It feels like ages since, I walked into the Fine Wine Source in Livonia, Michigan, after all of our side adventures, but it was time to get the club selections.  I am a firm believer in the selections that I get, they are some of the best values out in the market, as they have all been curated by the owner and his staff.  I am positive that he doesn’t even carry ten percent of what is available in the state, because, if it doesn’t get passed his cultivated palate, he will not suggest it to his client. 

The first wine of the monthly selection represents the Old World and this time it is Jean Sambardier Beaujolais Blanc 2019.  From almost the first century, grape vines have been growing in the region and from the Ninth to the Fourteenth Century the house of Beaujeu held sway separating the Maconnais from the Lyonnais.  After the fall, the monks returned as the stewards of the land.  The Sambardier family has been in the heart of Beaujolais since 1850 in Denice, south of Burgundy.  They have thirty-four hectares including Grand Cru designations, divided into fifty separate vineyard sites. Brothers Fred and Damien Sambardier are the current generation and they prefer the traditional methods without the enhancement of additional chemicals. While the region is famed for the Gamay, estates are allowed to grow fifteen percent white grapes, and here it is Chardonnay.  This wine is grown at a site known as “La Cote” on a south slope from Denice.  The soil is stony with marl further down.  The fruit is allowed to enjoy “over-maturity” and hand-harvested.  The wine undergoes cold Initial Fermentation and then is aged on fine lees, for about five months in Stainless-Steel vats and less than seven-hundred cases are produced. The wine is described as offering notes of white fruits, tropical fruits, white florals, and almonds.  On the palate there are tones of pear, tropical fruit, vanilla with balance and roundness.

The New World this month is represented by Lucas & Lewellen Vineyards “Queen of Hearts” Pinot Noir Santa Barbara 2019.  Louis Lucas, a third-generation grape grower, and Superior Court Judge Royce Lewellen met in 1975.  Louis was a well-respected grower who had been supplying premium wine grapes for reputable Napa and Sonoma wineries for decades. Royce Lewellen was a passionate wine enthusiast with a vision for the future of the Santa Barbara County wine industry. Over the next twenty-five years, the Lucas and Lewellen families would grow in a deep friendship that would serve as the foundation for Lucas & Lewellen Vineyards, a Solvang, California based winery with four hundred estate acres situated among three of Santa Barbara County’s separate and distinct climate zones, three major wine labels, two popular tasting rooms in downtown Solvang, and a state-of-the-art winery.  The fruit was harvested from two of their estate vineyards: Goodchild and Los Alamos.  Some of the vines are around forty-years of age, brought over from Europe and are planted both on hilltops to clay and gravel river beds.  The fruit is hand-harvested.  The tasting reviews mention the wine offers notes of strawberry, raspberry, and cola aromas.  The palate is described as tones of bold ripe strawberry, lively acidity and silky tannins.