by John Gilman, View From the Cellar, March-April 2021 #92

2018 Aeris Centennial Mountain Bianco

The 2018 Bianco “Centennial Mountain Vineyard” from Kevin Harvey’s new Aeris project is composed entirely of Carricante. The 2018 comes in at an even twelve percent octane and offers up a superb aromatic constellation of pear, lemon blossoms, lavender, a dollop of bergamot, stony soil tones, a deft touch of vanillin oak and hints in the upper register of green olive notes that may arrive more fully with further bottle age. On the palate the wine is pure, full- bodied and rock solid at the core, with a great girdle of acidity, fine mineral drive and grip and a long, nascently complex and perfectly balanced finish. This is flat out great juice, which is delicious today, but clearly will continue to blossom and grow with bottle age. I do not have a sense of how ageworthy Carricante will be from California, but all of the constituent components seem in place for this wine to easily last fifteen to twenty years in the cellar. Time will tell. 2021-2040+? 94.

2018 Aeris Centennial Mountain Barbera

The 2018 vintage of Barbera from Aeris is a ripe customer, coming in at 14.5 percent alcohol in this year. Despite its octane, the wine is beautifully pure and precise on the nose, wafting from the glass in a complex blend of black cherries, woodsmoke, a nice touch of nuttiness, a lovely base of soil, gentle balsamic tones, a touch of oak and a floral topnote. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied and transparent in personality, with a good core of fruit, fine focus and grip, tangy acids, moderate tannins and a long, complex and gently warm finish. This is an excellent wine and really balanced impeccably for its octane; it will age long and gracefully, though I expect it many bottles will be drunk up in its blush of youth. 2021-2040+. 92.

2018 Aeris Centennial Mountain Bricco Rosso

The 2018 Bricco Rosso bottling from Aeris is composed from a cépages of fifty percent Nebbiolo, fifteen percent each of Nerello Mascalese, Carignan and Primitivo and five percent of Barbera. The wine offers up a deep and complex bouquet of red and black cherries, sweet dark berries, a hint of chocolate, a gentle touch of fresh herb tones, a hint of curry, a classy framing of cedar and a spicy topnote. On the palate the wine is deep, full-bodied, focused and nicely ripe, with great mineral undertow (particularly for fairly young vines!), a lovely core of fruit, firm, chewy tannins and a long, complex and very well balanced finish. This too is a touch riper than I would like ideally, coming in at 14.5 percent octane, but it carries its alcohol very well and will have no difficulty aging beautifully. I can well imagine drinking this wine ten or fifteen years down the road and wonder why I even bothered to comment about the ripeness when it was young! 2028-2055+. 93.