Thanksgiving is fast approaching. I've tried to find some good wines at a reasonable price that might help make the festive meals less stressful and affordable.
Many of the red wines at the store are the same price today as they were in 2009. Now that's something to celebrate.
Have a nice Thanksgiving everyone and try not to think about that next big holiday - Christmas.
Chteau De Valcombe
2013 Syrah/Grenache (857243)
France
$12.99
The Ricome family has owned Chteau De Valcombe for almost 300 years. From grape to table, this single family continues to be closely involved in the entire winemaking process. Founded by Dominique Ricome, today the winery is operated by his descendants - Basile Ricome is the winemaker and Nicolas Ricome manages marketing and sales.
The vineyard is located in France's southern Rhne Valley where the soil is very rocky and does not retain much of the moisture this region receives. As a result, grape vines need to develop very deep root systems. Some of the vines are 100 years old and can have roots with a depth of up to 12 metres.
The shape of this bottle puzzled me a little. This is a Rhne wine but its bottle shape makes it look like it is from the Languedoc wine region. Thankfully, I wasn't entirely wrong. Costires De Nmes was recently reclassified as a wine from the Rhne Valley. They must be using up their existing bottle supplies.
This wine has a dark purple colour. Despite the dark tone, it isn't dense and still looks inviting in the glass. The aroma reflects the colour with dark fruits like black plums, cherries and currants. There is a hint of black pepper and rawhide qualities. On the pallet, it has nice fruit, but not overly so, some tannin and a crisp finish, which make it perfect to pair with a pork or even a ham dinner.
Landlust
2013 Organic Riesling (509430)
Germany
$15.99
Landlust Riesling comes from Germany's Mosel wine region. These vineyards must be incredible to see, rising up from the Mosel River with a pitch of up to 65 degrees providing the grapes with great sun exposure. However, this pitch means the slopes are too steep to harvest the grapes mechanically and any erosion that occurs has to be hauled back up the slopes manually.
Because of these challenges, the vineyard has mitigated the risk by staking the vines individually so grape pickers can harvest the grapes moving horizontally across the vineyard rather than vertically.
Thinking back, I think many of us cut our wine drinking teeth on the German white wines. Back in the day, they had a reputation for being sweeter, more accessible wines, especially the Rieslings and Gewrztraminers. I don't think of them as sweet anymore. While some will have a 2 or sometimes a 3 on our sweetness scale of 0 to 10, they have good acidity which balances the wine so well the sweetness is nearly undetectable.
This wine has a lemon colour with a touch of lime green and appears very light in the glass. The first aroma I noticed was the scent of my favourite apple variety - Macintosh. It also has lemon and mineral aromas and maybe a bit of a floral quality.
While this wine has a sweetness rating of 2 it is so nicely balanced that only a very light hint of sweetness is noticeable in the mouth. Together, this wine begins with apple and finishes with lemon creating a refreshing mouth experience on the decently long finish. When I think about pairing this wine with a meal, Thanksgiving turkey comes to mind.
Anderra
2013 Sauvignon Blanc (822601)
Chile
$13.99
You just can't tie a French winemaker down. Baron Philippe de Rothschild makes some of the world's finest wines and Anderra is their latest venture.
Although the Sauvignon Blanc grape is native to the Loire Valley in France it is doing very well in Chile. The style is quite different but so is the terroir where it grows. Chile's Central Valley is a depression that runs north to south between the coastal range and the Andes Mountains. Imagine the variation of this geography would provide. The terroir chosen for these Sauvignon Blanc grapes is bang on.
Unlike Sauvignon Blanc wines from New Zealand, this wine does not have any herbaceous, grass or gooseberry aromas. Instead it has light, lemon yellow colour with some nice aromas of ripe tropical fruit. Gradually these flavours seemed to build upon each other going on forever with a mouth-watering crispness. The mid palate of this wine is fantastic with tropical fruits such as pineapple and mango. It's no wonder, this wine won Gold, Best in Class and got 92 points at the 2014 Los Angeles International Wine Competition. So good, I've already bought my second bottle.
