LOW ROAD WHITE

2024 Cenatiempo Gran Tifeo Bianco $18.56

Cenatiempo is a winery on the Island of Ischia, off the coast of Naples near Capri. We sought out this winery for another reason (see the High Road), but this wine was a pleasant surprise, and we had to have it. It is 100% Falanghina (a Club favorite) from various small growers on the mainland with vines ranging from 20-100 years old..

2024 La Caña Albarino $18.91 

Jorge Ordonez was the first person to import Albarino into the U.S. His company represents many of the Spanish wineries that we have used over the years, including La Caña. They make delicious, affordable, typical Spanish wines. We have used their oaked, High Road Albarino in the past. This one is affordable, unoaked, and earned 91-95 points. Obvio!

LOW ROAD RED

2023 Ippolito Liber Pater Ciro DOC $13.57 

Ippolito is the winery. Liber Pater is Latin for Baccus, the God of Wine. Ciro is the appellation. The wine is made of 100% Gaglioppo, a grape that has been used for hundreds of years before my Grandmother was born in this area. Even when we started the Club is 2015, it was hard to find Calabrian wines that weren’t too big, heavy, and alcoholic. This is a big winter red but is a reasonable 14% alcohol. It has a clean finish that makes you want to take another sip, even at the end of the bottle. You may need two.

2020 Koncho & Co Mukuzani $15.36

5980 BC was a good year for wine. The world was coming off the ice age and the population was exploding due to the Neolithic Revolution (more agriculture, less hunting and gathering.) That is the approximate date of the oldest pottery found to be used in winemaking in Georgia (country not state.) Mukuzani is the registered winemaking region and they only make red wine from the Saperavi grape (mentioned briefly in Drops of God on Apple TV S2E1.) Let it breathe for 10 minutes or so and enjoy. It goes well with roasted meat, mushrooms, and of course cheese, although evidence of cheese making wasn’t discovered for another 500 years. The wine tastings must have been so archaic.

HIGH ROAD WHITE

2024 Jean-Marc Brocard Chablis $25.72

The last time we used this wine was the 2017 vintage.  Here is what we said then….

Imagine a Chardonnay Style scale of 1-10 with California butter bombs (think Rombauer) as the 10 and Chablis (think drinking a glass of rocks) as the 1. We are going to place this wine at 3. It has more of a medium body to go along with the acidity (pucker) and flinty-ness that you get from Chablis. It is an impressive white perfect for a high end lunch or a dinner outside.

2024 Cenatiempo Ischia Bianco Superiore $28.16

When we were applying for our ABC license we needed to post an application on the front of the house. A neighbor named Clark left a note in our mailbox expressing concerns that we were starting a neighborhood wine business. More accurately, he was concerned he would be left out. He invited me over for a conversation where he served me a fresh, complex wine called Lefkos from a winery I’d never heard of (Cenatiempo), on an island I had never heard of (Ischia) with two grapes I had never heard of (Biancolella, Forastera) and it became the inspiration for the types of wines that we would showcase. This wine is the same varietals as the Lefkos but from a cooler part of the island giving it a brighter feel. If you want to try  the denser, more intense Lefkos, we have some for $38. Shoutout to Club member Clark!

HIGH ROAD RED

2020 Clos D’Audhuy Cahors $24.70

Most of the time when we give you Malbec from Cahors (France) or Mendoza (Argentina) it is a big, juicy, tannic, ageable wine with a backdrop of earthiness that you get from those regions. This one is more approachable. Still from Cahors, the birthplace of Malbec, this third-generation winemaker has a more modern approach and produces a polished, wintery red that California wine drinkers will love. 93 Points from Wine Enthusiast 

2022 Tenuta Tascante “Ghaia Nera” Etna Rosso $27

Ghaia Nera means “Black Gravel”, and it shouldn’t be too much of a surprise that they are referring to the soil at the vineyard, on the edge of a volcano. Fantastic pizza or pasta wine and really interesting by itself. 91-95 points from various raters including James Suckling who asked if this was possibly their best ever vintage.