Tag Archives: Ferrari-Carano

Mini-reviews 103: Black Friday 2017

Black Friday 2017Reviews of wines that don’t need their own post, but are worth noting for one reason or another. Look for it on the fourth Friday of each month. This month: two reds and two whites for Black Friday 2017

• Bollini Pinot Grigio 2016 ($12, sample, 13%): Ordinary, tonic-water style Italian pinot grigio of the kind that other producers sell for $8 or $9. Imported by Kobrand

• Ferrari-Carano Pinot Grigio 2016 ($14, sample, 13.7%): Decent enough pinot grigio at a fair price, but nothing that makes it scream, “Buy me!” unless you really like pinot grigio. A step up from the Bollini, and with more California style – some lime and green apple fruit.

• Bogle Vineyards Phantom 2014 ($19, sample, 14.5%): Bogle does premiumization with this red – a rich, thick zinfandel blend that is very Lodi in style. It’s well made and delivers value, as all Bogle wines do, but you have to like this kind of wine. Don’t expect any elegance or subtlety.

• Wakefield Shiraz 2015 ($17, sample, 14%): This Australian red is more interesting, less audacious, and more enjoyable than the too hot, too fruity, and too big shirazes of 10 and 15 years ago. It’s still big, with luxurious black fruit, but those qualities are part of the wine – balanced by restrained oak and silky tannins — and not it’s reason for being. Imported by Seaview Imports

Wine of the week: Ferrari-Carano Fume Blanc 2016

Ferrari-Carano Fume BlancThe Ferrari-Carano fume blanc is California white wine that offers quality and value at a fair price

Can California deliver quality at a fair price, where the fair price isn’t $20 because that’s what the wine business says it should be? Yes, and the Ferrari-Carano Fume Blanc is proof that it can.

The Ferrari-Carano Fume Blanc ($13, sample, 13.8%) is sauvignon blanc with a bit of oak, an approach that usually isn’t needed and is too often overdone. But here, the oak adds to the wine, giving it body that it wouldn’t normally have and doing so without any oaky flavor. Dare I say the wine is tasteful, in that way we rarely seen any more in favor of too much fruit? And its success in this proves once again that judging a wine before you taste it is the mark of a small mind.

In addition, the wine tastes like California sauvignon blanc is supposed to taste – Sonoma terroir even, with the necessary grassy note, some citrus that isn’t grapefruit, and a stony finish. It doesn’t taste like it came from New Zealand or made by a committee to appease a supermarket chain wine buyer. Pair this with chicken braised with mushrooms in white wine, and appreciate its difference.

Highly recommended, and a candidate for the $10 Hall of Fame (depending on how I feel about the price). This is so well made that it tastes like it should cost more – something we don’t see often enough from California.