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 | 2003 Chateau Yon-Figeac Grand Cru Classé, St. Emilion, France $44.95 85% Merlot, 10% Cabernet Franc and 5% Petit Verdot. Yon-Figeac benefits from one of the largest estates in St-Emilion. The size of the estate means that the 25 hectares of vines are planted on a diverse mixture of clay, chalk and gravel soils, which gives great complexity to the wine. The wine matures on its lees in oak barrels, 33% of which are new, for 14 months.
Tasting Notes:
A delicate nose of violets and cassis leads on to a rich, well-structured palate of black pepper, dark chocolate, kirsch and damson.
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To buy wines, please email to cirruswine@cirruswine.com or call at 617-840-6217  | 2000 Don Pablo Reserva, Bodegas Bordeje, Spain $29.99 50% Grenache and 50 % Tempranillo. Don Pablo is a deep red-cherry colored wine with re brick nuances. On the nose the oak-ageing stands our, blended with a fruity scented background. The wine is perfectly balanced, velvety in the mouth, round and tasty, and leaves a full aftertaste in the back of the nose. Simply exceptional. |
 | 2003 Chateau Coutelin – Merville
mis en bouteilles au Chateau
Saint Estephe, France $26.95 Rich, powerful, spicy nose – mocha. Sumptuous, very concentrated, massive, burly but impressive with huge ripe tannins. Goes well with broiled and roasted red meats, hard cheese, stews, and lamb. Good length. Drink now – 2016. |
To buy wines, please email to cirruswine@cirruswine.com or call at 617-840-6217  | 2004 Kumkani Pinotage
Western Cape, South Africa $13.85 The grapes for this wine come from the prime growing areas of the Coastal Region, South Africa’s foremost red wine production area. This Pinotage has aromas of red and black summer berries and exotic spice. It has focused ripe berry, creamy spice and vanilla flavours and a long silky finish. This wine is a great partner with meat dishes with lots of spice. A well structured wine reflecting the vintage and should last 6+ years in bottle.
4 1/2 Stars from John Platter's Wine Guide 2007. “Multi-layered complexity confirmed class of 04, opulent, spicy, with velvety texture.”
89pts from Stephen Tanzer International Wine Cellar 2007 |
 | 2004 Aquinas Cabernet Sauvignon Napa Valley $11.70 Medium plum and brick red hue with intense wild huckleberry and sweet cherry concentrate. The palate is full with dark fruits like cranberry, black cherry and intense cassis, which finishes with supple oak tannins, integrated vanilla and subtle cinnamon spice.
This wine is great with grilled meats and hearty pastas such as beef bolognaise or carbonara. It is a dense, well made wine that will continue to open and unfold as it sits in your glass
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To buy wines, please email to cirruswine@cirruswine.com or call at 617-840-6217  | 2003 Santa Ema Syrah Barrel Select Cachapoal Valley, Chile $9.95
Syrah Santa Ema is a wine with a deep and rich red color and bluish hints. On the nose, the wine displays black fruit aromas of blackberries, blueberries and floral notes that evoke violets. Oak aging contributes with vanilla and chocolate accents. On the palate, the wine is well-balanced with ripe tannins and a good structure that creates a long, lingering finish.
87 pt, rated by Stephen Tanzer’s International Wine Cellar.
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 | 2004 Barone Cornacchia
Montepulciano d’Abruzzo, Italy $11.50
Montepuliciano is a dark red with blackberry fruit flavor grape and has spicy and peppery qualities. The 2004 Montepuliciano vintage is excellent, round in character, and delicious. It broadcasts ripe aromas of berries with spices, herbs, and earthiness. This is a rustic red wine with ripe strawberry and blackberry flavors that fills the mouth, followed by layers of leather, violets, a dash of peppery, and completes with smooth tannins and a fulfilling finish. The fruit is balanced adroitly with acidity. Paired well with pastas, grilled, or roasted meat. |
To buy wines, please email to cirruswine@cirruswine.com or call at 617-840-6217  | 2005 Marquis Philips Shiraz
Southern Australia $18.00
The inky/blue/purple-colored 2005 Shiraz offers up sweet, rich aromas of blackberries, toasty wood, licorice, and a touch of pepper. This dense, opulent, fleshy, full, rich 2005 Shiraz was 100% barrel fermented in new and 1 year old American oak and barrel matured for 12 months. The 2005 wines show generous and concentrated fruit and this Shiraz is a great example with its flavors of dense dark chocolate and spice. It has silky, smooth tannins. The wine shows creamy developed characters and is overwhelmingly, mouthfillingly delicious.
Match: Roast Steak, Hamburgers, Lamb, Spare Ribs
91 pt rated by Robert Parker (The Wine Advocate)
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 | 2005 Clos de los Siete Mendoza, Argentina $15.45
A bit of marmalade and violets accent the bold, dark nose with syrupy berry flavors offset by a whack of bitter chocolate. Full-bodied, with chewy tannins and plenty of oak on the finish. A ripe, untamed, candied wine that will settle with more bottle age.
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To buy wines, please email to cirruswine@cirruswine.com or call at 617-840-6217
 | 2005 Domaine Brintet, Bourgogne Rouge, Cote Chalonnaise, France $15.45
Brintet family has been producing wine for more than four centuries. The vineyards are spread over different areas, called climates which produce wines with distinct characteristics, easily discernable upon tasting. The wine was produced from low yield vines and grapes harvested at the peak of polyphenolic maturity and in the best health.
This authentically-styled Pinot Noir from Burgundy has dark cherry flavors balanced by hints of forest floor and dry finish.
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 | 2004 Santa Ema Reserve Merlot
Maipo Valley, Chile $11.95
The Santa Ema Reserve Merlot has unmistakable vanilla and chocolate notes that highlight from the black fruit aromas. This wine has been aged for 10 months in French oak barrels. It is concentrated and deep, with soft and ripe tannins and a fruity and persistent finish. |
To buy wines, please email to cirruswine@cirruswine.com or call at 617-840-6217
 | 2004 Hare’s Chase RED BLEND
Barossa Valley, Australia $15.45
With deep plum color, this combination of varieties has produced a compote of the sweet, dark fruit flavors, plum, dark cherry and mulberry. The wine is juicy, has a round softness and will drink well immediately. The excellent balance and the medium- to full- bodied Barossa fruit will also allow this wine to be cellared for years to come.
93 point rated by Australian Wine Companion 2007 Edition
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 | 2004 Bogle Pinot Noir, Russian River Valley, California Oringinal Price $15.95 Ripe, round, and ready, the Bogle Russian River Pinot Noir exhibits excellent generosity. A wine of structure and finesse, floral aromas of crushed rose petals and violets are welcoming and inviting. Dense fruit flavors of black cherry integrate with moderately toasty oak overtones. The lingering impression on the palate is one of firmly weighted fruit with a soft, silky finish, echoing with touches of pipe tobacco and earthy leather.
Perfect with a fully-adorned turkey or game-style entree.
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To buy wines, please email to cirruswine@cirruswine.com or call at 617-840-6217  | 2003 Chateau Courreges
Bordeaux, France $16.99 75% Merlot, 10% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Cabernet Franc, 5% Malbec
Food that complements this wine:
Braised Veal,
Veal with Brown Sauce
Braised Pork,
Pork with Sauce
Roasted or Grilled Lamb
Pizza
Meat Pie or Quiche
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 | 1996 Faustino Tinto Gran Reserva, Rioja Spain $29.99 Deep, sweet dark-cherry fruit forms a solid foundation for this impressive wine. There’s a touch of menthol oak on the nose; plenty of leather and earth accents in the mouth, coupled with good acidity, keep the palate complex and lively. Finishes long, with full—but not harsh—tannins. Plum, dried cherry, dusty spice and leather notes mingle in this mature red, which is still quite fresh, it will make a fine accompaniment to delicate dishes
Match: Steak, Lamb, Veal |
To buy wines, please email to cirruswine@cirruswine.com or call at 617-840-6217  | 2004 Domaine Chandon de Briailles Savigny-Lès-Beaune 1er Cru Les Lavières, Burgundy $36.75
The 2004 Les Lavières' aroma is floral, with violets evident. The palate seems to taste directly of the limestone rock in which the vine-roots grew. The structure of the wine is rich yet sinewy, with superb potential for complexity and smoothness (for drinking 2008-2015+). 
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 | 2003 Steltzner Cabernet Sauvignon, Stags Leap District, Napa Valley $31.00 Barred for 20 months in mixed French oak. 95% Cabernet Sauvignon, 3% Cabernet Franc, 2% Merlot.
Stags Leap District is a unique place to farm grapes. Often called a valley within the Napa Valley, the Stags Leap District is influenced by cool evening breezes fro the Sam Pablo bay and rocky volcanic soils.
Tasting Notes:
Smooth as velvet, intoxicating aroma, a marriage of dark cherry fruit, oak and toffee with spices of cumin and coffee. Velvety on the palate with a lingering raspberry finish.
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To buy wines, please email to cirruswine@cirruswine.com or call at 617-840-6217  | 2005 Ascheri Fontanelle Barbera D’Alba Piedmont, Italy $14.95
Deep ruby red color with violet nuances. medium to full body Complex, intense bouquet, with ripe berry mixed with a vanilla nose. light tannin levels, Round, harmonious palate with excellent savoury persistence.
Barbera is a red wine grape that is most used in Italy. It has some of the flavor characteristics you would find in a Cabernet Sauvignon. Good match for full flavored foods or foods with tomato sauces involved.
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 | 2005 Bel Air, Bordeaux Superieur, France $9.50
Lots of fresh blackcurrant fruit and no hard edges, delicious example of easy-drinking everyday Bordeaux Red.
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To buy wines, please email to cirruswine@cirruswine.com or call at 617-840-6217  | 2005 Bellevue Rougier, Bordeaux, France $11.00 A very surprising wine, given its source and price. Medium garnet in color, it has a nose of cherry, strawberry, liquourice, and mild oak. The taste is marked by good acidity, enough to indicate that it would probably age well and could have used some additional time in the bottle (still fairly young). The fruit is prevalent but goes somewhat thin in the mid-palate, but has a moderately long finish that includes just a bit of astringency and obvious tannins. |
 | 2004 Trevor Jones ‘Boots’ Shiraz
Barossa Valley, Australia $14.95
This is a juicy, chewy, delicious Barossa red with lots of black-cherry fruit and creamy oak. Red berries, black berries and a sandy, savoury finish - it's a lovely, balanced, highly drinkable wine. It's a new wine from Trevor Jones, and it's immediately a leader in its price range. Drink: 2007-2010.
88pt rated by Campbell Mattinson (a well known Australia wine critic), The Wine Front.
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To buy wines, please email to cirruswine@cirruswine.com or call at 617-840-6217  | 2006 Cartlidge & Brown Pinot Noir $14.45 It reveals classic Pinot Noir characteristics of sweet and sour cherries, a hint of forest floor, and a medium-bodied, soft, easy to understand, fragrant personality. A shocking value for Pinot Noir. |
| 2003 Maison Bouachon Châteauneuf-du-Pape, France $29.25
Sweet bouquet of raspberry, maple and a hint of rose petals. More complex flavors on the palate with forest floor, bramble and truffle notes. Soft on the finish with continued oak and leather accents. A very dark core and clear garnet rim with a tinge of orange. Bold and dark on the nose with charred oak and tar aromas up front over layers of dark plum, blackberry and licorice. The front of the palate shows a solid streak of flinty minerality followed by bakers chocolate, and bold dry tannins on the mid-palate. The fruit swarms up on the back palate, leaving lingering cherries and vanilla.
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To buy wines, please email to cirruswine@cirruswine.com or call at 617-840-6217  | 2005 Devils Lair, Fifth Leg Red, Western Australia $13.50 2003 Fifth Leg Red was Claimed wine of the week by Wine Spectator. 89pt
A blend of Shiraz, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc and Merlot, this Fifth Leg 2003 Red is smooth and generous, offering a cascade of sage-accented cherry and plum flavors, mingling black olive and herb notes as the fruit persists gracefully with a welcome sense of sweetness on the finish. This is an excellent wine and it delivers plenty at the price. Drinking now through 2008.
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 | 2000 Vina Rufina Alta Gamma Reserva, Spain $19.99 100% Tampranillo. One year ageing in barrel, and two years ageing in bottles. This wine is a full-bodied beauty. Produced from grapes who’s wines exceed 100 years in age, balanced, full of fruit.
Perfect for lamb, chicken with tomato and onion.
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To buy wines, please email to cirruswine@cirruswine.com or call at 617-840-6217  | 2003 Santa Rita Medalla Real Cabernet Sauvignon, Chile $16.95 Medalla Real Cabernet Sauvignon is crafted from a single estate in Alto Jahuel, located in Chile’s famous Maipo Valley, one of the finest wine producing regions in the world. The wine is full bodied and lustrous ruby red. Its enticing aroma is a bouquet of ripe red and black fruits mingling. Aged for 12 months in French oak barrels, in the mouth, its vigorous flavor, ripe tannins and majestic body conclude in a complex and persistent finish. Medalla Real 2003 Cab is well formed and ranks as one of Chile’s benchmark of upper- to medium-level Cabernets. |
 | 2005 R Winery Evil Cabernet
South Eastern Australia $10.95
The Wine Buyer: This “little” Cabernet Sauvignon is not really so little with nice red and black fruit aromas plus plenty of juicy cassis and blackberry flavors with enough spice to make it interesting but smooth enough for the masses. Score: 90. March 24, 2007. |
To buy wines, please email to cirruswine@cirruswine.com or call at 617-840-6217  | 2003 Chateau Saint Galier, Bordeaux Red, Graves, France $12.65
Two areas in Bordeaux have benefited more than most from the revolution in winegrowing and winemaking techniques. Saint-Emilion, which has garnered most of the press, and Graves on the other side of the river. Graves, with a lower percentage of Merlot, is not quite as supple as Saint Emilion, but its balance and minerality are unequalled. The Saint Galier is a remarkable bargain: dark plum fruit balanced with a little tannic cut, and mineral undertones. Delicious with lamb.
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 | 2005 Gnarly Head Old Vine Zin, Lodi, California $10.99
This old vine zin was produced from hand-selected grapes from some of the oldest and most respected vineyards in Lodi. Older vines produce fewer grape clusters, but the small berries yield concentrated fruit flavors characteristic of great Old Vine Zinfandel. Rich, dark berry flavors from the small grape clusters are balanced with French, American and Hungarian oak, which creates layers of licorice, plum, pepper and vanilla. This luscious combination provides a lingering and spicy finish. This wine pairs well with barbecue, pizza, hearty pastas, chili and ribs. |
To buy wines, please email to cirruswine@cirruswine.com or call at 617-840-6217  | 2004 Mas de Gourgonnier, Les Baux de Provence, France $13.50
At the farm (mas) of Gourgonnier, in the favoured microclimate of Les Baux, the Cartier family grows olives, apricots and grapes, all completely organically (the fierce winds of the area help fight disease naturally). Made from Grenache, Syrah and Cabernet Sauvignon, their lovely, voluptuous red wine, with its bouquet of sun-baked pine forest and wild thyme and abundant flavors of ripe red fruit has become a staple for serious wine aficionados, as much for its superb value as for the careful farming methods used to produce it. |
 | 2005 Luc Pirlet Pinot Noir les Barriques
Languedoc, France $10.99
We tasted this full flavored, sultry Pinot from the Languedoc and were really impressed …lots of black fruits, licorice, cherries, mocha and gentle spices with mild oak flavors. 
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To buy wines, please email to cirruswine@cirruswine.com or call at 617-840-6217  | 2004 Mas du Bouquet Vacqueyras, Cote de Rhone, France $12.99
“90pt Ruby-red. Explosively aromatic nose combines heady raspberry, strawberry and kirsch fruit aromas with complex floral and fresh herb elements. Intense, sweet berry flavors are underpinned by bight minerality and framed by dusty tannins. Gains in depth and sweetness on the finish, finishing with bitter cherry and dark chocolate notes and excellent length. $18” - Stephen Tanzer’s International Wine Cellar
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To buy wines, please email to cirruswine@cirruswine.com or call at 617-840-6217 2004 Luigi Bosca Cab Blend Gala 2, Mendoza, Argentina $29.99 2004 Luigi Bosca Malbec Blend Gala 1, Mendoza, Argentina $29.99 Mr. Blacks 2004 Vintage Port Shiraz 500 ml, Barossa, Australia
$22 2005 Three Rings Shiraz, Barossa, Australia $19.99 2005 was an excellent vintage in the Barossa Valley and the quality shows here in this wine's balance and complex flavors."" A small percentage of Cabernet was used in the blend this year." Wood treatment was a combination of new and used American Oak for one year."
The sleight of hand that mesmerizes the eye is not unlike the skill that tantalizes the palate. South Australia's Chris Ringland (Winemaker), David Hickinbotham (grape grower) and Californian Dan Philips (importer) have created this fine wine; a hard act to follow.
3 Rings is a joint venture between Dan Philips, David Hickinbotham and winemaker Chris Ringland, 100 percent Barossa from several old vine vineyards blended beautifully by Chris Ringland.
2004 Barrel Monkeys Shiraz, McLaren Vale, Australia $23 2004 Luigi Einaudi Dolcetto di Dogliani, Italy
$19.99 2005 Brampton Cab, South Africa
$12.99 2006 Vina Gormaz Tempranillo, Spain
$11 2005 Clos LaChance Cab, California
$15 2005 Vitor Hugo Peti Syrah, Paso Robles
$19.99 2006 Valpolicella, Italy
$12 Valpolicella is a red wine created from corvina, molinara, and rondinella grapes in the Veneto region of Italy. Regular Valpolicella has 11% alcohol and no more than 70% corvina. Valpolicella Superiore is created with at least a year of aging, and must be 12% alcohol or more.
The traditional center of Valpolicella production uses the name 'Valpolicella Classico' - about half of all Valpolicella falls into this category.
Valpolicella can be a fruity, medium-weight red wine, but because of recent production troubles and overplanting it can often be acidic and thin. They can have a light cherry flavor, with licorice hints and slightly bitter finish. Robert Parker went so far as to call it "insipid industrial garbage" at one point. It appears that Valpolicella producers are trying to improve their wines to combat this appearance.
Valpolicella should be drunk at around 56F which is cool but not white wine temperature. It is normally drunk relatively young, within 3 years. It goes well with light dishes - pork, lamb, eggplant in red sauce.
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