Valentine's Day Wine Trio

Valentine’s Day is always a good excuse to sample a few wines. With that in mind I picked up a trio of wines, all under $20 apiece from the Wino-Mart. Valentine’s Day evening, Jenny and I popped the cork on the trio and wrote up our thoughts.

The first bottle we opened was Monte Luce Cabernet Franc 2007. This red wine from the Veneto region of Italy that came in at $10 and was the least expensive of the trio I purchased. When chilled, the Monte Luce has little smell or taste beyond a slightly bloody flavor. It naturally wakes up a bit as it comes to room temperature, with aromas of raisins coming out. The mouthfeel is fairly dry, and the flavor is softly fruity with background notes of fresh cut grass and a tart apple aftertaste. This wine isn’t exactly hopping with character or flavor, but for the price, it’s an okay and fairly safe semi-dry red table wine. I would pair it with an herbal salad to start a meal.

The second bottle we opened was a 2008 Triennes Rosé; hailing from the Provence region of France. This rosé is a blend of cinsault, merlot, and syrah grapes and I bought it because it has a cute little wild boar on the label and that little boar set me back $15. A quick word on French rosé wines; I have read a few articles stating that rosé wines, once seen as horribly classless, are coming back into fashion in Paris as winemakers are exploring new and very old techniques alike to blend varieties of grapes resulting in some truly inspired vintages. This particular rosé smells of melon and house paint. Now don’t get me wrong, I actually like the smell of house paint, but it was a little weird to smell coming from a wine. This wine is not dry, nor is it sickly sweet as so many rosés can tend towards, but is somewhere in the middle ground. Jenny and I both found this to be a yummy wine with a sweet, juicy, fruit flavor, having notes of white grape and melon. It was mouthwateringly succulent and a pleasure to drink. I think it would pair well with a fillet of white fish glazed in miso and citrus.

The third bottle was once suggested to me by our own Connoisseur Jon; 2006 Layer Cake Côtes du Rhône. Produced exclusively with syrah grapes grown on the banks of the Rhône River in France, this red was the priciest of the lot at $19. Layer Cake tastes great, with a tangy, sharp, and sour start easing into a peppery and herbal flavor with hints of dry cocoa. This wine was considerably drier than I was expecting, but also had very light tannins, making this an exceptionally approachable wine, especially for someone who is making the transition from whites to reds. This wine paired excellently with the molten chocolate cake we had to finish our Valentine’s Day meal.