I’ve partnered The Cellar d’Or, a great wine and cider shop in Ithaca, NY, to create a one-of-a-kind wine club that delivers some of the most delicious and unique wines from the Eastern United States right to your door. These aren’t bin ends or mass-produced, factory wine garbage. These are real wines made by real people. They are the wines I’m drinking myself — from producers you’re probably not going to find in any other wine club.
Without getting into details, I’m behind on writing. Pretty significantly. The rosé report is coming (hopefully this week) and I know I’ll catch up in the next couple of weeks — but today I’m excited to announce this month’s Cork Club wine club shipment.
I bring up the rosé report because two wines in this month’s shipment were top finishers during the panel tasting. So, I guess I should think of this as a mini-preview.
My first pick for June is Trestle Thirty-One 2023 Rosé, a dry blend of 95% cabernet franc and 5% chardonnay that helped spark a conversation amongst the panel about using white wine in rosé production. Delicate in color and in body, it is fresh with bright acidity and brings a combination of peach, red berry, and watermelon fruit flavor with underlying savory herbal notes. As it warms a bit, a cool saline minerality emerges, too.
The other rosé in this shipment is Fox Run Vineyards 2023 Rosé, a blend of 60% pinot noir, 21% cabernet franc, and 19% blaufrankisch. This was one of the top two wines from the panel tasting. It’s more overtly fruity, with juicy watermelon, red raspberry, and strawberry, as well as a distinct herbs de Provence quality that brings some complexity. If you don’t like this wine, you probably don’t like rosé.
Anthony Road Wine Company 2022 Cabernet Franc is the third wine in this shipment. It opens with fresh cherries, lightly spiced cherry compote aromas, red raspberry and savory dried herbs at the edges, and a light sprinkle of cracked black pepper. That same cherry-spice-herb combination continues on a medium-bodied palate with good concentration and ripeness. A combination of fresh acidity and gently grippy skin tannins bring focus and structure, leading to a long, dry, earthy finish.
The Heron Hill Winery 2022 Ingle Vineyard Cabernet Franc hasn’t been released at the winery yet, but luckily I got some for the club! The nose is a mix of fresh and dried herbs that mingle with ripe fruit aromas of black plum, blackberry, and cassis. The medium-bodied palate brings more black-and-blue fruits — blackberry, black currant, blueberry, and plum — with licorice and a sprinkle of minty herbs. There is nice mid-palate concentration here, with soft tannins that give it a supple feel, and enough acidity to bring freshness. The finish is long, with blackberry, black licorice, and a crack of black pepper.
You may remember that I included the 2020 vintage of this wine in a club shipment last year. This is a wine to look for in the vintages it is made (it wasn’t in 2021).
So that is that — my picks for the June 2024 Cork Club shipment. I know you’ll love these wines as much as I do.