Send me your Kiwis, your Brie, and more!
Have you ever wanted to experience more wines from aruond the world, without getting your Sommelier credential? If you’re like me, you might know a lot about a small area but not so much about other areas. The international Wine of the Month club is a great way to experience more of the world of wine. The 12 person professional tasting panel selects 2 wines of various price points or styles, and expands your tasting selections monthly.
Starting at $30 a month for 2 bottle or red or white, or one of each, you can commit to as little as 2 months to try things out. this is a great feature, since many wine clubs these days ask for at least a year commitment. The wines included in each of the shipments are less distributed wines that you might not discover in your local wine shop,a dn can be great values.
In my sample shipment, I received a New Zeland Pinot Noir and a Cabernet Sauvignon from California, both of wihch retail for ~$13.
The Sherwood Estate Pinot Noir hails from one of the most famous New Zeland areas for Pinot Noir, Marlborough. They owners, Dayne & Jill Sherwood, have been making wine since the 1980s, and were early adopters in the region and are creating Pinot Noir and Sauvignon Blanc from this area. The Pinot has tons of cherry and strawberry fruit, and is light to medium bodied. It’s chewy plum note is a bit bold, backed by lots of spice. A swirl in the soiree and the strawberry raspberry juice pops out, with a racy acid wash (think Bon Jovi in 1988). This would be great with chicken salad, it’s lacking some of the nuance that you expect in or fruit. It lacks the nuance of a more expensive bottle of wine, but it would make an excellent party wine at a fair price point.
The 2007 Cannoncall Cabernet Sauvignon intrigues me. I am always somewhat dubious of kitchy labels, and am particularly wary of a California appellation wine — given that I drink primarily California wines, I have come to expect more AVA specific bottlings. But here goes. The nose comes across with anise, black pepper and baking spice with blackberry, plum tart and duck in
cherry glaze. The flavors are lost a bit under a perfumed sawdust, but the bright plum, cassis and blackberry shines through. Again, the oak is overpowering, and the tannins need to mellow out a bit. Another great party wine, i might bring this to a BBQ and let it open up a bit. After pouring my 2nd taste through the trusty soiree, the tannins have softened up. I still think there is too much dusty oak, but the dark black fruit is shining through with a bit of toasty finish. This would be great with ribs or hamburgers and is a great everyday value.
The International Wine club is a great idea for someone who wants to explore — and might not have a big budget. it’s very difficult to find wines in this price point and these two are nice examples of inexpensive, quality wines. I wish that wines <$15 backed off the oak monster though — have a few tastes of these and you’ll need to take the 2x4 splinters out of yoru mouth! I recommend trying the Premier Series to explore more wines on a budget, where you can customize your selections to be white, red, or one of each. For those of you who have more green to spend, the Masters Series is still affordable at $45 for 2 bottles, and really challenges your palate. For the elite few, you can go for the Collectors Series. For $70 a month, you get 2 bottles of only the best will do wines — which in the rest of the world, is NOT a $125 Cabernet with a bird on it.
Happy Drinking!
These samples were provided by the International Wine of the Month Club. give it a shot, you can find some interesting stuff!
