Behind the Cork ™ - Wine of the Week

2014 Foggy Veil Hillside Red Blend ($13)

This blend of 75% Syrah and 25% Grenache from Santa Barbara County is another unexpected winner. In the Rhone tradition, this blend has the big fruit, medium tannin characteristics of the Syrah with the Grenache adding its big fruit flavors and moderate tannins to yield a smooth medium-bodied blend.  Flavors include strawberry, black currant, black pepper and vanilla. This blend has excellent balance and a velvety finish. The winery suggest $25 for this bottle and it stands up as a $20+ wine, yet it's yours for just $13.  A terrific wine at an equally terrific price!

Behind the Cork ™ - Wine of the Week

Z. Alexander Brown 2014 Russian River Valley Uncaged Pinot Noir ($13)

The Russian River Valley is renowned for its delicious Pinot Noir. And this is another fine example. With aromas of red fruit such as raspberry and cranberry, this Pinot Noir leans more toward a medium-bodied wine with bolder flavors and some tannin.  Overall, it's a nice Russian River Pinot at a great price!

Behind the Cork™ Wine of the Week

2014 Bogle Old Vine Zinfandel ($10)

Just having featured "Old Vine Zinfandel - Is it Better?" I thought it would be good to bring back a wine that was featured in this blog last year. This old vine Zinfandel comes from vines that are 60 to 80 years old. These old vines produce small, concentrated clusters of grapes that result in an incredibly rich and intense wine.  It has great dark fruit flavors and a bit of spicy notes from the use of two-year old American oak.

Behind the Cork™ Wine of the Week

2012 Rodney Strong Chalk Hill Sonoma Chardonnay ($15)

This is an "Estate" wine meaning that Rodney Strong grew the grapes, crushed them, fermented, aged and bottle the wine. This Chardonnay has the nice fruit flavors of golden delicious apple and Meyer lemon along with spicy notes of vanilla from its oak aging. You'd expect to pay a lot more for an Estate Chardonnay of this quality. Yet another great value.