The Domaine Drouhin Vaudon Chablis 2009 may only be a “regular” Chablis AOC, but it offers perfect pitch in its attributes. Drouhin Vaudon is now the official name of the Chablis operation of the venerable Burgundian firm of Joseph Drouhin, headquartered in Beaune, the quaint medieval city that’s the center of the Burgundy wine trade. The outpost in Chablis is considered a separate entity, though, oddly, it seems to me, after the grapes are pressed at the winery in Chablis, the juice is trucked to Beaune for fermentation and aging; this process is true for the Premier and Grand Cru wines as well as for the Chablis AOC. Well, O.K., whatever. The Drouhin Vaudon vineyards in Chablis are managed on organic or biodynamic methods.

Made all in stainless steel, Domaine Drouhin Vaudon Chablis 09 sports a pale gold color sustained by a faint green undertone. (The composition, of course, is 100 percent chardonnay.) The bouquet is a classic weaving of roasted lemon, lime peel, verbena, flint and shale and a slight earthy-mushroomy aspect. The authority here derives from a frank assertion of limestone minerality and a vibrant, energetic aura that encompasses both chiming acidity and alluring suppleness in body and texture. To citrus flavors are added hints of ginger and quince, while the finish, after a few moments in the glass, becomes increasingly dry and flinty. 12.5 percent alcohol. About 3,000 cases imported. Drink through Summer 2012. Very Good+. About $23, though prices around the country range from about $19 to an unconscionable $33!

Dreyfus, Ashby & Sons, New York. A sample for review.

Think of a pork roast slathered with green chilies. Or how about grilled leg of lamb studded with garlic and rosemary. Beer-braised short ribs served with mashed potatoes drenched in a pan-reduction. You get the idea. Food you embrace; food you inhabit. Now open the inky-purple Trapiche Broquel Bonarda 2009, from Argentina’s high Mendoza region, nestled under the sunrise-facing flanks of the Andes. Trapiche is a large producer that owns more than 2,500 acres of vines in Mendoza, but big doesn’t always mean bad. Broquel is the winery’s single-vineyard label; grapes for the Broquel Bonarda 09 derive from the Santa Rosa vineyards that lies at 3,000-foot elevation. The grape presents mysteries. Three grapes bearing the name grow within spitting distance in northwest Italy, but only one of them is actually the bonarda grape, the imposters being croatina and uva rara, facts you may bear with you today as a chalice against your throng of foes. (Chops, but no cash award, to whoever identifies the source of that paraphrase.) However, the “real” bonarda grape, which is itself quite rare in these times, is not — I say, not — the bonarda grape which is the second most-planted red grape in Argentina, the first most-planted starting with the letter M and it’s not merlot. No, the bonarda of Argentina seems to be — I say, seems to be — the charbono grape that used to be grown in California but has now, sadly, almost disappeared.

Anyway, the Trapiche Bonarda 2009 feels wild, untamed, deeply spicy, immoderately savory; slightly jammy black currants, plums and blackberry preserves infused with port characterize the heady bouquet, which opens to hints of blueberry tart, lavender and licorice, potpourri and dusty graphite. It’s rich, dense, intense, chewy, thoroughly imbued with slightly roasted and meaty black and blue fruit flavors laced with burnished oak — from 12 months in new French and American barrels — and soft, velvety tannins. It is, as you surmise, almost a riot of sensations, though fortunately honed with bracing acidity and a touch of granite-like minerality on the finish. Close to being too easy to drink, but it sorta haunts you, too. 14 percent alcohol. Now through 2013 or ’14. Very Good+. About $15.

Imported by Frederick Wildman & Sons, New York. A sample for review.

Two wines from France, first the white, from the Maconnais region in the south of Burgundy, then the red, a Bordeaux Superieur.
_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
The Henri Perrusset Macon-Villages 2010 is the real deal as far as chardonnay goes, and I mean that this little beauty, because of its intensity, dimension and detail, could pass as a ringer for a Cote de Beaune blanc — all right, a minor Cote de Beaune blanc –at half the price. My first note on the wine, which was made all in stainless steel, was, “Damn, that’s good!” Lovely purity of chardonnay character here, with spicy roasted lemon and baked pear scents and flavors accented by cloves, quince and ginger and a scintillating limestone element that goes hand in hand with crystalline acidity; oh, and a zephyr-like wafting of camellia. Yes, this is fresh, clean and vibrant, and it delivers terrific balance and integration; not only does it taste good, but it feels good in the mouth. 13 percent alcohol. Drink now through 2013. Very Good+. About $16-$20.

Imported by Kermit Lynch, Berkeley, Ca. Tasted at a wholesaler’s trade event.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________
Speaking of the real deal, the Chateau Senailhac 2005, Bordeaux Superieur — from a great vintage in Bordeaux — is the real deal as far as merlot, cabernet sauvignon and cabernet franc are concerned. In fact, unusually for Bordeaux Superieur, this wine contains all five of the classic Bordeaux grape varieties: 43 percent merlot, 25 percent cabernet sauvignon, 23 percent cabernet franc, 7 percent malbec and, finally, a 2 percent dollop of petit verdot. At six years old, the wine displays a transparent medium ruby color tinged with brick-red/garnet at the rim; classic, too, is this bouquet of spiced and macerated black currants and black cherries with hints of cedar and tobacco, black olive and bell pepper and a touch of walnut shell and brambles. The wine offers slightly fleshy and meaty flavors of black currants and plums encompassed in a dense and chewy structure that’s firm and close to velvety without being heavy or obvious; tannins are mellow and a little chewy, a bit gritty with dusty graphite-like minerality that extends through the finish. Chateau Senailhac 2005 is drinking beautifully now and should do so through 2014 to ’16. Alcohol content is 13 percent. Very Good+. I paid $19; prices around the country start at $16.

Imported by Luxco Inc., St. Louis.
___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Today I return to the Hugues Beaulieu Picpoul de Pinet, which I last made a Wine of the Week in 2008, for the version of ’07. Now it’s the turn of the rendition of 2010.

The Picpoul de Pinet HB 2010, Coteaux de Languedoc, produced by the Caves de Pomérols cooperative, reiterates this wine’s status as one of the Great Cheap Wines of the World. Made from white picpoul grapes — also known as folle blanche — and seeing only stainless steel in its production, the wine is exuberantly fresh and spicy, exhilarating in its crisp acidity, seductive in its roasted lemon scents and flavors spiked with lime peel and grapefruit and permeated by hints of dried thyme and tarragon and an exotic note of salt-marsh. The soil in this seaside area of Languedoc, just west of the great lagoon of the Bassin de Thau, where the French coast starts its long curve downward toward Spain, is composed of clay and pebbles and fragments of limestone and fossil shells over marl, a perfect mixture for the grape’s dry delicacy, lightness and stony, sun-drenched nature. Buy by the case to drink over the next six months. Superb with shellfish — especially oysters — but we happily consumed a few glasses with Chinese take-out. 12.5 percent alcohol. Very Good+. About $10-$11.

A sample for review.

Zaca Mesa was a pioneer in bringing syrah to Santa Barbara County, planting that region’s first syrah vines in 1978. Founded in the early ’70s, the winery first planted just about every grape variety available but gradually narrowed the field to Rhone Valley types. Since the 1990s, Zaca Mesa has produced only Rhone-style wines, with a focus on estate and single-vineyard syrah. Winemaker is Eric Mohseni.

Wine of the Week is the Zaca Mesa Syrah 2008, Santa Ynez Valley, the producer’s basic syrah wine. Aged 16 months in French oak barrels, 35 percent new, 65 percent up to four years old, the wine offers complex layering of spicy, floral and earthy elements woven with dense, chewy grainy tannins and lively acidity, all set in fine balance. The color is dark ruby-purple; aromas of blackberries, black currants and plums are permeated by notes of sage and thyme, smoky oak and leather, violets and lavender and a pointed dusty graphite quality. So far, this is textbook syrah, and the impression deepens with ripe, spicy and concentrated black and blue fruit flavors founded on a classic character of slightly mossy underbrush qualities that generously unfold to reveal a core of potpourri, bitter chocolate and scintillating slate-like minerality. The finish is long and spicy. Lovely purity and authenticity and well-suited to an upcoming Fall season of braised and grilled meat. 14.5 percent alcohol. Drink now through 2014 or ’15. Excellent. About $25.

A sample for review.

Look no further for a fresh, attractive aperitif or wine to go with sushi, fresh seafood or, as we drank it, with seared salmon, just rare in the center, with a crust of crushed black and red pepper. This is the Palacios de Bornos Verdejo 2010, from the Spanish region of Rueda, which straddles the river Duero southwest of the university town of Valladolid. The river is important; the climate of the high plateau of Castilla y León, Spain’s largest autonomous region, is harsh and arid. You won’t be thinking of anything harsh and arid, however, when you’re sipping this little gem. Made all in stainless steel from 100 percent verdejo grapes, the wine sports a pale but radiant straw-gold color; aromas of spiced lemon and pear are wreathed with hints of dried thyme and tarragon (and a faint whiff of lilac) and a bracing sort of brisk sea-breeze/salt-marsh aspect that brings it close to exhilarating. Palacios de Bornos Verdejo 2010 is dry and spare, quite lively and spicy, supple in texture but crisp with pert acidity that supports ripe citrus and stone-fruit flavors and a finish permeated by lime peel and limestone. Delightful and almost savory in effect. Winemaker was Pilar Garcia. 13 percent alcohol. Drink through 2012. Very Good+. About $13, representing Great Value.

Probably all writers about wine use one or two terms more often than they should. One of my own forays into over-exposure is the word “lovely,” by which I try to convey in a single adjective all the accumulation of delicacy, elegance, appeal, prettiness and balance that makes a wine so irresistible. “Lovely” is not “gorgeous”; the latter implies an element of powerful glamor and sexiness, of purposeful artfulness, that loveliness does not convey. “Lovely” seems more naturally affecting, more innocent (not to get too anthropomorphic) and artless. So, here I go, pulling out that word again, because the X Winery Truchard Vineyard Pinot Noir 2009, Carneros-Napa Valley, is about as lovely as pinot noir gets in California. The color is an enchanting radiant black cherry-ruby hue through and through; winsome aromas of black cherry, cranberry and rhubarb, cloves and cola beguile the nose. Give this a few minutes in the glass and elements of briers and brambles, moss and leather, crushed violets and lavender appear. The wine aged 12 months in mostly French oak, 30 percent new barrels; the moderation displayed in this oak treatment results in a pinot noir that’s firm but supple, a bit lithe yet altogether satiny in texture. Flavors of black cherry and plum are ripe and slightly macerated, touched with cloves and sandalwood, and they unfold to reveal a structure of soft, dusty graphite and mildly dense tannins, all backed by essential, almost resolute acidity. 14.5 percent alcohol. Winemakers were Reed Renaudin and Gina Richmond. Drink now through 2013 or ’14. Excellent. About $27.

A sample for review.

Not many winemakers or proprietors go into politics, but Luigi Einaudi (1874-1961), who founded the Einaudi wine estate in Piedmont in the 1890s at the age of 23, became Italy’s first president in 1948. One assumes he invested the office with more dignity than some of his successors, but never mind that. Certainly his descendents have thrived; the well-respected estate now consists of 12 properties or farmsteads (poderi) totaling 321 acres, of which 124 are under vines. The company, best-known for its single-vineyard Barolos, is operated by Luigi Einaudi’s granddaughter Paola Einaudi and her son Matteo Sardagna; winemaker is Beppe Caviola.

The dolcetto grape is little grown outside Piedmont; there used to be some in California (still?) and paradoxically the oldest dolcetto vines in the world, according to Oz Clarke, are probably in Australia. Dolcetto does not take well to oak aging or to attempts to pump it up into a bigger, more significant wine than it ought to be. Fittingly, then, the Poderi Luigi Einaudi Dolcetto di Dogliani 2010 was given no oak but aged eight to 10 months in stainless steel tanks. Aromas of black and red currants are permeated by hints of dried cherries and dried orange zest, smoke and tobacco, rose petals and a touch of oolong tea. The wine is quite dry — I always wonder how the grape got its name, “little sweet one” — and packed with dried black and red fruit, dried spices and dried flowers; it’s a trove of potpourri and spice box effects enlivened by keen acidity and a pass at earthy minerality. I drank a few glasses one night with lamb chops in an anchovy-caper sauce, and the match was terrific. 13 percent alcohol. Drink now through 2012 or ’13. Very Good+. Prices around the country average about $17, though I paid $21 in Memphis.

Imported by Empson USA, Alexandria, Va.

Carignan is not a grape we associate with Chile, being far more common in Spain and the south of France, but on the evidence of the Meli Carignan 2010, Maule Valley, perhaps producers in the bony, horizontally-challenged country’s wine regions should opt for planting more. This is from winemaker Adriana Cerda, whose riesling I reviewed back in March. The Meli Carignan 2010, made from 60-year-old vines, has 10 percent cabernet sauvignon in the blend and ages briefly in stainless steel tanks and used oak barrels. The color is the characteristic purple-magenta with a violet rim. The wine is delightfully fresh and clean and vibrant; deeply spicy red and black currants and macerated plums are infused with soft-grained graphite-like minerality and finely-milled tannins and an infinitesimally ground amalgam of lilac, lavender and bitter chocolate, all melded by pert acidity. Nothing super-serious, just appealing, fruity and delicious and perfect for pizzas, burgers and such. 14 percent alcohol. Very Good+. About $15.

Global Vineyard Wine Importers, Berkeley, Ca. A sample for review. Image from edito3d.wordpress.com.

The stores are closed today, being Labor Day, but labor always persists for freelance writers and bloggers, and since today is Monday, federal holiday or nor, a Wine of the Week is due. So be it.

With our pizza Saturday night, we sipped Bonny Doon’s Clos de Gilroy Grenache 2010, Central Coast, a blend of 75 percent grenache grapes — barely qualifying it for a varietal label — with 13 percent cinsault and 12 percent syrah; seeing no oak barrels, you may think of it as a very pretty and highly drinkable version of a Côtes-du-Rhône. The color is brilliant ruby-cerise with a pale violet/magenta rim; aromas of pure black raspberries and red cherries are wreathed with cloves and sandalwood as well as lovely touches of roses, potpourri and that trademark grenache hint of Bazooka Bubble Gum. There’s a beguiling air of exoticism about this wine, though it also keeps itself firmly anchored in its essential straightforward rusticity. Flavors of spicy black and red currants, cherries and plums carry some notion of dusty briers and brambles for a slight earthy aspect, while tingling acidity keeps the wine almost quenchingly appealing. Tasty and delightful. Winemaker was, of course, the indefatigable Randall Grahm. 13.1 percent alcohol. Drink now through 2012. Very Good+. About $18.

A sample for review.