2006 Summers Napa Valley Estate Charbono

..she said..."Rambo, what means "Charbono?"

He said "huhhhh?" in his most Scooby-Doo like inflection.

Now, although Bill got all in my face and called me full of $h*t and a wine snob at the Rains' luau and it was all the zen master I could muster to not break his finger as it dented my chest, I really don't think I am, especially since I'd never heard of Charbono. Accordingly, in my geekdom, I did some research before I tackled this and stumbled across some really interesting info.

While there's too much to post here, I do recommend taking a look into several of the links in this search as it's kinda fascinating.

So, here's the reader's digest version....

* Only 80 acres grown in the USA. 100% in California.

* Imported by Italian immigrants in the 1800s

* Is a Piedmontese varietal - possibly related to Charbonneau (fr.)

* Is the 2nd most popular varietal grown in Argentina

Ok..Cool. Now what? Well, try some.

I know. Too far out of the box, too difficult to find, blah-blah-blah-blah. 

No? Good...actually, Great!

So this Charbono has wonderful mouthfeel that's extremely soft and delicate, but with significant bright fruit, mainly dark berries, but not a Santa Lucia Highlands Pinot type of berry. When I say significant, I mean subtle. Huh?

How can that be? Yeah, I know, but I don't know any other way to describe it.

I had this with a hearty fall soup, but it would also play well with most meats (non-beef), fowl (particularly Duck or Ostrich), and several other fall-style vegetable dishes.

2006 Summers Napa Valley Estate Charbono

~$25

90 points