Let the festivities begin! I love this time of the year because we gather with friends more frequently, enjoying the time to celebrate and show our gratitude. The cooler temperatures mean that we can enjoy wines with more body, texture and flavor to pair with the foods we are enjoying. It is a bit like a culinary blanket to wrap up in and stay cozy.
This month your boxes and bags are filled with wines that are food flexible and often function as cocktail wine, as the occasion arises more frequently during the holidays. I have indicated which wines are best for easy drinking on their own, so you can mark those to make it easy for holiday entertaining.
We have a few fun events for you this month, so mark your calendars:
December 2nd Wine Club Pick Up & Tasting 4-6pm—A tasting and conversation about the wines in the December boxes. This is a chance for you to taste the wines of each of our club levels & talk with us about what you like, enjoy a glass and some holiday cheer!
December 7th 6pm Fermentation Class at 41No—A Discussion of the 2022 Harvest in California and Tasting of California’s Other Grapes! Please call 41No directly to register at 401-846-8018. 5 wines with food pairing created by our own Chef Jon Lopresti with Chef Terence Fuery of 41No. The cost is $55, to be paid directly to 41No.
December 9th 4-6pm—Wine & Cheese Pairing Tips Get a few tools for preparing an easy entertaining cheese board paired with wine for your holidays. We want to make it easy for you.
December 10th 12-6pm—Creating a Perfect Pair Gift Box Come in and build a gift box for someone you love this holiday. We will help you do it! We will have all the boxes, bows, crinkle paper and goodies for filling up an exceptional Wine & Food Pairing!
December 22nd-24th Holiday Tasting Days—Sample wines, spirits & food Pairings
2018 A. & G. Fantino Rosso Dei Dardi Vino Rosso Nebbiolo, Piedmont, Italy. If you are looking for an approachable, easy drinking Nebbiolo that goes with anything, look no further. It is not surprising that it would be delicious, it is made by a rockstar Barolo producer in the Piedmont. The wine has a brightness of acidity and some grippy tannins that give structure to the intense dark fruit. It is deceivingly light in the glass for such impactful aromas and flavor. I suggest this one with some butternut squash soup.
2019 Casa Ferreirinha Planalto Douro Vino Branco Reserva A blend of 25% Viosinho, 20% Malvasia Fina, 15% Gouveio, 15% Arinto, 15% Codega, 5% Rabigato, 5% Moscatel. The grapes are selected from the higher zones of the Douro region. After gentle destemming, the grapes are pressed and subsequently undergo low temperature decanting with strict enological controls in place. To obtain the required limpidity, a long alcoholic fermentation at controlled temperatures between 60°F–64°°C follows. The wines are stored at the Vila Real winery, separated by either grape variety or vineyard. The final blend is made after a rigorous selection process and takes place in Avintes, where it receives clarification and stabilization treatment prior to bottling. There are notes of lemon curd, toast and almonds. I love the acidity on the finish that balances the complexity of the ripe fruit and supple mouth feel. Enjoy it with a risotto with some roasted shrimp and lemon zest.
2021 Esperoa Monte Vehlo Rosé This is truly a wine for all occasions, from just sipping as an aperitif to enjoying with a cheese and charcuterie board to pairing with some roasted fish and vegetables. The wine had the benefit of higher than average rainfall in the early part of harvest and the higher temperatures of the later part of the growing season accelerated the vegetative development, so it was an abundant one with good maturation on the vine. All of which contributes to a balanced and complex wine. The blend of Touriga Nacional and Aragonez with Syrah gives the wine some character, structure, and abundant flavors of berry, citrus, minty herbs, and fruity salinity.
2020 Esperoa Monte Velho Red This is another wonderful value wine from the great wine producing family. While these guys make more wine than I typically am drawn to, the wines have a quality that bespeaks the kind of care and respect that I look for. The wine is supple, impactful but with finesse. They are faithful to the terroir in making this wine, so the fruit is brambly blackberry and wild berry, subtle spices. It is intense and rich balanced by structure and texture, with a lasting and compelling finish. This is a good one for a roast or steaks on the grill is you can bare the weather!
2019 Guintrandy CdR Visan The Cuilleras family has owned and operated the Domaine since 1850 in the small commune of Visan. In the last ten years they have converted entirely to organic agriculture—no small feat, but cudos to them for doing the work. The clay soil elevated to 230 meters is ideal for the Grenache Syrah blend of 30 year old vines. The texture is wonderful and largely the result of no filtering or fining. This also gives the wine complexity and intensity of flavor. This plum, fig, bramble, red fruits, as well, and then the chalkiness that is reminiscent of the soil it grows in.
2019 Gregoletto Colli Trevigiani Manzoni Bianco, Colli, Trevigiani IGT Veneto, Italy. With any of the lesser-known varietals, people often ask for a comparable grape. This wine resists such comparisons. I have read that it is a hybrid cross of Riesling and Pinot Blanco, or perhaps Chardonnay, but there is not sufficient evidence. Either way, the character of each of these grapes makes an appearance, and then there are surprising laser sharp notes of minerality, citrus zest and crisp acidity. All this diversity means that you can enjoy this wine as an aperitif or with shellfish or grilled chicken—super food flexible, you will want replacement bottles!
2020 Il Palzzotto Dolcetto All too often this lesser-known grape of the Piedmont is overshadowed by the more popular Barolo and Barbaresco Nebbiolos, but provides an unrivaled value that are often made with the same hand-crafted quality, thought that by nature it is not as age worthy or complex. That said, the wines are versatile and delicious. There is an appealing intensity of flavor and length that makes it great for pairing with winter menu meals. The wine has loads of black fruits, but also red berries, some earthy herbal notes, and a touch of bell pepper. It is wonderful with roasted fowl, stewed red meats, and even pasta, though I would suggest light creme sauce with mushrooms over a tomato based sauce.
2020 Jean Paul Brun Beaujolais Blanc
2021 Joguet Rosé- and others, Admittedly, finding enough rosé to satisfy my growing wine club is a little bit of a challenge. Instead, we are drawing on the best of what is still in circulation. So it is a wild card, but all of the choices will be more full bodied and flavored, so that they will pair appropriately with our winter menus. I had one with turkey, so if you have any left over, I suggest you give that pairing a chance.
2019 La Viarte Pinot Grigio, Friuli, Italy. I often describe this wine as Pinot Grigio that has a little more going on. Sadly, PG has gotten a bit of a bad rep in our market due to the influx of way too much subpar juice, but La Viarte will change that! In 1984 Giuseppe and Carla Ceschin celebrated the first harvest of the vineyard in Propotto, Friuli. They realized a long worked for dream, and chose the regional dialect for “spring” as their winery name because this began a new era in their lives. Now, their son Giulio and his wife Federica have expanded the property while still maintaining the ecological balance of the land. They continue to focus on heirloom varieties and make delicious wines. This is a house white for me, so I always have one on hand. It is food flexible and great as an aperitif. This week, I am making a Tuscan white bean and winter greens stew, and the wine will be great with it. Early, I made a tuna carpaccio and it was divine together!
2020 Damien Coquelet Chenas, Cru Beaujolais This young wine maker is producing a wine with maturity of style that is beyond his years, but that is probably due to his years as understudy to his stepdad, and fellow rockstar wine maker, George Descombes. Since early childhood, Damien has been observing and working the vineyards and the winery to learn his skill, and he now produces a wine that rivals his stepdad. This one is a favorite of mine. It has ripe bright cranberry, juicy red plummy notes, but also a little strawberry pie—yes, pastry and all, some herbs, thyme and rosemary, maybe even a little geranium. To balance all those pretty aromatics, there is green peppercorn, granite, chalk, wet stone and saline. Those more edgy flavors and aromas give the wine character and complexity that I find very appealing. This one is fine to have as just a glass, because it is lighter in tannin, but the acidity also makes it a candidate for food pairing. It is flexible, so try it with anything from a winter salad covered in walnuts and roasted hazelnut in a buttermilk dressing or with roasted duck breast...or come to think of it, how about both?
2016 Alpha Zeta Ripasso Valpolicella This wine is made with respectful, sustainable practices. The young Valpolicella is fermented with the dried grapes in January following the harvest. After fermentation, the wine is aged in barrel for just over a year to allow for cohesion in both large and small French oak barrels, both old and new. The idea is to make a wine that has some of the intensity of an Amarone from the dried grapes, but the freshness of a standard Valpolicella. They nailed it. It is a crowd-pleasing wine with depth of flavors of brambly black fruit, tobacco, smoke, spice, cedar, and licorice. Enjoy this with stews, braised meats, risotto, creamy pasta dishes.
2018 Birichino Mr Natural Old Vine Mourvedre Do not be deceived by the playful quality of the label, that is a reflection of the wry, irreverent attitude of the two wine makers, Alex and John. They are fun and sometimes a bit edgy, but they make great wine. They begin with well grown fruit, and they apply simple but careful techniques to produce a delicious wine with character and complexity. All organic, no filtering and no fining, means that one has to be very careful in production to avoid flaws, and they have accomplished just that. Ripe red berry fruit that carries from the approach though to the finish is balanced by notable acidity and texture. The wine has structure, and while it may appear a little intense on the first sip, given a few minutes to open it up, it comes together without any rough edges. I like this one with pulled pork sandwich Cubana style with loads of pickles and mustard/mayo mix.
2019 Nicolas Mariotti Bindi Blanc Mursaglia After returning to Corsica from a career in the law in Paris, Nicolas Mariotti Bindi. In 2007, after working with a wide variety of other wine makers, he began his own parcel of land, thanks to the generosity of another vintner. He produces Niellucciu (the local strain of Sangiovese) and Vermentinu (aka Vermentino).
The climate is quite unique in that the diurnal shift, cold in the late night and morning, and hot in the days. Additionally, the soil is clay, limestone, and sloping, which makes it prone to erosion. Nicolas treats the vineyards very carefully to avoid any strain or soil erosion. This care continues in his winery work, using a gentle approach at all steps. The white grapes are pressed whole cluster and ferment naturally for about a month, then placed in stainless steel for 12 months on the fine lees. This sur lees approach long with a malolactic fermentation gives the wine its supple texture and mouth feel.
The wine is as elegant as it is unique.
Enjoy the wines & your holidays!
Cheers, Maria
