We had our first bottle of wine from A&D Wines in our Plonk Wine Club order- the stellar Monologo Avesso that was one of the best whites we had that year.
Naturally, when we put in an order for more wine from Plonk a la carte we decided to check out another bottle from this supplier- the Casa do Arrabalde. While this one was a blend of near equal parts of Avesso, Alvarinho, and Arinto, it stacked up being a delicious Portuguese white wine all the same.
The Fableist Cabernet Sauvignon is not a pure bottle of Cab, but is in fact comprised of 85% Cabernet Sauvignon and balanced with Merlot, Petit Verdot, and Tempranillo.
We opened this one for a steak pairing thinking we'd have a pronounced acid and tannin fruit bomb, but instead found something a bit more nuanced. Good for what we were tasting, but perhaps not the best for the particular pairing.
Our first Bosnian wine is Wines of Illyria's Vranac- a red wine that hails from the Herzegovina region and one we sadly missed during our brief day-trip to the country in 2013.
Thankfully, we found this one to be a high acid, low tannin red that goes down quickly!
On my 2019 visit to Italy, my family and I went out on a day tour to check out several vineyards in Chianti. One such vineyard was Fattoria di Bagnolo where we were able to sample some of their delicious Chianti Riserva.
We bought several bottles to bring home (this and other styles like their Super Tuscan Capro Rosso) and opened up a bottle in late 2020 to enjoy just after ordering more bottles directly from the winery.
We opted to open our Gurrieri Grillo to pair with a fish and scallop feast as citrus-forward, island-based white wines always tend to work out for us as a good seafood pairing. As it turns out, a little bit of lemon was all it took to really open this one up!
Pulenta Estate outside of Mendoza, Argentina, has a special place in our hearts. We visited this one as part of a wine tour we took on Angie's birthday during our year-and-a-half gap trip in 2013-2014 (featured on our travel blog).
We had fallen in love with their entry-level La Flor Malbec and treat it as our go-to entertaining wine when we have guests over and do not know their wine tastes. But since returning home, we wanted to broaden our horizons with some of the winery's other offerings and picked up a bottle of their Chardonnay to try out a varietal we had not had from them before.
It did not disappoint.
Sancerre, France, is all about Sauvignon Blanc, and we've heard that wines from this region are among the favorites of some of our closest wine friends.
So naturally we picked up our first bottle, Durand Reserve Sancerre 2018, with great anticipation. Unfortunately, the lighter flavor intensity of this one fell a bit flat for us.
If you like wild and funky wines, Bloomer Creek's Riesling (Clone 10 from Auten Vineyard) should be on your radar. This one took us by surprise with just how unique it is- even more so than we expected.
We always like to celebrate when we book vacations- often in the form of takeaway from a restaurant focusing on said country's cuisine. But when we booked a trip to visit Georgia in 2021, we opted to go a different route- wine.
I rushed out to a local wine store that I knew had a great stash of Georgian wine and picked up a bottle of Vine Ponto's Rkatsiteli 2015. After a brief chill, we opened the bottle and, well, we were a bit surprised!
The Lafken Cabernet Sauvignon came from the winery's vineyard in the Maipo Valley of Chile. In being our first Cabernet Sauvignon from Chile, we were pretty excited to see how the flavors of the bottle would express itself compared to those from more well-known regions like California and Bordeaux.
While one bottle may not be enough of a representation to make general comparisons, we have to admit we like what we tasted here.
