The 30 Second Wine Advisor

Where in the world is Central Otago?

Robin Garr — Fri, 28 Aug 2026 15:38:50 GMT

“Where in the world does the best Pinot Noir come from?” It hasn’t been too long since this question had only one answer: Bourgogne, aka Burgundy.

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Bourgogne comes by its reputation honestly: Pinot Noir has been grown there for wine for 2,000 years, and Burgundy in something akin to its current form goes back to the 14th century if not before. The soil, the climate, and perhaps most of all the vine growing and winemaking tradition are tuned to Pinot greatness.

For much of modern history, few producers in other places competed seriously for equal stature with Bourgogne, although it wasn’t for lack of trying. Pinot cuttings soon went to Germany and Austria. It wasn’t long before growers within France gave it a try, particularly in the Loire and Alsace. By the middle of the 19th century, plantings popped up in Northern Italy and in California. Oregon and New Zealand joined the Pinot rush within living memory.

But by and large, Burgundy remained the lofty standard, and the conventional wisdom remained that no one else could do it like Burgundy. The climate wasn’t right. The soil wasn’t the same. And nobody – nobody – had Burgundy’s tradition and experience.

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That all may be true. It explains why top Burgundies like Domaine de la Romanee-Conti Montrachet Grand Cru can still command an average price topping $10,000.

But a few dogged growers in the U.S. and elsewhere kept trying. They looked for vineyard land with similar soil and climate, and they experimented with Pinot Noir clones, growing techniques, and winery skill. Eventually, regions like Oregon’s Willamette Valley, the Russian River Valley and Sonoma Coast in California started achieving very good Pinot. Some of them actually tasted a bit like Burgundy. Others came up with wines that were good but different.

New Zealand’s Southern Alps make a dramatic backdrop for Lowburn Ferry wine estate, from Central Otago: Everything to know and wines to try, an October 2018 Decanter article by Anne Krebiehl MW.

And then, toward the end of the last century, a new name popped up on wine lovers’ radar: Central Otago. This relatively young wine region lies near the southern end of New Zealand’s South Island. Although it’s on the 45th parallel south of the equator – about the same distance south as Bordeaux and Oregon lie north – it’s the world’s southernmost wine region.

It’s also one of the newest: Save for a couple of 19th-century pioneers whose efforts did not survive, its modern era didn’t begin until Gibbston Valley Central Otago wines went on sale in 1987.

Blessed with climate, geology, altitude, and sunlight that bode well for great Pinot Noir, the region’s reputation grew quickly as more producers joined the rush.

Central Otago has quickly earned a reputation for wines that, if not Burgundy lookalikes, boast a special class and finesse all their own. This week’s featured wine, Innocent Bystander, actually comes from an Australian producer that owns a Central Otago property. The wine speaks for itself as a fine, complex, and balanced Pinot Noir that can stand comparison with Oregon or even Burgundy.

New Zealand’s Central Otago is winning a growing reputation for quality Pinot Noir. What’s your experience with the wines from this region?

Because Innocent Bystander is priced above $20, I have to leave it behind our subscription paywall. Because I buy all the wines I review at retail and do not accept wine samples or other gratuities from the industry, I rely on the support of paid subscribers to help cover the cost of the wines I review.

If you haven’t become a paid subscriber yet, I’d love to have your support. Click here for information on our paid-tier edition. Our free-to-all edition featuring a quality wine for $20 or less will return in its biweekly cycle next week.

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Tell us a story

Robin Garr — Fri, 21 Aug 2026 15:06:35 GMT

We often debate whether to buy a wine with a cute animal on the label. But how about a wine that carries a fascinating (if probably fictional) story?

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In the world of wine, as with many consumer goods, marketing is part of the game. A colorful label with an attention-getting image might stand out on the wine-shop shelf, grabbing the customer’s attention amid an array of more drab alternatives.

The effect of a good wine story may be a little harder to measure, but if a good story sticks in your memory, it might trigger a sale the next time you visit the wine store. The world of wine, of course, is full of stories.

There’s the Mosel’s Wehlener Sonnenuhr, named after the oversized sundial that sat high above the vineyard’s slopes to let the vineyard workers know when their shift was over.
Tuscany’s Black Rooster trademark came from the legend of a noisy bird whose early wake-up call gave the Florence rider a winning head start in a trophy race.
Bonny Doon’s California Rhône lookalike Cigare Volant took its name, according to producer Randall Grahm, from the mayor of Châteauneuf-du-Pape’s legendary ban on “flying cigar” UFOs from flying around the city’s vineyards.

A recommendation from my local wine shop guy recently put me back on the trail of another Italian wine with a story that I hadn’t thought about for years: A wine-loving German bishop on pilgrimage to Rome in 1111, unwilling to undertake the long journey without a good wine at the end of the day, sent a servant ahead to scout out the territory. If the servant found an inn with good wine, he was to chalk “Est” (“It is” in Latin) on the wall.

This system worked well, until they got to Montefiascone in Lazio, near Rome, where the wine was so delicious, the story goes, that the overexcited servant exulted “Est! Est!! Est!!!” The bishop agreed, loving the wine so much that he soon returned to Montefiascone, retired there, and spent the rest of his life enjoying the wine.

It’s a fun story, one that doesn’t seem entirely unlikely in its time and place, although I wouldn’t bet on its accuracy. But for what it’s worth, the Fiera del Vino, a celebration of the local wine – including many toasts to the bishop’s memory – continues to this day in Montefiascone.

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That was just about 900 years ago, and the wine has surely changed, perhaps beyond recognition. I’d say my reliable wine-shop owner guided me fairly to a fresh, acidic white wine. It’s decent for summer sipping, and it comes with a fun story. It was a fair buy for $9.99, a price that’s close to the low bar for worthy wine these days. But I don’t think I could fairly give it more than one “Est.”

Many wines come with stories, legendary or true. Wehlener Sonnenuhr, Chianti’s Black Rooster, Cigare Volant, and Est! Est!! Est!!!, to name a few. Do you have a favorite wine story?

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Today’s Tasting Report

Falesco 2024 Le Pòggere Est! Est!! Est!!! di Montefiascone ($9.99)

A clear, light straw-color blend of Italian white Trebbiano Toscano, Malvasia, and Roscetto grapes, Le Pòggere Est! Est!! Est!!! di Montefiascone opens with appetizing scents of lemon, lime, and pink grapefruit, with a distinct hint of green apple in the background. Crisp and fresh on the palate with a faint hint of prickly carbonation, its tart acidity bears a hint of dill pickle brine. Snappy, food-friendly citrus notes linger in the finish. 11.5% alcohol. U.S. importer: Heritage Collection Trinchero Family Estates, St. Helena, Calif. (Aug. 15, 2026)

FOOD MATCH: It’s a natural with seafood and mild fish, Italian cheeses, or dinner salads. It went well with a plate of plant-based Italian sausages seared with fresh garden peppers and onions.

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WHEN TO DRINK: It’s not a candidate for cellaring, but there’s no hurry to drink it.

VALUE:
Wine-Searcher.com shows a $15 average U.S. retail price, but the average appears to be thrown off by a few higher-price vendors; it’s widely available from $10 through the lower teens, at which price it’s a decent value for everyday enjoyment with food.

WEB LINK:
Importer Trinchero Family Estates offers information about Famiglia Cotarella, the new generation at Falasco.

FIND THIS WINE ONLINE:
Check prices and find vendors for Le Pòggere Est! Est!! Est!!! di Montefiascone on Wine-Searcher.com.

Read about the Est Est Est di Montefiascone wine region at this Wine-Searcher link.

Go to this Wine-Searcher link for more about Italy’s Lazio region, which includes Est Est Est.

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Wine-Searcher.com is the place to go online if you want to find where to buy a particular wine that interests you. What’s more, Wine-Searcher.com offers so much more. It’s well worth a visit just to discover its many features, including its popular list of the world’s Top 10 Best Value Wines.

Good wines we’ve tried under $12!

Want tips to still more good, inexpensive wines? Here are Wine-Searcher links to vendors and prices for a bunch more wines for $12 or less that I’ve told you about in recent years. In some cases, the prices may have risen since I reviewed them, but they should still be excellent bargains. Please tell us about your favorites!

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Previous Issue: « A wine with no name

A wine with no name

Robin Garr — Fri, 14 Aug 2026 15:38:28 GMT

I’ve come here to tell you about a wine with no name. It wasn’t a Barbaresco, but it might have tasted the same …

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I should offer apologies for riffing on the folk-rock band America’s 1972 hit, A Horse With No Name, but this is one of those sorry-not-sorry situations. This week’s featured wine made me smile because it was so good, and it made me laugh, sort of, because its surprisingly uninformative label took a while to figure out.

So today I offer you the story of a wine nerd’s deep dive into discovering the story behind a delicious, obscure wine, that didn’t give away much from its label.

The Italian-Swiss Alps loom over pergola-trained vineyards in the Val d’Ossola in this image from Prünent, the Heroic Nebbiolo, by DEA, a small family producer of wine, honey, and saffron in the Val d’Ossola.

The single word “Munaloss” in a simple black serif font tops the front label, unadorned and white as printer paper. Below that, a pair of merging triangles suggests mountains. And at the bottom, the sans-serif “cantineGarrone” suggests a producer’s name.

Turn the bottle to the side, and we find a section in mostly tiny type in Italian: This is a red wine, contains sulfites, and is bottled by Cantine Garrone in Domodossola, Italy, a company that supports APAO, an organization long committed to sustainability and the development of mountain viticulture.

This tells us a little more, but leaves some basic wine questions unanswered: What’s a Munaloss? What grape is this made from, what’s the vintage, and where in Italy does it come from? A back label adds that it contains 12.5% alcohol, and that it’s imported by Kermit Lynch.

Finding the name of the always reliable Kermit Lynch sets us on the right track. A quick visit to the importer’s website, a short search for other resources, and we learn that this is an interesting wine indeed.

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Cantine Garrone, it turns out, is in the Val d’Ossola (aka Valli Ossolane), a tiny region high up in the Italian Alps, bordering Switzerland on the northern edge of Piemonte. Locals claim that the Nebbiolo grape originated there, where it’s called Prünent, a variety that constitutes 80% of this wine. The remainder is sourced from Croatina, a dark, fruity red grape that’s also native to Northern Italy.

The grapes are grown by more than 40 individual growers from across the region, and, because it’s labeled as a simple table wine, regulations forbid a geographical or varietal label or a specific annual vintage, although an obscure “Lot MUN23” on the back label hints at a 2023 vintage. All this helps us grasp the obscure nature of this wine with (almost) no name.

It’s made by natural techniques, too, although it doesn’t declare itself a natural wine either . The grapes are hand-harvested, spontaneously fermented, macerate for a week to 10 days in stainless steel before pressing, then aged in stainless steel for a full year before being bottled unfined, unfiltered, and with minimal sulfiting.

Finally, how about that strange, not-too-Italian-sounding name “Munaloss”? Get ready for it: Historically, the local red wine was called “Ossolanum,” but regulators were uncomfortable with a name that was similar to the Valli Ossolane appellation. So the Garrones simply reversed the word Ossolanum, dropped the “O” that was now on the end, and came away with a new name with deep but subtle ties to its history.

“Delicious younger-vine Prünent blended with Croatina produces an immediately enjoyable, low-tannin red of character,” writes Dixon Brooke on the Kermit Lynch website. “Not only is it versatile and mouthwatering, but it also helps to preserve the agrarian way of life in this area of Italy by including the fruit of like-minded small farmers in the surrounding mountain valleys who do not bottle their own wine.”

How do you feel whan you pick up a wine with a truly uninformative label? Put it back, irritated, or leap into the joy of Internet research and learning new things?

Because this week’s featured wine is priced well above $20, I have to leave it behind our subscription paywall. Because I buy all the wines I review at retail and do not accept wine samples or other gratuities from the industry, I rely on the support of paid subscribers to help cover the cost of the wines I review.

Support The 30 Second Wine Advisor with your paid-tier subscription. For $5 per month or $50 for a year (a 17% saving), you’ll receive additional wine notes funded by your subscriptions, enjoy quick direct access through Substack for wine-related questions, and gain my real appreciation for your support.

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A standout Spanish cava

Robin Garr — Fri, 07 Aug 2026 15:15:51 GMT

Spanish Cava and Italian Prosecco don’t carry Champagne’s prestige, mostly because they’re cheap. But what if we bought a Cava for a little more?

Would it be comparable? Would it be as memorable as these more prestigious bottles?

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Cava, after all, is made in the traditional process of secondary fermentation in the individual bottle that Champagne invented and made its own. Although a few American wineries have ignored the rule, no world region – not even within France – is legally permitted to call its sparkling wine “Champagne.”

Taking it up another level, Champagne made with Pinot Noir in the mix – a pinkish or coppery blanc de noirs, “white from black” – can be surpassingly impressive because, well, it doesn’t get much better than Pinot Noir, the not-so-secret ingredient in this blend.

In the reputation sweepstakes, pink Cava doesn’t even come close. It almost invariably gets its rosy color not from Pinot Noir but from Grenache in the blend. Grenache (Garnatxa in the parlance of Catalunya, the center of much of Spain’s cava production), can make delicious red wines with its trademark red-berry flavors and light but not palate-biting acidity, but nobody ever accused it of being a serious competitor to Pinot Noir.

“The Penedès enjoys a unique heritage that has a great influence on our wines,” Parés Baltà writes on its Terroirs web pages. “Archaeological finds confirm that the first signs of wine-growing in the area date back to the 7th century BC, when Phoenician sailors began to share cultivation and winemaking techniques with the local Iberians.”

But the joy of wine often comes in the exceptions that prove the rule, and today’s featured wine, Parés Baltà Cava Pink Brut, is a standout pink Cava that’s not cheap but quite reasonable in the upper teens to lower $20s. A blend of Garnatxa and two Spanish grapes, it is impressive. And, of course, delicious.

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The producer Parés Baltà has been a fixture in Catalunya’s Penedès wine region – the ancestral home of Cava – since 1790. In modern times, the winery is committed to organic, biodynamic production and sustainability and celebrates its awards as a world vineyard travel destination.

We’re talking about Cava in today’s Wine Advisor. Are you a fan of Spain’s bubbly answer to Champagne?

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Today’s Tasting Report

Parés Baltà Cava Comtats de Barcelona Pink Brut ($19.99)

Pretty coppery-pink in color and pouring up with a thick blanket of pale-pink foam that falls back fast, Parés Baltà Cava Pink Brut is made with certified organically grown and biodynamic Garnatxa (Grenache, 38%), Parellada (32%), and Macabeo (30%) grapes. Tart red berries show first, adding subtle green-apple notes and a hint of white pepper. Fine carbonation wakes up the palate with fresh red-fruit flavors and mouth-watering acidity that lingers in a cleansing finish. Light 11.5% alcohol. U.S. importer: USA Wine Imports, Inc., NYC. (Aug. 1, 2026)

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FOOD MATCH: Fine for sipping on its own on a summer evening, it’s a natural with salads, raw bar selections, and summery pastas. We served it with spaghetti topped with fresh diced tomatoes briefly sautéed in garlicky olive oil.

WHEN TO DRINK: Enjoy it this summer and fall while it remains young and fresh.

VALUE:
Wine-Searcher.com’s $23 average U.S. retail is a fair price for this complex, appealing Cava, which justifies a price through the mid-$20s.

WEB LINK:
Here’s a fact sheet in English.

FIND THIS WINE ONLINE:
Check prices and find vendors for Parés Baltà Cava Pink Brut on Wine-Searcher.com.

Follow this Wine-Searcher link to read more about Spain’s Cava sparkling wine.

Browse vendors and prices for Parés Baltà’s wine portfolio at this Wine-Searcher link.

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Good wines we’ve tried under $12!

Previous Issue: « “Fire burn and cauldron bubble”

“Fire burn and cauldron bubble”

Robin Garr — Fri, 31 Jul 2026 15:15:08 GMT

Wildfires ravage France and Spain and rage along the Pacific Coast. Record heat bakes California and beyond. It feels as if the world is on fire.

Rising temperatures driven by climate change increase the risk of dangerous wildfires, and a dystopian cycle continues.

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The U.S. National Interagency Fire Center reported yesterday that so far this year, 43,264 fires have burned more than 4.66 million acres across the United States, exceeding the 10-year average for both the number of fires and acres burned.

A total of 27,038 firefighters and support personnel were engaged in nationwide fire activity, the agency said, including 587 crews, 1,615 engines, and 200 helicopters. Similar numbers are piling up across Europe amid record heat waves and fires.

“In France, more than 160,000 hectares have burned and some 13,566 fires or outbreaks have been recorded so far this season,” the South Atlantic news agency MercoPress wrote this week.

Amid all these real threats to life and property as major cities lie in the path of wildfires, it might feel more than a little self-indulgent to worry about wine.

But a subject as narrow as wine, a topic that brings us together in shared interest, can illustrate the broader issue in a way that touches us where we live. Extreme heat can damage grapes or even the vines, prompt too-rapid ripening or alter the natural acidity and sugars in the grapes.

Wildfires in the immediate area or even at a distance from a vineyard can impart damaging “smoke taint,” an unpleasant smoky flavor that remains in the finished wine. This has been a real issue in the U.S. and Canada, and it’s a serious threat in Bordeaux, France, and Spanish wine regions this year.

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In the Los Angeles Times last week, Staff Writer Corinne Purtill dug deeply into the threat to California’s wine industry in Boiling Point – How climate change could redraw California’s wine map.

“The U.S. is the largest wine-producing country outside Europe, and 80% of that output comes from California,” Purtill wrote. “For an industry in which even subtle shifts in temperature or humidity can transform a harvest’s value, increasing extremes and unpredictability pose an existential threat.”

Researchers from Japan’s Tohoku University recently analyzed California’s wine cultivation suitability over time and basically found a redrawn map of California’s prime wine regions. Based on changing precipitation, temperatures, and moisture in the air, the scientists foresee declining suitability for grape cultivation over the next 70 years in the prime Napa and Sonoma wine regions.

This is not entirely new. In 2011, a Stanford University study projected that land suitable for cultivating premium wine grapes in California’s North Coast region, which includes Napa and Sonoma, could halve by 2040. Winegrape-bearing acreage in California has shrunk steadily since 2013.

The entire long article is worth your attention. You can view it at The Los Angeles Times or, if you’re a subscriber, on Apple News Plus.

I found hope in this week’s featured wine, Broc Cellars 2023 “Love” California Red Blend. A combination of dry-farmed, organic Carignan (73%), Syrah (14%), Grenache Gris (10%), Valdiguié (2%), and Trousseau Noi (1%) grapes from 70-plus-year-old vines in Mendocino County and Solano County’s Green Valley, it’s a natural wine made in the style of a California heritage field blend that workers might have enjoyed after a long day in the vineyard.

Normally, this wine’s mid-$20s price would keep it behind our subscriber paywall. But because a production error sent last week’s column to paying subscribers only, I’m opening this column to all subscribers as a midsummer gift. (Last week’s column is now open to all as well. If you missed it, you can read it here.)

Wildfires and dangerous heat waves are in the news this summer. How do you think this might affect the world of wine?

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Today’s Tasting Report

Broc Cellars 2023 “Love” California Red Blend ($23.99)

Broc Cellars 2023 “Love” California Red Blend is a dark ruby-color wine made in the style of a California heritage field blend dry-farmed, organic Carignan, Syrah, Grenache Gris, Valdiguié, and Trousseau Noir grapes from Mendocino County and Solano County’s Green Valley. It seems simply quaffable at first but gains layers of complexity and depth as it opens in the glass, revealing cranberry, blueberry, tart cherry, and red plum flavors shaped by mouth-watering acidity and soft but persistent tannins. 12.5% alcohol. (July 25, 2026)

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FOOD MATCH: The winery suggests a couple of world-food options: Spicy Indian samosas or Vietnamese shaking beef. It would be fine with burgers or steaks, pizza, or hearty bean dishes.

WHEN TO DRINK: It’s highly enjoyable now, but being made in the style of wines for immediate enjoyment and using natural processes that don’t invite aging, I wouldn’t try to cellar this one.

VALUE:
Wine-Searcher.com’s $24 average U.S. retail matches my local price and the winery’s suggested $25 tab. It’s a good wine, and this is in line with similar California offerings.

WEB LINK:
Here’s the winery’s fact sheet on the “Love” red blend. For more about Broc Cellars and its philosophy, see About Broc Cellars.

FIND THIS WINE ONLINE:
Check prices and find vendors for Broc Cellars 2023 “Love” Red Blend on Wine-Searcher.com.

Browse vendors, prices, and ratings for Broc Cellars wines at this Wine-Searcher link.

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Good wines we’ve tried under $12!

Previous Issue: « Who’s afraid of a tasting note?

Who’s afraid of a tasting note?

Robin Garr — Fri, 24 Jul 2026 15:13:45 GMT

If you’re feeling shy about taking a wine-tasting note, much less sharing it, remember, it can be this simple: “It was fruity and red. I liked it.”

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At the other extreme, a lot of the wine reports we see online and in print can be exaggerated and, frankly, as easily parodied as Robert M. Parker’s report on a rare bottle of Chateau Lafleur 1961 Pomerol: “… one of those magical bottles that just had to be tasted to be believed. Pure cherry liqueur with a flowery, concentrated essence of truffles, this wine was youthful, dense, yet complex, and surreal.”

This wine currently costs $13,000 for a bottle if you can find it; and Parker, the now-retired critic whose style has launched a thousand jokes, knew what he was drinking at a massive non-blind tasting at what he described as a “sumptuous buffet” at The Fountain restaurant in Philadelphia’s Four Seasons Hotel.

Speaking of Parker, his associate Lisa Perroti Brown wrote a very good overview in 2017 on tasting notes and why they matter: How Important Are Tasting Notes?

On the other hand, back at the start of this year, I wrote (in Tasting notes: Good, bad, or necessary?) about a pop-up debate among wine nerds and wine writers arguing whether tasting notes were even worth taking anymore.

Mery, the Chief Scribe of the Royal Archives during Egypt’s 4th Dynasty of the Old Kingdom more than 4,500 years ago, needed serious skills and specialized tools to inscribe hieroglyphics on papyrus with a reed. Modern wine lovers have many more options. (The image, now at the Louvre, is a raised relief carved on a limestone tomb door.)

All this talk about tasting notes as a tool for industry professionals or wine writers raises an obvious question, though: Why should this all matter to everyday wine lovers?

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Allow me to take a strong stand in favor of the tasting note, and not just for wine makers, distributors, retailers, and wine writers but for everyday wine lovers like you and me.

Writing wine notes prompts us to tease out the specific color, aroma, flavor, finish, and overall impression of the wines we drink. By taking the time to analyze the wine’s components and how they work together (or don’t), we can enhance our enjoyment of the wine and fix it in memory as we build a body of wine experience that helps us enjoy the next wine even more thoughtfully.
Sharing wine notes – an easy thing to do in this age of wine forums, wine clubs, and social media – turns our love of wine into a social activity and helps us expand our wine knowledge and pick up actual buying advice.

This week I’ve set up a section of the Wine Advisor’s Substack Chat as a quick and easy place to share our wine experiences in a supportive environment that’s welcoming to both newcomers and old hands alike.You’re invited!

🍷 Wine Tasting Notes [WTN] Here’s a safe space to share info about wines we’ve tasted. Notes may be as simple or fancy as you like, as may the wines themselves. Give it a try!

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Today’s Tasting Report

Caruso & Minini 2023 “Frappello” Terre Siciliane Frappato/Nerello Mascalese ($15.99)

Medium-dark garnet in color, Caruso & Minini “Frappello” gets its name from its blend of two indigenous Sicilian grapes – Frappato and Nerello Mascalese – in equal parts. Ripe cranberry and pomegranate aromas are surrounded by an intense mix of dried cherries and plums, with hints of brown spice imparted by a portion of the wine seeing brief aging in oak barrels. Fresh, acidic red-fruit flavors are shaped by soft tannins leading into a long finish. 13.5% alcohol. U.S. importer: Massanois Imports, NYC. (July 19, 2026)

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FOOD MATCH: Serve it with steaks, burgers, or grilled poultry or hearty plant-based cuisine. The winery also suggests it as a partner with fish, but I’d limit that to grilled oily fish like bluefish or mackerel, or maybe a cioppino with fish and plenty of tomatoes and spice.

WHEN TO DRINK: While this wine should remain enjoyable for another year or two, it’s really designed for early enjoyment. Drink up.

VALUE:
It’s a fine value in the lower to middle teens. Wine-Searcher.com shows a $13 average U.S. retail price.

WEB LINK:
Here’s the producer’s fact sheet in English.

FIND THIS WINE ONLINE:
Check prices and find vendors for Caruso & Minini “Frappello” on Wine-Searcher.com.

Read about the Terre Siciliane IGP, the wine region that covers the entire island of Sicily, at this Wine-Searcher link.

Follow this Wine-Searcher link to read about the Sicilian Frappato grape, and this link for Nerello Mascalese.

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Good wines we’ve tried under $12!

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Wine Forum and Social Media

Previous Issue: « It’s Greek to me

How much will you pay for rosé?

Robin Garr — Fri, 17 Jul 2026 15:26:23 GMT

If you’re looking for a fancy red wine or a high-end white, you’ll expect to pay real money. But nobody expects a pricey rosé. What’s up with that?

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In a world in which the most sought-after red wines from Bordeaux or Burgundy, Napa or Barossa can rise into four figures, well beyond most of our budgets, rosé wine rarely rises above the teens.

The most expensive rosé wine in Wine-Searcher's database, Chateau d'Esclans Cotes de Provence Garrus Rosé, struggles to make it above the three-figure mark at a $123 average U.S. retail price.

One of the most highly regarded Provencal rosé wines, Domaine Tempier Bandol Rosé, lists a $63 average U.S. retail price and is well worth it.

But even those rosy delights are distinct outliers in the pink-wine market. So, again, why is rosé so relatively cheap?

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I think there are a couple of reasons for this:

• It's easy to produce. Press grapes, then quickly drain off the juice while it's still light pink. Canny producers can actually double-dip here, making a batch of rosé from that first pressing, then going on to make a red wine from the darker juice that remains behind. What's more, rosé is rarely if ever aged in expensive oak barrels. In fact, it's not usually aged at all – its fresh, crisp flavor is a selling point – so it moves quickly to market and turns an easy profit.

• Perhaps because it's easy to make rosé fast and it's cheap, rosé doesn't have the greatest reputation. The "blush" wine phenomenon, with sweet, flamingo-pink White Zinfandel leading the charge, didn't do much to enhance rosé's reputation among wine lovers. It's simply not seen as the kind of complex, nuanced, and interesting drink that we expect from a fine wine.

But there have always been exceptions, and good rosé is beginning to earn a better reputation. Provence in Southern France, where more than half of the wine produced is pink, may be the most obvious exception, but its neighbor, Languedoc-Roussillon, is also a rising star. Indeed, just about every wine region around the world is making good rosé now. So if you still have that “never-pink” attitude, this might be a very good time to give pink wine another try.

“What is a rosé wine? Rosé wine is neither a light red wine nor a tinted white wine. It’s a unique wine in its own right,” declares the Swiss producer Les Celliers de Sion. “Its color, aromas and structure depend on the way it’s made.”

But first, one more tip: The conventional wisdom suggests serving rosé wine ice cold, to make it extra refreshing for summer sipping. Please don't do that with a quality rosé though. Ice-cold beverages stun our taste buds and conceal just the complex flavors that we're paying extra to enjoy. A cool cellar temperature around 55º is plenty refreshing without killing the wine's good flavor.

This week's featured wine, Weingüt Brundlmayer 2025 Langenlois Zweigelt Rosé is not at all a typical rosé. It's not from Provence but Austria, and it's made from the Austrian grape Zweigelt, not a name we traditionally associate with rosé. But it is very good, a pink wine that easily justifies its price in the middle $20 range.

Most of us will pay the price if we want a special red wine or even a fancy white. But we expect pink wine to be cheap. Are you willing to pay extra for a special rosé?

Because this week’s featured wineis priced well above $20, I have to leave it behind our subscription paywall. Because I buy all the wines I review at retail and do not accept wine samples or other gratuities from the industry, I rely on the support of paid subscribers to help cover the cost of the wines I review.

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It’s Greek to me

Robin Garr — Fri, 10 Jul 2026 16:04:41 GMT

I don’t often see Greek wine in local shops, but when I do (with the possible exception of retsina), I’ll grab a bottle with happy anticipation.

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The other day I noticed a bottle of Thymiopoulos Macedonia Xinomavro on the smallish corner of my neighborhood wine shop’s shelf that’s carved out for “other” wine regions. Naturally I grabbed it, and I was not sorry.

As I mentioned in a November 2024 column, the last time I picked up a tasty Greek item, I developed my love for the wines of Greece back in the early ’90s, when we lived for several years in Astoria, Queens, New York City, which inhabitants proudly proclaim one of the largest Greek cities in the world outside Greece.

There was a wonderful Greek restaurant or coffee shop on just about every corner, and the other corners usually housed someone with a charcoal grill making delicious souvlaki to order.

The Souvlaki Lady, a.k.a. Elpida Vasiliadis, has been a fixture on the corner of 33rd Street and Ditmars Boulevard for 28 years. Photo by Elizabeth Bick for Nancy A. Ruhling’s 2018 article, In Astoria, Lining Up for the Souvlaki Lady, in The New York Times.

It didn’t take me long to learn to love Greek food and wine, to enjoy the wine out of tumblers, and even, under the right circumstances and in the context of food, to tolerate the pine-resin-scented retsina.

But setting aside jokes about retsina and gulping modest Greek wine from squat tumblers on taverna tables, Greece does produce serious wines that can be competitive on the world’s tables.

I’ve often wondered why Greece and Italy, both nations of historic power in the times of Alexander the Great and the Caesars, both sun-washed, mountainous peninsular nations jutting far into the Mediterranean’s warm waters, both seemingly welcoming to wine-grape culture, seem to have enjoyed such different wine-industry journeys.

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While Italy and its top wines stand near the top of the stack in wine lovers’ attention, Greece remains in that hard-to-find corner of the wine-shop shelves. Perhaps history played a role, as Greece ended up for centuries as part of the Ottoman Empire. Homer’s favorite metaphor in The Odyssey, “the wine-dark sea,” might not have played well under that long-lived regime with religious objections to alcohol.

In more modern times, it might be as simple as Greece’s proud use of indigenous grapes like Assyrtiko, Agiorgitiko, and the Xinomavro featured today. These grapes make great wines, but while we were busy learning about Italy’s Sangiovese, Nebbiolo, and more, we just didn’t glance across the Adriatic toward Greece.

It’s our loss. But it’s not too late to take a closer look at Greek wine, if you can find it. Today’s wine would be a good place to start.

Are you a fan of Greek wine? Tell us your favorite types or producers or bring your questions!

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Today’s Tasting Report

Thymiopoulos 2024 Macedonia Xinomavro Young Vines ($19.99)

Clear ruby color, not too dark, Thymiopoulos Xinomavro offers an appealing introduction to the Greek Xinomavro grape. Its red-fruit and herbal aromas are fresh and inviting, with a hint of fresh tomatoes on the vine joining strawberry and notes of red cherries and brown spice. Fermented in stainless steel with indigenous yeast, then aged in concrete tanks for eight months, it sees no oak. 13% alcohol. U.S. importer: Athenee Importers & Distributors Ltd., Hempstead, N.Y. (July 5, 2026)

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FOOD MATCH: Greek char-grilled lamb souvlaki would make a perfect match; we approximated a plant-based alternative with Beyond Burgers brushed with olive oil and lemon juice, garlic, and oregano. More broadly, it would go well in general with grilled meat, poultry, eggplant, or squash.

WHEN TO DRINK: This young wine from young vines isn’t a candidate for long-term cellaring, but given proper storage, it should remain good to drink for three to five more years.

VALUE:
The upper teens or lower $20s is a fair asking price. Wine-Searcher.com lists a $19 average U.S. retail price.

WEB LINK:
Here’s an importer fact sheet.

FIND THIS WINE ONLINE:
Check prices and find vendors for Thymiopoulos Xinomavro on Wine-Searcher.com.

Read about Greece’s Macedonia wine region and browse its wines at this Wine-Searcher link.

Read this Wine-Searcher link to read more about the Xinomavro grape and its wines.

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Previous Issue: « Wine and pickles? Don’t try this at home!

Wine and pickles? Don’t try this at home!

Robin Garr — Fri, 03 Jul 2026 15:02:29 GMT

You might or might not want to know this, but I recently read that Sauvignon Blanc with iced pickles is now a thing. I tried it so you won’t have to.

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In case you’re wondering, I wasn’t ecstatic about the combination. But it was a worthwhile experience because the positive aspects – yes, there were some – underscored a point or two about the way food works (or doesn’t) with wine.

What’s more, trying this wacky stunt with Domaine Régis Minet 2023 Pouilly-Fumé Vieilles Vignes, this week’s featured wine from Kermit Lynch, reminded me that Sauvignon Blanc doesn’t have to make its case by blasting out either green pepper/jalapeño or juicy grapefruit flavors. It can find a happy medium as balanced and even elegant. No pickles needed.

How to try this at home: Slice a small kosher dill pickle into thick rounds and freeze them hard. Drop them into a small tumbler with your choice of Sauvignon Blanc. Enjoy … or don’t. What could possibly go wrong?

So how did this unlikely mix taste? Happily, a handful of hard-frozen pickle chunks chilled the wine to just above freezing at first. This may have been an advantage, as the deep chill muted the harsh bite that results from the mix of wine’s natural acidity with sour pickle brine. This is why you’ll rarely see the words “serve well chilled” on the label of any but the cheapest wines.

Indeed, as the pickle-flavored wine warmed in the glass, a tongue-curling jolt of over-the-top acidity became increasingly pronounced and considerably less pleasant.

On the other hand, the wine’s delicious herbal and citric/grapefruit flavors made a strangely appealing blend with the pickles, at least until the acidic jolt entered the room.

In short, it was an interesting learning experience, but I wouldn’t recommend it as a regular thing. Much less Food & Wine’s proposed option of adding a splash of pickle brine to kick up the mix another notch.

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I can definitely recommend the wine without the pickle component, though. This Loire Valley delight from Kermit Lynch is a winner, even for those who don’t think they like Sauvignon Blanc. It’s not cheap at an average U.S. retail price of $32. But like many of its Loire cousins, it is balanced and elegant, perched right on the happy midpoint between the green pepper and citric extremes of this variety.

If you’d like to read more about the pickle-juice trend, click on over to People Are Adding Frozen Pickles to Sauvignon Blanc This Summer — So We Tried It, a June 4, 2026 article by Merlyn Miller, an editor at Food & Wine.

Are you open to trying wacky mix-ins and wine-cocktail experiments like today’s iced-pickle trial?

The $32 average retail price of this week’s featured wine places it behind our subscription paywall. Because I buy all the wines I review at retail and do not accept wine samples or other gratuities from the industry, I rely on the support of paid subscribers to help cover the cost of the wines I review.

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Support The 30 Second Wine Advisor with your paid-tier subscription. For $5 per month or $50 for a year (a 17% saving), you’ll receive additional wine notes funded by your subscriptions, enjoy quick direct access through Substack for wine-related questions, and gain my real appreciation for your support.

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Natural wine? Prove it!

Robin Garr — Fri, 26 Jun 2026 15:37:15 GMT

I like the idea of natural wine. Clean, pure, additive-free, treads lightly on the Earth? Gimme! But natural is controversial, and I understand that.

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A while back, my local wine shop set up a separate natural-wine shelf at the back of the store. Now I rarely, if ever, go to the shop without checking it out. And, usually, buying something interesting. That shelf is thoughtfully set up by a merchant who knows his stuff, and that’s a big plus.

But I’m also aware that a lot of the debate over natural wine is based on good reasons. Perhaps most important, there’s no legally regulated definition for natural wines. Declaring a wine “organic” on the label requires certification by established licensing organizations. “Natural,” not so much.

A natural wine is generally understood to have been made with “low intervention” methods in the vineyard and the winery, avoiding even established methods – most important, added sulfites – that protect the wine from spoilage, bacterial infection in the wine, and even variation in quality from bottle to bottle.

Is the quest for good natural wines really as challenging as trying to find a royal match in a pond full of frogs?

Even the notion of low intervention has its doubters. Letting nature take its course as the wine is grown and made has romantic appeal, but many centuries of wine-making heritage have yielded techniques that ensure modern wines come to the consumer fresh and clean, without spoilage or other unpleasant things that can go wrong if the wine is left to grow without supervision.

I love the concept of natural wine but have reasonable concerns about its variable execution. What’s the solution? The easy answer, which I hinted at above, is simple: Buy your natural wine from a merchant you trust.

Here’s another: While the term natural may not be regulated, there’s a growing squadron of licensing bodies that test and, if earned, grant their seal of certified status to verify wines as organic, free of additional sulfites, GMOs, and other additives, vegan, sustainably produced, fair to workers, engaged in fair trade, and more. Many natural-type wines now display a row of tiny icons across the back label to verify those certifications, and they’re worth looking for.

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Today’s featured wine, Santa Julia 2024 “El Burro” Malbec Natural from Argentina’s Mendoza region, builds the word “Natural” right into its name, and it verifies its status with a row of certification icons from:

Orgánico Argentina, the official national guarantee that agricultural and processed products are produced using sustainable, environmentally friendly methods without added sulfites, synthetic chemicals, GMOs, or artificial fertilizer.
LETIS S.A., an independent third-party certification body that audits and certifies compliance with international quality, sustainability, and organic production standards. It operates globally and provides protocols for organic production, food safety, vegan certification, and animal welfare certification for national regulators, including the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Fair for Life, an independent fair trade and corporate social responsibility certification program. It guarantees decent working conditions, environmental sustainability, and fair compensation throughout the entire supply chain—from initial farming and production to the final store shelf.
VEG Argentina, which verifies certification for vegan foods, cosmetics, and other products that do not involve raw materials, additives, or adjuvants of animal origin or derived from animals.

All that is fine, but here’s the ultimate test: How does it taste? I’m happy to report that it is extremely good. It’s not a wine made for deep contemplation or long cellaring. But as a wine to enjoy at any season or setting, with food or for casual sipping, it’s a high-quality wine of very good value, with the balance and complexity that rewards thoughtful enjoyment. At a retail price well under $20, it’s a very good value.

What’s your take on natural wine? Advice on sorting the princesses from the frogs?

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Today’s Tasting Report

Santa Julia 2024 “El Burro” Mendoza Malbec Natural ($18.50)

Certified organic, unfiltered, and made with no added sulfites, Santa Julia “El Burro” Malbec Natural is a dark reddish-purple in color with a garnet edge. This natural wine delights with exuberant scents of red berries, plums, black cherry, and a back note of cocoa. Delicious fruit carries over in the flavor, shaped by zippy, food-friendly acidity and soft but persistent tannins providing structure. 13.5% alcohol. U.S. importer: WineSellers Ltd., Skokie, Ill. (June 20, 2026)

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FOOD MATCH: Steaks and grilled meat are the natural companion of this impressive red wine, along with sharp and aged cheeses. Look for bold plant-based matches such as hearty mushroom lasagna or spicy grilled eggplant or squash.

WHEN TO DRINK: This wine is drinking beautifully now and shows no signs of early aging, but wines without the natural preservative effect of added sulfites are rarely candidates for cellaring.

VALUE:
This appetizing wine is an excellent value in the middle to upper teens. Wine-Searcher.com lists a $17 average U.S. retail price.

WEB LINK:
Here is an El Burro info sheet from importer WineSellers Ltd.

Here’s Santa Julia’s El Burro fact sheet in English. Santa Julia also has an active Facebook page in Spanish.

FIND THIS WINE ONLINE:
Check prices and find vendors for Santa Julia “El Burro” Malbec Natural on Wine-Searcher.com.

Read more about Argentina’s Mendoza region and browse a selection of its wines at this Wine-Searcher link.

This Wine-Searcher link opens an article about the Malbec grape and the wines it makes.

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Previous Issue: « Wine and chips because why not?

Wine and chips because why not?

Robin Garr — Fri, 19 Jun 2026 15:39:56 GMT

“Red wine with red meat,” says the conventional, oversimplified wisdom. But this week’s enlightenment came not with meat but a simple tortilla chip.

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The other day, toward the end of a meal with this week’s featured wine, I idly picked up a yellow-corn chip, munched it, then took a sip of this deliciously light and fruity Languedoc red wine.

Whoa.

Expecting nothing, I had unknowingly stumbled upon a wine-and-food flavor explosion that ranked among some of my most memorable matching experiences.

The wine, Domaine d’Aupilhac 2022 Lou Maset Languedoc Rouge, is a typical Languedoc red blend of Grenache and Cinsault, with other red varieties. It was bright and refreshing, complex without being brooding. It’s a quality wine made for immediate enjoyment in the style of the quaffable reds that vineyard workers might gulp after a long day working among the vines under the hot Mediterranean sun.

The thick, deeply corn-flavored treats at Louisville’s El Mariachi, fashioned on the premises from fresh-made tortillas, are positively addictive. They’re so crunchy that I had to look twice to persuade myself that they weren’t lightly breaded before they were fried.

The chip was good but nothing really special: A Kroger Gold Round tortilla chip, made – to its manufacturer’s credit – from a simple ingredient list comprising ground yellow corn, vegetable oil, salt, and nothing more. It’s billed as gluten-free, kosher, natural, no added sugar, no artificial ingredients, sugar-free, pescatarian, vegetarian, and vegan, oh my. A one-ounce serving – 9 chips – contains a mere 140 calories (if you can eat only nine) and provides 6% of your daily sodium quota.

Most important, besides being delightfully crunchy, the flavor of these chips is, well, within the same ballpark or soccer field as good, fresh, Mexican corn tortillas. Their distinct corn and salt flavor puts me in a taqueria mood, and their shattering crunch hits that happy place that makes crunchy snacks addictive.

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Okay, fine. But how do I explain their unexpected affinity for Domaine d’Aupilhac 2022 Lou Maset Languedoc Rouge? That’s a tougher call, but I’ll speculate that the wine’s fresh and juicy cherry-berry and spice flavors work and play well with the earthy, salty, corn-scented chip; its relatively moderate tannins don’t fight with the saltiness of the chip; and the wine’s fresh, bright acidity cuts through the oil that’s an undeniable part of tortilla chips’ appeal.

It’s hard to explain, but it works in a way that’s perhaps akin to the known and loved affinity between sparkling wine and popcorn.

The moral of today’s fable is pretty simple: Wine lovers often associate wine with elegance and fancy fare, from Champagne and caviar to Burgundy and a perfectly rare Wagyu ribeye. But wine can be casual and fun, too, as down-to-earth as, well, a bowl of crunchy chips.

Today I’m celebrating an unexpected affinity between wine and a tortilla chip. Tell us about a wine and snack food match that you love!

The retail price of this week’s featured wine requires that I keep it behind our subscription paywall. Because I buy all the wines I review at retail and do not accept wine samples or other gratuities from the industry, I rely on the support of paid subscribers to help cover the cost of the wines I review.

Support The 30 Second Wine Advisor with your paid-tier subscription. For $5 per month or $50 for a year (a 17% saving), you’ll receive additional wine notes funded by your subscriptions, enjoy quick direct access through Substack for wine-related questions, and gain my real appreciation for your support.

Tradition!

Robin Garr — Fri, 12 Jun 2026 15:41:54 GMT

Does tradition matter? Should every region stick with the grapes it does best, or try new ideas? For instance, would you like to try a Mosel Shiraz?

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I doubt that lovers of German wine tradition need to fear that wacky notion. If not for any other reason, government regulators would be unlikely to approve it. On occasion, though, a free-spirited producer will simply defy the regulations. Ulrich “Ulli” Stein, maker of last week’s featured wine, famously produces a Mosel Cabernet Sauvignon that flatly ignores the German wine standards.

Some other wine categories that feel almost traditional nowadays were considered rebellious not that long ago. Italy’s sought-after Super Tuscans, Spain’s Vino de la Tierra, and France’s Vin de France all lured experimental producers who felt confined by the strict rules of tradition and willingly accepted a bottom-shelf classification in exchange for the freedom to make a wine that broke the rules but could command big bucks at the wine shop.

Outside these strictly governed European wine regions where traditions are respected for their antiquity, though, the rules aren’t so strict. When European colonizers arrived in the Americas in the 16th century, they didn’t think much of the indigenous wild grapes, so they brought their own. Spanish missionaries planted the Mission grape from Chile to California, using it mostly for sacramental wine and later as a base for cheap jug wines.

Later on, in the 1800s, European winemakers from Italy, France, and beyond brought the grapes they knew and loved. The French Malbec, made with an Italian accent, became Argentina’s flagship wine. French settlers fleeing the phylloxera vine louse plague back home filled Chile’s vineyards with Cabernet Sauvignon. And California’s coastal vineyards filled up with a Cabernet, Merlot, Chardonnay, and most of the other European standards, not to mention the once mysterious Zinfandel.

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More recently, in the late 20th century, the mass-market popularity of the four European grapes dubbed “fighting varietals” for their quest for wine shop shelf-space dominance – Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay, Merlot, and Sauvignon Blanc – built a new market for inexpensive, inoffensive table wines. This wave made producers a lot of money, but for a time failed to enhance the reputation of Argentina, Chile, France’s Languedoc, and other regions that went all in on them.

I think this trend may be finally fading. I’ve been impressed with recent tastings of affordable wines from all three of those places and beyond. Today’s featured wine, Domaine Laroque 2023 Pinot Noir Cité de Carcassonne, comes from Languedoc-Roussillon in Southwestern France, a region that turns out its share of modest, affordable wines along with a few trophies. Pinot Noir fails to make it into the region’s list of most-planted vines, but this is a good one. I doubt anyone will mistake it for a quality Burgundy, but at a low to middle-teens price, it’s worth stocking up.

How do you respond to wine made from a grape that’s not traditional to its region – a Mosel Shiraz, say, or Sicilian ice wine? Would you try it, shrug, or run away?

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Today’s Tasting Report

Laroque 2023 Pinot Noir Cité de Carcassonne ($13.99)

Laroque Pinot Noir Cité de Carcassonne is an attractive, clear ruby color, not too dark. Its red-fruit aromas suggest red berries, fresh red cherries, and gentle spice: appealing although not clearly typical of Pinot Noir. Medium-bodied red-fruit flavor continues the impression, shaped by fresh, not overwhelming acidity and light tannic astringency. 13% alcohol. U.S. importer: Aquitaine Wine USA LLC, Berkeley, Calif., a Jean-Christophe Calvet Selection. (June 6, 2026)

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FOOD MATCH: Whatever its geographical source or price point, Pinot Noir tends to be a versatile wine for food. The back label suggests enjoying it alone or with pasta, salmon, tuna, roasted chicken, lamb, and pork dishes, and I agree. It was excellent with an Asian-inspired plant-based mushroom and snow pea stir-fry with tofu, onions, garlic, and ginger in a light soy and sesame sauce.

WHEN TO DRINK: This light, approachable wine is just right while it’s relatively young and fresh. Not for aging, but should be fine over the next two or three years.

VALUE:
Wine-Searcher.com’s $16 average U.S. retail price is appropriate. Better still at my local $14 price tag. If you can find it in the middle to lower teens, buy up for everyday enjoyment.

WEB LINK:
Here’s a brief importer’s fact sheet. A link there to detailed specifications requires a Microsoft login.

FIND THIS WINE ONLINE:
Check prices and find vendors for Laroque Pinot Noir Cité de Carcassonne on Wine-Searcher.com.

Follow this Wine-Searcher link to read more about the wines of Cité de Carcassonne.

Browse Wine-Searcher’s listings for Domaine Laroque’s wines, with vendors and retail prices, at this Wine-Searcher link.

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Previous Issue: « Dry or sweet?

Dry or sweet?

Robin Garr — Fri, 05 Jun 2026 15:14:57 GMT

Remember when you first discovered wine? Were you surprised that it wasn’t as sweet as grapes? And then, before long, you started liking it that way.

This is the typical journey for a lot of wine lovers, but it can lead to an unintended destination if it trains us to shun the delicious, well-made off-dry and sweet wines ranging from crisp, subtly sweet Mosel Rieslings to the classics of Port and Sherry.

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For me, the breakthrough moment occurred at La Barbera’s pizzeria in Santa Monica, where I lived for a while in those long-ago days when it was an affordable hippie neighborhood and I was barely old enough to drink wine legally. My epiphany came when a slice of sizzling, oil-dripping pepperoni pizza met a gulp of very dry and tart Chianti. Suddenly the pizza tasted better, and the wine tasted much better.

The rest, as they say, is history. Once we discover how well dry wines go with food – after all, they were made, and evolved, to serve well at the table – our taste buds are trained to appreciate that combination. In a related observation, the more I came to enjoy the interplay of dry wine and good food, the less interested I became in sugary sodas, with food or without it. With the possible exception of a Jarritos Tamarindo at a taquería, but I digress.

This evolution raises an interesting question: What distinguishes a good sweet wine from the rest of the pack? The key is found in the wine’s balance between sweetness and acidity. Acidity in wine, within reasonable limits, is a good thing. Think about biting into a fresh piece of fruit, an apple or plum, or blackberry: That fresh, crisp, tart flavor wakes up our taste buds and heightens flavor.

Without acidity, fruit – or wine – tastes dull and flat and frankly uninteresting. And if any residual sugar remains in the wine after fermentation, a happy jolt of acidity makes all the difference between an enjoyable, refreshing drink and something boring.

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Whether it’s a light, fresh, and just off-dry wine like today’s featured wine, Stein “Weihwasser” Feinherb Riesling from Germany’s Mosel Valley, or a full-bore dessert wine like a good Port or Sherry, it’s the balance of sugar and acidity that makes them sing.

When you first got into good wine, were you surprised that it wasn’t as sweet as grapes? How did your tastes change? What do you think of sweet wines now?

The price of this week’s featured wine locks it behind our subscription paywall. Since I buy all the wines I review at retail and do not accept wine samples or other gratuities from the industry, I count on the support of paid subscribers to help cover the cost of the wines I review. Accordingly, I have to reserve wines that cost me more than about $20 behind our subscription paywall.

Support The 30 Second Wine Advisor with your paid-tier subscription. For $5 per month or $50 for a year (a 17% saving), you’ll receive additional wine notes funded by your subscriptions, enjoy quick direct access through Substack for wine-related questions, and gain my real appreciation for your support.

Sulfites: Why or why not?

Robin Garr — Fri, 29 May 2026 15:31:48 GMT

How is a good bottle of wine like a classy wool suit or a prized painting? Easy: They all require a little special care to keep them in good shape.

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This is not rocket science. Hang that museum-quality painting at moderate temperature and humidity and protect it from direct sunlight. Keep moths away from that special suit by keeping it clean and storing it in a breathable bag in a cedar closet.

As for that wine, if you want to keep it around for years while it gains complexity and nuanced flavor over time, you’ll want a temperature and humidity-controlled cellar. Wines that you buy to drink don’t need that careful treatment.

Adding sulfites while the wine is being made is a tried-and-true approach to preservation that goes back thousands of years.

“Nature is the best winemaker.” Hands-on winemaking at Spain’s Bodegas Aroa.

Sulfites work. They preserve wine, keeping it from oxidizing, spoiling, or hosting bacterial growth in the bottle. They don’t alter the wine’s flavor, and for more than 99% of people, they are harmless. That’s a lot to like.

But for that fraction of a percentage point of us who are sulfite-sensitive, this usually helpful additive can range from annoying (headaches, sniffles) to actively dangerous (breathing difficulty, and in the worst case, death).

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That’s why wines sold in the United States have been legally required to carry a “sulfites added” warning label since 1987, and the presence of that label apparently prompts a lot more than 1% of the public to worry about sulfites.

Even so, the vast majority of producers weigh the advantages and continue using sulfites – generally the minimum amount needed for preservation. A few winemakers, though, for a variety of reasons, walk on the wild side by making wines without sulfites added. (In fact, a small amount of sulfites occur as a natural effect of fermentation. You can’t make wine without them.)

For more details about sulfites in wine, see my Oct. 10, 2025 column, What? No sulfites?

Why would a winemaker want to produce a wine without this effective preservative? A cynic might suspect a bid to take advantage of the sulfite-fearful. For biodynamic, organic, and natural-wine producers, though, it’s a matter of philosophy.

Let’s talk about low/no-sulfite wines: Do you agree with the conventional wisdom that these wines are best drunk up soon after purchase?

For today’s featured wine, “Le Naturel” Navarra Tinto a red Garnacha (Grenache) made by Aroa Bodegas in Northern Spain’s Navarra region, it’s a declared commitment to walking lightly on the Earth.

“Le Naturel is our collection of wines without added sulfites, for which the key has been the totally natural, meticulous production, using a single ingredient: the grape,” Aroa Bodegas writes on this wine’s online fact sheet.

“In this way we obtain a wine reflecting the vineyard of its origins with no artful devices. … [A]s pioneers in the recovery of organic and biodynamic farming practices … we elaborate all our wines with the minimum possible intervention, and the maximum respect for the fruit of the vineyards.”

Bodegas Aroa is also one of the few wineries in Spain with the Wineries for Climate Protection certificate granted by the Spanish Wine Federation. In lieu of the usual “Contains sulfites” label, Le Naturel’s label points out that the wine “contains naturally occurring sulfites or may contain naturally occurring sulfites.”

So how does it taste? I was impressed. Ripe, fruity, and balanced, it’s a delicious Spanish red, a definite value at its mid-teens U.S. retail price. If you try it, though, drink it up. After six days at room temperature, the remaining half-bottle had picked up the distinct sherry-like aroma of oxidation, and its complex flavors were merging into undifferentiated oxidized red fruit. Buy it now, enjoy it now, but I don’t recommend keeping even unopened sulfite-free wines in the cellar or on the shelf for more than a few months.

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Today’s Tasting Report

Bodegas Aroa 2024 “Le Naturel” Navarra Tinto ($17.99)

Organic, biodynamic, grown and made from the Garnacha (Grenache) grape with minimal intervention and no added sulfites, Bodegas Aroa “Le Naturel” shows a clear, dark purple color with bright garnet glints. An appetizing scent of ripe blackberries rises from the glass, joined by fragrant, floral black pepper. Good black-fruit flavors carry over on the palate, blackberries and currants and a peppery note, framed by appropriate, food-friendly acidity and a gentle touch of tannic astringency that lingers in a long finish. 13% alcohol. U.S. importer: Vintae USA Inc., Napa, Calif. (May 23, 2026)

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FOOD MATCH: A natural companion with grilled poultry or pork, or a hearty mushroom-focused plant-based omelet or mushroom risotto.

WHEN TO DRINK: It’s made for early consumption, and the absence of the preservative power of sulfiting only underscores that. Drink up this year while we can count on it remaining fresh and delicious.

VALUE:
Wine-Searcher.com lists a $16 average U.S. retail price. It’s a clear value from the mid-teens into the lower $20s.

WEB LINK:
Here’s a Le Naturel fact sheet from the producer Bodegas Aroa.

FIND THIS WINE ONLINE:
Check prices and find vendors for Bodegas Aroa “Le Naturel” on Wine-Searcher.com.

Read about Spain’s Navarra wine region at this Wine-Searcher link.

Tap this Wine-Searcher link for information about Grenache/Garnacha and the wines it makes.

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Previous Issue: « Is wine good for us or not?

Is wine good for us or not?

Robin Garr — Fri, 22 May 2026 15:22:39 GMT

Is wine (and alcohol in general) good for us, bad for us, or is it just complicated? When headlines warn of potential risks, should we pay attention?

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When the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services warns us portentously about alcohol and cancer risk, the World Health Organization promotes health warning labels on alcoholic beverages, and Gallup polling reveals that the U.S. alcohol consumption rate has fallen to a new low amid surging health concerns, we have to acknowledge that the the French Paradox and its assurance that wine is good for our hearts may have passed its best-by date.

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It should come as no huge surprise to learn that the wine and spirits industry – and some wine and spirits writers – push back hard against these developments.

“As drinking habits shift, global alcohol industry fights to stay ahead,” writer Ted Alcorn declared in the Aug. 28, 2024 edition of The Examination, an independent nonprofit newsroom that, it says,

“investigates preventable health threats and empowers people in harm’s way. Fearless journalism for a healthier world: Investigating the causes of preventable death and disease. Covering Tobacco, Big food, Pollution and more.”

“Alcohol companies are targeting new markets and dodging regulation worldwide while excess drinking causes millions of deaths each year,” Alcorn continued. (Although its tone can appear strident, The Examination boasts serious backers. Its newsroom is supported by Bloomberg Philanthropies, the Adessium Foundation, the Pulitzer Center, the IJ4EU fund, and the Medill School of Journalism.)

We’re not seeing doctors recommending wine or liquor in advertising after the fashion of these 1940s cigarette ads … not yet, anyway. From The Stanford Research into the Impact of Tobacco Advertising (SRITA) collection.

Alcorn’s coverage went on, “The alcohol industry is doing everything it can to stay relevant. In pursuit of new profit centers, booze, beer, and wine-makers are marketing to demographics they’ve historically underserved, including women, and looking to new markets in the Global South, where burgeoning economies with young populations offer growth opportunities. Conveniently, many of these same countries also place few or no limitations on how alcohol is sold and marketed.”

The lengthy article wraps up with three modest proposals:

Raise taxes on alcohol.
Add cancer to the list of risks on the warning label./li>
Curb consumption via global standards similar to those governing tobacco.

That sounds pretty strict to me, particularly that last: I know of no serious science placing moderate alcohol consumption anywhere close to the known risks of tobacco use.

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I think Dr. Mikkael A. Sekeres set a middle ground in his March 24, 2025 Washington Post opinion piece, We asked an oncologist: Is it okay to drink just a little bit of alcohol?

“Cancer risk is not binary,” Sekeres wrote. “Having one drink, or smoking one cigarette, will not cause cancer. In general, the more you’re exposed to a risk factor, the higher your likelihood of developing cancer.” Putting theory into practice, the doctor acknowledged that he limits his alcohol consumption to one or two drinks per week.

There’s also relative risk, he said, observing that the health risks from smoking a pack of cigarettes or even eating a juicy hamburger and a plate of fries likely pose a greater health risk than drinking a glass of wine with dinner.

Ultimately, said Sekkeris, who is hematology division chief and professor of medicine at the Sylvester Comprehensive Cancer Center at the University of Miami , it’s as simple – and as challenging – as this: “Less alcohol is better, and each of us must determine our own tolerance for cancer risk when deciding how much alcohol to drink.”

That’s consistent with my standard advice: Wine, like all alcoholic beverages, can be a blessing or a curse; and if a little of it makes good medicine, more is not better. Overconsumption risks both immediate injury for those foolish enough to drive while drunk, and long-term health problems for those who drink too much too often.

What do you think? Is wine (and alcohol in general) good for us, bad for us, or is it just complicated? Join the conversation on Substack chat.

•••

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Australia, but not Shiraz!?

Robin Garr — Fri, 15 May 2026 15:15:52 GMT

Quick! Name the first Australian grape variety that pops into your head! I’m wondering if anyone will respond with anything other than “Shiraz.”

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Such an outcome would be far from surprising, because Shiraz – the grape that the rest of the world knows as Syrah – is Australia’s historic landmark grape, as firmly associated with the land Down Under as is Pinot Noir with Burgundy or Malbec with Argentina.

Shiraz has meant wine in Australia for almost 200 years. In an extended discussion of The Origins of the Syrah / Shiraz Wine Grape, the Australian wine merchant McLaren Vale Cellars lays it out for us:

Australia’s relationship with Shiraz began in the 1830s when James Busby, often called the father of Australian viticulture, brought vine cuttings from Europe to establish the country’s wine industry. Among these precious imports was Syrah, which would eventually become Australia’s signature red grape variety under its local name, Shiraz.
The choice to call the grape “Shiraz” rather than “Syrah” in Australia reflects the historical belief in its Persian origins. Australian winemakers embraced this exotic connection, and the name stuck even after DNA analysis revealed the grape’s true French parentage. Today, Australian Shiraz represents a distinct style that has earned global recognition and respect.

Shiraz remains the most planted wine grape in Australia, according to the trade organization Wine Australia. Shiraz holds the top spot for both red wine production and total vineyard area. About 40,000 hectares (nearly 100,000 acres) are planted, making up about one-fourth of the continent’s total vineyard acreage, it’s closely followed by Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay, but easily crosses the finish line first.

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Of course, Australia makes other wines. I’ve enjoyed delicious Riesling from Down Under. Australia was among the first to adopt the shortcut “GSM” for delicious Rhône-style blends of Grenache, Shiraz, and Mourvèdre. Wine Australia’s 2025 Wine Sector Report lists the top five by volume of grapes crushed into wine that year: Shiraz (23%), Chardonnay (18%), Cabernet Sauvignon (14%), Sauvignon Blanc (7%), and Pinot Gris/Grigio (6%).

Quick! Name the first Australian grape variety that pops into your head! I’m wondering if anyone will respond with anything other than “Shiraz?”

And that’s not all! In his new book, Beyond Shiraz, Australian wine writer Darby Higgs presents 190 – that’s one hundred and ninety – of the country’s wine-grape plantings and tells us a little about each of them.

“Over the last two decades,” Higgs writes in his book’s information page on Substack, “so‑called alternative and emerging varieties have created a revolution in Australian wine. New arrivals and reimagined classic varieties are bringing fresh flavours, textures, and ideas.

“Just as importantly, they offer practical answers as growers and winemakers respond to shifting consumer tastes and a warming, drying climate. Drinkers are chasing energy, lift, and surprise; producers are seeking vines with heat and drought tolerance in an effort to create new expressions from familiar regions that resonate at home and abroad. The result is a dynamic, delicious rethink of what Australian wine can be.”

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Featuring concise yet informational reports on 190 grapes from Alfrocheiro to Zweigelt, this useful book lists each grape’s color, country of origin, rank in Australian production, aromas and flavors, history, and food choices. It’s useful, and not just for Australian readers. This useful grape-by-grape compilation makes a handy reference for wine lovers around the world.

Buy Beyond Shiraz from Amazon.com for $15.99 in paperback or $8.99 for the Kindle ebook. Using these links will return a small but meaningful commission to us here at WineLoversPage, and for that, thanks.

I turned to its listings for the components of today’s featured wine, D’Arenberg Hermit Crab, and found them on target for this Australian white blend of Viognier (“Apricots, peaches, grapefruit, honeysuckle”) and Marsanne (“baked apples, almonds, flowers, apricots, peaches, honey, melon.”)

It’s a good wine and a good book. I recommend them both.

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Today’s Tasting Report

D’Arenberg 2024 McLaren Vale The Hermit Crab Viognier Marsanne ($18.99)

A South Australian blend of 65% Viognier and 35% Marsanne, pale straw color D’Arenberg The Hermit Crab is more subtle than fruit-forward, and that’s a good thing. Still, swirling and sniffing brings out appetizing aroma notes that blend hints of peach, pineapple, tangerine, and lemon zest. Mouth-watering fresh-fruit acidity surrounds a medium-bodied, textured flavor that follows the nose. 14% alcohol. U.S. importer: Old Bridge Cellars, Napa, Calif. (May 9, 2026)

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FOOD MATCH: Seafood and fish would make natural companions, as would pork stir-fries and lightly spicy entrees. For a plant-based match, look to veggie risottos; it was perfect with risi e bisi veneziana made with fresh farmers’ market spring peas.

WHEN TO DRINK: Best enjoyed while it’s young and fresh. Enjoy it during this year, then look for newer vintages.

VALUE:
Wine-Searcher.com lists a $16 average U.S. retail price. This first-rate white wine would be a good value right on up through the $20 mark.

WEB LINK:
Here’s D’Arenberg’s Hermit Crab fact sheet.

FIND THIS WINE ONLINE:
Check prices and find vendors for Darenberg Hermit Crab on Wine-Searcher.com.

Read about South Australia’s McLaren Vale wine region at this Wine-Searcher link.

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Previous Issue: « How to cope with rising wine prices

How to cope with rising wine prices

Robin Garr — Fri, 08 May 2026 15:53:46 GMT

As wine prices rise, how much are you willing to pay for a satisfying bottle? Is inflation driving you to buy less? What’s your survival strategy?

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The combination of tariffs, inflation, and competition that’s tightening the wine economy means this is not a trivial question. With $20 per bottle as my cutoff point for our Substack paid-subscription paywall, I still need to find the under-$20 delights that I’m comfortable recommending for our biweekly free edition.

This quest is still possible, with plenty of good wine still selling in the $15 to $20 range. Excellent funds under $15 are becoming a lot more difficult to score, however, although I’m delighted when I find one to share with you.

But the market keeps rising. How much? It depends on where you look. According to a January 2026 article in The Drinks Business, the average price of a bottle of U.S. wine sold direct from winery to consumer reached $56.78 last year, an 11% increase.

That unbelievable-sounding number should be placed in context, though: Consumers ordering directly from wineries are typically seeking high-end wines, often for cellaring. You’re not likely to hit the Internet to grab a bottle of something nice to enjoy with dinner tonight.

As with all statistics, everything depends on the question you ask. In another article last month, The Drinks Business – yes, the same publication – found that most American wine drinkers continue to buy bottles priced below $20.

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That figure, based on a January 2026 survey conducted by wine research firm Wine Opinions, found that more than half of the 1,351 respondents in every age and gender group said they purchase wines priced under $20 on a weekly or monthly basis. Purchases of wines priced under $15 were particularly associated with younger consumers aged 21 to 39.

That’s a little more reassuring, but we’ve still come a long way from the days, not all that long ago, when there was plenty of good-value wine available for $10 or less.

This week’s Substack conversation: How much are you willing to pay for a satisfying bottle? Is inflation driving you to buy less? What is your survival strategy?

Here are a few of my tips for finding good-value wines at affordable price points:

Steer away from the most sought-after wine regions — Burgundy’s Côte d’Or, Bordeaux’s Haut Médoc, California’s Napa Valley, or Australia’s Barossa — in favor of neighboring regions that may boast similar geology and climate without the price tag.
Try less sought-after grapes. I love to explore, and tell you about, less familiar varieties from Aglianico to Refosco and beyond. This unsung treasures can reward you in taste and enjoyment.
Check the label for trustworthy importers like Kermit Lynch, Skurnik, Louis/Dressner, and many more. Even the wines at the low end of their price range are likely to be satisfying.
Rely on a trustworthy retailer. Good merchants will learn your preferences and offer good advice when you ask for it.
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I put several of these tools to work for this week’s featured wine, Domaine Henri Perrusset Mâcon-Villages Chardonnay. It’s a delicious Burgundy Chardonnay that pays off in value because it’s from Mâcon, a large region well south of Bourgogne’s sought-after terroirs but still quite capable of producing first-rate Chardonnay. It’s an import from Berkeley’s Kermit Lynch Wine Merchant, a distributor whose wines are almost invariably to my liking.

All that being said, this wine still commands a price in the middle $20s, which is a great value but still locks it behind our subscription paywall. Since I buy all the wines I review at retail and do not accept wine samples or other gratuities from the industry, I count on the support of paid subscribers to help cover the cost of the wines I review. Accordingly, I have to reserve wines that cost me more than about $20 behind our subscription paywall.

Support The 30 Second Wine Advisor with your paid-tier subscription. For $5 per month or $50 for a year (a 17% saving), you’ll receive additional wine notes funded by your subscriptions, enjoy quick direct access through Substack for wine-related questions, and gain my real appreciation for your support.

Fifty shades of rosé

Robin Garr — Fri, 01 May 2026 14:49:01 GMT

Spring has fully sprung, and our attention gently turns to thoughts of rosé. The return of mild weather makes a crisp pink wine seem just right.

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Looking over a row of rosés at my neighborhood wine shop, though, it strikes me that the common words “rosé” and “pink” are completely inadequate to describe the range of glowing colors that this vernal genre incorporates.

Those generic terms are just the beginning of a thesaurus that incorporates blush, bronze, cherry blossom, cherubic, copper, coral, florid, flushed, fuchsia, full-blooded, glowing, peony, roseate, rosy, rubicund, ruddy, salmon, sanguine, tanned, warm, and I’m sure dozens more.

And just like its many colors, rosé wine incorporates a wealth of flavors and styles.

From desert scenes to flowers and flamingos, summer sunrises like this showy morning scene near my home in Louisville do pink wine, of course, rosy colors have a way of grabbing our attention.

Almost every wine region in the world produces at least some rosé wine, and no two offerings will taste quite the same. Some will be rich and full-bodied; others feather light, and many along a spectrum in between. Some are bone-dry, others fiercely acidic; some softer, and a best-avoided group – largely in the much-maligned “blush” category – toothache-sweet and often boring.

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Contrary to the notion that rosé wines are made by blending red and white grapes, these wines are actually made with red wine grapes. In a process that the French call “saignée” from the word for “bleeding,” the winemaker begins as if making a red wine, but then removes the color-bearing grape skins from the juice when it has reached a rosy color but not yet turned dark red.

Committed red-wine lovers might object that this also diminishes the rich, full flavor of a traditional red wine, but that’s not what we’re seeking here. Subtlety is the name of the game for rosé, but not blandness or boredom.

I’ll try a quality rosé from any corner of the wine world, particularly if it’s from a trusted producer or importer. (As a bonus, the price point of these wines usually remains in the affordable range.) My favorite hunting ground, though, is surely Provence in Southern France, where they’ve been making fascinating rosé for a very long time. I have happy wine memories from there, and they come swirling up whenever I pour a glass.

Today’s featured wine, Bieler Père & Fíls “Sabine” Rosé, fits that description perfectly, and it’s coppery, not pink.

Are you ready for a rosé now that spring is here? Tell us about your favorites!

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Today’s Tasting Report

Bieler Père & Fíls 2024 “Sabine” Coteaux d’Aix-en-Provence Rosé ($14.99)

Not at all pink, Bieler Père & Fíls “Sabine” Rosé shows an attractive light copper color in the glass. A not entirely traditional Provençal blend of Grenache (41%), Syrah (30%), Cinsault (10%), Cabernet Sauvignon (10%), Rolle (7%), and Counoise (2%), it opens up with a springlike mix of juicy peaches and ripe strawberries. With swirling and time in the glass it adds hints of fresh herbs and lemon-lime. All these refreshing flavors are shaped by crisp acidity that lingers into a long finish. 13% alcohol. U.S. importer: Bieler Pere et Fils, St. Helena, Calif. (April 25, 2026)

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FOOD MATCH: A natural with raw bar seafood or chilled shrimp or oysters or plant-based rice dishes or pasta salads, it was delicious with a fresh spring asparagus risotto with saffron and chives.

WHEN TO DRINK: Its sturdy screwcap should keep it fresh through this year and beyond, but it’s best drunk up young while its exuberant character lasts.

VALUE:
This first-rate Provence rosé is a find value at my local tab and Wine-Searcher.com’s $15 average U.S. retail. It can be found at some vendors from $10 through the lower teens, so shop for price if you can.

WEB LINK:
Here is Bieler Père & Fíls’ English-language fact sheet. For more information, check this page at importer Trinchero’s One Stop Wine Shop,

FIND THIS WINE ONLINE:
Check prices and find vendors for Bieler “Sabine” Rosé on Wine-Searcher.com.

Follow this Wine-Searcher link to read more about France’s Coteaux d’Aix-en-Provence wine region and browse its wines and vendors.

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Previous Issue: « Blended or straight: What’s your pleasure?

Blended or straight: What’s your pleasure?

Robin Garr — Fri, 24 Apr 2026 16:12:37 GMT

What’s your pleasure? Single-varietal classics like Burgundy’s Pinot Noir, or traditional varietal blends like Bordeaux? Or are you happy either way?

I’m pretty sure most of us would say “either way*,” but please take note of the asterisk on that statement. The words “classics” and “traditional” matter here.

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It’s not necessarily prudent to simply throw a random collection of grapes into the fermenting mix just to see what happens. Most traditional blends have stood the test of time and won success because the combination worked.

The winning combinations that make up Bordeaux, Chianti, Châteauneuf-du-Pâpe and other Rhône wines have been around for centuries, and this combination has produced a unique blend whose taste has been loved for all those years. Burgundy, Napa Cabernet, Rhine and Mosel Riesling and Aussie Shiraz, in contrast, have remained as single-varietal wines because experience has showed us that this standalone approach works.

Creating new combinations never seen before can be more risky. If an innovative blend works, it can be a delight. But when the experimental flavors don’t resonate, the effort falls flat. The process is something like making a stew by picking random ingredients from the pantry just to see what will happen.

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I’ve talked about this before, more than once. “Unfamiliar varietal blends can yield wines as delightful as a chef’s creations, or as scary as Frankenstein’s monster. Or even both at the same time. … The wine maker’s challenge, like that of a chef, is to work with flavors and make them sing in harmony. … as with any innovation, new and untried combinations might work well, or they might yield a muddy mix of undistinguished flavors. But creative winemakers are willing to take risks in the pursuit of success. Such risks can pay off.”

“Biodynamic agriculture cultivates biodiversity and a unique originality in each field,” Chilean organic producer Emiliana points out. “Annual and perennial cultivations, herbs, flowers, fruits, and native plants, among others, contribute to the vegetative diversity, broadening the health and resilience of the place. The diversity of domestic animals is also beneficial …

I’m always willing to give something new a try, so here we go again. Today’s featured wine takes wild blending to a new level, though! Emiliana 2020 Coyam Los Robles Estate Red Blend brings together nine organically grown, biodynamic varieties from Chile’s Colchagua Valley. It’s 38% Syrah, 37% Carmenere, 8% Cabernet Sauvignon, 5% Carignan, 4% each Carnacha and Mourvedre, 2% Petit Verdot, and 1% each Malbec and Tempranillo.

Some of those varieties commonly turn up together in blends. Some of the others take this recipe well away from the ordinary. Breaking it down, Syrah, Carignan, Garnacha (Grenache), and Mourvedre often play nicely together in Rhône, Australian, or California blends. Carmenere, a Chilean specialty, is closely related to Merlot, which goes well with Cabernet Sauvignon, while Petit Verdot and Malbec also sing in the Bordeaux chorus, while Malbec often stands alone as an Argentine icon. And finally there’s a dash of Spain’s Tempranillo rounding out the mix.

This week’s Substack conversation: What’s your pleasure? Single-varietal classics like Burgundy’s Pinot Noir, or traditional varietal blends like Bordeaux? Or are you happy either way?

Coyam is an unusual blend, not duplicated anywhere else as far as I know. But it brings good credentials to the table: Its producer Emiliana is recognized as the world’s largest organic winery, and Coyam was one of the first biodynamically certified wines in Chile.

The proof is in the tasting, and this one stands up as a wild-blend winner. I don’t find any single varietal character standing out, but the flavors blend well, as they should, in a fresh, full, and balanced wine of admirable complexity and a natural affinity for red meat and other robust entrees.

The $25 price on this week’s featured wine keeps it behind our subscription paywall. Since I buy all the wines I review at retail and do not accept wine samples or other gratuities from the industry, I count on the support of paid subscribers to help cover the cost of the wines I review. Accordingly, I have to reserve wines that cost me more than about $20 behind our subscription paywall.

Support The 30 Second Wine Advisor with your paid-tier subscription. For $5 per month or $50 for a year (a 17% saving), you’ll receive additional wine notes funded by your subscriptions, enjoy quick direct access through Substack for wine-related questions, and gain my real appreciation for your support.

Can we taste minerals in wine?

Robin Garr — Fri, 17 Apr 2026 15:36:51 GMT

My spell-check flags “minerality” as a misspelling, but I still love to taste it in my wine.

That certainly seems unfair, as I wrote in a Sept. 28, 2018 article, Is ‘minerality’ a word? “I love the stony, chalky, granite, slate, clay, oyster shell, or rainwater-over-rocks character that distinguishes some of the world’s most subtle and interesting wines,” I wrote back then.

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But there’s an asterisk following that statement. In fact, “minerality” does appear in the Oxford English Dictionary, which declares it rare, with a first recorded use dating from the 19th century. It’s rare enough, I suppose, that single-volume dictionaries – and, of course, spell check – find no space for it.

What is this mysterious thing, anyway? It’s related, if not exactly identical, to the idea of “terroir,” another of those French-heritage wine words that make up winespeak. What is terroir, exactly? I ran across this exceptionally clear explanation in a non-wine publication from the European barge tours firm European Waterways:

The word terroir has its origins in the French word ‘terre’, meaning earth. In consequence, many think of terroir in France as simply the earth or soil, but it is so much more than that. It is the entire natural environment where grapevines are grown. This includes the soil, but also the topography, climate, and even farming practices. Collectively, these influence the character of a wine.

For many years, conventional wisdom among wine fanciers held that microscopic fragments of minerals in the soil worked their way up through the grapevines to the fruit, where they remained in the juice that became wine, doing their happy work of passing a physical expression of the soil along to our palates.

Sadly, current research makes clear that this lovely story is not true.

From The SevenFifty Daily: Producers in the Etna DOC grow vines on the slopes of Mount Etna, which can erupt more than 50 times each year. Photo by Steve Blandino; photo courtesy of IDDA.

In his 2018 book, Vineyards, Rocks, and Soils, Welsh geologist Alex Maltman painstakingly examined the chemistry of vines and minerals and their interaction,explaining why it’s not possible for us to taste minerals from the soil in wine: only water comes up through the ground to the vines, he says

So what are we tasting when we detect those delicious, intriguing hints of granite, chalk, red clay, gunflint, oyster shells, licking rocks, rain water?

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I suspect yeast character may sometimes be a factor, particularly in white wines aged on their lees. And then there’s the way wine, in its lovable complexity, works on our minds and prompts us to find non-fruit characteristics, from blackberries and tart cherries to rising bread dough, toast, tobacco, chocolate, coffee, cat litter boxes, pungent stables, and thousands more.

Wine is evocative. It makes us think, and it triggers memories. When we know that Chablis grows on chalky ground, northern Rhône wines on granite, or Sicilian wines on volcanic soil, who can blame us for, well, detecting traces of those minerals in our wine?

What do you think? Do you love minerality in a wine? How do you define it? Join today’s conversation in Substack Chat.

Today’s featured wine, Regaleali Sicilia Bianco (a sibling of the Regaleali Buonsenso Catarratto featured in the April 3 Wine Advisor) shows me a whiff of stony minerality that seems to fit its high-altitude Sicilian soil. It’s another winner from Regaleali, and I think you’ll enjoy it.

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Today’s Tasting Report

Tasca Conti d’Almerita 2024 Tenuta Regaleali Sicilia Bianco ($15.99)

A blend of the indigenous Sicilian grapes Catarratto (34%), Inzolia (31%), and Grecanico (29%), plus a splash of Chardonnay (6%), Regaleali Sicilia Bianco shows a clear straw color with a brassy greenish hue. Tart green apple and white grapefruit scents with subtle floral back notes invite a taste. Bone-dry, zippy acidic white-fruit and citrus flavors are consistent with the nose, with intriguing stony, rainwater-over-rocks minerality joining lime-zest citrus in a very long finish. Made without malolactic fermentation and aged for three months in stainless steel tanks with no oak exposure, it’s an inviting expression of native Sicilian fruit. 12.5% alcohol. U.S. importer: Heritage Collection Trinchero Family Estates, St. Helena, Calif. (April 11, 2026)

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FOOD MATCH: Fresh seafood and fish, quality sushi and sashimi would make a natural match. Pasta primavera or plant-based rice or grain dishes would also serve it well.

WHEN TO DRINK: This wine is made in a fresh, snappy style that rewards drinking it up while it’s fresh. If you’re adventurous (and have a quality cellar), it might make an interesting experiment to hold a few bottles for five years or so, but why? Not all wines need aging.

VALUE:
Wine-Searcher.com lists a $16 average U.S. retail price, matching my local shop’s toll. It’s a very good value in the middle to upper teens.

WEB LINK:
Here’s the winery fact sheet.

FIND THIS WINE ONLINE:
Check prices and find vendors for Regaleali Sicilia Bianco on Wine-Searcher.com.

Follow this Wine-Searcher link to read more about Sicilian wines and vineyards.

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