We love finding field blends from countries we do not get wine from all too often, because the odds are good that we'll find a wealth of new-to-us grapes to try.
Zlatan Otok's Bilo Idro Marina Cuvee Bijali was one such bottle that was a field blend often containing bogdanusa, posip, prc, trebbiano, and malvasia bianca lunga to name a few.
For those who like fruity and mineral-driven white wines, this one should be on your radar!
Arista is one of our favorite wineries in Sonoma, and makes some of the best Pinot Noir we've had in the USA.
Naturally, we became club members and regularly add bottles to our cellar to age.
Arista's Perli Vineyard Pinot Noir is one that we have the most of in our collection. Now that our first bottles, from the 2017 vintage, are now entering their drinking window, we thought we'd pull one out and see how they're stacking up!
We've been loving Armenian wine more and more, and always seem to pick up a bottle when we can find them. At one of our favorite local bottle shops, we were recommended to try an Areni Rose from Shofer.
A varietal bottle with some great rose characteristics from a grape we can't try all too often? We were in, and this one was quite delicious.
Our experience with Moldovan wine is, admittedly, quite limited. When you can find it in the USA (which is more like an “if you can find it”), the options have been quite limited.
So when we ran into a nearly nine year old bottle of Fautor Winery Negre made with Feteasca Neagra and Rara Neagra (Babeasca Neagra) that came with exceptionally high reviews, we knew we had to grab it.
This is one of those bottles that was so good we'd grab another to chuck in our cellar for another decade or so. Don't worry if you don't have the patience to wait for this one, because it was quite the delicious bottle right now, too.
When looking out for new grapes to try, we were excited to stumble upon a bottle or Robola from Kefalonia in Greece from Gentilini Rhombus.
We were expecting a warm climate white wine with this one, and while somewhat riper in fruit characteristics, this one was surprisingly restrained for being Greek- so much so that we had not known any better we would've compared it with a Riesling from the USA or select places in northern Europe!
We have to admit, we have a bit of a love affair with Pares Balta, particularly their Cava Blanca Cusine– an often aged Cava that comes packed with incredible flavor.
Since we loved the Blanca Cusine so much, we naturally wanted to try their Rosa Cusine- the rose equivalent in the same aged Cava series made with Grenache. While it may be less common to discuss aged rose, for this one, eight years of age was just starting to show its true potential.
One of our favorite things about Riesling, beyond its delicious flavor, of course, is that it can be grown just about anywhere that grapes thrive. Cold climate? Yep. Warm climate? You got it.
This means many wine regions are growing this versatile grape worth exploring, and Pegasus Bay gave us our first chance to try a bottle from North Canterbury, New Zealand.
For those who like petrol, this one had loads of it at five years of age.
Sometimes a bottle of wine is so good that we immediately go out and buy another one. For Domaine de L'Enchantoir Terres Blanches, a beautiful Chenin Blanc from Saumur, this was just the case.
Well, sort of. This one was an instance of Angie opening the bottle of wine while I was out of town, regretting having it on her own, and buying it because it was just so good that I had to try it.
After opening a bottle to share, I can safely say, she was absolutely right. This one is a delight!
Normally when you think of wines from South America, your attention shifts to Argentina or Chile- two of the larger producers of wine on the continent.
But Uruguay holds its own with producing stellar wine, and while it may be known for the tannin-forward Tannat, there are other unique grapes to found here, like Marselan!
For those who love fruit almost to the point of being jammy, with prominent tannins (that are perhaps not as intense as Tannat), Marselan made for quite the interesting pour.
Greece is a wine-lovers paradise, with many delicious varietals to be found all over the mainland and nearby islands. On the island of Crete you may be lucky to find the Kotsifali grape that has limited exports.
We were lucky enough to find a bottle of Alexakis Kotsifali and Syrah blend (60%/40%), and were rather eager to try out as quickly as possible. A new grape paired with one of our all-time favorites? Something told us we were going to like it. And we did.
While this one is a fair bit lighter by most Greek wine standards, for those who want an easy drinking wine that is both fruit-forward and complex, give this one a go.
