The Great Buys & Must Trys Issue
Me, skiing the corkscrew run on a recent trip to Ellicottville with friends.
Dearest subscribers, I spent much of the Holiday drinking wonderful wines with similarly wonderful people. A highlight among them, the 2009 Louis Roederer & Philippe Starck Vintage Champagne I shared with my boyfriend, Luke.
How special it was, after a long day of skiing - our first outing of the season - to drink this most memorable bottle, together.
Of course, not every wine I drink demands a decade-plus of aging, nor should it.
What follows is a selection I have deemed, Great Buys & Must Trys, for those more, "every-day" of drinking occasions.
Juliénas is an appellation of Beaujolais, France where the red grape variety Gamay dominates. The wines of Juliénas are typically youthful in character with notes of ripe red and black fruits such as blackberry, plum, and cherry. This wine, from Laurent Perrachon & Fils is from the 2015 vintage and features a floral note of dried violet along with a firm acid and tannic structure that gives this wine a degree of age-worthiness that's not so typical of the region.
While Juliénas is one of the 10 certified Crus of Beaujolais, a distinction denoting superior quality, Beaujolais, often even at the highest level of production quality, are considered wines you want to 'drink young'.
For best results pair with a French charcuterie board of pâté grandmère, dry sausage, and Savoy ham.
Chateau Ste. Michelle is one of a few dozen producers I recommend time and time again.
They've got a great range, most of which are available at the LCBO - Merlot, Chardonnay, a red blend, their dry Riesling is a particular favourite. But, more than that, their wines, from Washington State, are consistently good. Each time I have one I'm memorably delighted by the taste and quality. The 2016 Indian Wells Cabernet Sauvignon was similarly affecting.
This wine is produced exclusively from fruit harvested from the Indian Wells Vineyards of the Columbia Valley winery. It's a full-bodied, tannic, high-alcohol wine brimming with weighty aromas of oak, vanilla, and spice and teeming with lush fruit flavours of black current, blackberry, and black cherry.
This is exactly the kind of wine I like treating myself to on a quiet Friday evening at home. In fact, as I write this, I can think of nothing more enjoyable than cracking a bottle, setting out some Beemster and crackers and flicking on Real Time with Bill Maher.
If you're feeling more energetic, pair this wine with a steak and blue cheese arugula salad.
Anyone who follows me on Tik Tok will know, not all Pinot Grigio is boring and tasteless. This one, from Schloss Turmhof Tiefenbrunner in the Northern Italian wine region of Alto-Adige, is a sterling example of just how juicy and tantalizing a PG can be.
Lemon, lime, crushed rock, a touch of flint, this wine is simple but vibrant and refreshing with just enough zest to keep your mouth watering for more.
Serve with pan-fried tilapia topped with a cucumber relish.
Long-time subscribers to SWP may recognize this producer. I reviewed Susana Balbo's Torrontés in the 'Single Varietal Issue' in the summer of 2018. That wine, in particular, holds a special place in my heart and is entirely unforgettable to me, by name, taste, and aroma because it was one of the first wines I was ever able to identify 'blind' in an exam setting.
Susana Balbo makes wines that, to the trained palate, are easily recognizable because they are terroir-driven classics from classic regions. If you're drinking New World Malbec, Mendoza is where you'll find some of the finest.
The 2017 Susana Balbo Signature Malbec includes just a splash, (5%), of the grape variety Petit Verdot - a classic blending grape native to Bordeaux which adds tannins and colour to the blend. This wine is full-bodied, high-alcohol and bottled unfiltered. It features flavours and aromas of blueberries, blackberry and lovely aged leather and tobacco notes imparted by its time spent aging in French oak barrels.
This is an incredible wine for the price. It makes a perfect dinner party wine especially if roast or bbq'd meats are on the menu.
A perfect girls night white,Te Henga Sauvignon Blanc, is dry, crisp, refreshing, and bursting with all the freshness we love in NZ SB - grapefruit, gooseberry, guava, and that signature aroma of fresh-cut grass.
This is the kind of easy-drinking crowd-pleaser that disappears in a flash, but that's okay, because this puppy's only $12.95!
Te Henga takes its name from the "wild iron-sand surf beach" on Auckland’s West Coast, a sort of homage to the region that happens to be the birthplace of many of NZ's first major wineries that later moved to Hawke’s Bay and Marlborough.
Pair with a cheeseboard, some girlfriends, and the latest episode of the Bachelor!
Cahors, which rhymes with adore, is a red wine producing appellation in southern France where Malbec is the leading grape variety. In fact, in order to legally carry the appelation name of Cahors on the bottle, the contents therein must be a minimum of 70% Malbec. The remaining percentage is often a blend of small amounts Tennant and Merlot.
Malbec in this region also goes by the names Cot and Auxerrois. Same grape, three different names (to give you just one example of the memory work required in studying to become a sommelier!)
This example, from Chateau Lamartine is dry, medium-bodied, and fruity, and just slightly less tannic in structure and lighter in alcohol than the Argentine Malbec from Susan Balbo.
For an easy weeknight meal, I'd pair this wine with carne asada tacos or black bean and corn salsa tostadas.
