R. Stuart & Co. Love Oregon White Sky White 2014 Oregon
Located in Willamette Valley Oregon, R. Stuart and Co. focus on making low production, high quality wines at reasonable prices. (only about 16,000 case total per year.) They are a Negociant style winery, meaning they don’t own vineyards but source their grapes from growers mostly throughout the Willamette Valley. They’ve been working in the wine business in Oregon for decades, and they know where the good fruit is!
We had this last night with Asian-ish chicken with black bean sauce and rice, and a Indian style cucumber salad. It was delicious! A kitchen-sink white blend, that’s primarily Pinot Gris, but drinks a bit like a Rhone Blend. Full flavored, round, inviting, but not sweet, YUM!
91pts Wine Enthusiast
Editors’ Choice
“This is principally Pinot Gris, blended with 7% Viognier and 12% other white grapes. Those other grapes are quite aromatic and send up pretty floral aromas immediately. When tasted this also offers a compelling streak of honey, with fruit flavors suggesting orange marmalade. It’s not sweet, just fruity, round and quite delicious.”
Michele Chiarlo Il Principe Nebbiolo 2014 Piedmont, Italy
100% Nebbiolo, the grape that both Barbaresco and Barolo are made from, can, intriguingly, seem both light and full bodied at the same time. You can see your fingers through it like a classic Pinot Noir, but it delivers powerful, yet clean, flavors. This is the kind of wine that will enhance your meal, but not dominate. A perfect choice for thanksgiving fare, it’ll go as well with turkey as it does with Ham or Roasted Beef. It’s hard to find an example of this grape at this price point, ($20) and the quality of this wine is outstanding. Michele Chiarlo has been producing wine in Italy since 1956 and is known for making great wines that speak of the terrior where they are produced.
From the winery: “Garnet red of medium intensity with brilliant reflections. Intense of good complexity and great elegance, hints of small black fruits, plums and violet. Pleasant impact, ample and balanced with silky tannins; highly pleasing and long lasting. It is well balanced at 2 years old and has a life span that can easily arrive at 8-10 years.”
“100% Nebbiolo from vineyards of Barbaresco and Vezza d’Alba in the hillsides of Roero area. The soil is made up of bluish-grey, sand-rich, clayey calcareous marl; it is a soil poor in organic substances but with a considerable percentage of manganese and potassium. Highly evident is its typicality, characterized by varietal flavours and by the influence of the Roero terroir. Il Principe is a Nebbiolo that has been left to refine in large vats for a year; its organoleptic characteristics are extraordinarily classical. It is a noble wine of excellent character and pleasantness, suited to medium ageing.”
90pts James Suckling
A red with nice chocolate and berry character, yet light, fruity and vivd.