Embrace the Delights of California’s Premium-Level Wines As winter quickly approaches, and families begin to gather together, we bring to you three fantastic wines! The selections are sure to warm the soul and bring a smile to our collectors faces once opened. These hidden gems from wine country showcase each vintner’s passion for the wine industry.
Discover these wine selections below and enjoy them with friends and family.
Cheers!
December 2023 Wine Features
Matt Morris Wines – 2019 Tofanelli Vineyards Charbono
Why We Love This Wine: A professional photographer and video-storyteller, Matt Morris, produced his first commercial wine in 2014 after years of helping to capture the heart and soul of California grape growing and winemaking on film and in print. With a client list that includes Abreu Vineyards, Promontory, Quintessa, Realm Cellars, Rudd Estate, and The Restaurant At Meadowood, Matt is no stranger to the hard work and high qualitative cut involved in producing a world class experience.
With the 2019 single-vineyard wines they have done exactly that. These micro-lots were aged for 23 months in neutral French oak. Charbono has much softer tannin than Cabernet and does not require new oak to achieve its balance. These wines are incredibly expressive and will drink now or can age up to 20 years! Beautiful woodsy aromatics of wild blueberries, dried sage, black licorice, and an earthy forest quality. This wine is serious, poised and disciplined. The texture is pristine with a refined entry and flavors that explode in the mid palate followed by a powerful, persistent finish. The wine has an ample freshness and a firm vein of minerality. Only 40 cases made!
Kinsella Estates – 2014 Jersey Boys Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon
Why We Love This Wine: While it was the third consecutive year marked by limited rainfall, the 2014 vintage offered a perfectly temperate growing season characterized by long, moderate days and cool, clear nights. The year began with warm spring conditions that gave way to an early bud break and the consistent, dry weather afforded an optimal fruit set of small berries with incredible concentration. Crop yields were down a bit from 2013, but the quality was magnificent. It was a textbook growing season, every winemaker’s dream.
This is a killer Cabernet Sauvignon with dazzling fruit levels and loads of loamy soil notes intermixed with black raspberry, blueberry and blackcurrant. The superripe and pure fruit hits the palate with a full-bodied crescendo. The wine offers up notes of underbrush, unsmoked cigar tobacco, pen ink and plenty of crème de cassis and blackberry, Drink it over the next 20-25 years.
Gandona – 2018 Encosta Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon
The 2018 Encosta is such a beautiful and expressive wine. A dollop of Cabernet Franc gives the 2018 gorgeous aromatic lift. Medium in body, with a spine of tannin, the 2018 is going to need a few years to come around, but it is a very attractive second wine from Gandona. I would open the 2018 in advance, as it really blossoms with air.
Be sure to visit our wine shop to discover these wines and many more like them. If you’re interested in learning, venture over to our “regional focus” tab and learn more about the wine regions these great wines come from.