December 21st, 2011
Deck the Halls with Reds and Whites
Our guest wine columnist, Natalie Maclean, shares her top wine picks to make your holidays festive:
2009 Hillebrand Winery Sauvignon Blanc Trius, Niagara-on-the-Lake, Ontario: Terrific mouth-watering flavours of ripe green melon and grapefruit. Ultra-refreshing and perfect for salads, seafood and sparkling conversation on New Year’s. Price: $14.05 Score: 87/100.
2009 Cono Sur Viognier, Chile: Everything’s coming up daisies with the Cono Sur Viognier, a lovely wine with notes of field flowers, peach and dried apricot. It’s perfect for holiday parties, especially those involving cheese. Price: $9.95 Score: 87/100.
2009 Louis Bernard Syrah Blend, Cotes Du Rhone, France: A solid performer, year after year. This robust red offers tasty notes of dark red fruit, cedar and some smoke. Perfect for hearty meat meals. Price: $12.15 Score: 87/100.
2006 Rocca Delle Macìe Chianti Riserva, Tuscany, Italy: A lovely, classic chianti that celebrates all that’s best about Tuscan living and the joys of pasta and fresh tomato sauce. Dark berries and smoke with mouth-watering acidity and full-bodied weight. Great gift wine. Price: $15.95 Score: 91/100.
2008 Lenz Moser Prestige Trockenbeerenauslese, Austria: Sublime! Gorgeous dessert wine that’s complex and endless. Apricot and peach with that distinctive note that botrytis adds. This one will make sugarplums dance in your head; its perfect with Christmas fruitcake. $19.95 Score: 96/100. —Natalie MacLean
For more on these wines as well as holiday wine picks and pairings, visit www.nataliemaclean.com
