Category Archives: Red Wine

Enate Cabernet Sauvignon-Merlot 2021

4 June 2026 By in Red Wine, Wine Tags: , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Bordeaux Red Blends from Somontano, Spain

Cabernet Sauvignon 50%, Merlot 50%

Purchase Price: $19.99

James Suckling 90, ElsBob 91

ABV 14.5%

A deep ruby wine with touches of cherry, dark fruits, and chocolate. Medium-full bodied with a wonderful balance between the tannins and acidity. Very smooth with a very nice long finish.

An excellent fine wine at a wonderful price. Buy a case if you can find it. Current prices range from $19-24.

Through the Grapevine: When the root‑louse phylloxera devastated French vineyards in the 1860s–1880s, the worst‑hit regions were Bordeaux, Languedoc, and Southwest France. The phylloxera bug is a tiny root‑feeding insect whose saliva prevents a grapevine from healing, and it caused widespread destruction throughout Europe, but French vineyards were hit especially hard. When the insect feeds, it creates swollen, necrotic wounds on the fine roots, disrupting the plant’s ability to move water and nutrients.

A healthy Vitis vinifera vine has no evolutionary defenses against this kind of attack, so the damage compounds quickly. The roots deform, the vascular tissue collapses, and the plant begins to starve from the root up. The insect doesn’t need to kill the vine outright; it just needs to keep feeding, and the point of no return creeps closer with every bite.

Once the roots are compromised, the soil fungi arrive. They’re not really the villains. More like the cleanup crew. Species like Pythium and Fusarium slip into the open wounds and accelerate the decay, breaking down the already‑dying tissue. To 19th‑century growers, this looked like a fungal blight, because the visible rot was fungal. But the fungus was only there because the insect had already done the fatal work.

In courtroom terms, phylloxera is the primary causal agent. The one with the means, motive, and the opportunity. The fungi are merely opportunistic actors who move in after the bug and ‘the damage done’, bystanders partaking in free food. Right place at the right time but innocent.

After the devastation, tens of thousands of growers, merchants, and winemakers lost everything. Many fled across the Pyrenees into northern Spain, the closest safe viticultural zone where they could continue their trade. Somontano was perfectly positioned for the migrating vintners: close to the French border, blessed with high‑altitude vineyards, and full of vine‑loving, crappy soils that were bug‑free at the time. They brought with them Bordeaux grape varieties, winemaking skills, commercial networks, and high expectations.

The French influence permanently changed Somontano. Before phylloxera, it was a local, rustic wine region. With the influx of French expertise, it became more technical, more international, and unmistakably Bordeaux‑centric. Today Bordeaux varieties feel native to Somontano. The only thing that really changed was the language.

La Lecciaia Sassarello 2018

22 May 2026 By in Red Wine, Wine Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Other Red Blends from Tuscany, Italy

Sangiovese, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot (No percentages given)

Purchase Price: $18.99

James Suckling 92, ElsBob 91

ABV 13.5%

A deep ruby and a fainter ruby rim with aromas of dark fruits and herbs. Medium-full bodied with cherries and spice on the palate with balanced acidity and tannins. As with all Sangiovese wines, it needs to breathe.

An excellent table wine at a great price. Current prices range from $15-18.

Through the Grapevine: Fattoria La Lecciaia lies just off the old Via Francigena, the medieval road that carried pilgrims from England all the way to Rome. A traveler leaving Canterbury would walk to the Channel, cross by boat into France, and then continue south on foot through Reims and Besançon, climbing steadily toward the Alps. The most daunting stretch was the Great St. Bernard Pass, a high, wind‑scoured saddle between Switzerland and Italy where snow lingered well into spring and travelers relied on the hospitality of the monks who kept watch there.

Once over the pass, the road dropped into the Aosta Valley and wound south through the Tuscan hills. Pilgrims, merchants, and clerics passed directly through the countryside around Montalcino, moving along the same ridgelines and valleys where La Lecciaia’s Sangiovese vines now grow. For centuries, the drum of footsteps, mule bells, and weary voices shaped this landscape long before Brunello or Toscana IGT existed.

This route was initially recorded by the Archbishop Sigeric of Canterbury in 990 AD who walked from Rome back to England and fixed all 80 of his stopping points for his flock to follow. This is the moment that the route became a pilgrimage. Most travelers made the trek in a single season of 3-4 months, one-way, leaving England in spring so they could cross the Alps in summer before descending into the Tuscan hills…centuries before Henry II ever muttered his famous complaint about a Thomas Becket, the ‘meddlesome priest.’

Continuing the over‑trivialization of everything, the St. Bernard Pass was originally known, at least as far back as surviving records allow, as Poeninus Mons or Summus Poeninus, named by the Romans for a local Alpine god. A temple to Jupiter Poeninus once stood at the summit, watching over traders and legionaries who crossed these heights. Only in the 11th century was the pass renamed after St. Bernard of Menthon, who established a hospice there in 1049 AD. The monks began keeping large working dogs several centuries after St. Bernard’s lifetime, breeding them on site for the practical work of rescuing travelers from snowdrifts. Sadly, there is no reliable evidence that they ever dispensed spirits to the distressed or those buried in white snow. The breed eventually took on the monk’s name, making him the eponym rather than the other way around.

Poliziano Rosso di Montepulciano 2023

9 May 2026 By in Red Wine, Wine Tags: , , , , , , Leave a comment

Sangiovese from Montepulciano, Tuscany, Italy

Sangiovese 80%, Merlot 20%

Purchase Price $18.99

Vinous 90, Cellar Tracker 88, ElsBob 89

ABV: 14%

 A ruby red, clear wine with vibrant tastes of red fruits. A acidic medium finish that smooths out the tannins. This is meant to be a young wine so don’t overdo it with meal prep. It will go fine with spaghetti in a marinara sauce.

A very good fine wine slightly overpriced at $20. Buy it if you can find it under $14. Current prices range from $14-16. This wine needs to breathe. The first sip from a just open bottle will be rough. Give it 30 minutes.

Trivia: The village of Gracciano, Italy, near the Poliziano vineyard, sits in a Tuscan landscape where everything has happened but nothing that will ever make it to Jeopardy. But it does lie heavily at the crossroads of Etruscan, Roman, medieval, and Renaissance history. Not a place of singular world‑shaping events, but of continuous layers of civilizations that march through and over the land that helped shape the modern world.

From 700 to 100 BC, the entire Montepulciano–Gracciano ridge was Etruscan territory, and they were already cultivating grapes. God bless ‘em. Beyond that, very little was known: their language vanished, their tombs were looted, and Rome’s shadow seemed to erase them…until last year.

In 2025, archaeologists from Baylor University uncovered a sealed Etruscan chamber tomb at San Giuliano, northwest of Rome. Dating to roughly 2,600 years ago, the 7th century BC, it is one of the most significant Etruscan finds in decades. Inside were four individuals laid on carved stone beds, surrounded by more than 100 grave goods: iron weapons, bronze ornaments, ceramic vessels, and delicate silver hair spools, all in their original placement.

This tomb, along with two others discovered recently, is giving researchers an unprecedented chance to illuminate the civilization’s inner life: family structure, gender roles, trade networks, ritual practices, and social hierarchy.

The emerging picture suggests a culture older and more urbanized than early Rome. A society whose religion, architecture, and political symbolism Rome borrowed heavily. Etruscan elites were likely not destroyed but absorbed into the expanding Roman world.

St. Francis Old Vines Zinfandel 2021

27 April 2026 By in Red Wine, Wine Tags: , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Zinfandel from Sonoma County, California

Zinfandel 83%, Petite Sirah 17%

Purchase Price $19.99

Wine Spectator 90, Wine Enthusiast 88, ElsBob 88

ABV: 14.8%

A clear, crisp ruby red wine with sparkling flavors of cherries and raspberries. Medium-bodied with a fairly short finish. Will pair well with rich spicy foods.

A very good fine wine but overpriced at $20. A fair price would be $12 or less. Current prices $16-20.

Trivia: The St. Francis Winery sources its old‑vine Zinfandel, 60 to 100 years old, from a mosaic of small, family‑owned vineyards across Sonoma County, including some of its own estate parcels. Dry Creek Valley, Russian River Valley, and Sonoma Valley are the classic AVAs for old vine Zinfandel, and no single winery holds enough old‑vine acreage to produce a meaningful volume alone. St. Francis relies on long‑standing relationships with these growers, making this wine neither a négociant bottling nor a strictly estate‑grown one, but a true grower‑partner expression.

The winery takes its name from St. Francis of Assisi, the patron saint of animals and the nature. Themes of reverence for creation, harmony with the land, and care for living things shape the winery’s identity.

St. Francis of Assisi founded the Order of Friars Minor, the Franciscans, and inspired both the Poor Clares and the Third Order for laypeople. He embraced absolute poverty as the spiritual core of his movement. In 1224 he received the stigmata, becoming one of the earliest and most famous stigmatics in Christian history. His life remains a model of humility, peace, and solidarity with the poor, a faithful imitation of Christ. This ideal of poverty has deep roots in Christianity. In the early Church, renouncing wealth was a way of rejecting the Roman system of power and status. The Desert Fathers of the 3rd to 5th centuries carried this impulse into the wilderness of Egypt and Palestine, seeking God in radical simplicity. For them, poverty created an interior stillness: freedom from the noise of desire (from material possessions), a state they called apatheia. The word is Greek, meaning “without passion,” but in the ancient world it carried a positive sense of clarity and freedom rather than the negative connotation the modern term “apathetic” suggests.

Vina Real Crianza 2021

6 April 2026 By in Red Wine, Wine Tags: , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Tempranillo from Rioja, Spain

Tempranillo 90%, Garnacha, Mazuelo, and Graciano 10%

Purchase Price: $15.99

James Suckling 93, Robert Parker 91, Vinous 91, ElsBob 88.

ABV 13.5%

A deep garnet medium-bodied wine. Aromas of plums and spice with red fruits and pushy tannins on the palette. A very long somewhat biting finish.

A very good table wine at an elevated price. Current prices range from $15-18. Probably shouldn’t pay more than $10-12 dollars for this wine.

Trivia: Vina Real’s vineyards sit on the Cerro de la Mesa above the historic Spanish Camino Real that threaded Rioja Alavesa, a medieval, early modern route that linked Logrono– Laguardia—Haro—Burgos—the Mesta. It was a royal arterial road of Old Castile that was used for trade and state travel.

Chateau Les Grands Marechaux 2019

10 March 2026 By in Red Wine, Wine Tags: , , , , , Leave a comment

Bordeaux Red Blend from Bordeaux, France

Merlot, 84%, Cabernet Franc 9%, Cabernet Sauvignon 7%

Purchase Price $17.97

Wine Enthusiast 91, James Suckling 91, ElsBob 89

ABV14%

A medium purple wine with aroma of black fruits and a touch of cinnamon. Medium-bodied, bold, medium tannic with a nice fresh finish.

A very good fine wine at a tolerable price but on the high end. Don’t pay more than $15-16 though. Current prices are around $20.

Trivia: The Right Bank of Bordeaux is all about geology, which dictates the elemental structure for every bottle. Clay and limestone dominate the landscape, shaping not only the vineyards but the very character of the wines. Clay holds water and moderates temperature, slowing ripening and giving Merlot the conditions it needs to develop depth and supple density. Limestone, by contrast, drains freely and raises the natural acidity of the fruit, lending a kind of lifted tension that becomes especially clear in Cabernet Franc. Most Right Bank terroirs are some interplay of these two materials, and the wines reflect that structural duet.

Because the soils speak so clearly, the grape varieties are inevitable. Merlot thrives on the moisture and coolness of clay, producing wines that are plush, dark-fruited, and immediately generous. Cabernet Franc finds its ideal expression on limestone, where it gains aromatic precision and a firmer, more architectural frame. Cabernet Sauvignon plays only a minor role, appearing meaningfully only where gravel becomes plentiful, uncommon occurrence on this side of the river. The blends that emerge from these conditions are less stylistic and more like geological consequences.

Across the region, this soil–variety logic creates a coherent family of appellations. Saint‑Émilion’s limestone plateau and clay-limestone slopes yield vertical, structured wines shaped by Cabernet Franc. Pomerol’s blue clay produces Merlot of unusual depth and velvet. The surrounding satellites share these themes with less concentration but often remarkable value. And further north, in the Côtes de Blaye and Côtes de Bourg, estates like Château Les Grands Maréchaux work with the same clay‑limestone matrix, producing Merlot‑driven wines that are fresh, supple, and structurally clear despite their modest price. Taken together, the Right Bank’s identity is not a matter of marketing or prestige but of geology asserting itself. The wines share a recognizable signature, black plum and violet, fine chalky tannins, a rounded mid‑palate, and a fresh, lifted finish, all because the land insists on it.

Sebastiani North Coast Cabernet Sauvignon 2022

26 February 2026 By in Red Wine, Wine Tags: , , Leave a comment

Cabernet Sauvignon from North Coast, California

Purchase Price $16.97

James Suckling 91, Cellar Tracker 84, ElsBob 88

ABV 14.2%

A deep garnet wine with aromas of dark fruits and florals. Medium-full-bodied with grippy medium-high tannins. A fresh acidity that provides a nice finish.

A very good fine wine at an elevated price. Current pricing is from $16-19. I wouldn’t pay more than $11-12 for this wine.

This is an AVA cab blend sourced from North Coast vineyards which, by definition, may include Marin, Solano, Napa, Sonoma, Mendocino, and Lake counties.

Trivento Golden Reserve Malbec 2022

15 February 2026 By in Red Wine, Wine Tags: , , , , Leave a comment

Malbec from Lujan de Cuyo, Mendoza, Argentina

Purchase Price $19.97

Decanter 95, Natalie Maclean 93, Tim Atkin 93, James Suckling 92, Tasting Panel 92, Wine Enthusiast 90, Robert Parker 90, Cellar Tracker 89, ElsBob 90

ABV 14.0%

An intense deep purple with aromas of red fruits and cocoa. Medium to medium-full bodied with smooth tannins and a medium fresh finish. Enjoy alone or with lamb chops or chorizo.

An excellent fine wine at a fair price. Current prices range from $20-22.

Trivia: From archaeological sites in the area of Mendoza, especially Agua de la Cueva and Gruta del Indio, show human occupation dating back roughly to 12,000-13,000 years ago. Right at the tail end of the last ice age. The people who inhabited this area were hunter-gatherers moving seasonally through the Andean foothills, likely avoiding the higher elevations in the southern hemisphere winters. They left tools, hearths, and lots and lots of bones. They left no recorded language or name.

Quinta do Vallado Douro Tinto 2022

1 February 2026 By in Red Wine, Wine Tags: , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Red Blend Other from Douro, Portugal

Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca, Vinhas Velhas, Tinta Roriz, Tinta Barroca, Sousão

Purchase Price $18.99

Wine Enthusiast 91, Robert Parker 90, Wine Spectator 90, Cellar Tracker 89, ElsBob 90

ABV 13.5%

A deep purple medium-full bodied wine with aromas of florals, spice and red fruits. Tastes of plums and bright tannins. Nice balanced, structure with a medium finish. This wine will pair well with hearty meats and pasta dishes.

An excellent table wine at a reasonable price. Current prices range from $19-23.

Trivia: The Douro Valley was officially demarcated as a wine region in 1756, making it the oldest legally defined wine region in the world. The demarcation was established to combat merchants who diluted Port with inferior wines: unscrupulous scurvy dogs of questionable sobriety. This system of quality control ensured authenticity and became the model for wine denominations worldwide.

Sur de los Andes Reserva Cabernet Sauvignon 2021

18 January 2026 By in Red Wine, Wine Tags: , , , , , , , , , Leave a comment

Cabernet Sauvignon from Mendoza, Argentina

Purchase Price $16.99

Vinous 91, James Suckling 90, Wilfred Wong 90, Wine Enthusiast 87, ElsBob 88

ABV 14.0%

A deep ruby to deep purple full-bodied wine. Black fruit and oak on the nose and cherries on the tongue. A lasting tannic finish.

A very good fine wine but don’t pay more than $12-13. Current prices range from $18-34.

Trivia: Today Mendoza evokes vineyards and wine. But before the grape, before the Jesuits, before the Spaniards, before the Incas, there were the Huarpe people. In the Andean shadows of the setting sun, settlement was about water, trade, and brute survival on the high plains of an arid frontier.

The Huarpes lived in the Huentota Valley (modern Mendoza), the Uco Valley, and parts of San Juan. Masters of irrigation, they engineered acequias: canals that diverted river water to sustain maize, beans, squash, and, through trade, potatoes. Their skill made agriculture possible in an otherwise dry landscape, and the legacy of those canals still shapes Mendoza’s tree‑lined streets today.

These acequias, often several feet deep, were carved in the pre‑metal age with bone and wooden digging sticks: a testament to persistence and communal labor in a harsh environment.