South Carolina Wine Joe

Costco currently has reduced prices on several wines.  In my Greenville warehouse, this includes Westmount Pinot Noir Willamette Valley 2015 selling for $10.99.  Finding a Willamette Valley Pinot Noir for this price is rare.  Since the 2016 vintage of this wine has been available for a while, Costco apparently was able to buy the 2015 vintage Pinot Noir for a low price.  Westmount sold the wine online at full retail of $25 and wine.com sells the wine for $20.99. Westmount is a brand started by Northwest Wine Company with the first wines released in early 2017.  Northwest is best known for producing custom Oregon wines sold under many private store and restaurant labels.  The Westmount wines have achieved critical success with the 2015 Pinot Noir being rated at 91 points by James Suckling and the 2016 Pinot Noir rated as 92 points by Wine Enthusiast. Westmount Pinot Noir 2015 is 100% Pinot Noir aged 8 months in French oak.  The wine is a medium cherry to dark cherry color.  The flav

We have been enjoying Elk Cove Vineyards Estate Pinot Blanc Willamette Valley 2017 for several weeks.  We are very fortunate that our Costco has stocked this wine and I expect that it is not available at every warehouse.  We are also fortunate that Costco has priced this at $13.99 since the winery sold it for $19 on their website.  This wine was highly rated by wine magazines and was actually # 5 on Wine Enthusiast's list of top 100 wines for 2018. Pinot Blanc is a white wine grape that is a genetic mutation of Pinot Noir.  Pinot Blanc production has been growing in Oregon but it still trails Pinot Gris and Chardonnay. On the nose, I detected apple, peach and ginger aromas.  On the palate, there is some minerality which accompanies  apple, peach and honeysuckle flavors.  This dry wine is a great accompaniment to white fish such as grouper or mahi and we plan to continue adding to our supply of this wine.  I recommend that white wine drinkers give this a try. SC Wine Joe does

I have to admit that one Oregon Pinot Gris tastes about the same as every other Pinot Gris to me.  I really like Oregon Pinot Gris but to me, they all are similar.  Last week, I found Ponzi Vineyards Pinot Gris Willamette Valley 2017 at Costco.  Because of the reputation of Ponzi Vineyards for top of the line wines, I quickly added a bottle to my haul. Dick and Nancy Ponzi were pioneers in the Oregon wine industry.  They moved to Oregon in the late 1960's and founded Ponzi Vineyards in 1970.  Today, second generation Anna Maria Ponzi and Luisa Ponzi are producing great wines from their 130 acres of certified sustainable vineyards.  Aromas of fresh fruit and flower blossoms burst from the glass.  There are flavors of crisp citrus followed by a slightly sweet finish.  This is an enjoyable summer wine and in spite of previous declarations, I think this may be my new favorite.. Ponzi sells this for $19 at the winery and Costco has it for $11.99.  I hope my Costco has a good supply.