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.
Generally when we think of wine from the Finger Lakes, our mind goes to an array of white grapes that we absolutely love from the region. While we've had some delicious reds, including several bottles of Cabernet Franc and Saperavi from various producers, we haven't quite had a red blend like Bloomer Creek's White Horse.
This one contains the regional favorite Cabernet Franc with a mix of Merlot for good measure, making for an especially powerful wine.
At five years old this one still had an impressive tannin level and evolved considerably as we drank it. To be quite honest, we'd even love to age this wine a few more years for good measure!
We've had many glasses of Cava in the past- some average, some good. But we had never had one that was absolutely stellar, that is until we had the Pares Balta Blanca Cusine 2011.
This is some stellar Cava, and for its price point (sub $40 per bottle at our local distributor) we absolutely couldn't ask for anything more. In being 78% Xarel-lo (with the rest being Chardonnay and Pinot Noir), we also were able to get a fonder appreciation for the grape in this one.
We'll never say no to opening a bottle of Sauvignon Blanc from Marlborough, NZ, and when we made one of our favorite dishes, Shakshouka, we knew exactly what we had to open up- Greywacke Sauvignon Blanc!
When we think of Argentinian red wines, we don't often think of Syrah. But after a few sips of this one from our WSET 2 class, we knew we had to pick up a few bottles of the Chakana Nuna Syrah to enjoy as this one was quite a delicious representation of the varietal.
The first one didn't last very long in our cellar.
When we decided to make a lemon eggplant risotto, it didn't take long for us to settle on the Boutari Moschofilero from Greece. The dish checked a lot of boxes for us as having similar flavor profiles we'd expect to find in Greek food, and the citrus and minerality notes in the wine sounded like they'd go well with the lemon and eggplant respectively.
We were not let down by this one– on its own and with the food.
Xynisteri is a new grape varietal for us and one that is indigenous to the island of Cyprus in the eastern Mediterranean. Naturally, we were eager to crack this one open as soon as possible purely for this reason.
While we ended up thinking this one was a tish heavy on the minerality for what we like (relative to the acids and fruit, at least), we are glad we tried it all the same.
When you look at the bottle of Standing Stone Blanc de Blanc from the Finger Lakes, you may be a little confused. Its branding leans in heavily on Hermann J Wiemer, the parent winery of Standing Stone that is located just across Seneca Lake.
But while this one does carry the Hermann J Wiemer branding, the grapes were sourced from vines planted on Standing Stone's property in 1974 all the same. As we are big fans of both of these vineyards, we bought a bottle of the Blanc de Blanc without even sampling it and quickly popped it open after we got home from the region.
When we think of Gamay, our minds instantly head to Beaujolais in France. For many, many years our experience with this varietal was from wines that solely came from this region, and it wasn't until we got our hands on a bottle from Ayres Vineyard that we tried from the new world.
Yes- Ayres Vineyard Gamay does not come from France, and is instead from Oregon!
