This month, we're featuring a Grenache Blanc from one of our favorite Rhone producers, the return of Mick Unti's Dry Creek Barbera, a Negroamaro from Puglia, and arguably the best Muscat Beaumes de Venise in the world.

2005 Chateau des Tours Côtes du Rhône Blanc
100% Grenache Blanc.  I was ecstatic when the sales guy pulled this bottle out of his sample sack.  Probably the best selling wine in the store right now is another des Tours bottling, their red Vin de Pays Vaucluse (a well-balanced mix of Grenache, Counoise, Syrah, Merlot, and Cinsault), and Grenache Blanc has got to be my favorite white varietal these days.   Tasting the wine was no disappointment either - aromatic aromas  jump out from the glass, deep straw colors, a huge glycerin mouthfeel, and full minerally, apply, peachy flavors dominate.  This is a great aperitif white, or fantastic with food.

2006 Unti Barbera
This wine was a hit when we featured it as a club selection is early 2007, and we've been bugging Mick Unti for more ever since.  This year's wine is deeper and richer than the 2005, but shares a lot with that vintage:  deep color, exotic fruit aromas, a juicy mouthfeel, and solid acidity.   The wine’s moderate tannins and vibrant acidity make it extremely versatile with food. 

2003 La Corte Negroamaro
This Negroamaro is from a 60 year old vineyard in Puglia**.  Michael and I loved the very deep scarlet color, and big, rich and spicy aromas of dense, red berry fruit. Soft and round with excellent balance and an alluring creamed rhubarb fruit character. Offers classic notes of kirsch, plum jam, rawhide, and horsehair on the nose, concentrated and velvety flavors of intensely ripe red and black fruit, glycerine-rich, broad, and very sustained. **(Puglia/Apulia is the stiletto heel Italy's boot. Surrounded by the Adriatic on the east, the  Ionian Sea to the south east, and the Gulf of Taranto, across which lies  Calabria.  In the mountainous north, Puglia is bordered, in clockwise fashion, by Basilicata, Campania, and Molise.  Albania is a mere 50 miles across the Adriatic)

Domaine de Durban Muscat Beaumes de Venise
Durban Muscat de Beaumes de Venise is considered the best of all the Muscat wines made in Southern France.  It's an extroverted and flamboyant wine, even in rain-plagued, lighter vintages. The Domaine is run by Bernard and Jean-Pierre Leydier, is perched on a steep hillside above the village, with a spectacular view of the countryside. Their Beaumes de Venise is a pure delight with the distinctive Muscat flavors of flowers, tropical fruit and honey.   intense, concentrated, viscous with striking flavors and a haunting fragrance.   In the Rhône,  Beaumes de Venise is served as an aperitif, but most Americans like it after dinner. Its perfume of rose petals and honey is graceful enough that it doesn't weigh you down after a big meal, and yet it is nectarous enough to feel like dessert. Try it with peaches in the spring, fresh figs in the fall, or all by itself.

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