Emeritus Pinot Noir

In June Patty and I had traveled to Oregon und then south to Sonoma County, California.
In Sebastopol - Russian River Valley - we were invited to visit Emeritus Vineyards, founded by Mr. Brice Cutrer Jones (formerly of Sonoma Cutrer). At Emeritus they only grow Pinot Noir - 100% and a very Burgundian Pinot! It is very different from what you see in the market where most Pinots today contain a healthy percentage on Syrah. Mr. Blackburn the founding winemaker of Emeritus was trained in Burgundy and brought this style of wine to Emeritus. Unfortunately Mr. Blackburn was suddenly taken away by cancer earlier this year and his former assistant Nicolas is now the winemaker at Emeritus, continuing the style of wines that Mr. Blackburn started. Interestingly - Blackburn an American trained and worked in Burgundy, France and Nicolas, a French man trained and worked in California.
The new 2007 vintage has been released - according to Brice is is one of the best in California (see an interview with Brice Cutrer Jones here).
The new Vintage should arrive in Indianapolis the first week of November 2009. It is available in Restaurants only at this point. It is a full bodied wine on the very dry side through the finish. Lots of tannins, this wine should age well too - lots of mineral laced berry and currant. Go ask for Emeritus Pinot Noir from Russian River valley next time you eat out.

Italy

I just returned from a week long trip to Italy. We visited Alba in Piedmont during the white truffle festival and met there with Giacomo Vico of Giacomo Vico Vineyards in Canale, Italy. Giacomo's wines are the latest arrivals in our portfolio: Barbera d'Alba, Langhe Rosso, Nebbiolo and Roero Arneis (DOCG), Birbet (Bracchetto) will be added with the next shipment from Italy. We had fantastic dinner at Borgo Antico Ristorante in Barolo.
I also met with Fabio of Comm. Burlotto vineyards; in the very near future will we add Burlotto Cannubi Barolo's to our portfolio. In Tuscany we had the opportunity to visit "Il Galampio" of Marchesato degli Aleramici where Filippo and his wife Emma were the perfect hosts serving us a delicious lunch and providing delicious Brunello's. Filippo told me that the 2o08 vintage will be better than 88, 90 or 97.

The last winery we visited was Castello di Poppiano in Chianti. This is an old Castle that was built about 1100 years ago. The cellars are just stunning - the Count is a stickler for tradition. Their newest project is the "kosher" wines that are produced at their new winery down in Maremma. They are using the tower of the castle to dry their grapes for their Vinsanto and storing the wine in wonderful old barrels inside the tower of the Castle - the entire tower smells of Vinsanto and the view from the top is just beautiful.


So.................., soon our Italian portfolio will consist of wines from Giacomo Vico, Castello di Poppiano and Marchesato degli Aleramici with Prosecco of Canegliano DOCG and Amraone's soon to follow.

Ciao....chin..chin

Welcome

The intend of this Blog is to inform our customers and friends about what Vino LeFebvre is doing in the State of Indiana.
We have changed our wine portfolio from rare French vintages to a more diversified portfolio. This is an ongoing process and we are currently working on getting more wines approved which we will import from Germany, Italy, Spain, Slovenia, Argentina and Chile.
We are still committed to bring only top quality wines into the Indiana market.