108, 2011
Wine Enthusiast Scores: August 2011
In the August 2011 Issue of the Wine Enthusiast several of Grapevine's wines earned excellent scores. Call you local independent retailer to order some of these wines: Amizetta 2007 [...]
-
Well-rounded, elegant and adaptable. The Hill&Dale Shiraz is a delicious medium bodied wine with a rounded tannic structure. Ideal for cellar storage, it will age well and gain in complexity over the next three to five years. The Shiraz is a particularly versatile wine which complements almost all red meat dishes, pastas and stews. - Imaginative, optimistic and harmonious. With its delicate citrus and vanilla-oak flavors, made in a pleasing style that will appeal to lovers of fruit-led Chardonnay, Hill&Dale Chardonnay is the ideal accompaniment to a lazy lunch or the exhalation of a long day.
- Versatile, fresh and vibrant. The Hill&Dale Pinot Grigio is a wonderfully fresh and vibrant wine best enjoyed young. The tropical fruit flavors on the palate make it an ideal accompaniment to leafy salads but its versatility means that you can also partner it with any other dish!
- Free-spirited, creative and well balanced. The Hill&Dale Sauvignon Blanc is an elegantly crisp dry wine with style and individuality. The layers of mouth-filling tropical fruit and gentle hints of grass make it the perfect wine to accompany a light meal or to take along to your next book club.
- Smooth, with sweet ripe cherries and herbs, the wine is easy to like and drink, especially if you like it on the young side.
- Saturated red. Fragrant, ethereal nose offers perfumed black raspberry, potpourri and singed orange, accented by a strong spicy overtone. Dense, sappy and sweet but strikingly energetic; the intense dark berry liqueur and rose pastille flavors are both taut and rich, with strong back-end cut. Finishes very suave and long, leaving notes of anise, black cardamom and flowers.
- A seamless blend of Grenache Blanc, Bourboulence and Clairette it expresses hint of limestone and minerality along with a lovely crisp acidity.
- With aromas of jam, licorice, black and red fruits and smoke, this supple textured wine ends with a fresh black cherry finish.
- This wine stands out for its fruity freshness and its finesse on the palate. It may be cellared for up to 5 years, but it is preferable to drink it within the first three years in order to best appreciate its freshness.
- This fruity and fresh cuvée is the perfect complement to the bounty of the sea, including crustaceans, shellfish, and raw or cooked fish. It is also a good match for white meats and goat’s cheeses. It makes an ideal start to a meal, and is a great sipping wine to be enjoyed at any time of day.
- Youthful deep in colour. Nose is brambly and rich, with raspberry and spicenotes. The palate has sweet generous fruit, with hints of anise, before agentle, spicy finish.
- Fresh and fruity with an intriguing blend of green and tropical notes. Quitecreamy on the palate, with a nicely balanced fresh finish.
- Very prominent and pleasing nose of juicy plum and floral bouquet. Flavor of sweet cedar, raisins, mint and balanced spice. Cinnamon lingers on the tongue. Delicious wine. Good pairing with lamb or beef.
- The blend is endowed with vibrant acidity and grassy aromas by Sauvignon Blanc, and its structure and mouthfeel from Semillon.
- Vigna Quintodecimo is a fine balance of small fruits, floral notes and spices. Seductive class and aromatic intensity is complemented by savory tannins and well expressed in a profound and refined style. It is a wine of extraordinary richness and elegance that reaches its peak within the first twenty years and still retains its character for many years after.
- Via del Campo perfectly expresses the fruity and mineral scents typical of Falanghina wine. It is a cru obtained exclusively with grapes from only one vineyard of Falanghina. It is characterized by a luminous golden color and fragrances of apple, pineapple, herbs and field flowers with refined minerals and salty notes. The delicate structure, releases menthol and toasted notes arised from the short stay during the partial fermentation in small oak barrels. Immediately likeable when young, this wine evolves in a more complex bouquet after some years in the bottle.
- Terra d’Eclano is produced with grapes from five separate vineyards entirely with Aglianico grapes. It is a seductive and elegant wine with complex aromas of berries, plums, licorice, and coffee. It has an enveloping structure with soft and silky tannins and a long finish with freshness and elegant mineral prevailing along with notes of balsamic and spices. The high complexity and the deep structure of Aglianico, grown directly in the vineyards, give terre d’eclano an extraordinary ability for long ageing in the bottle.
- Exultet is a sophisticated and elegant interpretation of Fiano di Avellino. It is a cru produced exclusively with the grapes of one Fiano vineyard. It is yellow and luminous with green reflections and fragrances of linden, acacia and thyme. It is well structured with flavors of exotic fruit, citrus and honey and a very soft mineral note. This particular elegance also derives from a partial fermentation in small oak barrels. It is a wine with great longevity which can also age for some decades thanks to its richness in precursors of aroma and the integrity of its freshness and taste. The name given to the wine derives from Exultet of Mirabella Eclano in which we can also find a tribute to bees. Exultet are liturgical parchments from the southern Italian middle ages. A kind of multimedial ante litteram product made up by parchment papers sewed together, where the texts of benedictio cerei were written accompanied by musical notations and miniatures put on the opposite side of the sheets.
- The Greco di Tufo grape is characterized by a content of coloring matter higher than the other white grapes of the Campania region. For this reason, at full maturation, this grape becomes golden with amber tones on the sun-exposed side. The must is reddish ochre. The wine, if not clarified, has an intense golden color. Giallo d’Arles is an extreme and rigorous interpretation of the Greco di Tufo wine. It is a cru produced with one vineyard of Greco grapes. The ancient yellow-golden color, typical of the denomination, is more intense also thanks to the partial fermentation in new oak barrels and thanks to the complete absence of any clarification treatments. It is a white wine with the structure of a red wine, powerful and refined, characterized by a deep minerality blended with flavors of apricot and quince marmalade and by a full and fresh taste. Giallo d’Arles has also an extraordinary predisposition to maturation in bottle, obtaining year-by-year elegance, complexity and harmony. The name given to the wine is a tribute to Van Gogh’s favorite color during his stay in Arles: a yellow which is a prelude of red.
- Really nice chard from Pouilly-Fuissé. On the nose there's citrus and lemon oil. The palate is young and fresh with lemon/lemon cream, some slight salinity, a touch of ripe green apple, medium acidity and a medium length finish.
- It's nose is fine and elegant, revealing aromas of white flowers. Its minerality is most present in the mouth. It is by nature delicate and distinguished.