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!
Normally when we travel via an airport, we often make a beeline straight for the lounge in order to get the lovely perks of a quiet space and, perhaps more importantly, free alcohol.
But every so often we are unable to get into our lounge of choice, typically during peak hours when the demand is at its highest and the wait for entry is longer than our time in the airport outright.
In these cases we head to a paid bar to get over our pre-flight jitters, and one such bar we only recently started visiting was the wine chain Vino Volo. If you have ever been curious about what this airport staple is like, this one is for you!
Whenever we visit Finger Lakes wineries, we always make a trip over to Keuka Lake despite arranging our trips to often be Seneca Lake heavy.
One obligatory stop for us is the aptly named Keuka Lake Vineyards for its gorgeous views and even better wine.
After letting their Riesling Evergreen Lek age in our cellar for a few years, we popped it open to discover a rather delicious wine with notable petrol and tropical character!
I have to admit, I did not know that Long Island grew grapes until taking WSET Diploma, and ever since I have been fascinated by one particular spot- the North Fork of Long Island.
The reason for this is because the north fork is said to be protected a bit from Atlantic influences by the Hamptons, and, as such, becomes a prized spot for grape growing.
So when we got our hands on a Pinot Blanc from Lieb Cellars as part of our Picked by Wine.com subscription, we were quite excited to try it!
When we visited California to check out Napa and Sonoma wineries, one of the more interesting spots we stopped at was Anarchist Wine Co.
As its name suggests, this winery is doing some rather unique things with popular California grapes as well as unique blends of lesser-grown varietals for the region.
The Skeptic is one such bottle which is an orange, skin-fermented wine of Pinot Blanc, Gewurztraminer, and Viognier. Unusual for the region to begin with, with the extra depth and complexity that an orange wine provides.
We had picked up a bottle of the 2018 vintage when visiting the winery and promptly forgot about it until it was five years old, when it tasted absolutely beautiful.
Note: The makeup of The Skeptic has seemed to change in recent bottlings. At the time of this review, the 2022 vintage was 100% Gewurztraminer. As such, future bottles may have different characteristics than what is included in this review.
North Mountain is a beautiful little estate in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia that grows some interesting Austrian varieties like Gruner Veltliner, Zweigelt, and Riesling in addition to classic wines found throughout the region.
One wine, their Zweigelt rose, hit me as the most interesting during my tasting particularly because the rose style is not one we are used to seeing for this delightful, fruity grape. Naturally, it was my favorite of the bunch and I picked up several bottles to enjoy at home later.
Most of our bottles disappeared rather quickly and well before I could take notes for a review. The last one got lost in our cellar for not one, not two, but six years from its vintage before we finally decided to open it. While we could argue that this one was slightly past its prime, we still have to admit we adore this Zweigelt rose all the same!
The Finger Lakes is a stunning wine region in upstate New York that grows many cool climate grapes like Riesling, Pinot Noir, and Cabernet Franc to name a few.
Throw on native US grapes, fruit wines, a growing beer scene, and impressive opportunities to get out in nature to hike to gorgeous waterfalls, and the region has something for everyone who may be visiting for a Finger Lakes wine tour!
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!
One of the perks of having a wine cellar is that sometimes we do not really know what we have in stock. We keep an inventory of our bottles, of course, but sometimes a few slip through the cracks and we forget about them for years.
Our Lamoreaux Landing Pinot Noir 2014 was one such bottle. We pulled it out not only to find that we had one at all, but also that it was pushing almost nine years old.
As we didn’t expect this bottle to age too much longer, we decided to open it up and see how it was faring, and we were pleasantly surprised by what we found!
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.