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Alois Lageder Terra Alpina Pinot Grigio, Italy $16.99
This wineries roots go back to 1823 when the young craftsman Johann Lageder set himself up as a wine merchant in Bolzano. His successors started to produce their own wines and acquired several vineyards. Alois III, the great-grandson of the founder of the business, saw the variety of climate zones in Alto Adige as one of the region’s strengths and in 1934 purchased the Löwengang wine estate in Magrè, in the southern part of Alto Adige. Since the middle of the 1970s, Alois IV - together with his sister and her husband and oenologist Luis von Dellemann – set about repositioning the winery with a strict focus on quality and innovative methods in the vineyard and cellar. Today, the 50-hectare family-owned vineyards are farmed biodynamically. The wines from Alois Lageder's Terra Alpina project are part of the winery's collaboration with growers in neighboring communities to produce excellent wines representative of the Dolomite region. In the foothills of the Dolomite Range, cool Alpine and warm Mediterranean influences meet to create fresh, precise, and expressive wines with a character influenced by the prevalent Dolomitic limestone.
Kila Cava, Spain $14.99
Jorge Ordóñez Selections – Fine Estates from Spain, Inc. is a family owned and operated exclusive national agent and importer of Spanish wines servicing the United States & Puerto Rico. Founded in 1987 by Jorge Ordóñez, the company was the first national specialty importer of Spanish wines that introduced the wines of Spain to the United States at a time when less than a dozen labels of large commercial brands were being commercialized in the US. Since then, Jorge personal crusade has been to seek out and preserve Spain’s rich multi-millennial history of viticulture and winemaking. Vins el Cep was the first producer of Cava to employ biodynamic practices at their estate. Vins el Cep (roughly translates to wines from the vineyard) epitomizes the concept of "grower" sparkling wine. Vins el Cep was the pioneering producer of organic and biodynamically farmed sparkling wine in Spain. Today, the winery produces wine exclusively from estate owned vineyards. This wonderful Cava is a blend of 40% Xarel·lo, 40% Macabeu and 20% Parellada.
Scotto Cabernet Sauvingnon, California $12.99
The Scotto family's vinous heritage and history dates back to 1883 when Salvatore Dominic Scotto, an officer in the Italian Navy, began making wine at his home on the Island of Ischia, just off the coast of Italy. In addition to making wine for his family (a long-held custom in Italy), Salvatore also treated his friends and neighbors to the fruits of his labor. Great-great grandpa Salvatore passed his skills along to his son (and our great-grandfather) Dominic, who migrated to Brooklyn in 1903 and continued the family's winemaking tradition in America. He carried on the Scotto heritage with his sons who sold their father’s homemade wine in five-gallon crocks from the family's horse drawn cart. In 1933 the Scotto brothers opened D. Scotto Wines in Brooklyn to sell quality wines from around the world. The store remains open under new owners and was the site of a recent family celebration as seen in the photo below. 1963 marked the family's first harvest in California as they continued making Villa Armando from their own vineyard and expanded production to other brands and market segments. Today they are a 5th-generation family owned and managed wine producing company.
Bogle Phantom Proprietary Red, California $19.99
The first Bogle to come west was Captain AJ Bogle, an infantryman in the Civil War, who traveled to the California Delta from his family’s homestead in Tennessee in the late 1870’s. He brought his nephew Samuel and together they set down our first roots farming cherries, peaches and pears. It wasn’t until 1968 that Warren and his son Chris planted our first 20 acres of wine grapes on our Home Ranch. For 10 years, the family grew grapes for other wineries, then releasing the wine under their own label in 1978. In this vintage of Phantom, Petite Sirah leads this haunting red blend with intense notes of dark blackberry and rich boysenberry. Zinfandel adds fiery pepper notes and brings a balanced structure to the final wine. In the finish, tantalizing layers of baking spices swirl amongst velvety tannins that have softened as they’ve aged 22 months in American oak. A sip of Phantom unfurls a seductive mystery yet to be solved. While Phantom can be enjoyed easily today, hide a bottle in your cellar to allow it to age and develop…and haunt another day.
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