2006 Erbaluce di Caluso, Favaro le Chiusure  

Rating: ♠ ♠ 1/2 

2005 Nuits St. Georges 1er Cru, Domaine Forey Pere & Fils  

Rating: ♠ ♠ ♠ ♠

Wine merchants Ted (who I have known since Model Rocket Club in Jr. High School) and Kristen Talley own Terra Firma Wine Company, based in Oakland California. Last week we went to dinner together at the the trendy new eatery, Flora, in Oakland’s’ revitalized downtown district.

Tucked in an old tile-faced art deco building, Flora is perhaps one of the most poorly named new restaurants. You’d think a place called “Flora” would specialize in, well, flora — as in vegetables, No so. Flora’s menu, which bills itself as Mexican-influenced, is pretty much all meat, all the time. But then, what is meat, after all, but condensed vegetables? Anyway, “Fauna” would be a better name. I started with a venison appetizer and then moved on to a super tender New York strip. It was excellent.

 We started with a white, purchased from Flora: a 2006 Erbaluce di Caluso, Favaro le Chiusure. Erbaluce hails from Piverone, in the far Northwest of Italy, near the Serra Mountain. According to Vinobravo, the Favaro family grows its 100 percent Erbaluce grapes on just 30 acres. 

The first thing to hit me was the wine’s pineapple-like nose and its almost surprising, effervescent quality on my tongue. It was almost like a sip of pineapple Pop Rocks. (Do they even make Pop Rocks, anymore?) It reminded me of an Arneis. Unfortunately the wine was over-chilled, giving it, at first, a rather “steely” quality that didn’t sit so well with the its nascent bubbliciousness. (Get with it, Flora.) After a while, though, it warmed and opened up a bit and offered a bit of macadamia on the finish. All-in-all quite nice.

 Next up, Ted brought out one of his imports, a 2005 Nuits St. Georges 1er Cru from Domaine Forey Pere & Fils. This Burgundy, (100 percent Pinot Noir) hails from the Côte de Nuits, the northern part of the Côte d’Or (the Côte de Beaune being to the south). Domaine Forey Pere & Fils small, 9 1/2 hectare vineyards, which has been turning out superb wines since 1840, is on the southern slope of the hills — which Ted tells me is considered “the manly side” — between the too-rich bottom soil and too-sparse top soil, and where it has exposure to the morning and midday sun.

 This wine, also known as “Les St. Georges,” offers up an earthy, young nose with a hint of peppery spice. It is robust, grittily tannic — almost explosively tannic at first, in fact — though with a fairly easy balance once it opens up a bit. You can really taste the marble on which it is grown. Even so, this wine, while pretty darn good now, could probably use a year or two more in the bottle, and should age well for years to come.

Definitely one to buy now and savor later.