Origin: Colline Pescaresi, Abruzzo, Italy

Varietal: 100% Pinot Grigio

Tasting Notes: Pale yellow with green nuances. A very delicate bouquet, an extremely pleasant aroma with fine, elegant flavor, very fresh and a well-balanced finish.

Food Pairing: Recommended with risotto, lightly flavored pastas, omelets, quiches and grilled white meats, shrimp, shellfish or salmon.

Varietal: 98% Sauvignon Blanc 2% Semillon. A French emigrant, Louis Mel traveled the western United States in the 1870’s seeking a place to make wines to rival the great French Crus. He found the ideal home in the Livermore Valley. Acquiring Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon cuttings from the Marquis de Lur-Saluces, owner of the famed Chateau Y’quem, he planted them in his vineyards. The Wente family acquired the Louis Mel estate in the 1930’s, where the descendants of these vines, located in the southern Livermore Valley, live in gravel and loam soils similar to the terroir of their native Bordeaux.

Tasting Notes: This Sauvignon Blanc has a beautiful straw color and aromas of guava, melon, gooseberry, citrus and pineapple. With crisp acidity and flavors of honeydew melon and pineapple, this wine delivers a creamy, refreshing finish.

Food Pairing: Sauvignon Blanc is crisp and fresh, and a slam dunk pairing when it comes to most seafood. Anything from shellfish to meatier fish will work really well. Sauvignon Blanc will also work really well with white meat like chicken or pork. If you're having a dinner salad with a vinaigrette or citrus dressing then look no further.

The last time we tasted this wine was in March of this year. We ran out half way through the tasting and it has been out of stock since then. It’s back now and we will order plenty for this weekend.

Origin:  Russian River Valley, Sonoma, California.

Varietal:  100% Pinot Noir

Tasting Notes:  A blend of two fine Russian River vineyards, this elegantly styled Pinot Noir offers mounds of classic cherry notes up front. They are followed by more subtle hints of plum, toast and a touch of sage. A judicious use of oak blends well with the modest, refined tannins and acidity that give excellent structure. The wine is aged for one year in 100% French Oak prior to bottling without filtration. Only 565 cases produced.

Food Pairing: Pinot Noir is well-suited to pair with poultry, beef, fish, ham, lamb and pork. It will pair well with creamy sauces, spicy seasonings and may just be one of the world's most versatile food wines.

Puydeval 2009

Origin:  Languedoc region of Southern France.

Varietal:  62% Cabernet Franc, 28% Syrah, 10% Merlot.

Tasting Notes: : Big, rich, concentrated and intense. A ripe, polished and well-balanced wine, offering spicy aromas of black cherry and blackberry, with hints of anise, and just a touch of earthy character.

Matured 10 months in 1 and 2 year old oak barrels (American oak for the Merlot, French oak for the Cabernet Franc and Syrah). Unfiltered for added complexity. 90 points Robert Parker’s Wine Advocate. Alcohol: 14%

Food Pairing: A truly original red, it will complement most meals, red sauced , elaborate burgers, grilled portabella mushrooms, lamb and all red meats.

Angels Landing Cabernet Sauvignon 2007/2008

This is the best-selling Cab we have had over the past year

Origin:  Napa Valley, California.

Varietal: 76% Cabernet Sauvignon from Northern Napa Valley, in and around Calistoga. 5.5% Malbec from Paso Robles. 6% Petit Verdot split between the Yountville and Stag's Leap appellations. 12.5% Merlot from Stag's Leap appellation.

Tasting Notes:  Aged in French and American oak showing intense ripe blackberry, currant and dark fruit complexity with an intensity in the mid-palate drawn from the Petite Verdot and Malbec. Layered beneath this fruit is a rick core of new oak and chocolate. Light pepper spice, hints of cedar and lavender are present now and will continue to evolve over the next 5-10 years. 93 Points Wine and Spirit Guild of America

Food Pairing: This wine is the perfect partner with steaks, venison, standing rib roasts, braised short ribs, leg of lamb, strong cheeses and fresh grilled salmon.

Macchia Zinfandel 2009

Origin:  Lodi, California

Varietal: 100% Old Vine Zinfandel.

Tasting Notes: This deep-hued wine is a blend from five different old vine Zinfandelvineyards. Each bring their unique personalities that, when combined, equal the classic fruit-forward characteristics thatconstitute the center-piece of all great Lodi wines. The rich, ripe berry flavors are high-lighted with a subtle hint of soft vanilla-oak. Aged 12 months in custom barrels. Alcohol: 15.9% Platinum "Best of Class- City of Lodi Trophy" - Consumer Wine Awards at Lodi

Food Pairing:   Foods to pair with this Zinfandel include sausage, ham, beef, lamb, pork and venison. The lower tannin in this wine can accommodate some heat from hot spices, so ribs with a spicy barbecue sauce are considered almost a classic match. From a cheese perspective, Parmigiano Reggiano and Manchego are good choices. Other foods that work well with Zins are tomatoes sauces, eggplant dishes, mushrooms and olives.

Mollydooker “The Boxer” Shiraz 2009 ( Limited annual allocation – 3 cases)

We only get a very limited allocation of The Mollydooker wines each year. This year we got the following: 2009 Velvet Glove Shiraz – One 3 bottle case; 2007 Carnival of Love Shiraz – One 6 bottle case; 2009 The Boxer Shiraz – Three 12 bottle cases; 2009 Maitre D' Cabernet Sauvignon – One 12 bottle case.

Mollydooker is an affectionate Aussie term for Left-Hander – because both Sarah and Sparky Marquis – the husband and wife winemaking team based in McLaren Vale Australia - are both lefties! Besides being left-handed, Sarah & Sparky are some of the most decorated winemakers in the world. They have received more 94-99 point scores from Robert Parker’s The Wine Advocate than other winemakers in the world. They have been awarded with five 99-point scores in the last 10 years. Five of their wines have been chosen in the Wine Spectator’s “Top 100” and their Carnival of Love Shiraz has made the “Top 10” list (two years in a row). Sarah & Sparky have been named “Australian Winemakers of the Year”, have been chosen by Robert Parker among the “Top Wine Personalities in the World” and have been crowned “McLaren Vale’s Bushing King and Queen” a record three times. We have recently added several of the Mollydooker wines to our Australian selection of wines.

Origin:  McLaren Vale, Australia. The grapes were grown on the Longbottom vineyard in Padthaway, the Birchmore vineyard in Langhorne Creek and the Mollydooker vineyards here in McLaren Vale.

Varietal:  100% Shiraz

Tasting Notes:  Complexed by combining the regional flavors of grapes, this wine has incredible power and purity. Barrel fermented and matured in 57% new and 43% one year old American oak. Alcohol: 16% Wine Advocate ‘Matured in American oak, 57% new, the 2009 The Boxer Shiraz has a very deep garnet-purple color and intense blackberry, licorice, tar, menthol and cocoa bean aromas. Very full-bodied and with medium-firm fine-grained tannins and generous, warm-berry flesh, it is nicely balanced by crisp acid, finishing long...’ – 91 points, Lisa Perrotti-Brown, www.erobertparker.com Wine Spectator ‘Dense, focused and juicy in the mouth, a powerhouse that brims with blueberry, currant, smoke and spice flavors, segueing seamlessly into the long finish. Drink now through 2016.’ – 90 points, Harvey Steiman, www.winespectator.com

Food Pairing: Pairs with BBQs, steak, ribs, anything with a bit of spice .

We only get a very limited allocation of The Mollydooker wines each year. This year we got the following: 2009 Velvet Glove Shiraz – One 3 bottle case; 2007 Carnival of Love Shiraz – One 6 bottle case; 2009 The Boxer Shiraz – Three 12 bottle cases; 2009 Maitre D' Cabernet Sauvignon – One 12 bottle case.

Fonseca 10 Year Tawny Port ( It’s back after a long absence!!!!)

History of Port Wine: In the early 1600’s, Luis XIV’s chancellor, Monsieur Colbert, restricted trading between the mainland of Europe and England. To satisfy the thirst of the British people for wine and other European products, wool merchants traded from the coastal town of Viana De Castello, north of Oporto. They traded for a range of products including dried fruits, olive oil and dry Portuguese wines.

The wines traded from around Viana de Castello were relatively dry light wines, which did not travel well on their voyage to England. These wines were only 9-10% by volume and were shipped in barrels; which meant that many wines suffered from large temperature variations, oxidation and yeast contaminations. The traders therefore began sourcing for fuller more robust wines from the Douro valley. With the increased demand for Douro wines, traders specializing in wine exports to Britain, such as Job Bearsley in 1692, began to move their companies to the coastal town of Oporto.

To solve the problem of tainted wines arriving in Britain, the shippers began adding brandy to stabilize the wine on its journey. Later on in history they began to use neutral grape spirit to preserve the natural flavors of the wine. The sweet Port wine that we know and love today, evolved over several decades, as the demand in Britain for sweeter ‘Porto’ wines increased. Sales to Great Britain were further helped by the Methuen treaty of 1703, which gave Portuguese wines a trade advantage over the heavily taxed French wines, due to the poor relations at that time between France and Britain.

Origin:  Port wine is a fortified wine originating from the Douro Valley in the North of Portugal. Fonseca Port was founded in 1822 and grew rapidly in reputation and importance. Since its foundation, successive generations of the Guimaraens family have upheld the Company’s reputation. Today, Fonseca occupies a leading position as a specialist producer of quality wood ports and as one of the top vintage houses. Fonseca may indeed be unique in the annals of Port in that every Fonseca vintage port in the last 100 years has been made by just four members of the Guimaraens family. The fourth member, David Guimaraens, continues the tradition having taken over from his father as winemaker in 1992. In his book, Vintage Port, James Suckling has written: "Fonseca is the King of Port. It produces the best Vintage Port in every declared year, with very few exceptions." Robert Parker summed up Fonseca's style as "The most exotic and most complex Port...With its lush, seductive character, one might call it the Pomerol of Vintage Ports."

Varietal: Touriga Nacional Blend. TOURIGA NACIONAL, TOURIGA FRANCESA, TINTA RORIZ, TINTO CÃO, TINTA BARROCA, TINTA AMARELA

Tasting Notes: Fonseca 10 Year Old Tawny is russet in color with brilliant crimson highlights and a fragrant, ripe-fruit bouquet. Its smooth, silky texture and subtle oak nuances are balanced by a fresh acidity and tannic “grip” that culminate in a long, elegant, plumy finish.

Food Pairing: Fonseca 10 Year Old makes a delicious dessert wine, and combines particularly well with flavors of almonds, berry fruit or dark chocolate. It can also be enjoyed as an accompaniment for rich, blue veined cheeses. It is excellent at the end of the meal, as a crowning moment of an enjoyable evening, served on its own or with a plate of walnuts or roasted almonds. They benefit from being served slightly chilled, particularly in warm weather.