AN ELEGANT SEGUE
Château Lassègue
2004 Lassègue Saint-Émilion Grand Cru
Bordeaux, France

Pierre Seillan was born in Gascony in Southwest France to a winemaking family, and spent two decades in Bordeaux as technical director and winemaker to seven different châteaux. He took his expertise and his wife Monique to California in 1997, where he worked with Jess Jackson and his wife Barbara Banke overseeing the creation of Jackson Park (Bennett Valley), a 110-acre estate on Mount Taylor planted exclusively with Merlot, and the creation of Vérité in Sonoma County. Now, the four of them have teamed up back in France on Château Lassègue, a Grand Cru Bordeaux Estate in Saint-Émilion with a distinctive terroir where the vineyards are bathed in sunlight from dawn to dusk. The vines, which are all at least 35 years old, were grown on a hillside through limestone, clay, and white rock for this particular Bordeaux blend of 60 percent Merlot, 35 percent Cabernet Franc, and 5 percent Cabernet Sauvignon. After the grapes were handpicked, crushed, and fermented, the juice was aged 15 months in 100 percent French oak barrels, yielding 5,000 cases. The result is a complex, layered, elegant wine that reveals its tannins in its finish, and will continue to improve with age. Serve it with beef, veal, or poultry.

Rating: 15/20
Price: $50

Other Meritage & Bordeaux we have tasted
Check out our guide to France
For more information, visit www.chateau-lassegue.com

LITTLE SWEET ONE
Lucas & Lewellen Winery
2007 Mandolina Dolcetto
Santa Barbara County, California

Louis Lucas, a longtime grape grower, grew up in the business and has more than 35 years of experience in viticulture, selling grapes to wineries like Kendall-Jackson and Robert Mondavi. Lucas’s current enterprise began in January 1996, after a lunch with his good friend Royce Lewellen, a retired judge. At the meal, Lewellen offered to buy half-interest in Lucas’s vineyards, with the condition that Lucas did the farming. Ever since the pair agreed to collaborate, their company has grown its holdings and developed special brands, like Mandolina, which focuses on California-grown Italian varietals. The 2007 Mandolina Dolcetto showcases the namesake Dolcetto varietal, a popular wine grape in northern Italy. The varietal’s name means “little sweet one” in Italian, and is only grown on 91 acres in California—3.5 of which are owned by Lucas & Lewellen. This light-bodied vino shows flavorful hints of dried cherry, oolong tea and sage. A note of oak complements smooth tannins and well-balanced acidity, making the 2007 Dolcetto a good companion to pizza, or simply by itself.

Rating: 13.5/20
Price: $17

Other Red Blends we have tasted
Check out our guide to California
For more information, visit www.llwine.com