Italian- Garofoli ‘Komaros’ Rosato di Montepulciano 2024 $12.70

French- Chateau St Pierre Vin de Mediterranee Tradition Rose $14.21

Greek- Gaia 4.6 Agiorgitiko Rose $13.79

Chilean- Lapostolle le Rose $12.29

German- Villa Wolf Pinot Noir Rose $11.50

If summer ever arrives, this is your first wine of the day. Throw it in a bucket of ice and share it while the grill is heating up. It’s an easy drinking combination of citrus and flowers with citrus jumping to the front. You’ll know why there are limes on the label. We both liked it and forgot to ask about the price. Lucky you, it came out low.

100% Montepulciano. This is the kind of wine you drink while making pasta and pour some in the sauce.

It’s a $13 Pinot Noir, from France.

Don’t judge a bottle by its label. Sure, this gives old man vibes – the label touts awards they won in the 80s – the 1880s, that is. Don’t call it a comeback, they’ve made the same four blends since 1851. We loved this Syrah and Merlot blend, it’s a tiny bit more summer-y compared to the others.  When you hear stories about visiting Spain and drinking incredible wines for $5 a bottle, this is the type of wine they are talking about. Pro tip: Let it breathe a little.

If you think you haven’t had Pinot Meunier before, you’re probably wrong. It is one of the three primary varietals used in Champagne (with pals Chardonnay and Pinot Noir). And, if you think it is white wine, also wrong. It is light, has a long flavor, can be chilled, has a screw cap, and the flavor holds up if you don’t finish the bottle until the next day. Do you have the other half of this locket? It may be the perfect wine to stash in your bedroom so you don’t have to go downstairs for a drink. Affectionate pet name from Club member Heather: “Bedroom Wine.”

Insolia is an ancient varietal from Sicily. This one is grown in a town called Monreale near Palermo. It is far enough from Etna that you don’t get an overpowering volcanic flavor but it definitely lasted like an Island wine. The stainless steel keeps the orange blossom and almond notes from the grape, with salinity from the clay/sand soil and the ocean.

In Rioja, Crianza is like the Low Road. It’s not generic wine with no rules (I mean, even the Low Road has standards). It needs to be aged for two years with at least one year on oak barrels. If you were in Spain in the summer, this would be a very good red wine to choose. If you did accidentally drink the whole bottle, you’d enjoy it to the last sip.  

100% Tempranillo- 90 points from James Suckling

A step up from the basic Prosecco (in life and with this brand.) Still cheap enough to pour orange juice in but better if you drink it straight.

Garrafeira means “cellared wine,” meaning that its held in the bottle longer before release. Most people don’t have a true wine cellar, but if you do, I hope you don’t have many $18 bottles from 2011. They are probably vinegar by now, but this is the exception. Strong, balanced, with significant tannins, and made with the same grapes that go into port. And 2011 was an amazing vintage for port. What do you get when you have a 14-year old wine, from a great vintage, made in a place that is famous for aging wine and selling affordable, high quality reds? Lezgo.

This month marks our 20th Anniversary… of discovering Cannonau (Grenache from Sardegna).  More than any other region, Sardegna was the inspiration for Santa Ray Wine Club. When we got back from our honeymoon we could only find one or two large producers that imported Cannonau and Vermentino into the U.S. Now we have access to many smaller wineries like this one from Umberto Soletta to choose from. This is the entry-level Cannonau, meaning this is the wine that the winemaking family drinks at home.

IT’S BACK

The #1 selling wine we have ever done is back after a few year hiatus.

These pink bubbles were made famous when Obama and Putin shared a toast in 2015 at the UN. The tiny winery in Marche only found out later that their wine was served.

This wine is fun and delicious and should start every holiday celebration.

This Basque wine is bone dry and acidic with a slight effervescence. It is the ultimate starter wine and can be enjoyed with food or by itself on a sunny day. Pour it high so it splashes a little in the glass to release the bubbles. You fancy! Psst, it was named one of the Top 100 Wines of 2024 from Wine Spectator. Show off a lil’.

This Arneis is named after Elisa Elia, the woman who managed the winery during World War II. The family has been making this wine since she died in 1973. Everything we look for in an Italian White... think acidity, melon, floral notes, and no oak. Like most Italian wines, you can drink it with almost any food.

We weren’t going to include this wine because we just had a Nebbiolo in the February Delivery AND the other High Road Red is Italian.  But we loved it so much that we bought a case for us to have around the house.  Since then we can stop drinking it and everyone we served it to loved it.  So here you go, an extra Italian wine.

Sandro Fay is the winery, Valtellina is the region in the northernmost part of Italy, Valgella is the single vineyard that has their oldest vines of Nebbiolo (called Chiavennasca in the region).  It is a great summer red that is medium bodied and complex.  Let it breath for a minute.   It’s on 13% alcohol so if you are so inclined, you can drink the bottle and still enjoy it when you get to the bottom.

Weingut Stadt Krems was founded 560 years ago as a source of revenue for the hospital in Krems and is still owned by the municipality today. This plot on land in Stein borders both regions that produce the best Gruner in the world, Kremstal (this region) and Wachau. We are always careful with Gruner Veltliner, we prefer versions that finish very dry and clean, especially in the summer. It is common to drink this with semi-spicy Asian food but we think that is because this wine is versatile.  You can have this by itself or with just about anything food.

This wine was a shock to me, but it shouldn’t have been. When I hear Cabernet Franc, I think about the blending grape used to mellow out the Cabernet and Merlot in Bordeaux blends. It has been used that way since the 1700s. But there are records of Cabernet Franc in the Loire region of Bourgueil going back even further. The Caslot family has been on the same Domaine in that region since 1640. And in Bourgueil, Cab France is not a blending grape. It makes a meaty, peppery wine that belongs on the table with the main course. I would have guessed that this was a Syrah or Nebbiolo. Anxious to hear your thoughts.

Sometimes we worry about using Inama wines too often… but then we taste another one that we know you will like. Monte Foscarino is the volcanic, single vineyard where the Garganega grapes are grown for this Soave. The description mentions “aromas of golden meadow flowers” which we had never heard before, but whatever that means, we like it. This wine is highly regarded with scores from 94-97 points and Wine Enthusiast said you can drink it from now until 2040!! 

If you’ve been with the Club for a while, you know we love when Paul Hobbs partners with foreign wineries and gets the most out of their potential. Hobbs works with aging, barrels, and blending to get the best vintage of every varietal. Natural wine drinkers (cough) might call him a cheater, but we call him a Winemaker. Yes, we know. It’s a 2021, but it’s the current release and Wine Spectator said you can drink it until 2029. Awarding it 91 points and opined “There's a lush quality to this white's flavors of golden apple, creamed almond and vanilla, yet a spine of vivid acidity and a tangy streak of salinity trim the rich profile effortlessly. Fresh and well-balanced on the palate, with aromatic broom, ground ginger and Meyer lemon peel notes lingering on the finish. Drink now through 2029." Or as we would’ve put it, “That’s so Hobbs!”

We know that France identifies their wines by region rather than varietal (For example, Sancerre=Sauvignon Blanc).  This Sancerre Rouge is Pinot Noir. English and American marketers have influenced many wineries in France to start identifying their wine by grape to help with the confusion. “Pinot Noir” is written on the label, but it isn’t as prominently displayed as the marketers would like.  Let’s just say Sarah couldn’t find it on the label, even with her readers. The wine, like the label, is a good blend of French tradition with some American influence. It is a bright, well-rounded, summer Pinot with a little bit of oiliness.

2019 was a fantastic Barolo vintage producing plenty of ageable wines at every price range. If you are in that market and you can afford the Blue Chip producers, good on you. Spend the money and put some 2019s in your cellar to forget about for a while. For SRWC (to read: no blue chips), it means that we can get a 2019 Barolo that is affordable, approachable now, but can also stay in the bottle for a while if you want to wait. But we don’t.

Collio DOC is located in Friuli, on the border of Italy and Slovenia. We have used plenty of white wines from that region, but this may be our first red. In Collio, they generally grow French Varietals and in the summer we prefer Cab Franc to Cabernet Sauvignon or Merlot. It has the seriousness, earth, and tobacco of a French wine, but with the medium tannins that you will appreciate in the summer. It’s tastes exactly what it is, a French Grape in Italian soil.

You know the story…. grape is almost extinct, someone brings it back, you haven’t heard of it, it’s delicious, blah blah. But oops, we did it again. Schioppettino (skee-yope-eh-tee-no – repeat) is a great peppery summer red otherwise known as Ribolla Nera (event though it is genetically unrelated to Ribolla Gialla.)

Our High Road Reds tend to be French and Italian, but this Super Tuscan meets you in the middle. It is a classic Bordeaux blend (Cab, Merlot, Cab Franc, and Petit Verdot), but distinctly Italian in flavor.

Traditionally we would recommend a Gamay or Pinot Noir for your Thanksgiving table, so this year we are bringing you both. There is a region in Burgundy called Passetoutgrains where they blend the two grapes, BUT this one is from California. The High Country Red is a blend of almost equal amounts of the two varietals and is from the Sonoma Coast. America!

It’s hard to get a Bordeaux in the SWRC price point, especially from Margaux. But we try! We taste them every year and they are either too expensive or don’t meet our standards. Enter 2019 – an excellent year in Margaux but not legendary like 2020. La Dame D’Angludet is the second wine of Château Angludet and is made from the younger vines of Cabernet, Merlot, and Petite Verdot. Club members Fred and Jennifer chose this as one of the “adult” wines for their daughter’s wedding, while the youngsters drink natural wine.

Meet this classic Pinot Noir from the premier Pinot Noir region in the world made by a family that has been doing it here since the 1800s. Critics of Burgundy will say that it is overpriced and overrated. But they also say it’s delicious.

An allocated wine is one that is in high demand, with limited quantity that the winery or importer dolls out sparingly, usually to reward loyalty. And boom! We got some. Alain Graillot is the maker, who over the past 30 years has been consistently lauded for high-quality Syrah from the region. 91-93 points. Our allocation is only 12 bottles for (and we already drank one.)  

I was gifted a bottle of this and I didn’t want to be rude and Google it, so I opened it, gave Sarah half a glass, and drank the rest.  It was fantastic, so I did a search and found out that it got 92-94 points, it’s ready to drink now, and it was too expensive for the Club.  So we negotiated a better deal, lowered our markup, and barely fit this into the HIgh Road.