Wines Perfect for Every Type of Easter Dish Check out these perfect wine pairings for every favorite Easter dish, from brunch to dinner, casual or festive. Penner-Ash 2016 Willamette Valley Pinot Noir and Spring Morels. While we wanted to focus on spring morels and other mushroom dishes as the perfect pair for this Oregon Pinot Noir, in truth, this wine is so good with a glazed ham, duck, lamb and even salmon. It’s earthy and has deep notes of baked red fruits. It’s a beautiful Pinot Noir to set on the table and let it mingle as it pleases with your guests and all of the food.

This is a true sampling Syrah from a myriad of Oregon vineyards. Fruit from both the southern Rogue Valley as well as the much cooler sites of the Columbia River Gorge (which can be even cooler than the Willamette Valley itself). This wine is awfully pretty and accented with some aromatics of new French oak, creme brulee, blackberry and spice. The palate is mostly fruit forward, there are hints of turned earth mixed with with ripe blackberry and sweet blue fruit flavors. This fills up your palate and coats the mouth for quite a long finish.

Pinot Noir Masters 2019: Gold

The 2015 Mt. Brave Merlot isn’t cheap at its $80 retail price, but it is worth it. You can find it for as low as $65 on wine-searcher.com (scroll to the bottom for some options). It is a substantial wine with layer upon layer of complexity. Give it a good two to three hours in the decanter now and it’ll sing for the following two days. This makes it contemplative wine as well, meaning that if you can take nurse small pours over a long time and think about what you’re smelling and tasting throughout, then you’ll go through an intellectual exercise that demonstrates why wine can be magical: it’s a performance art just like ballet or an orchestra. It moves, it sings and it dances. Try this wine because merlot can be great, and this one is.

Review of Matanzas Journey Red Blend & Chardonnay This Merlot-based red Bordeaux blend is barrel aged for 20 months. The Merlot was sourced from two blocks of the Jackson Park vineyard, planted with the Petrus clone. Very rich and elegant.

Review of Matanzas Journey Red Blend & Chardonnay This is a rich and decadent red Bordeaux blend with a majority of Merlot. Flavors are intense with blackberry, black currant, and spice. It offers exotic aromas of black fig, black cherry, and chocolate. Incredible structure and a long length of finish. The wine has velvet tannin and high acidity, as well as complexity and a long length of finish. Even at nine years of age the wine is fresh and vibrant.

Review of Matanzas Journey Red Blend & Chardonnay Marcia Torres Forno has been at the helm at the Matanzas winery since 2010. More than 25 years ago, the 1990 Matanzas Winery Journey Chardonnay was considered one of the highest priced Chardonnay in Sonoma. At that time, the retail price was $70. Today the price is just slightly higher. Yet the quality and especially the quality to value remains high. Chardonnay grapes are selected from blocks known for their quality. Blocks are located at different altitudes. This gives more acidity and complexity to the wine. The must is transferred and fermented and new and neutral French barrels. There is a great deal of richness in this wine, yet also vibrant acidity.

Very dark garnet in color, this wine smells of cassis and mocha and licorice. In the mouth, black cherry and cassis flavors have a nice toasty oak and vanilla note that nicely pairs with the sweet fruit. Powdery, muscular tannins grip the edges of the mouth but show restraint as the wine finishes. The wood shows itself most in the way the mouth dries out through the finish, leaving me wishing for slightly more restraint on the new oak. Excellent acidity. 14.5% alcohol. 2362 cases produced. Score: between 8.5 and 9.

This is a rockstar cab that has it all –– great structure, lush fruit and a supple texture. Weighted to bold black fruit with a hint of tobacco and an underpinning of spice, this cab is decadent. It’s worth the price, if you have the disposable income. Well crafted. 4½ stars.

The wine showed a pale salmon color. Cherry, raspberry, rose petal, lemon and ripe peach all arrived on the juicy nose. Cherry, watermelon candy, raspberry, strawberry, slate and hints of lemon followed on a palate where the watermelon was replaced with lemon as the wine opened up. The wine exhibited great acidity and balance, along with good structure and length. This wine would be a great aperitif to enjoy on the patio on a warm spring afternoon. It would also pair well with a variety of charcuterie or a classic fried oyster po' boy.

From the Monterey AVA is La Crema Pinot Noir Rosé 2018, a delicious wine from a remarkable vintage year. With its cool, mild summer and only a few spikes of heat, grapes were able to ripen slowly and develop intense, broad flavors. Greeting me in the glass was a rosé that glowed pale to medium pink, depending on the amount of sunlight shining through the window! On the nose, I explored elements of snappy grapefruit, just-clipped roses, ripe strawberries and grapefruit zest. Light and breezy, my palate was impressed with flavors of oranges and strawberries bolstered by notes of minerality. Crisp and generous, the tangy, fruit filled finish lingered.

Delicious Pinot Noir Rose from Jackson Family Appetizing aromas of Mandarin orange, pink grapefruit, and strawberry. This is a popular fruit-driven style with a hint (not actual) residual sugar and 13.5% abv. This is an excellent wine to serve for friends who enjoy a fruity style of rosé wine with just a bare suggestion of residual sugar. It is a great wine for a variety of occasions, and perfect for outdoor spring and summer parties.

Versatile Chardonnays La Crema continues to impress my tasters with a decidedly Old World style derived from cool climate Russian River Valley fruit combined with modern winemaking techniques and judicious use of oak barrel aging. This opulent-yet-complex wine offers tropical aromas and flavors including tangerine, Meyer lemon and nectarine, while a creamy palate edged with vanilla and toasty oak has just enough finishing acidity to make this an excellent food wine.

Raise Your Glass: A Chardonnay of mass appeal Kendall-Jackson Vintner’s Reserve Chardonnay has stayed on the top of the U.S. sales charts every year since it was introduced in 1983, but it’s not the same white wine that hit the market 36 years ago. The 2017 Vintner’s Reserve Chardonnay is crisp, dry and has subtle flavors of pineapple, mango and papaya with slight aromas of vanilla and toasted oak, the tasting notes say. The wine also has received a 90-point rating on a 100-point scale from Wine Enthusiast magazine. ...I’m not a wine snob. I write about good $10-a-bottle wine, but I’m a fan of dry wines. I stayed away from Kendall-Jackson wines for so long that I couldn’t remember exactly why. Most likely, I subconsciously dismissed the wines as being cheap and sweet... Recently, I found the Vintner’s Reserve Chardonnay on sale for $10.95 and bought a bottle. It’s a remarkable wine, nothing like what I had imagined.

Serious Grenache Dried cherry fruit and savoury oak. Composed and complex.

Eight Cool And Unique Wines To Try Now This beautiful wine is all about balance, harmonizing the richly textured blue-black fruits into a layered richness on the palate. The tannins and structure fold into place nicely—drink now or age for 10 -20 years. Why Try? This wine is a world-class example of the polished rough beauty of Australian Shiraz and a steal for $75. Buy a case and age them.

The wine showed a dark ruby almost opaque color. Blackberry, cassis, raspberry, dark chocolate, vanilla and oak all arrived on the dark and brooding nose. Blackberry, cassis, dark chocolate, vanilla, and oak followed on the complex palate. The wine exhibited great structure and length, along with soft tannins. This wine would pair well with grilled lamb chops.

22 Rosés to Try This Spring I am a huge fan of Gran Moraine’s swanky, insouciant wines, both still and bubbly. This refreshing and beautifully balanced pink is no exception. Strong acidity in the “bright” to “mouthwatering” range. Aromatics like almond blossom, cherries, honeysuckle, orange and a bit of something tropical, passionfruit or pineapple (I keep going back and forth). An echoing almond note comes across midpalate, with kiwi and melon and something not unlike saffron. It’s light and lithe and elegant and complex enough to enjoy on its own, but it’ll elevate whatever you are eating.

This stunning rosé from Oregon, the Gran Moraine Yamhill-Carlton Rose of Pinot Noir 2018, is of grapes from 100% whole cluster pressed Pinot Noir that were hand-selected from Gran Moraine’s estate vineyards. Pale salmon in color, aromas of white strawberries, nectarines, honeycomb and juicy red cherries were soft and gentle. Lifted by mouthwatering acidity, flavors of roses, melon, lemon and almonds led to a lengthy citrus-driven finish.

Rosé all day part two Finally, getting back to last week’s oyster-and-rosé get-together, out of 20 or so rosés (all consumed by a tight-huddled group of wide-eyed and smiley wine geeks, and mostly before noon on a rainy Monday morning) one wine stood out to me as “Best in Show”: the 2018 Gran Moraine Rosé of Pinot Noir Yamhill-Carlton. I don’t get to taste as many Willamette Valley wines as I would like these days, and this brings me back to 2017, when, out of a “Where’s Waldo” collage of wines, the one that clearly stood out from that year was the 2013 Gran Moraine Pinot Noir Yamhill-Carlton. Coincidence? I think not. This rosé comes from the westernmost area of the Yamhill-Carlton, with an aspect favorable to cooling Pacific breezes (which we were experiencing on this blustery, stormy Monday). The same aspects allow the wine to slowly and gently ripen throughout the late summer and fall season. Complex and delicate describe this wine. Rose petal, tangerine and nectarine in the nose lead to marcona almond, gooseberry, watermelon and tamarind in the mouth. A sponge-cake entrance leaves way to a lingering finish of citrus and spice; not unlike a long, zesty finish to the ski season.

Delicious Pinot Noir Rose from Jackson Family This is a light tangerine colored wine with floral and intense red fruit aromatics, There is 12.5% alcohol and very brisk acidity. A strong sense of minerality cleanses the palate. Interesting to note that clones 828 and 777 were selected for their acidity and skins that extract little color. Fruit was gently pressed. The must was cold settled. Then it was fermented in tanks with selected yeast strains. One of my favorites for the quality, elegance, and length of finish. This was my absolute favorite wine. I just love that salty minerality. And having just attended a lecture by three Oregon winemakers, this wine goes to show how and why Oregon is making some of the best Pinot Noir Rosé wines out there.

So zesty, so vibrant, so earthy, so tasty, so pricey. B+.

10 Outstanding Pinot Noirs From £ 10-50 Using fruit from a prized vineyard that was bought by the Jackson Family in 2013, Gran Moraine was born in 2014. Made by brilliant winemaker Eugenia Keegan – partner of Oregon pioneer David Adelsheim – this is a stunning example of darkly coloured intense Pinot, with black cherry fruit, along with vanilla notes from new barriques. While lovely to drink now, it has the potential to develop even greater complexity over time.

Pinot Noir Masters 2019: Master Using fruit from a prized vineyard that was bought by the Jackson Family in 2013, Gran Moraine was born in 2014. Made by brilliant winemaker Eugenia Keegan – partner of Oregon pioneer David Adelsheim – this is a stunning example of darkly coloured intense Pinot, with black cherry fruit, along with vanilla notes from new barriques. While lovely to drink now, it has the potential to develop even greater complexity over time.

Wines Perfect for Every Type of Easter Dish Check out these perfect wine pairings for every favorite Easter dish, from brunch to dinner, casual or festive. Galerie Naissance 2017 Vintage Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc and Goat Cheese or Cream Cheese. With refreshing hints of tropical fruits and ginger, and a mouthfeel that is both tartly crisp and creamy, this sauvignon blanc is so ideal with goat’s cheese appetizer. Think spring greens on a crostini with a swipe of chèvre. If you’re doing more of a brunch than dinner spread, this wine is great with toasted bagels or toast with goat cheese or cream cheese and a slew of toppings.