[Cornell Wine] Cornell Wine Club June

[Michael Beard]

CORNELL WINE CLUB
JUNE WINE SELECTIONS

Below are details of the June selections for our Wine Club.  These  
wines are available for pick-up by members from Friday, June 2.  The  
wines will be available for all to taste on Saturday, June 10, Noon –  
5:00PM.  Remember, members get a 15% discount on monthly selections,  
so SIGN-UP AND SAVE!

EARL and COUNTESS LEVEL

CLIFF LEDE 2005 SAUVIGNON BLANC, NAPA VALLEY, CALIFORNIA

Normally I’m not a great fan of California Sauvignon Blancs, but  
Cliff Lede’s wines are wonderful – they do not see any oak!  The wine  
is fermented in concrete vats and aged is stainless steel (the  
tradition in many parts of the Loire Valley).  The 2004 vintage sold  
out very quickly, and the 2005 is in very limited supply, especially  
in Oregon.  This release is a little richer on mid-palate than the  
2004, but has the same lovely balance and length.  The closest French  
match would be a Sancerre from a hot vintage such as 2003.
Regular Price: $20.00                                    Member  
Price: $17.00

VIÑA PEDROSA 2003 RIBERA del DUERO, SPAIN

This wine is made by BODEGAS HERMANOS PÉREZ PASCUAS in the town of  
Pedrosa de Duero and is a wonderful blend of modern wine making  
techniques with Spanish and Bordeaux traditions.  The wine is a blend  
of 90% TEMPRANILLO and 10% CABERNET SAUVIGNON.  The TEMPRANILLO is  
aged in new AMERICAN OAK and the CABERNET in new FRENCH OAK.  The  
Perez Pascuas brothers use Bordeaux as the model to ensure their  
wines will age for a long time while still being accessible in their  
youth.  This an intensely flavored wine with aromas of dark fruit,  
tobacco and oak.  Despite the youth of the wine, the palate has a  
silky texture.  The finish is extremely long with velvety tannins.   
Steven Tanzer in the International Wine Cellar awarded this wine 91  
points (some say this is equivalent to a Robert Parker 95 points!)

Regular Price: $20.00                                Member Price:  
$17.00

Total Member Monthly Cost: $34.00

BARON and BARONESS LEVEL

ALAIN BRUMONT 2005 GROS MANSENG, GASCONY. FRANCE

When I first heard of the varietal GROS MANSENG I thought it sounded  
more like a Chinese medicine than a grape.  If this is medicine, I’ll  
keep drinking it!  GROS MANSENG and its cousin PETIT MANSENG are the  
grapes of the little-known, but wonderful whites (both dry and sweet)  
of JURAÇON in the southwest of France near the Spanish border.  Here  
it is dry white Vin de Pays from the CÔTES de GASCOGNE, just to the  
northeast of Juraçon.  It is sometimes blended with COLOMBARD, but  
this wine is 100% GROS MANSENG.  To quote from Matt Kramer in The  
Sunday Oregonian “The 2005 vintage…was a great success in southwest  
France.  This is an original, even compelling, dry white wine selling  
for a steal…I’m hard-pressed to think of a better dry white wine as  
good as this for such a low price.”  While we have several under $10  
good white wines, this wine is wonderful.  It offers a floral, fruity  
nose, ripe fruit on the palate with a wonderful silky mouth feel.   
When you think it might finish sweet, balancing acidity keeps the  
wine fresh and lively on its long finish.  ABSOLUTELY STUNNING VALUE.

Regular Price: $09.50                            Member Price: $08.08

NOBILO 2004 “ICON” PINOT NOIR, MARLBOROUGH, NEW ZEALAND

I agree Oregon is the home of many wonderful Pinot Noirs, but it is  
getting harder to find anything really good for less than $20 (OK,  
Russ Raney’s already sold-out 2004s were fantastic value at $15.00  
and $17.25).  Pinot Noir fans should look to other areas and  
countries to widen the experience of their Pinot palates.  NEW  
ZEALAND has been making some lovely Pinot Noirs, but in Oregon they  
have rarely been good value.  The HOUSE of NOBILO is one of the older  
Kiwi wineries (Pauline and I visited then in 1984!), and for a long  
time they were more interested in the volume=value equation than  
rather than realizing that economies of scale can enable you to  
produce a wine with a great quality : price ratio.  Nobilo’s “Icon”  
range is designed to offer very good quality at a modest price.  This  
2004 bottling is the best under $25 NZ Pinot Noir I’ve tasted in a  
long time.  While not a “monster wine”, it offers gorgeous pure Pinot  
Noir fruit weighted to the red fruit end of the taste spectrum.   
There is some spice from the French oak used, and the finish has  
velvety tannins.

Regular Price: $17.00                            Member Price: $14.45

Total Member Monthly Cost: $22.53

Cheers,

Mick Beard
Cornell Wine Company
(503) 531-3981
mick at cornellwine.com
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