Weekly Wines Enjoyed By Jo Diaz For Wine-Blog.Org 3.16.2026

The following are Weekly Wines Enjoyed By Jo Diaz for Wine-Blog.Org 3.16.2026.

So much goes into making wine that I can’t speed taste. Besides, I have what’s called a superpalate. While it sounds way cool and groovy, it’s not. I have more taste buds than the average person, so flavors are wrapped in secret layers and intense. I can’t just call out ever adjective ascribed to any one variety. There’s something that dominates and that’s Day One.

Palmeri 2023 Lemon Man Ranch, Gamay Noir

Santa Lucia Highlands, Monterey County

This wine was a 2023 Palmeri Wines Gamay. Primary flavor of pomegranate was right there, and from cool Monterey County, which keeps flavors in check. On Day Two it’s more supple (less intense, especially since tannins dissipate, once a bottle is opened). Strawberries came rushing in! And it might even go to Day Three, depending. After that, it’s time for me to move on.

Owners, which includes my friend Daisy Damskey, who is their PR marketing agent, blesses us with their Palmeri Wines. The team is Daisy, her winemaker husband Kerry Damskey, and their son Drew Damskey. Their wines present a perfect trifecta; although, Drew’s wife Joella Damskey is part of their support team, along with being a young mother.

Domaine Breton

With five generations of wine grape growing, Domaine Breton has a solid history, with experiences to share. It’s in their storytelling that you’ll find their charm.

On their website, “Established since forever on these Loire lands, our families have cultivated the vines and vinified the grape varieties…dear to us.” Throughout the ages, they’ve created transcendent and consistent vintages. They credit all of this to the sap of their vines, which are rooted by their ancestors.

This wine is imported by the Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant company, to know Kermit Lynch’s fame is an instant endorsement. This is from the Kermit Lynch Website, and is so endearing.
“Much like his close friends, the late food writer Richard Olney and Chez Panisse’s founder Alice Waters, Kermit’s influence has been enduring.” Kermit is so talented in wine, he’s like Cézanne, who bridged the impressionists and what came next. American drinkers began a whole new tradition, they didn’t know they were missing.

The fragrances of this wine returned me to my childhood, at camp on Sabattus Lake, in Wales, Maine. The raspberries came into the midsummer season, and I had a patch all to myself. That’s where I’d take a break from swimming, so I could pick (and devour) wild raspberries. This is my kind of wine, and I had to control myself. When a wine is 12.5 percent alcohol, you’ve got my attention right away. Having a hot wine through alcohol (from 14 percent upward), is not my exact cup of tea.

Still, there are some, I can’t put them all into the hot wine category, with lots of considerations. I just don’t have to guess below 14 percent. It’s what I was the normal, when I came into wine, so I’ve had to adapt to higher alcohol levels.

Bouvet-Ladubay de Loire

Bouvet-Ladubay de Loire quietly sources from some of France’s most celebrated white wine terroir, and yet sells for a third of the price. Sounding better all the time, right? Loire is in France’s north central valley, and is also home to the Loire River. Its sparkling wines reflect that same obsessive attention to soil, climate, and the craft, and this one is very delicious.

Sheer delight and luminously quiet, the texture of this Crémant reminds me of a sheer, delicate fabric I once worked with. It was just whisper soft and gently vibrant. I’d recommend it with a creamy brie and ripe figs.

Do you know that a fig flower grows INSIDE of the fig, not outside? That’s just the darndest thing ever! Like that hidden fig bloom, the best things here reveal themselves quietly, from the inside out

History from Bouvet, in Saumur, France: Bouvet was founded in 1851, in the heart of the Loire Valley, by Etienne Bouvet and his wife, Célestine Ladubay.

Today Bouvet Ladubay is the largest producer of méthode traditionnelle sparkling wine, in Saumur. It is France’s most awarded for the quality of its cuvées, beyond Champagne. It is currently managed by Juliette Monmousseau, who is the fourth generation of this esteemed family.

Three Cheers and Happy Monday!

 

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Written by Jo Diaz, a partner of Diaz Communications, who is helping to make stars realize their dreams. Edited by partner Jose Diaz. To reprint, please contact Jo Diaz: jo@diaz-communications.com