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Whether you’re a lover of American wine or an American lover of wine, it is important to invest in California. Invest with your money: buy the wine! Invest with your attention: look into what’s new or ask us (or your next sommelier or your wine-drinking friends) for recommendations. Most of all, invest with your interest: recognize that California is more than the default jewel in the crown or a Cabernet churning monolith. It is an ever-evolving component in the young experiment known as American winemaking and a source for a vast and variable range of wines, terroirs, and winemakers. Wherever your tastes or opinions lie, there is something in California for you.
To enable exploration of California at her most fresh-tastic, we suggest three of our favorite recent arrivals, all available for 15% off this week on winfieldflynn.com.
It is hard to overstate the character and charm of Californian wines when varietal and regional character survive vinification and shine through the glass. Lang and Reed North Coast Cabernet Franc is a great example of potent, thoughtful wine that succeeds in expressing fresh, well-tended California terroirs. Year after year, the Skupny family ushers sustainably raised, carefully sourced Lake County Cab Franc grapes into this splashy yet serious quaffer that exhibits California’s effortless exuberance in spades. Why serious? Because it is so very Cabernet Franc... That brisk peppery punch in the nose of Bourgueils is there; that tart cherry, red berry velvet of certain Chinons is also there. Sip after sensational sip, Lang and Reed keeps the promises of classic Cab Francs in a sun-kissed Pacific bundle: the ample tannin; the dense, lively juice; the fragrant depth that luxuriates between masculine and feminine. The brain sizzles a little at the thought of succeeding in this balancing act, and then it’s time for a drink. Lightly chill your Lang and Reed, pour, drink, ponder America, and ENJOY. How can Cab Franc from the New World be this fun and right?
Just east of Lake County is Mendocino, home to lots of tree-huggers as well as the McDowell Valley AVA. This is where A Donkey and Goat Winery sources 90+-year-old Grenache Gris grapes for their “Isabel’s Cuvée” Grenache Rosé. There is a fertile, mouth-watering intensity to this wine that makes it memorable for almost everyone and downright haunting for the wine-wrought crybabies among us. And what a pleasure it is to be guilty as charged, to be stunned and stirred by the happy flavor, fragrance and (yes!) sediment that gush from this bottle. The nose is watermelon, cantaloupe, and strawberry-rhubarb preserves hanging onto a just-cool, golden-crusted roll. Taut, ripe tangerine suprèmes explode and soak the palate, red berry skins and seeds (currant perhaps? or the reddest gooseberry in the world?) forge a stolid track of tannins down the tongue and back again. An hour or so after opening, fertile goes feral (oh-so-femininely) with a gentle puff of dried jasmine petals and milk chocolate powder. Not so much wild child as hedonistic honors student, vaguely threatening in her unfiltered beauty but still a friend... Isabel is a rosé wine that transcends rosé and rests its case as a fine, fierce, fabulous wine, pinkness be damned! Where do we go from here?
Let’s make burgers from scratch, wash our hands, and catch up. Let’s drink something with equal parts substance and sass (think Jerry Brown, Arnold, and Jerry again). Let’s remember that we’re serious enough to succeed at life but not too serious to laugh at ourselves. Enough about you! On to the wine: M5 is a Chateauneuf-du-Pape-inspired blend from Santa Barbara County, much further south from Lake and Mendocino. Rhone worship drives a lot of New World blends, but M5’s ample charms are best appreciated on their own terms: A sweet nose of blackberry-blackcurrant jam bleeds onto the tongue, where its soft, sappy side is energized by ripe red plums, a sprinkle of soil, Cherry Coke float with strawberry ice cream, and a lingering finish of sweet black licorice spice that broadens and intensifies as the bottle breathes. Tannins range from unobtrusive to fetching--rising, surprising, without ever challenging the fruit. M5 summons the California that navigates your proverbial dark side, tempers stress with sun, and reminds you to dream of moving there more often. Is there any better way to connect with imminent Spring and the mere possibility of a ripe tomato?
WE DON’T THINK SO.
Cheers!
--The staff of Winfield Flynn
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