I’ve been writing about value wines since 2007 and one reliable trick I’ve used over the years for finding wines of exceptional value is to look for wines from under the radar regions. It comes down to simple supply and demand. If you buy wines from the most well-known wine regions, you’re probably going to pay a premium for those wines, simply because there’s more demand for them. But that doesn’t necessarily mean those wines are better than wine from less known regions. Uruguay One of the under the radar wine regions I’ve been excited about for the last couple years is Uruguay. Like other w ..read more

I was intrigued when I first saw the name of this wine, Malbec Nouveau. The “Nouveau” part of the name, I assume, is an homage to Beaujolais Nouveau — which is a French wine released each fall as a first release of wine from that vintage. Nouveau translates to mean “new” in English. In the case of Beaujolais Nouveau, it’s a reference to the new vintage and it’s arguable that wine released that early has not fully developed. But that’s definitely not the case with this Malbec Nouveau. Another unique feature of Beaujolai Nouveau is that it’s fermented using a process called carbonic maceration ..read more

I am a big fan of sparkling wine, bubbly, bubbles… whatever you prefer to call it. Just don’t call it Champagne unless it comes from the Champagne region of France. Good bubbly is being produced in wine regions around the world. To me, sparkling wine is one of the most food friendly types of wine — at least when it’s dry or brut, as it’s called. When someone asks me to recommend a wine to them, I’ll almost always suggest something bubbly. The bubbles I’m featuring today come from Argentina. More specifically, the Gualtallary, Tupungato region in Mendoza, Argentina. It comes from a producer who ..read more

I’ve recently been doing a short series on Carménère, highlighting the new styles winemakers are producing from this once thought to be lost grape. It was once one of the grapes used to produce Bordeaux until 1867, when a pest called phylloxera destroyed most of the vineyards in Europe and completely decimated Carménère vineyards there. Over a century later it was discovered that Carménère still existed in Chile and it has since become one of the signature grapes of Chile. One of the features of this grape variety is a chemical compound called pyrazines. This compound creates what are often re ..read more

Last week I published a post about Luma Chequén Gran Reserva Carménère and highlighted the new approach many producers in Chile are taking with Carménère. In a nutshell, producers are embracing the pyrazine qualities of Carménère to showcase the true essence of this grape. So as not to repeat myself, you can read that previous post for more perspective on this. While new styles of Carménère are emerging, that doesn’t mean there is one “right” style. Rather, you can think of Carménère as one of those grapes that can have multiple expressions. It’s a grape that producers can grow in different te ..read more

Let me begin by saying, “I was wrong about Carménère.” This is not the first time I’ve had to admit being wrong and it won’t be the last. But fortunately, I’m willing to own up to it when I’m wrong and change my thinking… which, in my humble opinion, is more important than being right all the time. “What,” you might ask, “am I talking about?” I’m talking about pyrazines. You might then ask, “what are pyrazines?” Pyrazines are an organic compound found is some wine which gives a green aroma, often described as green pepper. You have likely come across this characteristic most often in Sauvignon ..read more

It’s interesting to think about the idea of organic products when you look at it through the history of time. 100 years ago, most things that you could buy in a supermarket would be considered organic, by current standards, but they weren’t marketed that way because it wasn’t something people thought about at the time. What is currently referred to as “conventional agriculture” (i.e., relying on the use of chemical inputs and genetically modified seeds) didn’t even exist back then. Today’s “conventional agriculture” was largely born after World War II, and much of the original science behind i ..read more

Rosé can be made from any red wine grape. It’s produced by pressing the grapes and fermenting the juice without the grape skins. Red wine, on the other hand, is fermented with the skins of the grapes along with the juice, and the deep red color comes from the skins. Although rosé can be produced from any red wine grape there are a handful of varieties used more often than others, such as Syrah, Grenache, Sangiovese, Pinot Noir and a few others. The rosé I’m highlighting today, however, is produced from Montepulciano d’Abruzzo. I believe this is the first rosé I’ve tasted from Montepulciano gra ..read more

If you’re reading this, there’s a good chance you’re like me and seek out good, bargain-priced wines. Finding those hidden gems is sometimes about knowing a specific brand to seek out, sometimes it’s about knowing a certain region that delivers good QPR (quality-to-price ratio) and sometimes it’s knowing the right grapes to seek out. In this case, all three of those three criteria come into play. Montepulciano d’Abruzzo refers to both a region and a grape, but it’s one that can cause some confusion. Montepulciano is the grape used in this wine and it was grown and produced in the Abruzzo regio ..read more

The wine I’m featuring today is a little bit different than most of the wines I write about. This one is a vermouth. I would venture to guess that a lot of people only think of vermouth as a mixer for cocktails. While vermouth is often used as a cocktail ingredient, it is actually a wine and can be consumed by itself as an aperitif. Technically speaking, vermouth is an aromatized wine, meaning that it’s infused and flavored with botanicals (i.e., herbs, spices, bark, flowers, etc.). This is why I say this wine is different from the wines I usually write about. It can be produced sweet or dry ..read more