Tag: Clarissa Nagy


Feb
2017

Nagy Wines 2013 Pinot Blanc

categories: Booze, Wine

If you couldn’t tell by now, I’m a fan of Nagy Wines. She packs a respectable amount of depth and complexity into varietals I thought I knew so well. And yet, for all of the intricacy, each wine maintains a well-rounded refinement, simply celebrating the fruit and opening its ability to pair with a variety of cuisine.

Well, Nagy Wines 2013 Pinot Blanc has a slightly different approach. A well-rounded celebration of the fruit is is. Deep and complex, it is not. Not every wine has to have layers and layers of diverse tastes and textures to be “good.” Sometimes it’s about a few good flavors, a consistent texture — sometimes it’s just about drinking wine for fun. Well winemaker Clarissa Nagy has crafted a wine that says, sometimes, girls really do just want to have fun. So let’s have some fun!

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Feb
2017

Nagy Wines 2012 Pinot Noir

categories: Booze, Wine

Winemaker Clarissa Nagy was kind enough to send me a complete package of her current releases. I immediately fell in love with the tenacity of her Viognier. I was bowled over by the voluptuous fruits in her Syrah. So I absolutely expected good things when I opened Nagy Wines 2012 Pinot Noir. But “good things” does not adequately describe the drinking experience. “Exceeds expectations,” still doesn’t do the wine justice. I may, my friends, be at a loss for words to describe just how well-balanced, refined, and, well, just plain tasty this Central Coast Pinot Noir is.

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Feb
2017

Nagy Wines 2013 Syrah

categories: Booze, Wine

Mmmm I do love a good Syrah. The thing about it, though, is that it’s an absolute chameleon grape, absorbing the most minute details of its surrounding soils. Northern Cali kid that I am, I’m most familiar with the more savory, and all-around tighter Syrah of the gravely-turfed, cool climate Sonoma Coast. Though I’ve ventured as far as Paso Robles in my Syrah sips (a region that seems to be a French-Cali hybrid), the 2013 Nagy Wines Syrah is my first from Santa Barbara County. It seems that this chameleon grape has absorbed the sweet summer sun of SoCal.

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Jan
2017

Nagy Wines 2013 Viognier

categories: Booze, Wine

I’m not hep with the latest Hollywood gossip. My celebrities, on most days, wear hiking boots, flannel shirts, and rarely any jewelry, lest a string of pearls gets hooked on a crooked vine. When Clarissa Nagy, owner and winemaker of Nagy Wines, contacted me about tasting and reviewing her current releases, I was star-struck. In my eyes, Clarissa is an inspiration — for women, for winemakers, for anyone who, like her, has found a passion and made it a life’s work.

It’s interesting that my first taste of Nagy would be a Viognier, a varietal that, to me, can be much too delicate — what some would call feminine. Often watery on the palate, diluting the over-pronounced tropical fruit juice flavors, and with an abundance of that funky floral nose, Viognier can be quite, well, pretty. Pretty but not (always) tasty. But what Clarissa has done here is crafted a Viognier with backbone and substance. A feminine wine? No, a feminist wine — a wine with strength, purpose, and beauty.

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