Click below to learn more about this month’s club selections!

1. 2023 BUDUREASCA “SABRIZE” FUMÉ

Dealu Mare, Romania

Grape Varietals

• Sauvignon Blanc
• Chardonnay
• Pinot Gris

This is a dry white blend in which Chardonnay provides body and richness, Sauvignon Blanc contributes freshness and aromatic lift, and Pinot Gris adds texture and ripe fruit character.

Location

Country: Romania
Region: Dealu Mare
Appellation: Dealu Mare DOC-CMD
Winery: Budureasca

Budureasca’s vineyards are located in the heart of Dealu Mare, one of Romania’s most important wine regions. The estate encompasses roughly 300 hectares divided into parcels with varying soils and microclimates. Of particular interest are the ancient marine fossils—including fossilized shells and sea snails—found within the vineyard soils, remnants of the prehistoric Sarmatian Sea. The name Sabrize itself evokes “sand, sea, salt and breeze” and was chosen to reflect this unusual terroir.

Cellaring

Recommended drinking window: 2024–2028

Tasting Notes

Sabrize Fumé is a richer, more textural interpretation of Romanian white wine. It has a straw-yellow color with aromas of vanilla and ripe tropical fruit, followed by a round, velvety palate. Chardonnay and Pinot Gris contribute weight and texture while Sauvignon Blanc helps retain freshness. The wine spends five months in French oak, with bâtonnage—the stirring of the fine lees back into the wine—which adds creaminess, complexity and breadth. Tropical fruit carries through the palate before transitioning into an elegant finish marked by vanilla and subtle toasted oak. The result sits somewhere between a fresh aromatic white and a richer barrel-aged Chardonnay in style.

Food Pairings

This wine’s combination of acidity, creamy texture and oak makes it particularly good with grilled chicken or turkey, roast chicken, richer fish, salmon, halibut, seafood, vegetable pasta and creamy pasta dishes. Soft and semi-soft cheeses are another excellent match. The oak and tropical fruit allow it to handle somewhat richer foods than a typical Sauvignon Blanc, while the Sauvignon component keeps the wine fresh enough for seafood and vegetables. Try it with herb-roasted chicken, grilled halibut with lemon butter, mushroom pasta or a creamy seafood dish. The producer specifically recommends grilled poultry, fish, soft and semi-soft cheeses and vegetable pasta.

Producer

Budureasca began producing wine under its modern winery operation in 2007 and has since developed into a significant Romanian producer. Its approximately 300 hectares of vineyards lie in the heart of Dealu Mare, an area situated near the 45th parallel, similar in latitude to Bordeaux. The name Budureasca reaches much further back in history: it references the ancient inhabitants of Dacia, where vines were cultivated more than 2,000 years ago. The winery combines that long regional history with modern winemaking, producing both international varieties and grapes associated with Romania. Sabrize is particularly focused on communicating the estate’s distinctive terroir and its fossil-rich soils.

---

2. 2024 BROOKS OLD VINE POMMARD PINOT NOIR

Eola-Amity Hills, Oregon

Grape Varietals

• 100% Pinot Noir
• Pommard clone
• Old-vine, own-rooted estate vines. Only 292 cases produced

The “Pommard” in the name is important: it does not mean the wine comes from Pommard, Burgundy. Rather, it refers to the Pommard clone of Pinot Noir, one of the historic Pinot Noir selections widely planted in Oregon. Brooks affectionately abbreviates this bottling as O.V.P. — Old Vine Pommard.

Location

Country: United States
State: Oregon
Region: Willamette Valley
AVA: Eola-Amity Hills
Vineyard: Brooks Estate

The fruit comes from Brooks’ estate vineyard in the Eola-Amity Hills, one of the Willamette Valley’s most celebrated Pinot Noir growing areas. The site’s cool conditions help Pinot Noir retain the bright acidity that is particularly evident in the 2024 O.V.P.

Cellaring

Recommended drinking window: 2026–2034

Tasting Notes

The 2024 Old Vine Pommard is a wonderfully bright and elegant expression of Pinot Noir, showing raspberry, pomegranate, red currant, red cherry, black cherry, plum and dark Oregon strawberry. Floral notes of rose petal accompany subtle herbal accents, giving the fruit additional complexity. On the palate, the wine is fresh and energetic, with high acidity and fine, lingering tannins providing structure without making it heavy. As the wine develops in the glass, more unusual savory notes emerge, including fennel seed and a subtle patchouli-like earthiness on the finish. The wine was hand-harvested, completely destemmed, fermented in open-top stainless-steel fermenters and aged primarily in large-format foudre, helping preserve its pure fruit expression rather than covering it with new-oak flavors. James Suckling awarded the 2024 94 points.

Food Pairings

The lighter body, bright acidity and red-fruit character make this an extremely versatile Pinot Noir at the table. Pair it with roast chicken, duck, pork tenderloin, grilled salmon, mushroom risotto, roasted vegetables or charcuterie. Mushroom dishes are especially good because their earthy flavors can draw out Pinot Noir’s subtler savory side. The wine would also be lovely with herb-roasted chicken, pork with cherries or cranberries, cedar-plank salmon or a simple plate of Brie, Camembert or Gruyère. Because this is a more delicate Pinot Noir, avoid extremely heavy sauces or intensely charred steak that could overwhelm its fruit and floral character.

Producer

Brooks Wine was founded in 1998 by Jimi Brooks, who built the winery around a commitment to expressive Oregon Pinot Noir and Riesling, thoughtful farming and minimal-intervention winemaking. After Jimi died unexpectedly in 2004, his young son Pascal inherited the winery, while Jimi’s sister Janie Brooks Heuck and members of Oregon’s wine community stepped in to ensure that Brooks survived. Today, the winery remains family-owned and deeply committed to environmental stewardship and biodynamic farming. The Old Vine Pommard is an especially meaningful wine within the portfolio because it comes from old, own-rooted Pommard-clone vines on the Brooks Estate and is handled with relatively little intervention in the cellar, allowing those mature vines to take center stage.

For this particular Brooks wine

“Own-rooted” is worth understanding. Most wine vines around the world are grafted onto American rootstock as protection against the phylloxera insect. These Brooks vines grow Pinot Noir directly on their own roots rather than being grafted, making them increasingly unusual. Combined with their age and the historic Pommard clone, that makes O.V.P. a particularly interesting glimpse into an earlier era of Oregon Pinot Noir.