10 Interesting Wine-Related Discoveries For March 2021
Winter 2021 is almost behind us with the warmer months of 2021 just weeks away. While 2021 has already proven to be another difficult year for many, it has produced plenty of interesting new wines and wine-industry developments. In turn, below are 10 product recommendations and/or interesting vineyard-related news items that are keeping things interesting for wine enthusiasts.
Robert Mondavi’s New Offerings
Robert Mondavi Winery Napa Valley 2018 Fumé Blanc — suggested retail price of $23.00 — is a Napa Valley Sauvignon Blanc. This rich white wine continues to express the varietal’s characteristic brightness, with flavors of green apple, juicy peach and fresh melon featured. You can pair this wine with pan fried salmon and fresh asparagus.
Meanwhile, the Robert Mondavi Winery Napa Valley 2018 Chardonnay — suggested retail price of $24.00 — carries flavors of sun-ripened pineapple and lemon crème, as layered by guava, Asian pear and zesty grapefruit. The integrated flavors and complexity of the wine result in a mouthwatering, yet richly-textured Chardonnay. you can serve it a chilled glass alongside a fresh Caesar salad with grilled chicken, homemade croutons and fresh juicy tomatoes.
Earlier this month Snoop Dogg and 19 Crimes launched their newest wine collaboration: Snoop Cali Rosé. A blend of Grenache and Zinfandel, Snoop Cali Rosé aims to break the rules of typical rosé culture with a touch of Cali-behavior and Snoop’s iconic West Coast Style. The easy drinking wine encourages imbibers to raise a glass and celebrate life’s greatest wins the way the Doggfather does, with no rules attached. The first California rosé for the brand and second collaboration with the hip-hop icon, Snoop Cali Rosé continues to cast a contemporary lens on 19 Crimes, a line of wines inspired by the convicts turned colonists that built Australia.
19 Crimes Snoop Cali Rosé arrives on the heels of Snoop Dogg and 19 Crimes’ first collaboration, Snoop Cali Red, reportedly the #1-selling wine innovation of 2020. In addition to debuting the multi-year partnership with the entertainment icon, Snoop Cali Red showcased a new, boundary-pushing AR experience, “Ask The Doggfather,” which gives imbibers the opportunity to talk to Snoop Dogg directly. Snoop Cali Rosé launches with the same “Ask the Doggfather” experience, giving fans even more opportunities to ask Snoop life’s most pressing questions. Fans simply go to askthedoggfather.com on a mobile device and scan the bottle’s label. From there, ask a question and Snoop will appear in miniature holographic form ready to offer words of wisdom with a touch of signature swagger. Snoop Cali Rosé is available in stores nationwide and online via thewineshop.com and 19crimes.com.
Cupcake LightHearted Sauvignon Blanc
Launched in 2008, Cupcake Vineyards is reportedly the #1 premium wine brand by volume within the U.S Cupcake’s winemaker Jessica Tomei and her team travel the world to ensure the most desirable grapes are being used in Cupcake wines, always seeing the glass as full of possibilities and striving to make wines worth celebrating. The portfolio now includes varietals from California’s Monterey County and Central Coast and other world-renowned wine-producing regions, including Veneto and Asti, Italy, Limestone Coast, Australia, Pfalz, Germany, Marlborough, New Zealand; and Mendoza, Argentina.
Just in time for spring, Cupcake LightHearted has added a highly-anticipated varietal to its lineup of better-for-you wines. Refreshing Cupcake LightHearted Sauvignon Blanc is available now and bursting with stone fruit flavor and vibrant notes of fresh citrus, lime and apricot. From the makers of Cupcake Vineyards, reportedly the producer of the #1 Premium Sauvignon Blanc in the category, Cupcake LightHearted Sauv Blanc is a lower-calorie alternative for this crowd favorite at just $9.99 apiece. It clocks in at 80 calories, 8 percent ABV, and less than 1g of sugar per 5 oz. serving, which is 20 percent fewer calories than leading hard seltzers.
Imagine having no more headaches after enjoying a glass of wine. PureWine’s TheWand offers 2 unique filtration systems that help eliminate the histamines and sulfites that often cause wine allergies. And all of this is done without altering the flavor of your delicious reds and whites. TheWand is FDA-compliant, BPA-Free and 100 percent made in the USA.
The Prisoner Wine Company’s Recent Offerings
Craving peaches, mangos and/or pineapples? Try pairing these fresh fruits and a selection of sharp cheeses with the 2019 The Prisoner Chardonnay, which carries a suggested retail price of $40.00. This cheerful white wine boasts flavors of vanilla, créme brulée, and baked apple, making for a balanced and acidic finish.
Also available from the Prisoner team is the 2019 Blindfold — suggested retail price of $32.00 — which can be paired with bold berries, plums and cherries to highlight the wine’s refreshing flavors. This white blend features aromas of lychee, stone fruit, citrus, apple pie and peach, producing a full and balanced finish. Blindfold’s notes of lemon zest and caramelized sugar for a creamy and unique white wine, perfect for a cool spring day.
Angels & Cowboys Brut Rosé is crafted in the traditional Méthode Champenoise, known in the Anglophone wine world as the Traditional Method. This method consists of allowing a wine to go through a second fermentation inside the bottle which produces small, fine bubbles and a creamy mouthfeel. After the wine completes 12 months en tirage — aging on the lees — a traditional dosage of liqueur d’expedition is added for balance and complexity. The Rosé base wine blend contains sixteen percent reserve wine from vintages 2012-2018.
This Brut Rosé — priced at $24.99 per bottle — features abundant notes of red raspberry, strawberry and watermelon, as coupled with the crisp acidity of citrus lime. In turn, it is wonderfully-fresh and balanced yet complex. It ought to serve as a great complement for seafoods, salads and lively cuisine.
The 2018 Cabernet Sauvignon of Cannonball — another excellent offering from the Share A Splash team — dark crimson in color and has dark cherry, caramel, mocha and wood spice aromas. Its taste is of red currant fruit with sweet oak, fresh cherry and dark berry flavors. Its mouthfeel starts with a substantial body and has just enough texture and acidity to leave a long and flavorful finish.
In terms of what you can pair the 2018 Cannonball Cabernet — which carries of a suggested retail price of $14.99 — with, it ought to pair well with burgers, New York-style steaks, short ribs, lamb chops, pizza, pasta with bolognese sauce, Stilton cheese and chocolate desserts alike.
Tenuta di Arceno Valadorna 2015
This Merlot-led blend is sourced primarily from the Valadorna and Capraia blocks, which produce the estate’s most complex and mineral-based expressions of this variety. The blocks are located within the cooler part of the estate, naturally-irrigated by the stream that undulates through it, and feature sandy brown soils and lower yields than typical. These blocks are often the last Merlot blocks to ripen on the estate. In warm years like 2015, Merlot shows its soft, savory and slightly-racy character.
The wine itself exhibits high-toned aromas of ripe black cherries, vanilla bean and cedar alike. With bright acidity, it expands quickly on the palate. Plush tannins carry through the center with a fine, tingling finish. The palate shows flavors of tart cherry pie, dried red berries and black licorice, with a long finish of white pepper, dusty roses and stony minerality. This offering — which carries a suggested retail price of $55.00 — scored 95+ points from the Robert Parker Wine Advocate in 2019.
Frescobaldi Nipozzano Vecchie Viti 2015
Frescobaldi Nipozzano Vecchie Viti 2015 is a Chianti from the hills of Castello di Nipozzano within the Chianti Rufina wine region. Nipozzano Vecchie Viti 2015 has an intense ruby-red color, and its nose is enveloped with dark berry aromas, as sustained by the sweetness of vanilla and accompanied by pleasant toasted cocoa notes. The richness of the fruit, already detected on the nose, is confirmed in the mouth to be complex and persistent, with notes of blackberry and gooseberry.
This wine is intended to pair well with game, from the most delicate to the most elaborate. It carries a low per-bottle suggested retail price of $20.00.
Montecucco Rosso DOC Tenuta l’Impostino – Impostino 2015
While Chianti might be well-known all over the world for its impeccable quality and taste, Montecucco DOC itself still remains a hidden gem of Tuscan viticulture. Impostino is an ideal representation of this are of the region, Sangiovese 80% (Merlot and Syrah) and Petit Verdot 20%. In turn, a glass of it presents a ruby red color.
The wine itself is rich in notes of which plum, eucalyptus, tobacco and earthy flavors dominate. In the mouth it enters warm, soft, full-bodied and remarkably-balanced, in which freshness and tannin balance the alcoholic charge well. Long and highly-satisfying finish. Current suggested retail price for the Impostino 2015 is a low $19.00.
Bottega’s Gold Prosecco DOC & 100 Prosecco Recipes Book
The Bottega company, as run by Barbara, Sandro and Stefano Bottega, is both a winery and a distillery. Founded in 1977 by Aldo Bottega under the name Distilleria Bottega, the company is based in Bibano di Godega — about 50 km north of Venice — where it produces grappas, wines and liqueurs aimed at a high and medium-high level target. Its grappas, marketed under the Alexander and Bottega brands, include fine selections of single-variety grapes and distillates matured in barriques. The range of Bottega wines includes Prosecco, like the well-known Bottega Gold, and other sparkling wines with great personality.
100 Prosecco Recipes is a 192-page book published in English by Mondadori, and it offers a culinary and cultural journey through the Prosecco area, an UNESCO World Heritage Site in the Veneto Region. The collection of recipes — from aperitifs to desserts and even cocktails — is accompanied by local tales as Bottega pays homage to the region’s culinary traditions and the people who have created and preserved the region’s culture. The book highlights a creative cuisine which combines nature and agriculture, as well as traditional and innovative cooking methods. It also underlines Bottega’s pride in Prosecco’s food and wine, its landscape, technology and artistic heritage.
Vento di Mare’s U.S. Expansion
Hailing from Sicily, Cantine Ermes represents one of the biggest wine companies in Southern Italy, a co-op that has regenerated a damaged territory into a fruitful and sustainable ground for
winemaking. Under the helm of New York-based agency Platinum Media, Cantine Ermes recently launched a communication campaign within the U.S., introducing a select ensemble of its Vento di Mare organic wine collection. Vento di Mare includes both indigenous grapes, such as Grillo, Nero d’Avola and Nerello Mascalese, and international vines such as Pinot Noir and Pinot Grigio. These wines come from vineyards cultivated in areas specifically-composed by clay, lime and sandy soil. Wind is also key in the production of Vento di Mare, which translates into “wind from the sea,” being close to western coast of Sicily, the soil is indeed exposed to winds coming from south-east (Sirocco) and from the north (Tramontane).
Its Nerello Mascalese is a red wine produced in sandy soil in the western part of Sicily, featuring a characteristic color that tends to a garnet nuance, with an intense aroma with hints
of wild berries and spicy notes. Meanwhile, its also-excellent Nero d’Avola provides a mix of red cherry and raspberry. I look forward to eventually trying Cantine Ermes’ Grillo, Pinot Grigio and Pinot Noir offerings.
Usual Wines’ New Usual Red Blend
Last but definitely not least… A subscription service is available for those who fall in love with the wine and want it dropped off at their doorstep monthly, Usual Wines sells both monthly and one-time-order boxes of California-based sustainably-farmed Brut, Red and Rosé varieties, also offering a “Mixed Pack.” Its latest release is Usual Red, a bright and fruity wine that comes from Mendocino County. Aged lightly in oak, the notes of muddled raspberry and black cherry shines through with just a touch of fennel on the finish, Usual Red — like all Usual Wines — is expertly made in small batches with no additives and minimal intervention.
Another recent innovation from the company is its Usual Spritz, the brand’s first-ever low0ABV canned wine. Made with clean and simple ingredients, the limited-release Usual Spritz is composed of sparkling wine mixed with (a splash) of real, 100% natural guava juice, and nothing else. It is a bright and crisp low-calorie option (132 calories per 250 ml can) that’s great for this year’s (socially-distanced) Labor Day weekend backyard BBQ (and beyond) while also an elegant alternative to a hard seltzer. Customers can text 415-941-0440 with any questions or to order more wine.
TweetAbout the Author
Darren Paltrowitz Darren Paltrowitz is a New York resident with over 20 years of entertainment industry experience. He began working around the music business as a teenager, interning for the manager of his then-favorite band Superdrag. Since then, he has worked with a wide array of artists including OK Go, They Might Be Giants, Mike Viola, Tracy Bonham, Loudness, Rachael Yamagata, and Amanda Palmer. Darren's writing has appeared in dozens of outlets including the New York Daily News, Inquisitr, The Daily Meal, The Hype Magazine, All Music Guide, Guitar World, TheStreet.com, Businessweek, Chicago Tribune, L.A. Times, and the Jewish Journal. Beyond being "Editor At Large" for The Hype Magazine, Darren is also the host of weekly "Paltrocast With Darren Paltrowitz" series, which airs on dozens on television and digital networks. He has also co-authored 2 published books, 2018's "Pocket Change: Your Happy Money" (Book Web Publishing) and 2019's "Good Advice From Professional Wrestling" (6623 Press), and co-hosts the world's only known podcast about David Lee Roth, "The DLR Cast."
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