Drew's Wine List

Holiday Sparkler Recommendations Happy Holidays everyone! While sparkling wine, by all means, should be enjoyed on any old weeknight (I may or may not be drinking Champagne right now), it typically finds its way into our holiday festivities. Whether for Christmas dinner or for your New Year's Eve toast, I've decided to spit out 3 recommendations at 3 differing price points to try to provide some interesting bottles for your next celebration... or Monday night... Let me start with a disclaimer. These recommendations are of wines that I think/know you'll be able to find in chain retail stores. I would love if you tried some of these because they're great wines and it makes me happy to know people read this, but I would also highly encourage you to head to a local wine shop to pick up your bottles. Virginia wine importers/stores do a fantastic job of selecting really cool sparkling wines, especially small-production Champagnes. Don't be afraid to ask for help, and alwa...

NV Lucien Albrecht Cremant d'Alsace Brut  Vintage:  NV Region:  Alsace, France Winery:  Lucien Albrecht Varieties:  Pinot Blanc, Pinot Gris, Pinot Auxerrois Price:  $15 Rating:  91 Points My Rating:  90 Points The Review:  Hopefully everyone had a nice weekend and was able to properly celebrate "Open that bottle of Virginia wine night." I hosted a small tasting with my roommates, and we had the 2018 Barboursville Cabernet Franc as well as the 2017 White Hall Viognier- both were great! Now it's back to your regularly scheduled programming. A couple of weeks ago, my mom opened this bottle for me at dinner at the suggestion of one of the people at a store we shop at. I was intrigued because Cremant d'Alsace is always a great option (it's a great way to get Champagne quality sparklers, made in the Champagne method, for a fraction of the price), but it's not usually something a whole lot of people will suggest! Just as a quick refresher- "Cremant"...

NV Paula Kornell Brut Vintage:  NV Region:  California, USA Winery:  Paula Kornell Varieties:  80% Chardonnay, 20% Pinot Noir Price:  $18 Critic Rating: 94 Points My Rating:  93 Points The Review: Ladies and gentlemen, I've done it! My endless quest for cheap sparkling wine that could pass for good Champagne has come to a (temporary) pause with the discovery of Paula Kornell's California Brut. I've been reading about this wine for a couple of months now, and it's been on my radar, but I hadn't been able to find it until a few days ago. I found it at a Kroger, and I'd be shocked if other stores (especially Wegmans) don't start carrying it soon. This wine is the first effort of Paula Kornell, a descendant of a Champagne family turned California winemakers, and boy has it gotten some good press. It's received several high scores and was listed as Wine Enthusiast's #5 best wine of 2020, thus marking the inaugural release quite the success. It's major...

NV Lini 910 "Labrusca" Lambrusco Rosso   Vintage:  NV Region:  Emilia-Romagna, Italy Winery:  Lini Oreste & Figli Varieties:  85% Salamino, 15% Ancellotta Price:  $15 Critic Rating: 88 Points My Rating:  87 Points The Review: Apologies for the slight delay in between blogs! Got caught up in the first week of classes. But now that I'm settled in a bit more, I think it's the perfect time to talk about good ole' Lambrusco. Commonly misconceived as being sweet garbage (at least in America), Lambrusco actually has varying levels of sweetness and presents a unique opportunity to crush a fizzy red wine. In fact, usually, it's dry! And yes, I didn't mistype- it's a fizzy red. It can also be a fizzy white and a fizzy rose, but it's got a surprisingly complicated naming system that I'm quite unfamiliar with. Maybe one day... Usually classified as being "frizzante" as opposed to "spumante" (which would be more like a normal sparkli...

NV G.H. Mumm Grand Cordon Brut Vintage:  NV Region:  Champagne, France Winery:  G.H. Mumm Varieties:  Pinot Noir, Chardonnay, Pinot Meunier Price:  $38 Retail, but on sale at Costco for $28 through the New Year Rating: 92 Points My Rating:  91 Points The Review: Hope everyone had a nice holiday! As New Year's Eve rapidly approaches, it's that time of year to stock up on some bubbly. If you're not one of those people who drink sparkling wine on a regular basis (yes, we exist), picking out a good bottle for NYE can be stressful. While many people opt for cheaper sparklers (may I point you towards previous blogs about Dibon Cava and Kirkland Champagne if this is your choice), others use this day as a time to bust out a bottle of the good good. While cheaper options are a great way to get the experience, there's something special about popping open a bottle of real Champagne to celebrate. If you're looking for the real stuff for a price that won't hurt too much...

   NV Gruet Blanc de Noirs   Vintage:  NV Region: New Mexico, USA Winery:  Gruet Varieties:  75% Pinot Noir, 25% Chardonnay Price:  $13.99 (Should be able to find everywhere) Rating:  90 Points My Rating:  91 Points The Review:  As a firm believer in drinking sparkling wine for no reason other than the fact that I can, I've always been on the search for Champagne quality sparklers for an affordable price. This wine comes with an interesting story. The Gruet family, owners of the Gruet et Fils Champagne house in France, discovered while on vacation in the Southwest that New Mexico had perfect conditions for sparkling wine. The area had high elevation, drastic day and night temperature swings, and sandy soils- all conditions that make for excellent sparkling wine. They planted an experimental vineyard in the 80's, and soon some of the Gruet children moved to run the winery.  With their first vintage being released in 1989, Gruet has b...

  NV Dibon Cava Brut Reserve Vintage:  NV Region:  Penedés, Spain (Cava) Winery:  Bodegas Pinord Varietal:  60% Xarel-lo, 30% Macabeo, 10% Parellada Price:  $9.99 My Rating:  92 Points The Review: Over the summer, I decided to ask my friends at the local wine shop here in Charlottesville to select me a few wines. This is something I like to do (and would recommend you do!) because it provides an opportunity to really branch out and try something you may have never even looked at. This wine today, the Dibon Cava Brut Reserve, was one of those wines for me. I'd seen the stand-out yellow label in stores but had always steered clear. When I asked my friends for a wine that "tastes like Champagne, but costs like a college student wine," this is what they sent me, and boy was I pleased. Cava, as we've talked about in a previous blog (see "Why is Sparkling Wine So Confusing?"), is made in the Champagne Method. So, it's fermented in the bottle and on the dead ...

NV Kirkland Signature Brut Champagne Vintage:  NV Region:  Champagne , France Winery:  Janisson & Sons Champagne House (Manuel Janisson) Varietal:  Pinot Meunier, Pinot Noir, Chardonnay (Champagne Blend) Price:  $19.99 at Costco Expert Rating: N/A My Rating:  88+ The Review: Costco- undeniably the greatest gift to mankind. What can't they do? Excessively large quantities of cereal, a lovely selection of butchered meats, free samples, and... really solid private label wine? Yes, believe it or not, Kirkland Signature wines are usually really good and always well below the market price. So how do they make good wines? Like all Kirkland labeled products, they pay another company to make the wines for them. It just so happens that they source from some of the best wineries/regions in the world. This means that several of their wines are competitive in quality with some very good wines. Today's example, the Kirkland Signature Brut Champagne, is a perfect exam...

NV Rondel Cava Brut Vintage:  NV Region: Spain (I think Catalonia)  Winemakers:  Rondel Varietal:  Cava Blend (Xarel-lo, Macabeo, Parellada) Price:  $8.99 at Total Wine Expert Rating:  90 My Rating:  85 The Review: Golf is back next week, and that's a reason to celebrate! Even if you don't like golf, there's always a reason to celebrate. And what better way to celebrate than by popping open some sparkling wine?  As I discussed in the previous post, sparkling wine can be a little confusing, so if you haven't read that one I would probably recommend that you do. It might help frame this review a little better. Cava, originally intended to be the Spanish answer to Champagne, has sort of settled into the role of being a lesser-known sparkling wine. Made in the traditional Champagne method but with different grape blends, it achieved a bit of a reputation of being "poor mans Champagne," even though it's totally different. And that's a shame because it'...

Why is sparkling wine so hard to understand? What's up everyone. Hope you've all been doing well and are hanging in there and staying safe! Today's post will be a little different. I sat down to write a review of a sparkling wine, but was gonna end up writing an essay about what exactly makes different sparkling wines different. So, instead I'm gonna take this time to briefly explain sparkling wine (*disclaimer* No matter how much I read about it, it's still confusing, so bear with me). Buckle up everyone, here we go. Sparkling wine... what a wonderful and confusing thing. I love it, you love it, my dad hates it. He's weird. Anyways, I'll try to briefly touch on some of the things that make sparkling  wine so great and so confusing. Cava vs. Prosecco vs. Champagne vs. Sparkling Wine vs. vs. vs. SO MANY DIFFERENT NAMES. So what do they mean and why does it matter to call things by their official names? Does it? We'l l start with Champagne because France m...