Give the Top 100 Trio

Buongiorno ~

With this year-ending Note from the Winemaker, I write gratefully for your subscription to my personal perspectives on the news from here. ’Tis the good reader that makes the good book, Emerson said, and your following helped to inspire a great year. To celebrate, I announce an extraordinary offering presented first to you, here — A Holiday Wine Trio of Top 100’s, sold as Trios of 1 vintage each with special discount pricing, available while a limited allocation remains at the winery and online.

• Octagon 2016, JamesSuckling.com, Top 100 Wines in America, 2018
• Viognier Rsv 2017, Wine Enthusiast, Top 100 Wines of the World,2019
• Octagon 2019, Wine Enthusiast, Top 100 Wines of the World, 2023

For the Trio, each of the wines is discounted 10%, a discount we usually reserve for 12 bottles or more. A further discount of 5% more, will apply to two Trios (6 bottles); while a 10% discount will apply to 12 bottles of any kind. Through the month, Library 1821 is pouring an optional Tasting Flight, for the Top 100 Trio.

Not to be outdone in holiday giving, Palladio Restaurant is baking a terrifically pretty cantucci biscotti to enjoy with espresso or Paxxito, conceived by the Chef at our founder’s winery in Tuscany, Castello di Albola. These delicious confections of candied orange and almonds are available throughout the year at the winery only, and may be ordered by telephone, or prepared at home with our Chef’s instructions. These gifts of our founding traditions promise a warm supply of exuberance wherever they land.

Viognier Reserve 2017 represents the 20th vintage in our signature style, capturing both radiant freshness and age worthiness by early picking and vinification and aging exclusively in stainless steel. This Viognier was designated “best in class” from the Atlantic Seaboard to San Francisco, in addition to its selection among the Top 100 in 2019. The weather pattern in 2017 growing enabled our most refreshing and fragrant Viognier to date, which is still very lively. I recently was completely delighted by pairing it with seared scallops over a purée of Yukon Gold potatoes and green peas, with a touch of tarragon.

The two Top 100 vintages of Octagon display how the supreme variable in every bottling of our flagship wine is its own growing season. The region’s most honored blend of Bordeaux varietals is created, as their legacy here reminds us_,_to project the finest qualities of that season in the most vivid, nuanced, and age-worthy profile. I recently compared the 2016 and 2019 vintages at our annual Octagon Feast, paired with a risotto and roast squab. The 2016 showed ripe red fruit alongside elegant and silky tannins, a distinctive trait exhibited throughout our Reserve reds of this vintage. The 2019 presented intense red berries and black currant, complex spice, and tighter tannins, also a signature of the Reserve reds of that year. The 2019 would be ideal with a richer course than the squab, such as braised osso buco.

These three beautiful wines are among the finest we’ve ever produced, and the radius of the critics’ view speaks for itself. I present them to you with the happiest wishes of the estate for these holidays, and for the New Year. At this late date, I realize that you must have made plans for New Year’s Eve. Please, therefore, consider joining us in mid-January, for a wonderfully robust feast in the traditions of the Italian Alps, inspired in part by my own many holidays there in Summer as well as in Winter, as I reported in a previous Note this year. Consulting with Palladio’s Chef Michael Clough, I feel he has composed a great feast to showcase the Alpine culture and my selections of superior Red Reserves of nearly 10 years of age. I do invite you to give us a call — (540) 832 – 7848 — as soon as you can.

Cordialmente ~
Luca Paschina Winemaker