Vegan? Check. USDA-certified organic? Check. Kosher? Check. Ecocert-approved? Check. Tasty Malbec that over delivers for the price for holiday meals that makes everyone happy? Check, check, check, check! Domaine Bousquet’s Alavida from Argentina is one of only a few wines worldwide that CHECKS ALL THE BOXES. Oh, and it’s gluten-free, too. (Okay that one isn’t too unusual– wine is commonly considered to be gluten-free.)
So if you’re looking for a holiday red wine that checks all the boxes (except being bubbly; stay tuned for next week’s Domain Bousquet’s dazzling organic sparklers), you’ve come to the right place, look no more! And we have menu ideas too!
4 US Sparkling Surprises: Sonoma’s SEPPI, Paso’s Halter Ranch, WA Gorge + Fav Festive Finger Foods #WinePW
Here at Wine Predator, we love love love sparking wine! We likely drink more sparkling wine than anything else, and Sue is even a Wine Club member at Scharffenberger. While there’s always something to celebrate, the reason is more simple: sparkling wines pair really well with foods we enjoy like salads and seafood, and so we both always try to have in the fridge a bottle of bubbles ready to pop.
We’re also fans of finger food and what better time than the holidays to focus on festive finger foods paired with bottles of bubbles? But not just any appetizers: Finger foods can be fancy, elegant, and special to go with elegant and special sparklers.
Cantina Ottella art above the vineyards — amidst the community!
As we drive through small vineyards dotted with small and large homes in Lombardy’s Lugana DOC beside large glacial Lake Garda, we suddenly and surprisingly arrive at Cantina Ottella which looks more like a Frank Lloyd Wright home complete with modern sculptures on manicured lawns and beautiful, colorful vines than a contemporary winery with productive vineyards. Continue reading →
John White’s 5 x 5 x 5 12/1/23 features Gwendolyn Alley
Southern California locals, please join us in Ventura for these upcoming events! Tonight Friday 12/1/23, you’re invited to a living history performance I will be doing about “the flower wizard of California” Theodosia Burr Shepherd, the woman who is responsible for creating the flower seed and bulb business in California. Continue reading →
Lombardy, located in northern Italy with 90 UNESCO World Heritage sites, continues to enjoy being one of most populous and richest region with Milan the second largest city after Rome. Always prosperous Milan has a cuisine made for those who can afford expensive ingredients like saffron and foods like osso bucco. Layers of richness are offset by the light, tart grapes of the region.
Lost to Found in Chile: Intro to 6 Carménère + What to Pair
Carménère has quite a lost to found story. On this day, Nov. 24, 1994, everyone in Chile thought it was Merlot until ampelographer pointed out why Chilean Merlot vines and wines were so different when he found them to be Carménère, a grape originally from France which was thought to have been just about lost during the pholxera epidemic! Now November 24 is known as Carmenere Day to commemorate this important event. Read all about that Carménère story here in “Extinct No More”.
But there’s much more to Carménère than a case of mistaken identity and a fun story to tell at table: with regional differences to be explored, modern interpretations and elegant herbal elements being produced, with a range of price points from affordable to splurge worthy, and with many potential food pairings from Thanksgiving turkey leftovers to Christmas and other holiday dinners to traditional Chilean dishes like chicken chimichurri and beef stew with squash, Carménère is a wine that you should get in your glass. Continue reading →
2016 Georges Dubœuf Domaine des Rosiers Gamay, Moulin-à-Vent, Beaujolais
Around St. Martin’s Day on November 11, the Talhas are tapped in Portugal and elsewhere, and on the third Thursday in Beaujolais, the Nouveau is released with much fanfare. The fanfare is well justified when you consider that n the past, wine would run out and you can imagine how happy everyone was to have it replenished! Today, while we are not at risk of running out of wine, we continue to find the release of the new wines a happy time, and Beaujolais Nouveau, which gets bottled shipped around the world in time to be opened and enjoyed on their third Thursday of November, is the best known.
wine predator.............. gwendolyn alley 