Category:Wine of the week

Wine of the week: Moulin de Gassac Guilhem Rouge 2021

by Wine Curmudgeon Posted On

Moulin de Gassac Guilhem Rouge bottle
Moulin de Gassac Guilhem Rouge 2021/$9-$15

This French red blend illustrates what weeknight dinner wine should be

Moulin de Gassac makes a red, white, and rose. All are especially impressive — $10 or so, varietally correct, and decent availability

The red, though, has always impressed me the most. That’s because it does something seldom seen in red wines at this price – it tastes like it’s supposed to taste.

Consider the 2021 vintage ($12, purchased, 13%): It’s a Rhone-style blend from southern France (50 percent syrah, 30 percent grenache, and 20 percent carignan), but it’s not too jammy or too soft despite all that syrah and grenache. Even more impressive: The three wines are made for export, and could have tried to appeal to the so-called American palate. Instead, they taste like wine.

That means the red has some spice, some berry fruit, and soft tannins — all in balance. It’s dry and not smoooth; rather, it’s the kind of wine for a summer barbecue (or a pot roast in the winter). In this, it’s weeknight dinner wine, a concept Europeans have understood for more than a century but which Americans have always struggled with.

Highly recommended, and a candidate for the 2024 Turner award for cheap wine of the year.

Imported by Palomar Imports

Wine of the week: Zestos Blanco 2021

by Wine Curmudgeon Posted On

Zestos Blanco bottle
Zestos Blanco 2021/$11-$14

This Spanish white is one of the world’s great cheap wines

The pandemic was not kind to Spanish wine, which especially suffered from shortages and supply chain disruptions. That followed the Trump wine tariff, which had previously clobbered the country’s wine business.

So it has been four years since I have been able to taste a new vintage of the Zestos Blanco, which is usually one of the best cheap white wines in the world. I am happy to report that the 2021 vintage ($12, purchased, 12.5%) continues this trend. Call it the return of an old friend I haven’t talked to in entirely too long.

All of the Zestos wines are worth drinking, and each offers something unique. The Blanco is made with malvar, a white grape little known outside of Spain. It’s not like chardonnay or sauvignon blanc, or even the lesser known French white grapes that I like. Rather, it’s less tart and more tropical than these grapes, with a sort of lime and stone fruit flavor combination, yet dry and clean and fresh on the finish.

And, for the wine geeks out there, the vines are some 70 years old and grow at 2,100 feet – attributes usually reserved for all those $125, 94-point red wines.

Highly recommended, and certain to make the short list for the 2024 Turner award for cheap wine of the year.

Imported by Ole & Obrigado

 

Wine of the week: Broadbent Douro Red 2020

by Wine Curmudgeon Posted On

Broadbemt Four Red bottle
Broadbent Douro Red 2020/$10-$16

This Portuguese red blend reminds us heavier wines can still be pleasant

“Smoooth” wine is not the only trend dominating the wine business; there’s also “biggg wine,” aimed at men of a certain age where the point is to make the wine rough and tannic so that one can go around fist-umping after drinking a couple of glasses.

This is not that kind of wine.

Instead, the Broadbent Douro Red 2020 ($13, sample, 13%) is a wine made in a heavier style because that’s what the grapes do when they’re turned into wine. There isn’t any winemaking going on to appeal to specific demographics; in this, it’s what I call an honest wine, in which the winemaker takes what’s there and makes something enjoyable out of it.

In other words, a professional, competent Portuguese red blend (four grapes, including the Portuguese version of tempranillo). That means it’s a little heavier in the mouth than a Spanish tempranillo. But there is also dark red fruit (black raspberries?), softish tannins, and bright acidity. The tasting notes say a bit of spice, and that may well be true.

It needs food, but that’s not a problem this time of year – almost anything on the grill will work, and especially for a Father’s Day barbecue.

Imported by Broadbent Selections

Wine of the week: Vinho verde 2023

by Wine Curmudgeon Posted On

women at table talking
“Do you think vinho verde would have paired better with this food?”

Vinho verde quality rebounded this year, but prices remain high

Vinho verde, the cheap Portuguese white wine (and sometimes rose) hasn’t been especially cheap the past couple of years. Which raises an intriguing question: What’s the point of a cheap wine that isn’t cheap anymore? If I can buy better quality wine for $15 (and I can), why would I spend $15 for vinho verde?

Having said that, most of the vinhos I tasted this year — save for long-time favorite Faisao — were of higher quality than last year. Sadly, the Faisao, both white and rose, were too soft, too sweet, almost flat, and huge disappointments.

What do you need to know about vinho (and the blog’s vinho verde primer is here)? The wines are usually non-vintage, with slightly sweet lemon-lime or apple fruit, a bit of fizz, and low alcohol — all of which makes it ideal for hot weather and summer food. Most of the cheapest wines, like Santola, Famega, Casal Garcia, and Gazela (and that often have a crab on the label), are made by the same couple of companies but sold under different names to different retailers.

The most dependable vinho verde is the Broadbent ($9, 9%), which was less soft and more interesting this year; Broadbent also makes a rose ($9, 10%) that is almost more rose-like than vinho.  Check out these other vinho verdes:

• Gazela Vinho Verde NV ($8, purchased, 9%): Stunning upgrade in quality from what used to be a very ordinary wine. It’s fresh, wonderfully fizzy, sweetish but not sweet, and has terrific lime fruit. Highly recommended. There’s also a rose that’s worth drinking, but not as well mdde. Imported by Evaton

• Aveleda Vinho Verde Fonte 2021 ($10, purchased, 9.5%): Quality vinho producer’s whose vintage product is usually worth paying for. This vintage has some lemon, isn’t too sweet, and the fizz is fizzy. Imported by Aveleda

• Casal Garcia Vinho Verde NV ($7, purchased, 9.5%): Don’t know what they did, but this year’s bottling is two or three steps up from the last time I tasted it. More structure, more integrated sweetness, better quality fizz and nice lemon-lime fruit. Highly recommended. Imported by Avelada

More about vinho verde:
• Vinho verde review 2022
• Vinho verde review 2021
• Vinho verde review 2020
• Wine of the week: Herdade do Esporão Vinho Monte Velho 2021?

Photo: “Women Grow Business Boot Camp #wgbiz #dcweek _-164” by ShashiBellamkonda is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

Wine of the week: La Chapelle du Bastion Picpoul de Pinet 2022

by Wine Curmudgeon Posted On

La Chapelle du Bastion Picpoul de Pinet bottle
La Chapelle du Bastion Picpoul de Pinet 2022/$10-$16

This white from southern France offers a refreshing change during a long, hot summer

One of the less appreciated aggravations of premiumization is that it has led producers to focus on specific wine styles – chardonnay, of course, and sauvignon blanc, as well as rose and reds – the trendy blends and a handful of varietals. So not only does ordinary wine cost more, but it has become more difficult to find wines that aren’t like those.

Cases in point are muscadet and picpoul, which sit somewhere between chardonnay and sauvignon blanc and which are not only interesting, but very, very fairly priced. Plus they’re just the whites for a hot summer, the antithesis of a heavy, too oaky chardonnay.

We’ve written much about both on the blog, despite the difficulty in sometimes finding the wines. But my job, if nothing else, is to keep looking, and it’s almost always worth the effort.

Such as the La Chapelle du Bastion Picpoul de Pinet 2022 ($12, purchased, 12.5%). Most picpouls, which come from southern France, offer a tart, almost puckery fruit flavor (picpoul can be translated as “lips-macking,” more or less). But this is a softer, rounder picpoul, so there is almost some stone fruit lurking in the mix, as well as the citrus and the sort of stony finish.

Highly recommended, and a candidate for the 2023 Hall of Fame. Chill this and drink it when you want wine that refreshes.

Imported by Monsieur Touton Selection

Wine of the week: Bieler Père et Fils Rose 2022

by Wine Curmudgeon Posted On

Bieler rose bottle
Bieler Père et Fils Rose 2022/$10-$21

Once again, the Bieler family shows that rose matters and that it doesn’t need to cost $40

The world might do whatever it does these days, but there remains one thing we can always count on: The Bieler family’s Sabine rose.

So, as the blog celebrates its 16th annual Memorial Day and rose extravaganza this week, let us be grateful that Charles Bieler and the rest of the family respect rose in the same way they have for years.

That means quality. That means availability (Target, even). That means a fair price. That means value. And that means French rose from Provencal that tastes like French rose from Provencal, instead of some marketing team’s idea of what pink wine should taste like.

This vintage of the Bieler Sabine ($12, sample, 12.5%) is as it always is — classic Provencal rose (though perhaps with a touch more strawberry fruit this vintage), a bit of minerality, and a hint of the tell-tale garrigue. It’s not sweet. It’s not “ultra-pale and evanescent,” and it isn’t “intense, concentrated, mouth-filling, super-marrowy, long” the way the wine geeks like their rose.

It’s rose for those of us who like rose, who don’t want to pay $40, and who don’t care what the rest of the world thinks about what we drink. Highly recommended, and sure to return to the Hall of Fame next year.

Imported by Bieler Pere et Fils

Wine of the week: Mont Gravet GSM 2021

by Wine Curmudgeon Posted On

Mont Gravet GSM bottle
Mont Gravet GSM 2012/$10-$15

Say goodbye to the legendary Gravet carignan, and welcome this red blend

The Mont Gravet carignan is one of the great cheap wines of all time; the 2015 was spectacular, and I still smile when I think about the audience’s reaction at the cheap wine seminar I gave at an American Wine Society conference. Blown away would be the polite description.

Sadly, though, the carignan seems to be gone. Call it just another of the wine business’ vagaries, whether because the grapes weren’t available or cost too much or whatever.

In its place, we get the Mont Gravet GSM 2021 ($12, sample, 13%), since it has the same SKU (the number on the bar code on the back label). Which, all things considered, isn’t such a bad thing.

The GSM is also French, and is a blend of about one-third each of grenache, syrah, and mourvedre (hence its name). It’s a different wine – a more traditional style than the carignan, which is rarely used for varietal wines.

It’s bigger and heavier in the mouth certainly, and not necessarily the kind of red to keep in the fridge when you want a glass of something. So a food wine, with much riper red fruit (especially from the grenache), an almost bacon fat thing from the syrah, and even some spice (black pepper?).

Pair this with summer barbecue and enjoy, but don’t overlook any past vintages of the carignan in case you find them.

Imported by Winesellers Ltd.