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Hobo Wine Company's Edith & Ida Chardonnay comes from Lolonis Vineyard in the Redwood Valley of Mendocino. Planted in 1944, Lolonis has one of the oldest Chardonnay vineyards in the state, and they are members of the Historic Vineyard Society. Lolonis has been certfied organic  for many years - since well before it become a more wide-spread practice in the wine industry. Even today there are many growers and producers who are practicing organic, but reluctant to deal with the certification gauntlet.  Barrel-fermented with whole clusters, native yeast and minimal SO2. Yellow apple, slightly hazy and a bit of "natural wine" funk.

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If you are a fan of Rombauer and other rich, buttery style Chardonnays, this wine has your name on it!

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Much that is written about wine by producers and importers sounds like it has been cranked out of a souless marketing department (with apologies to those offended by this generalzation), but there are those whose prose is honest and genuinely descriptive of the wines referenced. Such is the case with Oliver McCrum, one of our favorite importers. We can't improve on what he has said about La Staffa Verdicchio, so we hand the podium to him: "I love Verdicchio, and the bright, distinctive, intense Verdicchio di Matelica from Colle Stefano has been a staple of our selection for more than ten years. To my taste, much Verdicchio from the neighboring Castelli di Jesi appellation is mealy by comparison. But just to see if there were exceptions, I tasted through a slew of Jesi bottlings at Vinitaly, and the wine from an estate called La Staffa stuck out: it was vibrant, direct, very flavorful, complex and delicious.

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A Monthly Wine Club Selection
Le Clos du Caillou started out as a hunting preserve in 1895 when Élie Dussaud purchased the property at the northeastern edge of what eventually became the Châteauneuf-du-Pape appellation, and built a small cellar. However, with his passing four years later, there were no real vineyards to speak of until 1955, when Claude Pouizin purchased the land and cleared some of the forest to plant vines. 1970 marked his first commercial vintage and his wife, Colette, spent the next 26 years as the sales ambassador, establishing Clos du Caillou as a quality Rhône Valley producer worthy of attention. Once Claude was ready to retire, he asked his youngest daughter, Sylvie, who was living in Sancerre with her husband, Jean-Denis Vacheron, to run things. The couple and their two young children left their life in the Loire Valley in 1996 to take Clos du Caillou into the 21st century. Jean-Denis was making the wines yet tragically died in 2002. With a heavy heart, Sylvie soldiered on and hired Rhône specialist, Bruno Gaspard, to take over in the cellar. Bruno has been the winemaker ever since and Sylvie is still in charge today, watching over the domaine's 54 hectares of biodynamically farmed vineyards, certified since 2010.

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A Monthly Wine Club Selection
This Cinsault was estate grown on Margerum's organically farmed vineyard in the Los Olivos District of Santa Barbara County. It was co-fermented with a small amount of their estate grown Syrah. The grapes were pressed after fermentation and matured for 10 months in various seasoned and neutral casks, including large French oak foudre, puncheon and barrique.

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83% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Merlot, 3% Cabernet Franc, 2% Malbec, 2% Petit Verdot. Mark Ryan started making wines in friends’ garages in 1999. Largely self-taught, he combined his own studies with advice of experienced wine producers. After 4 years of transient winemaking, he settled in Woodinville, Washington. Head winemaker Mike Macmorran made his first foray into wine while on a break from medical school. Instantly hooked, he decided to apply his deep knowledge of chemistry and biology to oenology instead. Building upon Mark’s foundation, Mike uses his skills to home in on the best barrels and yeast strains to craft their wines, while focusing on wines that reflect the characteristics of their vineyard sites.

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Graziano Pra is best known for his white wines from Soave, and the reds from Valpolicella have been a later - and much welcome - addition Located in the sub-zones of Mezzane and Tregnano at around 450 meters, the soils here were formed from glacial runoff and they contain a high percentage of active limestone. So while some wines from Valpolicella are about power, ripeness and brawn, especially the Amarone, Prà’s reds have a bright freshness and mineral core.

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_{A Monthly Wine Club Selection}
Plump and round with loads of blackberry, black plum and blueberry fruit with toasted notes and baking spices. The palate is gracefully balanced with a long, juicy finish and pleasantly gripping tannins.

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Red Stitch is a joint effort of Rich Aurelia (SF Giants) and Dave Roberts (Manager of the LA Dodgers). We are often cynical when approached by wineries with a celebrity tie-in because the wines too often seem to trade more on the fame than actual quality, but Red Stitch is a notable exception. The wines are first rate in every way.

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A Quarterly Red Cellar Trio Wine Club Selection
Black-red hue. Enticing aromas of dark plums and brambly berry compote, with a whiff of violets. The juicy palate is bold and fruit forward, showing primary flavors of ripe blackberry, blueberry and black currant with a touch of toffee and mocha. Decadent but not cloying, with super-fine, well integrated tannins and a long, luxurious finish.  

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Lagrein is an indigenous variety that is often made into a rosé, a dark, intense and tannic "reserve/age-worthy" style wine, or as is the case here, a lighter style medium-bodied young red wine meant to be consumed upon release. Young Lagrein can be a bit off putting with overwhelming tannins, but this Niklas is very friendly and drinkable with slightly chalky tannins on the finish. It has a light plummy fruit flavor as well as a savory quality that makes it a great pairing with braised meats and rich tomato based pastas, a platter of charcuterie, or a mushroom risotto. Completely overdelivers for the price point.

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A Quarterly Red Cellar Trio Wine Club Selection
Founded in 2007, Blue Farm takes its name from the farmhouse at Anne Moller-Racke’s home and vineyard in Carneros. Blue Farm is focused on creating Burgundian grand cru style Pinot Noirs and Chardonnays, and draws on Anne’s 40+ years winegrowing experience. In 1981 Anne moved to Sonoma from from Germany, where she worked with legendary winemaker André Tchelistcheff; for the following three decades, she farmed some of California’s most celebrated vineyards. In 2001, Anne founded The Donum Estate, growing it into one of the top Pinot Noir producers in California.

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A Monthly Wine Club Selection
Cantine Borga was founded in 1940 in the Treviso area of the Veneto in northeastern Italy. The winery is 30km from Venice, located between the mountains and the sea. Borga is owned and managed by four cousins descended from the winery’s founders. Martino manages logistics, Caterina is the sales manager, Antonio is the production manager, and Riccardo manages the vineyards. Cantine Borga has 33 hectares of vineyards located at 6m above sea level on the plains of the Municipality of Chiarano. The soils are a mixture of sand, clay and silt. The area is rich and fertile, thanks to mineral deposits from the Piave river—and its tributaries—and the Livenza river, which crosses the estate surrounded by ancient woods.

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A Monthly Wine Club Selection
In 1875 Vito Curatolo Arini built a small winery and set off in pursuit of his dream to make great Marsala wine and sell it throughout the world. That was quite an ambitious step for a young farmer from Sicily whose family only had 3 hectares at the time. However, he did in fact become one of the first companies in Sicily to ship wines to Europe and the Americas. Over the decades, the family continued to grow the winery, and today—after nearly 150 years, they are the longest standing family-owned Marsala producer. As Marsala’s popularity waned in the 20th century, the family began to develop their vineyard holding with native varietals, the aim being an expansion of their portfolio to non-fortified still wines. Today, after five generations, Vito’s dream is kept alive with the same passion by his direct descendants Riccardo and Alexandra, and their respective fathers Roberto and Sergio, in collaboration with veteran winemaker Antonino Reina and Tuscan oenologist Alberto Antonini. Curatolo Arini has garnered many accolades as a contemporary winery with an incredible heritage, and as such, they continue to make a small amount of Marsala in the old way with mosto cotta cooked over an open fire, carrying the traditions of the past proudly into the future.

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A Monthly Wine Club Selection
The Pra family owns and works in one of the highest-altitude wine cellars in Veneto, locat-ed at 1,500 feet above sea level. From its perch, tucked away in the Lessini hills, Dama del Rovere sets itself apart from the masses of Soave producers with its high-altitude vineyards, which yield notably vibrant, character-rich white wines. The vineyards are plant-ed on the slopes of Monte Calvarina, an inactive volcano. The soils (primarily volcanic) are rich in minerals and ideal for the cultivation of native white grapes Garganega and Durella, which account for the majority of the vines. Winemaker Massimo Pra and his brother, Davide are fourth generation winegrowers; and the winery name Dama del Rovere is a shortening of their names: Davide and Massimo “Dama,” which also means lady—and a reference to the votive Madonna carved into an oak tree—or “rovere”—located in the family’s vineyard.