Life is busy at this time of year and we all appreciate a little help making decisions—like what wine to pour.
Here’s a trio of seasonal options perfect for dinners, relaxing, and gifting.
Courtesy of Monte del Fra.
You’ll want to curl up by the fire with Monte del Fra’s outstanding Lena di Mezzo Amarone della Valpolicella Classico 2013.
Hailing from the Valpolicella region, which rests north of fair Verona and stretches east toward Venice from Lake Garda, Valpolicella is the source of some of Italy’s greatest wines.
Amarones like this one are made from grapes that have been dried before pressing. Having lost a significant portion of moisture, the withered grapes produce a concentrated wine. Made from regional autochthonous grapes (corvina, corvinone and rondinella), the Lena di Mezzo, while weighty and glycerol in texture, still maintains admirable freshness. Seductive aromas and supple fruit characterize this elegant wine.
Courtesy of Selbach.
When it’s dinnertime, look no further than riesling. Wildly underappreciated, riesling is one of the world’s finest varieties, and one of the best for food pairing: be it seafood, complex Asian dishes, or white meats like pork or turkey.
Having made wine from grapes grown on the steepest slopes on the banks of Germany’s Mosel River for 400 years, the Selbach family knows riesling.
Selbach’s Mosel Riesling (known as the Fish Label) is adorned with a watercolour drawing created by local artist Johanna Waldorf, a friend Johannes Selbach visits each time he comes to Vancouver.
It is a delightful tipple with precision, but most importantly, balance. Juicy acidity offsets a kiss of sweetness, and pristine peach, lemon drop and green apple notes will sing with your holiday supper.
Courtesy of Robert Mondavi Winery.
Finally, if you seek a dramatic gift, the 2015 Robert Mondavi Reserve To Kalon Vineyard cabernet sauvignon will impress any wine lover.
Considered by many to be the preeminent vineyard in all of Napa Valley, To Kalon rests directly behind the Mondavi estate in Oakville. Statuesque, it is a profound and cellar-worthy wine doling out generous cassis and blueberry, brown spice and seasoning salt aromas. It is succulent and deftly woven, bordering on opulent.
Read more from Food and Drink.
