when crustaceans are cheap,
the catch still fresh and snapping in San Francisco,
Portland and Seattle markets.
It's also the season for fresh new vintages
from the southern hemisphere.
Some of the best young whites for boiled crab come from Chile's far coast, where sauvignon blanc grows in Casablanca, San Antonio and Leyda, a few miles from the sea. You'll find impressive depth in the selection of top-flight sauvignon, from wineries you may never have seen before several are only a few years old (p.69).
Make a richer stew with the crab, and you'll be hard pressed to find a better white than Clare or Eden riesling, their flavors of fresh lime and minerals a natural match. Clare's Grosset from Polish Hill, and Eden Valley's Henschke stand as two of the greats (p. 63). Both are proven agers, and neither needs proving with crab.
Closer to home, you could choose from a collection of Sonoma County chardonnays, from traditional classics like Hanzell to the new elite, including Dutton Estate and Flowers (p.75).
If you're angling for salmon off the Pacific coast, stock up on the pinot noirs we've culled from Anderson Valley, Sonoma's coast and Oregon's Willamette Valley (p. 58). Of the 268 pinots we tasted for this issue, we rated 32 as exceptional (90 points or better). Patrick Comiskey chose nine from the Willamette Valley that best capture Oregon's talent with the vine. I pulled out five from Anderson Valley, wines that remind me of the forests and orchards on the drive up to Mendocino. And I found ten wines from the neighborhood where the Russian River cuts through the coastal hills, an area producing some of the most site-expressive wines in California today.
For those who spend their winter hunting game, there are plenty of rich reds to stock your cellars. Patricio Tapia features some great Mendoza malbecs, and a bonarda that's worth your attention (p. 83). He also found a number of significant success stories among the 2002 Chilean reds, like the Terrunyo Carmenre and Clos Apalta (p. 70). I was impressed by the latest Australian shiraz-viognier blends, especially Clonakilla and d'Arenberg's Laughing Magpie, which show their brilliance as young wines (p. 65). The best straight shiraz in the issue is Peter Lehmann's Stonewell from 1998, a wine that's taking its time and nowhere near mature. And Napa Valley contributed a host of exceptional cabernets (p. 77), including the latest release of Phelps' Insignia, one of the best in the long run of this Napa collectible.
As always, every one of the 1,646 wines we tasted for this issue went through our two stage, blind tasting process. The first cut is made by panels of friends in the trade, including Eugenio Jardim of Jardinire and Eric Vreede of Absinthe, both in San Francisco, Melissa Monosoff of Fountain Restaurant at Philadephia's Four Seasons Hotel, and Jean-Luc Lametrie of Amuse in New York. Wines the panels recommend, our staff critic for each region then tastes, rates and reviews. Our critics' ratings and perspectives appear in the pages that follow, along with a complete description of our blind tasting process (p. 59).
