine or filter their Pinot Noir. One of Oregon’s few horse-powered vineyards, they use a team of Percheron drafts to mow and deliver grapes to the winery at harvest.  The Project 1899 Pinot Noir is made entirely by hand with no electricity or mechanization.  Does that make a difference?  Come and see.
 
2016 Grüner
Veltliner $18
This Grüner Veltliner has aromas of dried peach, honey crisp apple, and fresh cedar board. The wine is fermented partially in acacia barrels which offer herbal flavors and complex texture. The palate contains flavors of red grapefruit, graham cracker, and white nectarine.
 
2016 Pinot Gris $18
Illahe’s Pinot Gris is layered with complex fruit and starts with notes of crisp granny smith apple, bright lemon zest, and hints of clove, paired with light notes of papaya and starfruit.  Neutral oak aging adds creaminess and texture with lingering flavors of almond butter and a spicy finish of cardamom. 
 
2016 Viognier Willamette Valley $18
The Viognier leaps from the glass with expressive stone fruit, and floral aromas of apricot, tangerine, honey blossom and wet stone. The palate is layered with peach compote, banana peel, and lavender with a touch of uncrushed peppercorn. The wine is steel-fermented to preserve the grape variety’s food-friendly acidity and an off-dry palate. 
 
2015 Estate Pinot Noir $23
The aromas of the Estate Pinot Noir begin with strawberry, tamarind, and blackberry then broaden along the palate to include chalk, tobacco leaf, chocolate, and earth. The acid supports a complete yet not overwhelming tannin balanced between skin and oak. The wine retains its velvet mouthfeel through a process of clarification by racking. For an entry level pinot, this wine is a great value and will last 6 to 12 years under the best conditions.
 
2014 Project 1899 Pinot Noir $ 68
The 1899 Pinot Noir was made without the use of modern winemaking equipment or electricity. This wine is hand-picked and brought to the winery by horse, hand destemmed and placed into wooden fermenters. It spontaneously fermented on its own.   It is hand pressed in a wooden basket press, bicycle pumped into barrel, and encouraged through malolactic fermentation without inoculation. It is corked it by hand, and applied the label by hand. The 1899 never touched dry ice, canned nitrogen, enzymes, stainless steel, forklifts, packaged yeast, electric pumps, or filters. The wine goes to the river by stagecoach and canoes 90 river miles down the Willamette to Portland to the distributor’s warehouse. The wine shows aromas of burnt caramel, dried red fruits, blackberry jam, chocolate with brioche toast and earth with 5 spice and cinnamon. 

Madrona Wine Merchants offers free wine tastings featuring 4-5 selections on a theme every Saturday from 2 until the bottles run out and on Sunday we offer a mini-tasting of two wines all day from 11-5.

Value is where the quality of the wine intersects with the price.  One would be hard pressed to find country with better wine value than Italy.  Stop by this Saturday as we pour a few such gems that will get you back to school or just into September and ready for the equinox. We have wines from Emilia-Romagna, Campania, Abruzzo, and Apulia out of such grapes as Pigoletto, Caprettone, Falanghina, Greco, Montelpulciano, Susumaniello and Negroamaro.  Some of these grapes are a bit obscure, but they are all delicious.
 
Colli Bolognesi Pignoletto “Spazzavento Torre dei Nanni” $15
Alberto and Cristina Fiorini, brother and sister, are the fourth generation of a family that has produced Lambrusco wines since 1919 with holdings in the province of Modena in Emilia-Romagna.  Pignoletto is a white indigenous varietal of the area.  The nose is delicate, but intense and aromatic. Full in the mouth the wine has a pleasant bitterish finish
 
2016 Iovine, Lacryma di Christi del Vesuvio Bianco $14
Caprettone, Falanghina, Greco
The members of the Iovine family have been viticulturists and have produced wine for four generations since 1890. They own approximately 15 hectares of vineyards in the Sorrento Peninsula, in Campania.   The soils (made up of volcanic deposits from eruptions of the Vesuvius) give this blend its distinct character.  It is an elegant, floral wine with a slightly acidic, lovely freshness.
 
2016 Sanvito, Montepulciano d’Abruzzo $9
Sanvito’s modest Montepulciano shows full smooth structured tannins that support notes of ripe cherries and blackberry notes with a solid backbone of acidity that “pops” the fruit notes on the palate and keeps it fresh.
 
2015 Tenute di Rubino, Oltreme Susumaniello $14
Made from Susumaniello grapes grown in Apulia in the warm south of Italy.  Characterized by an intense ruby red color with purple hues. It presents a bouquet of fragrant and fresh red berry fruit notes, among which stand out cherry, pomegranate, raspberry and hints of ripe plum. At the palate, it gives off a fruity flavor, mineral, round with pleasant and soft tannins that make it particularly pleasant to drink.
 
2014 Tenute di Rubino Miraglio Negroamaro $14
The Rubino is ruby red, its aromas express ethereal notes of red fruit in spirit, plum, blackberry and currant, and spices. Syrups of licorice, thyme and rosemary open to a warm and elegant taste, full and round.  Its tannic texture is smooth and velvety, it closes with a finale that stands out for persistence.

Madrona Wine Merchants offers free wine tastings featuring 4-5 selections on a theme every Saturday from 2 until the bottles run out and on Sunday we offer a mini-tasting of two wines all day from 11-5.

It is a lazy Labor Day weekend here in Madrona.  For those of you who didn’t skip town we have some laid back events to pass the time as we relax and enjoy the great weather.  And don’t forget to lay in some extra Rosé for the coming week.

Saturday, we’re pouring some big wines from small producers from Ardeche, Chablis, Cahors, and the Rhône. Come have a taste of the French countryside.
2016 Chateau de la Selve, Saint Regis Viognier $15
2014 Domaine Seguinot, Chablis  $20
2016 Chateau de la Selve, Maguelonne Rosé  $14
2015 Domaine de Fages, Cahors  $15
2015 Duseigneur, La Chapelle, Côtes du Rhône $15

Sunday, we’ve got two West Coast wines from the USA — a Columbia Valley white from Washington and an Amador County red from California — both with some special pricing.  Come sample some homegrown sippers.

2013 Parejas Cellars Garnacha Blanca  $12
This WA grown, Spanish-styled white has aromas of ripe green apples, white stone fruits and citrus & herbal nuances which combined with lively acidity, and a refreshing finish.  Was $15 now $12

2011 Noceto Sangiovese  $12
From Amador, Noceto produces all Italian varietals and does a pretty good job of it. Lots of cherry notes and a bit more fruit forward than Chianti, but very good for this side of the Atlantic. Was $19 now $12

We have new art up on the walls.

This Sunday is also the Artist Reception for our new show.
Hidden Depths and Distance Heights, by Amanda Teicher.  Come see the show and meet the artist from 3 to 5pm

Madrona Wine Merchants offers free wine tastings featuring 4-5 selections on a theme every Saturday from 2 until the bottles run out and on Sunday we offer a mini-tasting of two wines all day from 11-5.

This Saturday we’re pouring some big wines from small producers from Ardeche, Chablis, Cahors, and the Rhône.  Start your Labor Day weekend out right by stocking up on these hard working Vins de France.  Let their labor help celebrate ours.
 
2016 Chateau de la Selve, Saint Regis  $15
Viognier
From low-yield, biodynamic vineyards in l’Ardeche, this Viognier is clean and fresh, with aromas of peach, citrus and a hint of mint, but it’s the fine minerality that really distinguishes the Saint Regis. 
 
2014 Domaine Seguinot, Chablis  $20
Seguinot is run by a father and his two daughters.  They produce their Chablis wines on about 15 hectares.  This is a bright, high acid, crisp, mineral driven white. The light calcareous clay soils impart floral, fresh and mineral aromas.
 
2016 Chateau de la Selve, Maguelonne Rosé  $14
40% Grenache, 40% Cinsault, 20% Syrah
This organic and biodynamic rosé has a delicate, aromatic and fruity nose, with red and white fruit aromas and a flowery note.
 
2015 Domaine de Fages, Cahors  $15
85% Malbec, 15% Merlot
The Fages comes from 35-year-old vines that are farmed organically and certified biodynamic.  The plots are planted on 2 different kinds of soil: sandy and ferrous red clay and clay-limestone.  The blend combines the dark smooth fruity character of Malbec with chalk mineral notes from the limestone soil. 
 
2015 Duseigneur, La Chapelle, Côtes du Rhône $15
50% Grenache, 50% Syrah
Domaine Duseigneur is located on the left bank of the river Rhône, in the village of Châteauneuf du-Pape. The 70 acres of the Estate straddle the appellations of Châteauneuf du Pape, Côtes-du-Rhône Villages Laudun and Lirac.  Made naturally from low yield old Grenache and Syrah, its round and supple tannins fully express red fruit aromas and Provençal aromatics of lavender and white pepper.

Madrona Wine Merchants offers free wine tastings featuring 4-5 selections on a theme every Saturday from 2 until the bottles run out and on Sunday we offer a mini-tasting of two wines all day from 11-5.