Hello and welcome to my weekly dig through the pile of wine samples that show up asking to be tasted. I’m pleased to bring you the latest installment of Vinography Unboxed, where I highlight some of the better bottles that have crossed my doorstep recently.

This week included some lovely whites from California, starting with a stony Chardonnay from Darling Wines, which has a modicum of what wine geeks like to call “nervosity,” but which is too much jargon for throwing into a tasting note. I opted for “brisk” instead. It’s got great acidity and freshness.

Next up is a perennial favorite, the Riesling from Smith-Madrone in Napa. It seems to me that the winery is trying harder to release these wines later, which is a treat. In this case, it has yielded a 5-year-old wine that is beginning to show some of the secondary characteristics that transform Riesling from something fresh and bright into something more profound.

Moving up the richness scale a bit, let’s look at the Rhône-style white blend from Clos Solène in Paso Robles, which offers a wonderful melange of citrus and stone fruit flavors that are really quite appealing, especially with a note of white sage on top of everything.

I’ve been following Pepe Raventós’ Can Sumoi project since its beginnings, and continue to be very impressed with the wines. Can Sumoi is a farmstead established in 1645 high in the mountains of Penedès that Raventós has revitalized. It is farmed organically, and the wines are made with only a minimal addition of sulfur and no other interventions aside from temperature control. The property contains some very old vines and includes plantings of Sumoll, an uncommon ancient variety from the region. The three wines I tasted this week are fresh, bright, and delicious—from the crisp and stony Xarel-lo to the tingly bright berry of the rosé, to the earthy, stony character of the blend of Grenache (known as Garnaxta in this region) and Sumoll. They’re also priced very fairly and come in cute, squat little bottles that are quite trendy.

I also got a bottle of Pinot Noir Rosé from the venerable Flowers Winery on the Sonoma Coast. It’s pretty much everything you want in a cool-climate rosé of Pinot Noir. Crisp, berry, and watermelon notes and citrusy finish that begs another glass.

The Frescobaldi family is essentially Tuscan wine royalty, owning a significant number of estates throughout Tuscany. This week they sent through their Chianti Classico from Tenuta Perano, which sits at 500 meters of altitude in the hills above Gaiole in Chianti. It has a brightness and an earthiness, plus some patina of age that make it an appealing bottle, especially for under $30.

The Donum Estate in Carneros is a spectacular wonderland of large-scale environmental art, but also a serious Regenerative Organic wine estate, making wines from its property as well as from select parcels throughout the North Coast. I can recommend their Anderson Valley Pinot Noir, which is named after an installation on their property by the artist Ai Weiwei. The wine is on the rich side of Pinot Noir but will appeal to anyone who likes their Pinots lush and ripe.

Last but not least, I’ve got two Cabernet Francs to share this week from Lang & Reed, a beloved producer inspired by (and for a number of years, dedicated only to) Cabernet Franc. More than a decade ago, proprietors John and Tracey Skupny released their first vintage of “Two Fourteen” named after the primary Entav 214 clone of Cabernet Franc from the Loire Valley, which John found in a vineyard on the southern side of Napa Valley. Since then that has been the winery’s flagship bottling. Or so we thought. It turns out Skupny has been holding back portions of that wine in key vintages and giving it a long period of aging in a special French oak barrel, and then keeping it for a few more years in bottle before release. Known as Bois Sauvage or “wild wood,” this bottling’s current vintage is 2014, which was interesting to compare to the current 2019 release of the standard “Two Fourteen” bottling. I think the wood on the Bois Sauvage is a little much for me, texturally speaking, but the wine is just entering what will be another 10 years of excellence, I predict.

Notes on all these below.

Tasting Notes

2022 Darling Wines “Den Chòsta” Chardonnay, Sonoma Coast, Sonoma, California
Pale gold in color, this wine smells of lemon pith and orange peel. In the mouth, stony and bright flavors of lemon peel and orange peel mix with a hint of white flowers and wet chalkboard. Excellent, stony acidity makes for a brisk, clean mouthful. 12.8% alcohol. Bottled unfined and unfiltered. 100 cases made. Score: between 8.5 and 9. Cost: $48.

2019 Smith-Madrone Riesling, Spring Mountain District, Napa, California
Light yellow-gold in the glass, this wine smells of paraffin, Asian pear, and mandarin zest. In the mouth, mandarin oil, candied lemon rind, winter melon, and a hint of toffee have very good acidity and a lovely wet chalkboard minerality. Aging beautifully. 13.3% alcohol. Score: around 9. Cost: $40. click to buy.

2022 Clos Solène “Hommage Blanc” White Blend, Paso Robles, Central Coast, California
Pale gold in the glass, this wine smells of lemon peel, pear, and chamomile flowers. In the mouth, bright lemon and pear flavors are shot through with yellow herbs and hints of white sage. Lemon zest lingers in the finish. Excellent acidity. A blend of 80% Roussanne, 16% Viognier, and 4% Grenache Blanc. 13.5% alcohol. Score: around 9. Cost: $63. click to buy.

2023 Can Sumoi Xarel-lo, Penedès, Spain
Palest greenish gold in the glass, this wine smells of green apple, pears, and sweet cucumber. In the mouth, green apple, grass, pear, and a hint of melon flavors have a crisp dryness to them, with a hint of underlying stoniness. A faint bitter melon flavor lingers in the finish. 12.5% alcohol. Certified Organic. Score: between 8.5 and 9. Cost: $23. click to buy.

2023 Can Sumoi “La Rosa” Rosé, Penedès, Spain
Pale baby pink in color, this wine smells of watermelon rind and rosehips. In the mouth, juicy and faintly salty watermelon and hibiscus flavors have a crisp brightness thanks to excellent, stony acidity. Clean and bright with just a hint of bitterness in the finish. A blend of Sumoll and Xarel-lo fermented and aged in stainless steel. 12% alcohol. Certified Organic. Score: around 9. Cost: $21. click to buy.

2023 Flowers Vineyards & Winery Rosé of Pinot Noir, Sonoma Coast, Sonoma, California
Pale baby pink in color with peach highlights, this wine smells of strawberries and watermelon. In the mouth, bright watermelon and watermelon rind flavors mix with a hint of salty orange peel. Juicy, bright, and delicious with excellent acidity. Crisp and clean. With flavors of citrus peel lingering in the finish. 13% alcohol Score: around 9. Cost: $34. click to buy.

2018 Frescobaldi “Tenuta Perano” Chianti Classico, Chianti, Tuscany, Italy
Medium ruby in the glass, this wine smells of cherry, struck match, and leather. In the mouth, cherry and leather flavors mix with orange peel and juicy bright acidity that accompanies cottony tannins that stiffen over time. There’s a faint meaty, even barnyard quality to the wine as well. Mostly Sangiovese with small amounts of other local grape varieties aged in a combination of steel and oak for 12 months. 14% alcohol. Score: between 8.5 and 9. Cost: $28. click to buy.

2022 Can Sumoi “Garnaxta Sumoll” Red Blend, Spain
Medium garnet in the glass, this wine smells of flowers, berries, and wet earth. In the mouth, juicy flavors of wet earth, dark berries, citrus peel, and dried flowers have a lovely stony quality and excellent acidity. Faint wispy tannins have a powdered stone quality to them. Lovely. A blend of Grenache and the ancient local variety Sumoll, which is not technically allowed in Penedes wines, which is why this wine is only classified as Spanish. 13% alcohol. Certified Organic. Score: around 9. Cost: $25. click to buy.

2021 The Donum Estate “Year of the Ox” Pinot Noir, Anderson Valley, Mendocino, California
Dark garnet in the glass, this wine smells of cherry and cranberry fruit. In the mouth, candied cherry and raspberry flavors are shot through with dried and fresh herbs and a hint of dark earthiness. Lightly muscular tannins flex as the wine finishes with hints of sweet oak. Decent acidity. Rich, ripe, and plush. Not really my style of Pinot. 14.5% alcohol. Score: around 8.5. Cost: $95.

2014 Lang & Reed “Bois Sauvage” Cabernet Franc, Napa Valley, Napa, California
Dark ruby in the glass, this wine smells of cherry and earth and aromatic herbs. In the mouth, beautifully silky flavors of cherry, mocha, dried herbs, and dried flowers are wrapped in a gauzy blanket of tannins that aren’t so much muscular as they are drying. While the wood is very well integrated here, texturally it is a bit much for my taste. A special cuvee off the Sugarloaf Mountain Vineyard. Spent 32 months in a specially made barrel, and then extended bottle aging before release. This was the earthquake vintage, so this wine technically survived a major natural disaster. 14.5% alcohol. 19 cases made. Score: around 9. Cost: $250. click to buy.

2019 Lang & Reed “Two Fourteen” Cabernet Franc, Napa Valley, Napa, California
Medium to dark garnet in the glass, this wine smells of black cherry, cocoa, and roasted nuts. In the mouth, sweet cherry fruit is shot through with hazelnuts and chocolate (Nutella anyone?) plus some faint dried and fresh herbs. Excellent acidity and faint tannins. The sweet oak really shows itself in the finish more than I would like. Give this some time to integrate. 14.5% alcohol. 274 cases made. Score: between 8.5 and 9. Cost: $90. click to buy.