California

Arista Vonarburg Vineyard Riesling 2021 Review – Tropical

When we think of producers of high-quality Rieslings, our minds often go to cool climates like the Mosel in Germany or the Finger Lakes in Upstate New York.

But just because some cooler climate regions are famous for their Riesling doesn't mean this grape can't grow in warmer spots. On the contrary, it thrives all over! California-based Arista, known for some stellar Pinot Noir, has one Riesling from the Anderson Valley that we were hesitant about but fell in love with after the first sip.

If you prefer your Riesling ripe and with a robust intensity, this one is for you.

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Fre Sparkling Brut Non-Alcohol Wine Review – Approachable NA Wine

Every January, we try and participate in what we call a dry-ish January. We don't fully cut out alcohol, but use the month to give ourselves a period of reset.

But during this time, we decided to take a look at more dealcoholized wine and other NA products to see if any are of the quality we expect from their alcohol-forward counterparts.

Naturally, this interest led us to a bottle of Fre Sparkling Brut, a faux bubbly that has been dealcoholized and sweetened to increase the body that the alcohol has removed.

So, was this one worth it? In a sea of disappointing NA wines, we have to admit, this may have been the best one we tried all month.

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Arista Winery Perli Vineyard Pinot Noir 2019 Review – A Gem

It should be no surprise that Arista was one of our favorite wineries in Sonoma from our last visit, and since then we have been building a cellar of their stellar Pinot Noirs as club members.

One of our favorite vineyard plots, Perli Vineyards, was one of our favorites and we have a modest collection that is sleeping for some age.

We decided to pull a bottle of this gem from our cellar from the 2019 vintage to check how it was doing at approximately four years old, and this one, naturally, still had a lot of youth in it while just starting to show signs of age!

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La Crema Sonoma Coast 2021 Review – A Solid Entry Wine

La Crema is one of those brands we see seemingly everywhere. From wine shop to wine shop, bar menu to bar menu, La Crema is one of those brands it is hard to get away from in the USA.

So, naturally, it sparked our interest, and we wanted to find out if their California Pinot Noir was worth our attention.

For its price, well, this certainly was an interesting one!

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Cameron Hughes Lot 863 Chardonnay 2019 Review

California Chardonnay can be hit or miss with us if only because we are not terribly fond of the overly oaky bottles we have tried from major producers.

Thankfully, the industry is moving away from oak bomb, buttery wines and instead incorporating oak and malolactic fermentation minimally to display an elegance that we prefer. Cameron Hughes Lot 863 is one such bottle, and, much like the Cameron Hughes Lot 896 Cabernet Sauvignon that we also got to try as part of a sample delivery from the negociant, was a winner for our palates.

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Arista Russian River Valley Chardonnay 2018 Review – Balanced All Around

After visiting wineries in Sonoma, we fell in love with one particular producer of Pinot Noirs- Arista.

We liked their Pinot Noirs so much that we joined their club, and after ordering many bottles we decided to expand our cellar to include some of the winery's acclaimed Chardonnays as well. One of the first ones we opened was the Arista Russian River Valley 2018 which shines almost as much as their acclaimed Pinots!

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Cameron Hughes Lot 896 Cabernet Sauvignon 2020 Review

Through our wine studies via WSET, we have learned a lot about the French negociant system where companies will buy grapes or premade wines from local producers and ferment/mature/blend them into a final product before selling them on their private label.

This practice is also common in the USA; however, is often not discussed nearly as much compared to European counterparts. In some regions this is fairly common, like Washington state, and in others it is less frequent, like California where wine-producing estates are plentiful.

One such merchant taking this unique approach to wine in California is Cameron Hughes, and as a result of their set up they are able to source wines from prestigious wine regions all over Napa and Sonoma for a rather robust product line at approachable prices.

So when we were offered a few bottles for review, we knew we had to give it a try and our first bottle was their Lot 896 from the Stags Leap District in Napa.

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Iron Horse Brut LD 2010 Review – Delicious Aged Sparkling Wine

When we visited several Sonoma wineries on a California trip a few years ago, we made sure to stop at Iron Horse Vineyards to try their acclaimed sparkling wines. We fell in love with them and brought many bottles home with us to enjoy later on.

Most of those bottles did not last very long, but we held onto a few to give a few more years of age to for good measure. One such bottle was Iron Horse Brut LD 2010, and we decided to open it up in mid-2022 to celebrate our 10-year wedding anniversary.

It was better than we expected.

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Arista Rose Pinot Noir Russian River Valley 2019 Review

While our love affair with the Sonoma winery, Arista, is primarily due to their stellar Pinot Noirs, we have been known to sample some of their other offerings like Chardonnay and even a rose made from Pinot Noir from time to time.

The rose from the Russian River Valley may not pack as much of a full-body punch as its intense-red siblings, but this rose wine from Sonoma checks the boxes for us all the same.

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