All About Wine & Beer January 2022
Terre Rouge Fiddletown Viognier (Shenandoah Valley, California, USA) | $22.99
The husband and wife team of Bill Easton and Jane O’Riordan make some of our favorite Californian wines. They created the Terre Rouge label in the 80’s for wines made from Rhône varietals. This Viognier is a new, limited release from Terre Rouge and is made from estate vines farmed from rocky, granitic, and volcanic soils organically using their own green manure (cover-crop) compost to boost the nutrients in the soil. We taste peaches and apricot on this full-bodied and well-balanced wine.
Stolpman Uni Roussanne (Santa Barbara, California, USA) | $31.99
Mix up the white wine routine with this unique bottle from Stolpman vineyards Ballard Canyon vineyard. It’s a blend of 75% Roussane, which lends the richness, and then 25% Chardonnay to incorporate acidity. The taste, name, and label artwork is inspired by the sea urchins that are harvested off the coast of Santa Barbara, so we think you’ll find that the acidic minerality, almost umami savoriness, makes it a good companion for seafood.
Redentore Refosco (Veneto, Italy) | $16.99
On cold nights in Maine, it’s all about the comfort food, which naturally leads us to think about big pans of lasagna and heaping plates of spaghetti, and then to bold Italian red wine. The De Stefani family have been making wine since the late 1800s and are now in their fourth generation of winemakers. Redentore is their second label. Redentore Refosco is an organic, warm, and full-bodied wine, with deep ruby fruit, and hints of licorice, earth, and tannins that offer structure but don’t hit you in the face. Pick this wine up for your next pizza night.
Etienne Becheras Le Prieuré d’Arras Crozes-Hermitage (Côtes du Rhône, France) | $28.99
This wine made from 100% Syrah is from a farm that does much more than make wine in the Northern Rhône. Only 7 of the 12 hectares are devoted to wine growing, while the remaining 5 are used to grow fruit trees like cherry and apricot and there’s also some land left as natural forest where edible mushrooms and truffles can be found! This wine reflects the rich biodiversity that surrounds the vines and the result is a bold rich wine that has black fruit and pepper on the nose; blackberry, leather, and a tannic bite on the palate. Let this one breath for a few hours before drinking.
Prices subject to change after this posting.