This Week's Tasting
Good Values in Smooth Wines
January 3, 2024
This week, a collection of wines we have neglected of late. They are all of moderate weight and alcohol and flow over the tongue smoothly and easy.
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This Week
Wed Jan 3, 2024 Good Values in Smooth Wines In-store, 5 - 6:30pm
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This week, a collection of wines we have neglected of late. They are all of moderate weight and alcohol and flow over the tongue smoothly and easy.
White
Some like it creamy
2020 Benoit Daridan Cheverny Blanc
Benoit Daridan is a grower in the Loire village of Cheverney at the border where Sauvignon Blanc gives way to other white grapes. This wine, tempered by time in the bottle, has the solid flint-like notes o Loire sauvignon, with the creamier texture of rich chardonnay.
Aroma: very floral, tropical fresh intense, heady, flint, a touch of citrus; Mouth: clean fine, elegant, pretty bright with light citrus again, creamy textured; Very Good Plus $18.99; Case, $15.99
Some like it lively…
2022 Argiolas Costamolino Vermentino di Sardinia:
Argiolas is the producer who put wines from Sardinia on the map for Americans. The quality, style, and value of these wines quickly became best sellers. The 2022 Argiolas Costamolino Vermentino di Sardinia is the latest release of this very pleasant wine.
Dry and crisp with a bright straw color. Fruit notes include citrus and melon with floral notes framed by a saline touch. Almond notes show up in the balanced finish. Very Good Plus 16.99/bottle
Red
A valiant Italian….
2019 Ca Viola Barbera d’Alba Brichet
We are fond of saying that Beppe Ca Viola is a magician in the cellar. The 2019 Ca Viola Barbera d’Alba Brichet is, as usual, one of the best Barberas made. The wine is rich and very well-behaved with just the right touch of oak and acidity.
: Deep ruby. Aromas and flavors of plum and spice with mineral undertone. Rich and balanced with a long finish. Excellent 29.99
Three New World versions of Rhone grapes
Australia: Grenache in a lighter Pinot-like vein
2021 Thistledown Gorgeous Grenache No 1 Small Batch
Grenache gives Chateauneuf du Pape its bulk, but some small growers are making it into a lighter, more graceful wine, that can be hard to tell from pinot noir. This wine from Southern Australia is a good example, that stands out for its very low price.
; Color: very light and pretty; Aroma: fresh, granular, pretty and lifted, clean fresh and light; Mouth: pretty firm, lighter clean, sweet ripe fruit, clean linear with a bit of plum on the finish, long; Very Good Plus $17.99; Case, $15.29
California: A witty, if arcane, Cinsault
2022 Language of Yes Cuvee Sinso
Talented winemaker Randall Grahm is as witty and fey in his thinking as he is in his winemaking. Case in point: his current project The Language of Yes, is a bilingual pun for the region of southern France whose grapes inform the wines. It translates Languedoc, the oui, yes in standard French replaced by oc of its southern dialect.
Sinso transliterates Cinsault, 2/3 of the grape blend. Its crispness is fleshed out by Syrah and grenache, which form a smooth and sibilant wine with no hard edges, more yes than oc, graceful on the tongue without too much weight.
Color: light red black; Aroma: light fresh clean very pretty; Mouth: clean fine acid rich & intense, fine acid tannins, long bright finish; Very Good Plus $29.99; Case, $25.49
South Africa: Biodynamic Syrah
2017 Reyneke Syrah
Bold yet sylph-like, from South Africa’s First Biodynamic producer
Decanter called it a Must-try Red “a harmonious wine with attractive, violet-edged raspberry and blueberry aromas and a whiff of smoke. Bright red and black fruit on the palate is wrapped in silky tannins with spicy, savoury hints. ”
Color: very dark; Aroma: reserved spice, heady plum, rather black pepper, plum; Mouth: smooth texture, rich, very full, soft spice, dark fruit, some light fruit on very good length; Very Good Plus $28.99; Case, $24.99, limited quantity
For delivery or pick up, mix any twelve or more of these wines at their case prices.
At the tasting purchase any bottles at their case price
Order by phone at 617.367.8605, or reserve here: order@federalwine.com
Please pass this on to any friends who are wine enthusiasts!
- Len Rothenberg
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downtown on orders more than $75;
in Greater Boston on orders more than $199
