TASTING NOTES

1991 Hogue Cellars Fume Blanc ($8): This Washington state winery’s best wines are from the Sauvignon Blanc and Semillon grapes, so I wasn’t surprised when I loved this wine in a blind tasting and later learned it was Hogue’s. It is a beautifully structured wine with perfect lemon-herbal, pear and melon aromas and a gentle aftertaste. Great with grilled seafood.

1990 Newton Vineyards Claret ($11.50): An absolutely delicious red wine and an early indication of the true greatness of the 1990 harvest in the Napa Valley. The aroma of this Merlot-based wine is currants, cherries and cedar, and the taste is lush, round and approachable with a faint toastiness from aging in oak. The structure is so balanced that the wine will be better after aging a few years--though it’s hard not to drink it now. At this price it’s one of the bargains of the year--and some retailers may discount it.

1990 Steltzner Vineyards Claret ($10): For 27 years, Dick Steltzner has been growing grapes in the Stag’s Leap area of the Napa Valley. In 1990, the superb quality of the harvest prompted him to take his increased production of Cabernet Franc and base a wine around it. “The Cab Franc was great, but if we put it in the Cabernet Sauvignon, it skews the wine and makes it something people wouldn’t expect from us,” Steltzner says. The resulting wine is loaded with complex aromas of herbs, black cherries, tea and anise. The texture, like the Newton, is soft, but with enough stuffing to age beautifully.