Every so often you stumble upon a bottle that is surprising. Sometimes it is because of the flavor profile. Sometimes it is because of the price. Sometimes because it is, well, produced a little differently than you anticipated.
The white Mourvedre from Eleven Winery in Washington was most certainly the latter.
Why? They managed to produce this traditionally intense red grape as a nearly perfect white (with only slight, slight pink hints)!
Pedro Ximenez is an interesting dessert wine from Spain (although it is sometimes made into a dry wine as well). Typically, the grapes are allowed to dry out to effectively become raisins prior to fermentation, and the result is an intensely sweet wine that is subsequently fortified into a sherry.
A sweet, sweet, almost syrupy-like sherry.
Naturally, it is hard not to like this one if you have a sweet tooth, and Pedro Rodriguez e Hijos Mil Pesetas Pedro Ximenez NV was no different for us!
I have to admit that Cabernet Franc isn't my favorite varietal out there. But there is one winery I'll buy bottles from again and again, and that is Heron Hill in the Finger Lakes.
This one has everything I look for in this grape, and even though I open every bottle with a bit of apprehension, I always walk away pleased.
We often find that non-vintage Champagne can have flavor profiles all over the place. Some are high acid with simple citrus fruit flavors. Others have strong lees components. Others still may have some indication of age because, well, we simply have no way of knowing how old that bottle was to begin with.
Champagne Taittinger's Brut NV definitely fell towards the end of being one of the more complex non-vintage Champagnes we've had to date, and now we simply want more!
When it comes to French Sauvignon Blanc, if you know a bit about regions your mind may first go to Sancerre in the Loire Valley. While this region does make stellar bottles, we often find the prices in the USA to be just a bit more than what we'd prefer for the respective bottles.
Thankfully, Pouilly-Fume nearby also makes some stellar Sauvignon Blanc at, in our limited sampling at least, slightly better quality when comparing two similarly priced bottles. The only downside? They can be quite hard to find in the USA- so whenever we see a bottle we snatch it up right away. Domaine Serge Dagueneau et Filles Pouilly-Fume was no different, and we really could use another bottle of this one in our cellar!
We've been lucky enough to sample some wines from Armenia Wine Co. as finding Armenian wine in the USA is often difficult outside of this brand. Their non-vintage white comes from the Kangun grape and offered a somewhat simple flavor profile with some slight aged notes on the finish.
This one will truly go with many dishes, but we ended up wanting just a bit more.
When we visited many wineries in Seattle, we quickly realized how great the wine regions are for Syrah. As Syrah happens to be one of our favorite grapes, we truly were in heaven and brought back many bottles to enjoy over the subsequent months and years.
One such bottle was from Amavi Cellars, and their 2018 Syrah was a bit unique in that it had some interesting jammy fruit characteristics!
Whenever we head to a wine shop, we always check out the “Other Countries” section to try and find new grapes and regions to try in addition to their more famous counterparts.
On one recent trip to a Fine Wine & Good Spirits Premium Collection store in Pittsburgh, we found a few bottles from Eskibaglar Winery in Turkey. One in particular, their Okuzgozu Reserve, had some pretty great reviews and a nice price point for an almost eight-year-old wine. A new grape from a new country? We were in.
While this one could've likely aged for another decade or longer, it lasted about a month in our house. It was so good we want to rush out and buy another bottle to leave in our cellar.
In our never-ending quest to try all the grape varietals in the world, we've been enjoying several bottles from the Wines of Illyria brand as they feature an array of new-to-us grapes from the Balkans at a relatively reasonable price point.
Blatina is one such grape we got to try from this brand, and while we thought this particular bottle was somewhat simple it went quite nicely with stuffed cabbage rolls!
Whenever we have oysters, our thoughts go to Muscadet Sevret et Maine sur lie as the pairing.
There is something about this particular grape that works so well with oysters as the lees aging offers a richness to what would otherwise be a simple wine. Beyond that, we historically have noted a decent salinity in this style of wine that offsets the brininess of oysters quite nicely.
So naturally, when we had oysters delivered to our house, it was time to open a Domaine des Quatre Routes Muscadet Sevre et Maine Sur Lie!
