Don Rodolfo Moscato Argentina
Fermented using the traditional method, this Moscato wine has a peach and honeysuckle aroma with the right sweetness. It is made from Muscat grapes in what is known as the highest altitude vineyards of Argentina. The wide temperature variations during the day and the night force the vines to produce more concentrated grapes to make up for their lower yield.
Don Rodolfo Moscato pairs well with spicy Asian dishes such as the spicy ginger Szechuan beef.
Chianti Classico Riserva 2016 Famiglia Zingarelli Rocca Delle Macie
Description: It opens delicate with complex notes of cherries in alcohol, then continuing with nuances reminiscent of undergrowth and cloves. The palate confirms the sense of smell Refine 24 months in 35 hl French oak barrels and 3 months in bottle
An affable Chianti Classico, with seductive and enveloping aromas on the palate. Among the best value for money.
Municipality: Castellina in Chianti. target price of the best:Reserve 2016: 16 Grande Selezione 2015: 27
La Playa Estate Sauvignon Blanc
This dry, pale gold wine is produced in the Colchagua Valley in Chile. The La Playa Estate grows premium grapes on 597 acres and produces a selection of wines.
The Sauvignon Blanc has hints of pineapple, lemon, and lavender. It is well-balanced with a clean, mineral finish. Its high level of acidity is good for stabilizing your fondue and cutting through the cheese.
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Chianti Classico Gran Selezione 2010 Castello Di Cacchiano
We press on ripe cherry and wild strawberries in the background followed by undergrowth and references of tobacco, vanilla and leather. On the palate it is throbbing, with a measured tannin and integrated well with the acidity that gives smoothness. It ages for a total of five years, in small barrels, in barriques and tonneaux, all of French oak from the Allier area.
One of the best Chianti Classico for harmony and involving dialectic between tannins and acidity.
Municipality: Gaiole. target price of the best:Chianti Classico 2015 17 Reserve 2013 25 Grande selezione 2010: 30
Best Red: Ariel Cabernet Sauvignon
Courtesy of Vivino
Region: California, USA | Body: Full-bodied | Tasting Notes: Black currants, Cherries, Milk chocolate
Whats better than a warming glass of full-bodied cabernet sauvignon? This big-boned bottle oozes with flavors of black currants, meaty cherries, milk chocolate, blackberry skin, and sweet baking spice. Silky tannins and soft acid lead to a dry, palate-coating finish. This wine has less than 0.5% ABV. Sip with juicy steaks or hearty lentil stews and let the good times roll.
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Best Wines To Accompany Fondue
To help digest fondue, tradition suggests drinking white wine, kirsch or herbal tea. These help prevent the cheese from sitting heavily in your stomach .
We have already mentioned Swiss wines. These include Chasselas, Rousette or Chignin, whichalthough perfect for fondueare hard to find.
Good alternatives are dry white wines, such as Chablis, Muscadet or Alsace. An Austrian Riesling or Gruner Veltliner will also pair well.
If your preference is for red wine, make sure its light-bodied and fresh. You could try a Gamay or a Jura Poulsard. Lets look at a few of the best wines to accompany your fondue.
The Best Chianti Wine Vintages
As with any wine, the quality of Chianti varies by vintage. In years when the weather is particularly cool, these wines tend to taste more acidic. In these cool vintages, the most successful wines are those that have more Cabernet Sauvignon in the blend, as this balances out the acidity in the Sangiovese and Merlot. In hot vintages, Merlot-heavy blends or those made from 100-percent Sangiovese tend to be better than those made from 20-percent Cabernet Sauvignon.
Below is a guide to the best Chianti wine vintages according to Chianti Classico scores from Wine Advocate:
- 2016
- 2010
- 2006
This list isnt comprehensive these vintages are simply the most consistent in quality across the entire Chianti Classico region. Even in poorer vintages, some producers may have more success than others. This is why its important to read tasting notes for each individual wine before you buy it.
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Why Choose Cabernet Sauvignon
This full-bodied red wine has notes of black currants and plums, which means it will pair nicely with salmon because that fish has similar flavors think about a Salmon Fillet in Spiced Black Currant Sauce.
It also pairs well with other types of rich fish so you can even use this for Mediterranean dishes like Grilled Salmon Tacos or even seared tuna. Just keep in mind that its bold taste comes from an intense concentration of fruit flavors like cherry and blackberry all things considered, these flavors blend perfectly together into one delicious taste!
Moving With The Times
Up to 30% of vineyards around the Chianti Classico heartland of Panzano, Gaiole and Greve are now organic or biodynamic . Many grape growers are working with olive, fruit, cereal and vegetable growers to create environmentally protected areas, or biodistretti.
Sowing other plants between the vine rows helps feed both the soil and beneficial insects like bees by providing pollen. Such plants improve the wine, and their petals provide the perfect background for tourists lining up those holiday selfies. They are also giving rise to some pretty spectacular Tuscan honey.
Wine-growers in Chianti Classico are also at the forefront of mapping or zoning their vineyards to make it easier for drinkers to match wine tastes to particularly sunny or cooler, high-altitude vineyard areas the latter now much in vogue due to climate change.
Critics say this is making the already complicated Chianti equation even tougher to solve. They point out that there are already around 20 different ways of labelling Chianti and Chianti Classico which are jumbling up wine labels: terms such as Classico , Superiore , Colli , Senesi, Fiorentini and Pisane .
But the zoners argue that the more growers know about their vineyards, the more knowledge they can share with each other to improve quality and with wine lovers, who can make better informed choices. Enjoying a bottle of Chianti Classico is one thing, but knowing exactly why you enjoyed it is even better.
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The Best Winter Wines
Happy 2022! I hope I speak for all of us when I say I’m glad that 2021 is behind us and we can move forward into this year with renewed hope, new possibilities and a new road ahead of us. I wrote this list of the best winter wines when I was inside for ten days straight, snowed in up in the mountains of western Washington. Much whiskey, rum and wine was consumed and many books were read. Some James E. Pepper Rye Whiskey accompanied me with this task. I poured some into a mason jar and read the first few lines of J.R.R. Tolkien’s Fellowship of the Ring. Starting a new year sometimes feels like the first steps of a long journey with an unclear ending. You never know where you might be swept off to and I hope these wines will transport you to another place.
Best For The Holidays: Codornu Zero Ros Alcohol Free
Courtesy of Total Wine
Region: Penedès, Spain | Body: Light to Medium-Bodied | Tasting Notes: Strawberry, Red fruit
Bubbles and holiday parties go hand in hand, and what better way to amp up the festivities than with a pop of color? Produced in Spain, this sparkling rosé from Codorniu shows flavors of strawberries and red fruits that promise to please lovers of rosé and bubbles everywhere. Stash a few of these in the fridge and ensure that all of your booze-free bases are covered for last-minute gifts, parties, and impromptu celebrationsyoull thank us later.
Related: The Best Nonalcoholic Beers
To keep up with the latest in non-alcoholic options, follow industry leaders , and check out some amazing NA bottle shops that have recently opened over the past couple years . There are so many exciting things happening in this space. It’s a great time to take a break, for whatever reason!
Chris Raftery, sommelier at Gramercy Tavern
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Best For Dinner Parties: Fre Alcohol
Courtesy of Drizly.com
Region: California, USA | Body: Medium to Full-bodied | Tasting Notes: Black plums, Cherries, Sweet spice
Forget what you thought you knew about merlotthis dealcoholized version will surely change your mind. Silky flavors of black plums, cherries, and sweet spice jump from the wines rich and velvety palate. Dinner parties tend to have a variety of dishes and flavors on the table, and this classic red wine promises to pair with most heavier dishes. Serve with mushrooms, sharp cheeses, red meats, vegan stews and more.
Champagne Vilmart & Cie Coeur De Cuve
A lot of people call Vilmart Champagne “baby Krug” and I suppose that I understand where they’re coming from. Both houses ferment their base wines in neutral oak and have a tug-of-war tension between weight and precision that make them beautiful wines to drink. But I don’t think the comparison is fair, because Vilmart is Vilmart, not Krug. This is one of the greatest grower-producer houses to be making wine in the 21st century, not just a lesser version of a grand marque. Vilmart farms meticulously and represents some of the greatest vineyard land in the Montagne de Reims region. This wine is a blend of 80% Chardonnay and 20% Pinot Noir and spends ten months in neutral barriques before being transferred to bottle for long lees aging. It’s dry, textured, creamy and one of the best bubbly wines you’ll have this year, take my word for it.
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Why Choose Sauvignon Blanc
Sauvignon Blanc has a long history of being paired with seafood, including salmon. There are many aromatic whites that pair well with salmon, and Sauvignon Blanc is just one of them. This wine also has quite a bit of acidity in its flavor profile which works great with the fat content found in fish.
While it may seem like an obvious choice for wine pairing with salmon, there are more expensive wines that arent necessarily better than Sauvignon Blanc when it comes to matching up flavors or pairing to food.
And since this wine doesnt have too many different styles or regions , you wont need to spend hours researching what kind will work best with your meal.
E Guigal Ctes Du Rhne Rouge 2015
A prized vintage for Guigal’s Côtes-du-Rhône, this full-bodied and deeply textured red wine is bursting with class.
The Guigal name has become synonymous with Rhone excellence as they are still best known for their exclusive single-vineyard estate wines.
They have also created some excellent value wines that show your status at a much friendlier price point! This outstanding red wine from Guigal would be by far its biggest seller to date – proving just how beloved it really is in both France and abroad.
A deep, dark red wine that sparkles in the light. It is full and round on the mouth with a long finish, making it perfect for any occasion.
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Chianti Classico Riserva 2016 Vallepicciola
An elegant and sumptuous wine, where delicate floral notes of small red fruit and spices are the prelude to a dense and enveloping sip. Impeccable representation of the territory.
Full title among the best Chianti Classico. Value for money very interesting also for the Chianti Classico Riserva.
Municipality: Castelnuovo Berardenga. target price of the best:
Chianti Classico 2017: 15 Reserve 2016: 22 Grand Selection 2016: 36
A Dozen Bottles From Tuscany
Here are my 12 suggestions, in order of price. Many more excellent Chianti Classicos are out there, which for one reason or another I did not find. They include Caparsa, Castellinuzza e Piuca, Monte Bernardi, Isole e Olena, Lecci e Brocchi and Castellin Villa.
Candialle Chianti Classico La Misse di Candialle 2017 $24
Josephin and Jarkko Peranen, a German-Finnish couple who own Candialle, practice regenerative agriculture at their small estate near Greve. La Misse di Candialle is 90 percent sangiovese, with 5 percent each of canaiolo and malvasia nera, fermented and aged in concrete vats. This lovely wine has spicy, peppery flavors of red cherries and flowers, with firm tannins that will soften with a few years aging.
Istine Chianti Classico Vigna Istine 2018 $24
This tangy, energetic Chianti Classico is 100 percent sangiovese from a high-altitude, organic vineyard in Radda, where the soils are a mix of limestone marl, sandstone and schist. It is fermented in concrete vats and aged a year in Slavonian oak, followed by another year of aging in the bottle. It is fresh and graceful, floral and elegant.
Fèlsina Chianti Classico Berardenga 2018 $25
I Fabbri Chianti Classico Lamole 2017 $28
Pruneto Chianti Classico 2016 $29
Montesecondo Chianti Classico 2018 $30
Monteraponi Chianti Classico 2018 $30
Fontodi Chianti Classico 2017 $45
San Giusto a Rentennano Chianti Classico 2018 $54
Cigliano di Sopra Chianti Classico 2017 $56
Le Boncie Toscana Le Trame 2017 $60
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The Best Chiantis For 2021
In the region of Tuscany, between the two ancient cities of Florence and Siena, are 100 square miles of hills reaching their peak at almost 3,000 feet above sea level. These hills, called the Chianti Hills, produce some of the most famous wines in the world.
In Tuscany, the Sangiovese grape comes in many forms depending on the region. But in the hills of Chianti, with the advantage of a drainy clay soil called galestro, the wines achieve what I call Italian elegance: the ability to be refined and balanced, with winemakers confident and skilled enough to show off a rustic side wrapped up in a light touch.
This is a great time of year for Chianti. The first half of spring brings unpredictable weather thats just right for the medium cherry and cranberry flavors of these wines. They can be juicy and bright, or broody and dark, but they will always have wonderful natural acidity to lift up any weight that nature and oak want to give.
Chianti pairs well with lean meats like skirt steak, as well as roasted chicken. At the same time, it will sit comfortably next to classic pasta and red sauce or an earthy mushroom pasta. Classico wines can age for up to 20 years but are often approachable throughout their lifespan. But the younger examples or a good general Chianti, with a slight chill, can absolutely handle a sunny-day Caprese or carpaccio di manzo.
Best Wine Pairings For Vegetarian Lasagna
Entry Level:
Oaked Australian Chardonnay especially for mushroom dishes
Sauvignon Blanc Particularly with goats cheese lasagna
Gavi
Argentinian Torrontes especially for the very green and low cheese recipes
White Rioja Reserva Brilliant with the more creamy dishes, especially with mushrooms
Friuli Pinot Grigio with lighter more delicate recipes
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The Ten Best Italian Red Wines: A Beginners Guide
The best way to make sense of Italian red wines is to simply start tasting them. Italy offers the perfect red wine for every occasionfrom pizza on Monday, to roast beef with the in-laws on Sunday, and everything between.
Many of Italys best red wines are labeled with the name of the wine appellation, often in combination with the grape variety. If youve ever felt completely overwhelmed while browsing an Italian wine section, knowing just a few key wine names will help keep your shopping trip focused and ensure that you have the perfect wine to drink at a moments notice.
Antinori Villa Toscana 2015
This wine combines mostly Sangiovese with minor additions of cabernet sauvignon, merlot, and syrah. It offers a deep ruby color, with complex aromas of red fruit, sweet spices, and dried fruits.
Antinori Villa Toscana IGT is full-bodied but round and supple in the mouth, with rich tannins that leave you wanting more after each sip.
This dry red is rich with dark fruit flavors that are perfect for a chilly night. It’s still light enough to be refreshing, adding to its appeal. Cherries and plums give it just what you need on those nights where comfort food fits best. This would make an excellent pairing when served alongside lamb sausage or pasta.
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Giacomo Conterno Monfortino 2010
These dry red wines are made from 100% Nebbiolo grapes and have a tart taste perfect for decadent dishes. The 2010 vintage, which features smoke and oak aromas accompanied by delicate chocolate flavors with hints of cherry finish, will make any meal seem like an indulgent treat!
The Monfortino is elegant, with an extraordinary structure and power. Its signature fermentation process allows for a smooth finish that lasts indefinitely on the palate.
This wine has a flavor reminiscent of flowers such as violets and roses, with some leather undertones. Its bright red fruits can be tasted in peaches and lemongrass.
Full-bodied and complete with just the right amount of tannins to make for an incredible, richly flavorful experience yet also subtle on your tongue.
Cecchi Storia Di Famiglia Chianti Classico Docg $18
This one just hits right. The smells of cherries and cranberries are here, but in a more concentrated form. It feels earthy. Then, the natural acidity comes and blows life into that density livening the wine up from the core of fruit. You can feel the tannins, but they are subtle and there solely to represent the structure of the wine.
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