Wine Reviews Archives - The Grape Pursuit

Chateau de Montfort Vouvray 2018 Review

July 1, 2020

If we were told to randomly pick a favorite French white, odds are good it would be Vouvray. This wine (comprised of Chenin Blanc grape) is often loaded with intense flavors that run the gamut from dry and acidic to sweet and mellow.

One bottle we absolutely fell in love with was the Chateau de Montfort Vouvray. We had first had a 2017 vintage of this one and immediately rushed out to purchase the 2018 vintage to enjoy shortly thereafter. In this review, we’re going to be speaking on the 2018 vintage which we paired with a seafood feast.

Chamisal Vineyards Chardonnay 2018 Review

July 1, 2020July 1, 2020

We’re diving into the world of Chardonnay thanks to a modest collection in our cellar, and recently cracked open a bottle of Chamisal Vineyard’s Stainless Steel Chardonnay 2018.

While we wish this one would’ve had a bit more going on when sipping, we have to admit it went down fast all the same.

Pierre Sparr Gewurztraminer 2017 Review

June 23, 2020June 23, 2020

We have a soft spot for Gewurztraminer as this grape can offer some wonderful flavors with interesting floral notes that you do not get with many other varietals.

It only took a couple of sniffs and sips of the Pierre Sparr Gewurztraminer 2017 for us to realize that this bottle had all that (and then some) and was among the most intense Gewurztraminers we’ve had to date!

Oro de Castilla Verdejo 2018 Review

June 19, 2020June 17, 2020

One of our goals in starting The Grape Pursuit was to try and find new varietals of wine we’ve never had with hopes that some would quickly become new favorites.

It only took a few sips into the Oro de Castilla Verdejo 2018 to know that this is a grape varietal we want to experience many more bottles of in the future.

This is simply a delicious wine!

Costa di Bussia Barbera d’Alba 2017 Review

June 17, 2020June 16, 2020

Every once in a while we come upon a great wine deal and pick up a bottle purely because it is an attractive price compared to national averages.

Costa Di Bussia’s Barbera d’Alba 2017 was one such bottle. While the flavor notes felt a bit one dimensional to us, it did pair quite well with a mushroom and truffle polenta with tallegio. A true Northern Italian pairing if there ever was one!

Poggio Amorelli Chianti Classico Reserva 2016 Review

June 9, 2020June 9, 2020

I was fortunate enough to visit a tasting room for Poggio Amorelli in Italy in 2019. I found myself here while on a Walks of Italy Tuscany day tour that included, Siena, San Gimignano, and the winery (a tour we cannot recommend highly enough even if the specific winery may vary). During our stopover, I was able to sample many of their products with a massive feast and put an order in for a few bottles to be shipped home.

One of these bottles was their Chianti Classico Reserva 2016 which we popped open to enjoy with a nice steak dinner in 2020.

Boundary Breaks #110 Grand Riesling 2016 Review

June 16, 2020June 5, 2020

We’ve been fans of Boundary Breaks since the tasting room was in the owner’s kitchen (2015). In its early days, this Finger Lakes winery focused exclusively on single clonal Rieslings and was, pardon the pun, breaking boundaries when it came to this famous varietal.

Since then the winery has expanded immensely with a gorgeous tasting room, bringing on many non-Riesling varietals, and more. While we enjoy these quality wines, it is their Reisling that have us returning time and time again. In this one we broke open one of our bottles of the Grand Reserve Riesling #110- the best bottle we’ve had yet.

Heritiers du Comte Lafon Macon-Milly Lamartine Clos du Four 2016 Review

June 16, 2020May 28, 2020

We recently celebrated our eighth wedding anniversary, and so naturally we were looking for a wine to pair with a special dinner. Our menu included a cheese and charcuterie board, crab cakes, and black cod so we were looking for a dry white wine.

We chose a 2016 Heritiers du Comte Lafon Macon-Milly Lamartine Clos du Four, a Chardonnay from the Maconnais region of Burgundy (arguably the region’s most popular grape, and our first Chardonnay from Burgundy). While we didn’t end up being terribly big fans of this wine, it did pair nicely with our seafood dinner.

Gambino Vini Tifeo Etna Rosso 2016 Review

June 16, 2020May 19, 2020

If you ever find yourself in Sicily and want to go wine tasting, a trip to Gambino Vini on the slopes of Mt. Etna should be on your radar.

Not only is the tasting experience phenomenal (with an array of wine, extra splashes of your favorites, and a lovely tasting plate with their housemade olive oil), the property itself is also stunning with a gorgeous view down the hillside all the way to the ocean. As with most every winery visits we go on, I purchased a few bottles to bring home.

One of which was the Tifeo Etna Rosso 2016- a blend of 95% Nerello Mascalese and 5% Nerello Cappucio (two Sicilian varietals) that we enjoyed in early 2020 when the bottle was just under four years old.

MacRostie Dutton Ranch Chardonnay 2016 Review

June 16, 2020May 13, 2020

MacRostie Winery is one of those places that is near and dear to our hearts as we had a chance to personally visit the estate when traveling around Sonoma in early 2019. We were one of the first appointments for the day and got a prime outdoor seat on their patio (complete with complimentary blankets as it was quite cold) and enjoyed our wine with some of the finest views we had on that trip.

We picked up some bottles to take home, one of which was the MacRostie Dutton Ranch Chardonnay 2016. We held off on drinking this one for about a year and cracked into it in mid-2020- just under four years from the point of harvest.