ARTIST WINES! - Uncorking musician-priced cellar secrets
Joao Portugal Ramos, Loureiro - Vinho Verde, Portugal, 2017
Price: $14.59 SBH Rating: 🌴🍏 🎶🍈🍐💚🌱
Vinho Verde is one of the best parts of summer, and this one is as delightful as running into your crush on an excellent hair day. Crisp, pleasantly tart, with mouthfuls of lime and melons, drink this while you contemplate what to do with the alarming amount of zucchini growing in your garden.
♫ Drink with: The Carpenters: We've Only Just Begun
ARTIST WINES! - Uncorking musician-priced cellar secrets
The Bean Coffee, Pinotage - Stellenbosch, South Africa, 2017
Price: $14.99 SBH Rating: 🎶🍓🍇🍒👃🏻☕️✨
The raspberry nose alone of this wine will renew your hope in artist wines. And also your hope in raspberries and in noses, in case you were losing faith. This is a full-bodied wine with just the right amount of spice, and, true to the name, a satisfyingly satiny suggestion of espresso.
A movement of Bach's Coffee Cantata came to mind while drinking this, in which it is suggested that even better than coffee is "Einen wackern Liebsten" - A brave sweetheart, or according to some translations.... a lusty lover! Oh! Bach always *nose* best!
♫ Drink with: fabulous Canadian soprano Anne Grimm performing, with The Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, “Liesgen”, from J.S. Bach's Coffee Cantata
ARTIST WINES! - Uncorking musician-priced cellar secrets
Montes Twins Red Blend, Cabernet Sauvignon - Malbec, Colchagua Valley, Chile, 2015
Price: $14.99 SBH Rating: 👯♂️🍇🌊 🍫🍊🎶
This is the wine you drink while the wind is howling at the windows and banging at the doors and you want to be transported to some kind of Spanish ecstasy. Tart and sassy, drink a whisper of this with a piece of dark chocolate infused with oranges and for a moment nothing else will exist or matter. I’m not joking. Then you can return to your tedious paperwork, and it will seem slightly, ever so slightly, mildly, secretly … poetic.
♫ Drink with: Jacob Cordover performing Granados' Spanish Dance No. 5
ARTIST WINES! - Uncorking musician-priced cellar secrets
Yellow Tail Big Bold Red, South Eastern Australia, unknown year
Price: $13.99 SBH Rating: 🍒🍓🍒🍇🎈 🔴🍬🍭💘🌹🍓🎵🍷🔴🍬🍭
I might rename this wine as Alarmingly Syrupy Murky...
Still, it grows on you. Like a challenge. You can do it! The "Big" refers to the overpowering taste of berries, reminiscent of raspberry cordial from Green Gables. The "Bold" refers to the unapologetic existence of this blend. The "Red", well, at the very least, this really could be called Big Bold Murky.
♫ Drink with: "U Really Got A Hold On Me"
ARTIST WINES! - Uncorking musician-priced cellar secrets
JP. Chenet Merlot, Languedoc-Roussillon, France 2016
Price: $12.99 SBH Rating: 🍒🎵 🌸 🎶❄️🎵🍷🍌
Slightly minty on the nose. Or maybe that's just the frigid snowy "spring" air gusting in through the cracks in the windows.
Cherries, berries, and a hint of tasty dirty make this a perfectly adequate wine. Good for sipping while you try to convince your friend that Yes! He Should date that violist! This softer merlot makes your arguments persuasive, whereas, to be honest, a cab sav might cause you to sound suspiciously overzealous.
♫ Drink with: "Banana Banjo" from The Crow
ARTIST WINES! - Uncorking musician-priced cellar secrets
Trapiche Broquel Malbec, Mendoza, Argentina 2015
Price: $14.99 SBH Rating: 🍒🎵 🎠 🌸 🍷 🎶
Saddle up and take this juicy, leathery Malbec for a deliciously carefree ride. Breathe in the perfume of violets and savour dark cherries. Be prepared to be wooed by its stylishly bold but surprisingly polite ways.
♫ Drink with: Rudy Vallée singing "Life Is Just A Bowl Of Cherries"
ARTIST WINES! - Uncorking musician-priced cellar secrets
Château de Gourgazaud, Syrah /Mourvèdre/Carignan, France 2014
Price: $13.99 SBH Rating: 🎶 🎶🎵 🐎 🌄 🍷🍷
Softly sweet at the nose, the Château de Gourgazaud 2014 sports a very stylish combination of licorice, cassis, and unripened blackberries. Slightly peppery overtones balance with the delicacy of vanilla to complete the ensemble. Drink this wine while sitting on a bale of hay looking out at the sunset and all of your dreams will come true. Except for the one about You-Know-Who. (This wine isn't THAT good.)
♫ Drink with: Dolly Parton & Kris Kristofferson singing "Ping Pong"