Woot Wine : One Week, One Wine (SM)

Some wines merely taste good. Some transport you to another time, another place. (And we’re not talking about drinking so much that you black out until the morning after.) A time before the world had ever known a World War. A place where advertising posters and high art could be one and the same. A world where a naked woman could fly down the street with a bicycle, crazy Frenchmen painted on the beaches of Tahiti, and lovers passed severed ears in the mail like valentines. And they called it la Belle Epoque.

The scandalous label on these bottles of Cycles Gladiator reproduces an 1895 poster advertising that very model of modern conveyances, the bicycle. It’s not easy for us jaded 21st-century folk to understand the dizzying feelings of freedom that this novel contraption aroused, especially in crowded, class-bound Europe. Imagine if, suddenly, everybody could afford their own helicopter. Or better yet, just try any or all of these four Cycles Gladiator wines. Their uninhibited energy evokes the thrilling time when the bicycle was joined by inventions like the telephone, the phonograph, motion pictures, the airplane, and yes, even cellophane.

Not that you’ll taste any cellophane. Making their world debut, the two bottles of Cycles Gladiator “More Reserved” (the 2006 Cab and the 2006 Merlot) were born in the dry, cool 2006 growing season, and harvested late for darker colors and more developed tannins. You won’t find any reviews of these two yet. And anyway, who cares about reviews? Any Belle Epqoue painter could tell you that real genius is cruelly unappreciated in its own time.

Cycles Gladiator only harvests their Chardonnay at night, and the 2005 Central Coast Chardonnay shows how successful this eccentric method is at keeping bitterness at bay. Cool fermentation in new and neutral French oak makes for brighter, richer, fruitier, Chardonnay-ier flavors. The cool-climate aromatics of peach and pineapple! The ripe, fresh white stone and tropical fruit flavors Bright acidity setting the fruit aloft like a zeppelin! As golden as the sunrise over Le Havre, this Chardonnay will leave you wondering whether to keep it in a wine cellar or in a museum.

Simplicity can be deceptive. A seemingly crude scene of a couple of South Pacific women lounging on a beach can hold a world of meaning and subtlety. So it is with the Cycles Gladiator 2007 Central Coast Pinot Grigio. Sure, you can sip it while you do the dishes, in classic Pinot Grigio style – or you can savor the symphony of fruit and floral notes being played on your nose and tongue. Sweet grapefruit, lemon zest, and honeydew notes are lifted by an avant-garde splash of Orange Muscat, for a Pinot Grigio that refuses to be ordinary.

Sadly, the world has moved on from the joyous, creative zenith of the Belle Epoque. But one sip of this Cycles Gladiator Four-Pack will have you wondering: who says you can’t save time in a bottle?