Wine

A bracing and refreshing Spanish rosé, with fragrant strawberry and raspberry and floral notes on the nose, creamy mouthfeel, and a juicy fruity palate. Good acidity with a strong slightly sweet finish, plus an extra year of bottle age. Easy to drink and a very comfortable price for a wine that punches above its weight. Enjoy this rosé all summer with a nice chill.

For our initial offering of a dry still white wine, we chose this fascinating project from Mitja Sirk, a winemaking prodigy who was born in Slovenia, started making wine in Italy at age 11 with famous Friulian winemaker Josko Gravner, staged with Barolo producer Conterno and then at legendary Burgundy domaines Dujac and Roulot, before returning to make his own wine at age 27 in Collio, one mile across the Italian border from his birthplace. He only makes one wine, and only about 800 cases per year, paying homage to the local varietal Friulano, exclusively from old vine Tocai. Friulano is known for its lively elegance and aromatics, has fresh fruit flavors of pear and quince with hints of anise and almonds, and a sharp finish. Sirk believes in making his wines in the classic way, in stainless steel for temperature control, using gentle pressing, native yeasts, with minimal skin contact, and long lees aging. This medium-bodied white is best served well-chilled.

Young Julian Ludes is an up and coming star who recently took over his grandfather’s estate in the Mosel region. The wines he makes in the village of Thörnich are intense, and those from the Grand Cru Ritsch site in 2020 have an intense nose and orchard apple, peach and lime flavors with slight meadowgrass and pine needle undertones. This Riesling is very precise, with a stony mineral persistence reflecting the blue slate soil of the vineyard. Kabinett is the lightest style of Riesling and this bottling is off-dry and light, with an alcohol level of only 9.5%, making it a delicious summer quaff.

Like us, our friend Vincent Frirtzsche is another Southern California expatriate, and a fellow wine lover. Following his passion, he staged in the wine cellar of our friend Mike Carlisle at Carlisle Vineyards in Santa Rosa before the turn of the millennium. Vince then moved his family up to Portland, and he began making his own single vineyard wines in the Eola Hills of the Willamette Valley in 2009.

Vince makes small-batch production of excellent wines, loaded with character and expressive of the local vineyards he selects, and offers them at a very fair price for their quality.

Vincent’s 2019 Chardonnay Tardive, which means “late” in French, is so named in this instance not because it is late-harvested, but because this wine spends between 16-18 months resting in neutral oak barrels. It is a generous and forthcoming chard, full-bodied with a creamy texture, offering tropical fruit flavors topped with tangy lemon-lime notes, a fine acid spine, with a touch of saline and flint.

Cru Beaujolais from the Moulin-å-Vent border, this wine is built to age, but approachable right from the start -- medium weight, with ruby red color, juicy tart cherry flavors, some spice and violet floral notes. Will keep going for days.

Powerful but with a smooth balance, this full-bodied red features sweet and spicy dark red berry flavors and earthy notes. Mencia, from the Northwest region of Spain and first vinified by Cistercian monks in the Middle Ages, is typically aromatic and fragrant, with solid concentration. Pétalos pairs well with a meal, and it’s finesse and integrated structure allows it to be enjoyable now, yet it is a wine you can also lay down to cellar. Descendientes de J. Palacios, owned by Álvaro Palacios and Ricardo Perez, is named after Álvaro’s father, legendary Spanish winemaker José Palacios. “I’ve said this a number of times before, but sometimes you have to repeat yourself: Descendientes de J. Palacios is the most coherent, moving, thrilling and consistent wine project in Spain. Period.” -- Luis Gutiérrez, The Wine Advocate.

Like us, our friend Vincent Frirtzsche is another Southern California expatriate, and a fellow wine lover. Following his passion, he staged in the wine cellar of our friend Mike Carlisle at Carlisle Vineyards in Santa Rosa before the turn of the millennium. Vince then moved his family up to Portland, and he began making his own single vineyard wines in the Eola Hills of the Willamette Valley in 2009.

Vince makes small-batch production of excellent wines, loaded with character and expressive of the local vineyards he selects, and offers them at a very fair price for their quality.

Vincent’s 2019 Pinot Noir Ribbon Ridge, features fruit from the Armstrong Vineyard, and this wine succinctly captures the vineyard’s terroir -- strong red cherry and black raspberry flavors topped with earthy mineral tones and some spice, and is well-built with a hefty structure and a very solid backbone. This is a wine that can be cellared for several years to come, but can be enjoyed now with just a bit of breathing time.