[Cornell Wine] Cornell Club January Selections

[Michael Beard]

CORNELL WINE CLUB
JANUARY WINE SELECTIONS

Below are details of the January selections for our Wine Club.  Wines  
are available for pick-up by members from Wednesday, January 9th.   
All being well, the wines will be available for all to taste on  
Saturday, January 12th Noon – 5:00PM.  Remember, members get a 15%  
discount on monthly selections, so SIGN-UP AND SAVE!

EARL and COUNTESS LEVEL

SONOMA CUTRER 2005 CHARDONNAY “RUSSIAN RIVER RANCHES”

It is a long time since we have offered a “Classic California  
Chardonnay” to our Club members.  SONOMA CUTRER’S Chardonnays are the  
number one Chardonnays at American “white tablecloth” restaurants.   
This bottling is supposed to be “restaurant only”, but independent  
wine shops with a “Wine-by-the-Glass” license are allowed to carry  
it.  Basically, the winery does not want to see the wine in  
supermarkets, mainly to protect the restaurants’ outrageous mark- 
ups!  This wine is oak fermented and aged, but is not “overly oaky”.   
It offers lots of pear and apple fruit, oak, but good acidity, making  
it food-friendly.

Regular Price: $21.00
Member Price: $17.85

DOMAINE DIOCHON 2006 MOULIN-À-VENT, BEAUJOLAIS, FRANCE

To me, BEAUJOLAIS is one of the most misunderstood wine regions of  
the world.  This is mainly because of the 1970-80s BEAUJOLAIS NOUVEAU  
phenomenon.  Nouveau was fun when it was $6.00/bottle, but now it is  
a waste of good GAMAY NOIR grapes.  While there are many very good  
BEAUJOLAIS and BEAUJOLAIS-VILLAGES wines, you only get to realize the  
potential of GAMAY NOIR in BEAUJOLAIS when you taste good wines from  
the TEN CRUS (MORGON, FLEURIE, MOULIN-Á-VENT, CHÉNAS, SAINT-AMOUR,  
CHIROUBLES, REGNIÉ, JULIÉNAS, BROUILLY, and CÔTE-de-BROUILLY).  One  
of these days we may put on a tasting to illustrate the differences  
between the Crus.  Basically Saint-Amour and Chiroubles are the  
lightest and fruitiest, and Chenas, Moulin-à-Vent and Morgon the  
biggest, usually needing a couple of years in the cellar to show  
their best.  This is certainly true of this month’s wine.  While it  
has lovely, intense fruit, the tannins are noticeable.  However the  
wine has great balance, indicating it should age well.  It is a great  
introduction to serious GAMAY NOIR.  At about five years MOULIN-À- 
VENT wines, and even more so for MORGONS, could be taken for PINOT  
NOIR, rather than GAMAY NOIR.

Regular Price: $24.00
Member Price: $20.40

Total Member Monthly Cost: $38.25


BARON and BARONESS LEVEL

COUSIÑO-MACUL 2007 SAUVIGNON GRIS, MAIPO VALLEY, CHILE

SAUVIGNON GRIS is related to SAUVIGNON BLANC in a similar way as  
PINOT GRIS to PINOT BLANC – it is a pink-skinned close cousin.  The  
grape originated in Bordeaux but was wiped out by phylloxera in the  
19th century and not replanted (however some now is being planted in  
Bordeaux).  In Chile, COUSIÑO-MACUL has been growing the grape as far  
back as their records grow.  However it was grown and fermented  
together with Sauvignon Blanc until 1982 when the winery developed  
separate blocks for the grapes.  It was another 20 years before they  
bottled the Sauvignon Gris as a varietal in its own right.  The  
wine’s aromas include flowers, peach and a touch of ginger.  It has a  
fuller more unctuous texture on the palate than Sauvignon Blanc and  
shows some tropical fruit with touches of spice.

Regular Price: $15.00
Member Price: $12.75

SALADINI PILASTRI 2004 VIGNA MONTETINELLO, ROSSO PICENO SUPERIORE, LE  
MARCHE, ITALY

LE MARCHE, on Italy’s Adriatic coast, is finally getting attention it  
deserves for its better wines.  Its best known reds are ROSSO CÒNERO  
and ROSSO PICENO, and its best known white, VERDICCHIO (it was the  
oceans of mediocre Verdicchio made in the past which gave the area a  
bad reputation).  The ROSSO PICENO Denominazione di Origine  
Controllata has less strict rules than the neighboring ROSSO CÒNERO  
DOC, allowing up to 15% “other red grapes” in addition to  
MONTEPULCIANO and SANGIOVESE, the only grapes allowed in ROSSO  
CÒNERO.  However, PILASTRI does not use “other grapes”.  This wine,  
from the MONTETINELLO vineyard, is a blend of 70% MONTEPULCIANO and  
30% SANGIOVESE.  The vineyard is east and southeast facing, a few  
kilometres from the Adriatic.  The wine was stainless steel fermented  
and then aged for about 20 months in large Slovenian oak barrels.   
Many Rosso Piceno wines taste more like Sangiovese as they often  
contain 50% of that grape.  The higher proportion of Montepulciano in  
this wine gives the wine more tannins and structure.  Gambero Rosso  
awarded it Due Bichieri saying it “…is a compact wine with a full- 
bodied, dry palate, good fruit structure, with decent acidity and  
good development into the finish.”

Regular Price: $13.25
Member Price: $11.26

Total Member Monthly Cost: $24.00

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