The Five Top Italian Red Wines for $20
Italian Red Wines 101 Walk into any wine shop, and you will be confronted with hundreds of Italian red wines, ranging in price from six dollars to hundreds. In this scenario, …
Wine Reviews
Contino 2016 Rioja Reserva
If you’ve read my reviews of previous vintages (here and here), then you know the deep respect I have for this storied winery. This is the last bottling of Contino by …
Belhara 2019 Estate Malbec Mendoza
Belhara is a small estate in the Uco Valley district of Mendoza that has been producing very polished wines over the past few years. This bottling is an excellent example of …
Le Vigne Winery 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon Paso Robles
Le Vigne is just north of the city of Paso Robles, below the western hills. They have a half dozen varietals planted on their small property, including Tannat and Sangiovese, it’s …
Domaine Vincent Carême 2019 “Spring” Vouvray
A small winery in the Loire Valley, headed by Vincent Careme, teaches Organic Winemaking at the local university. This wine is a perfect infusion of racy citrus with steely intensity. A …
Herencia Altes 2016 Garnacha Peluda, Terra Alta
Peluda is a crazy variant of Grenache. The translation is “Hairy Grenache” and that is quite apt: the leaves are a bit hairy on the underside, which is kinda gross when …
Lua Cheia em Vinhas Velhas 2019 Douro
The rough translation of this brand is “Full Moon over Old Vines,” which is pretty apt for their wines. They aren’t a winery but a project of entrepreneur Manuel Dias and …
Chateau Courac 2018 Cotes du Rhone Villages Laudun
For frugal lovers of Chateauneuf du Pape, the town of Laudun has become a gold mine. It’s a tiny Rhone village that was recently upgraded in status; it’s biting at the …
CVNE 2019 “Bela” Ribera del Duero
This bottling is a brand new project from CVNE, the legendary Rioja winery. Bela is a single vineyard in the town of Villalba de Duero. While CVNE is known for classical …
Wine Review: Bryn Mawr Vineyards 2017 Estate Pinot Noir, Eola Amity Hills
If you recognize the name “Bryn Mawr” then you are a very specific type of person. Option number one: from the Philly region and recognize it as (1) a posh mainline …
Wine Review: Torre Mora Cauru 2019 Etna Rosso
There are few places as beautiful and unknown to Americans as southern Sicily. It’s a place of great history (Phonecians anyone?), great vulcanology (hello, Mt. Etna!), and great wines (yo, Guisto!). …
Wine Review: Bodegas Frutos Villar 2015 “Muruve” Toro Reserva
If you don’t know Spanish wines, you are missing out. This is a bottle that could not exist at this price point in any part of the world. A fourth-generation winemaker …
Wine Review: Cellier des Terres Blanches 2019 Intuition Cotes du Rhone Rouge
This is one of those hard-to-find wines that have an insanely great quality to price ratio. For our Pennvyania readers, the search will be pretty easy: the entire 2019 vintage was …
Wine Review: Grain de Lune 2020 Sauvignon Gris, Bordeaux Blanc
Sauvignon Gris is a beautifully exotic grape: it is a pink mutation of the ubiquitous Sauvignon Blanc. You see a bit of it in South America but very little in its …
Fritz Allendorf 2016 Spätburgunder, Assmannshäuser
Some names don’t translate well into English, and this quaint town on the Rhine river in Germany is one of them: Assmannshäuser. Of course, your inner fourteen-year-old will giggle, and that’s …
Luis Gurpegui 2014 “Primi” Rioja Reserva
Luis Gurpegui Muga is an old winery with extensive vineyards throughout Rioja. While common to see in Spain and Europe, this isn’t widely distributed in the United States. That is likely …
