For the third time this year I was blown away with Wellington Vineyard's Noir de Noir. The grape is Alicante Bouschet - one of those random southern Italian grapes no one thinks about- and the wine is as inky and tannic as it gets. TONS of dry mouth and a thirty second tale does for me what usually only the forty dollar wines can provide for me.

About the vineyard: Wellington's tasting room is around the town of Sonoma (so southern part of sonoma valley) and is one of the better tasting room options you can exploit. The majority of their wines are just above twenty bucks, yet they still have two killer Bordeaux blends that can compete with Napa's best. I would not buy a Wellington wine looking for a Screaming Eagle experience, but the wines are made by good people and there is zero snob-appeal.