Luscious L'Authentique

By Claudia and Steve Evans



Photo Credit: Trader Joe's

Red table wine L'Authentique is produced in Beziers, a small Mediterranean town in Southern France, which, according to the Travel Channel, has strong influences of Catalan.  The history of Beziers is ripe with Roman aqueducts, centuries old cathedrals and chateaus.  Beziers is located within the Languedoc region, the largest grape growing region in the world. Popular Languedoc varietals include the Grenache as well as the Ciragnan grape.

A bottle of L'Authentique, a blended red cultivated in this prestigious Southern region of France may not be the most complex French red wine we've ever tasted, but it is a reliable and balanced choice. At $4.99 the bottle, the L'Authentique is a stupendously good value -- you can expect to pay more than twice as much for any other red from the Languedoc region.

L'Authentique is sweet, fruity and smooth. It  pairs nicely with red meats, pizza and pastas. We served it with a homemade pizza topped with spinach leaves, sundried tomatoes and goat cheese. Steve says it's the best red wine under $5 that he ever tasted, which may be damning with faint praise. We still recommend this wine, which you can sample for yourself at Trader Joe's.

Learn more about the Languedoc Region.

A Wine for All Seasons copyright (c) 2010 by Steve and Claudia Evans. All rights reserved.

Stocking Up on Chateau Ste. Michelle 2007 Indian Wells Merlot

By Claudia and Steve Evans

The 2007 Indian Wells Reserve Merlot is an unforgettable delight and the perfect accompaniment to a traditional steak and potato dinner.  This particular merlot is an award-winner - garnering an 89-point rating from Wine Spectator magazine in April 2010. 

The vintner, Chateau Ste. Michelle, is a Columbia Valley winery in Washington State with more than 3,500 acres of historic vineyards. Their website, http://www.ste-michelle.com/, claims the merlot is "rich and supple" with a "lively finish." We couldn't agree more.

We paired this smooth, woodsy merlot with thick-cut grilled ribeye, fresh potatoes, and steamed asparagus with hollandaise sauce. The wine was a superb and outstanding partner to such a meal, and an unbeatable value for $15 the bottle.

Stock up on this while you can - it promises to mature nicely and is precisely the type of wine that fine, young cellars are made of.

A Wine for All Seasons (c) 2010 by Claudia and Steve Evans. All rights reserved.

Guzzling the 2008 Gewurztraminer

By Claudia and Steve Evans

J.W. Morris is a Sonoma Valley vintner that bills this 2008 white wine as "an exciting, easy drinking wine, more so than most any other white wine type." It's also allegedly "heady" with an "aromatic scent."

All awkward phrasing aside, J.W. enjoys hyperbole.

This crisp and sweet wine is light on the palate, but lacking complexity. Perhaps it might best be served chilled for a picnic or with a Cobb salad. We say it might almost be sweet enough to stand in for a dessert wine, perhaps with a pear tart. Our bottle helped wash down a turkey tarragon dinner and fueled a conversation about closed-mindedness in modern culture.

So it is with an open mind that we suggest the J.W. Morris Gewurztraminer as a sweet refreshment that offers good value at $3.99 the bottle. Like a good pop song, the Gewurztraminer won't remind anyone of Mozart -- or even a great white wine -- but it's catchy and pleasant; you can indulge without guilt, or without spending a lot of money.

A Wine for All Seasons copyright (c) 2010 by Claudia and Steve Evans. All rights reserved.

Sipping the Il Valore Marchese DePetri, Sangiovese 2009 Giovane

By Steve & Claudia Evans

Welcome to A Wine for All Seasons, which is a modest attempt by Claudia and Steve to discover good wine at an exceptional price. Here, we share our pairings of wines from the world over with home-cooked meals to explore the nuances of the grape while indulging our love of great food. Our goal is to highlight the pleasure of wine without all the pretension that is readily available elsewhere on the Internet.

We commence our journey with a bottle of Il Valore Marchese DePetri, Sangiovese 2009 Giovane. The Sangiovese is a pleasantly aromatic grape from the Puglia region of Southern Italy (known as the Heel of the Boot). This is a young, fruity red wine with a supple finish.

The Puglia region has traditionally been a growth area for mass-produced, cheap red grapes, but the region's rich soil conditions and climate have provoked investors throughout Northern Italy and as far as America to start taking Puglia seriously. Puglia is now considered to have real potential for commercially successful, quality wines. 

The '09 Sangiovese opens with a rich burst of fruit, wet and young. It makes a fine accompaniment to red meats, pasta and especially pizza. "Mild, spicy finish," Claudia says, "but thin, because it's young." Still, this 2009 Il Valore offers extraordinary value at under $5 the bottle. The alcohol content, at 12.5 percent, spurred a pleasant giggle as we reached the bottom of the bottle.

We enjoyed this wine with a delicious early-autumn dish of penne rigate with fresh tomatoes & basil, cubed sweet potatoes and prosciutto.

For an everyday Italian meal, the '09 Il Valore is a fine choice, sensibly priced. The Il Valore would transform a mundane pizza supper into something special.

A Wine for All Seasons (c) 2010 by Steve Evans and Claudia Evans. All rights reserved.