Domaine de la Prébende Beaujolais Rose –
Cooper’s Price $16.99
Domaine de la Prébende produces a deeply mineral Beaujolais from a predominantly clay and limestone terroir, a rarity in a region dominated by granite soils. “Une prébende” essentially means “a tax,” and the domaine sits on the location where monks used to collect taxes from the villagers. As Ghislaine Dupeuble puts it, “Monks didn’t like to own low end vineyards!”
Profile: Direct press Gamay rosé sourced from limestone vineyards surrounding the family domaine in Le Breuil. Bright, cheerful and gulpable with red-currant and strawberry flavors. The wine is light, bright and lively. It demands to be drunk immediately.
Education: “Direct pressing” involves allowing the grape juice to have contact with the skins for an extremely short period of time. Instead of allowing the juice much time to soak and gain color, the grapes are pressed right away to remove the skins, as a white wine would be vinified. Because of the pigment in the skins, there will still be a hint of color in the juice — it’s impossible for the juice to have no contact with the skins, after all — so this process tends to produce the lightest-colored rosés
Lioco “La Selva Vineyard” Anderson Valley Pinot Noir –
Cooper’s $35.99
Lioco was founded in 2005 by Kevin O’Connor and Matt Licklider with a goal of producing wines that countered the prevailing California mantra that “bigger is better.” A more European model was pursued with Lioco sourcing fruit from cooler climate, older, family-owned vineyards with an organic mind set.
The wine: From a selection of premier Anderson Valley sites including Romani & Wentzel. Pinot Noir clones planted in varied soils of decomposed sandstone, clay, and fractured rock in elevations ranging from 400-800 feet. Along with an omnipresent marine influence, this valley is defined by the presence of old growth redwood trees. La Selva means ‘the forest’ in Spanish.
Profile: Generous and mouth-filling, this is a medium-to-full bodied wine with fruity aromas of Italian plum, juniper, potting clay. Rich cherry, huckleberry, cedar, and spices partner with a firm texture and a lingering, slightly tannic finish, while showing a lot of fruit up front.
Muriel Crianza Rioja
Cooper’s Price $15.99
One of our most representative wines of the art of mixing. It comes from a myriad of vineyard plots located in several areas of the municipality of Elciego and surrounding villages. Crianza is our flagship ambassador of Rioja Alavesa, and must express a sense of continuity with respect to what has always been. With Muriel Crianza we do not look for the specificity of a vineyard, but for the balance and the generic expression of a wider territory: the hills, terraces, slopes and small plains around Elciego, between the Sierra de Cantabria calcareous rocks and the banks of the Ebro river.
Tasting Notes: A bright cherry color. Clean and bright. Ripe red fruit aromas combined with fruit from the aging (vanilla, cocoa, coffee). Broad and elegant with soft tannins. Very pleasant.
Monte Bernardi “Retromarcia” Chianti Classico – Tuscany, Italy
Cooper’s Price $19.99
The Italian word Retromarcia means more to us than its literal translation “to back up” or “to reverse”, it has been our aim to produce intensely typical and expressive wines from Tuscany’s historic zone – Chianti Classico, using only traditional grapes. With the name Retromarcia, we are emphasizing a return to the natural elegance and charm of Sangiovese.
Retromarcia is a Chianti Classico made from 100% Sangiovese grapes from vineyards consisting of shale, sandstone, and limestone. The vinification and maturation is reminiscent of a more traditional style Chianti Classico; the result is a fresh and fruity, medium-bodied, well-balanced wine, with a nice structure, juicy acidity and a long finish.
Profile: Deep, ruby red with hints of purple. Intense mountain herbs, aromas of cranberry, wild cherry and red plums, anise, spice, and orange peel. A fresh and fruity, medium-bodied, well-balanced wine, with a nice structure, juicy acidity and a long finish.
