Region: Kalamazoo, Michigan

Price: $9.99/6-pk at Total Wine

ABV: 5.8%

Sight: tawny brown

Smell: cola, caramel, walnut, molasses

Taste: caramel, walnut, cocoa powder, black tea

Overall: It’s been a while since I’ve had a good brown ale—I forgot how rich they can get.  Really strong aromatics on this one, some bakery ingredients dominated by dry walnut.  Round mouthfeel, big sweet cocoa-caramel malt, framed again by a determinedly dry nuttiness.  Something tannic like black tea lingers for a long time after, holding a place and priming the palate for the next sip.  If nothing else, this brown ale presents great dynamics; from start to finish, it swells then streamlines with a pleasant array of sweet flavors and dry textures.  It’s a hearth beer, warming and slightly smoky, perfect for an early winter evening, especially if you’ve got a fire going.  

Region: Kalamazoo, Michigan

Price: $11.99-6pk at Total Wine

Style: Stout

ABV: 6.1%

Sight: opaque almost-black brown, khaki head

Smell: dark chocolate, root beer, double chocolate cookie

Taste: sweet milk chocolate, cola, dark roast coffee, gravy, creamy, black tea

Overall: This little treat was a gift from my store manager; every year this is her favorite stout, and when we closed the store together after a long day, she pulled one of these out of the pack she had just bought and handed it to me.  (It’s the little things in life.)  For someone who is still a stout novice, this one was extremely amicable.  The aromas are full of dessert, and all of my fourth-grade favorites (chocolate, cookies, soda pop) make an appearance.  The sip is smooth and sweet, full of Hershey’s and a hint of cola.  It takes a turn for the savory as black coffee and an over-steeped black tea bitterness gain a pulse on the finish, and something about it reminds me of this dark beef gravy I had a lot growing up, which my mom hasn’t made for years.  I love that this isn’t a boisterous, kick-the-door in kind of stout; it’s kind, mellow, and outright pleasant to sip on all evening.

Region: Saint-Véran, Burgundy, France

Price: $16.99 at Total Wine

Varietal: Chardonnay

Sight: straw yellow

Smell: underripe strawberry, lemon, Golden Delicious apple, honeydew, slate stone

Taste: medium- to full-bodied, lemon, marmalade, walnut, Bosc pear

Overall: This unoaked Chardonnay is a neighbor to the slightly-more-popular Pouilly-Fuissé, and I don’t believe it’s expensive enough.  Some $30 California Chardonnays taking advantage of the growing interest in unoaked styles (read: natural beauty) don’t even drink this well. Zingy, zesty bright on the nose—though with more elegance than a New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc—with a beautiful marriage of citrus and orchard fruits and a line of cool minerality.  On the sip, it sits slightly heavier than your average white, though lacking the heft and oiliness of a Rhone white or California Chardonnay.  A nuttiness sits at the core, while flavors of apples and pears steeped in citrus juices swirl on the palate.  Pure.  This wine is a sharp effort, understated and yet memorable.  A favorite under-$20 Chardonnay!

Region: Charlotte, North Carolina

Price: $3.49/22-oz bottle at Total Wine

Sight: russet

Smell: praline, hazelnut, cigar, fresh baked bread

Taste: malty, toffee, pumpernickel or rye bread, easy-going with only a slight bitterness

Overall: If I’m going to seek out a beer for the winter season, it should taste something like this. This time of year, I want a malt bomb—nice to meet you, Dunkel. This is rich, smooth, neither over-sweet nor over-bitter.  The savory flavors evoke notions of toffee and pumpernickel; while the aromas have the coloring of praline, with something of the character of a cigar humidor.  Wonderful.  My roommate and I celebrated Christmas early, and this local gem was the perfect pairing!  Makes me feel all nice and cozy on the inside.

Region: Kansas City, Missouri

Style: Tripel

Price: $9.99/4-pk at Total Wine

ABV: 9.5% 

Sight: honey amber, highly irritable but short-lived head

Smell: banana, cantaloupe, white grapefruit

Taste: scratchy carbonation, tropical fruit, citrus hops, orange peel, touch of sweet, white pepper, slate stone finish

Overall: Excited about this considering how lately I’ve had nothing but love for nothing but Belgian-style beer!  (Plus, this was a free sample from work!)  The carbonation on this bottle-conditioned little guy is pretty serious—it’s not a beer that takes too kindly to being beat up, so pour it slowly.  It has the nose of every saison I drank all summer—some tropical fruits, citrus rind, and airy hops. On the palate, the bubbles, hops, and spice notes give this beer a scratchy, abrasive mouthfeel and quite an electric tingle.  Pretty tropical fruits round out the body, collaborating with the ghost of a sweet malt.  On the finish, the peppery character fades quickly, and a dry mineral sensation like a clean slate stone is what eventually closes the door.  It’s bright, energetic, well-made, and packs a punch without feeling heavy—it’s one of those beers that really anyone can enjoy.

Region: Florida

Price: $9.99 at Total Wine

Sight: chocolate milk

Smell: McDonald’s chocolate milkshake (no whipped cream)

Taste: Hershey’s Kiss, Bailey’s, chocolate ice cream, M&Ms

Overall: I know some of you are thinking what I thought before I ever tried this: “Ew.”  I’d made a horrible assumption that someone was pouring Cabernet into chocolate milk and calling it dessert—but let me assure you, that’s not at all the approach of this beverage.  There’s no wine represented at all in the flavor or consistency of it—think of this more like a liqueur, like a Bailey’s.  It can be enjoyed much the same way—over ice, or mixed into cocktails.  It has the same chocolate flavor as basic chocolate ice cream, with a little Hershey’s milk chocolate richness.  It even veers towards the cocoa-mocha dichotomy of tiramisu.  It doesn’t finish overly sweet, but tastes exactly like the candy coating of an M&M before it disappears.  This is a great wintertime treat; especially since, at 14% ABV, it’s almost better than hot chocolate for warmth (even though it’s served cold)!  If you like Bailey’s or any kind of chocolate milk, you’d really enjoy it.  (It also comes in Espresso and Raspberry flavors!)

WARNING: Do not pour this into your good wine & beer glassware.  Treat this rather like milk and pour it in the same type of glasses you would use for milk.  Remember that the film from the dairy cream can lay waste to your glassware over time!  But other than that, enjoy!

Region: Asheville, North Carolina

Price: $5.99/22-oz at Total Wine

ABV: 5.8%

Sight: clear garnet, brick red

Smell: maple syrup, milk chocolate, cinnamon-sugar, French toast

Taste: root beer, sweet potato, cinnamon bread, pecan, earthy hops

Overall: I regret opening this beer.  Not that it was bad—it was actually delicious and remarkably balanced.  But I just kind of wish I had saved this one for breakfast.  All the flavors and aromas would work beautifully in that arena. Especially when my dad cooks breakfast—he makes the best over-easy peppered eggs and these magical spiced potatoes which would be the truest possible soul-mate to this beer.  Bad timing aside, I enjoyed this immensely.  I also appreciate the fact that, despite the hype surrounding this limited release, Highland doesn’t charge an exorbitant sum for this bomber.  $6 is generous and perfect—they could charge more, but they don’t, and in a lot of ways that’s integrity and good business.  The aromas deliver French toast, a hint of chocolate, and also the precise cinnamon-sugar ratio found only in Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal.  The sweetness hits the palate first with something halfway between root-beer and Dr. Pepper; a slighly-more-savory-but-not-by-much hit of sweet potato chimes in, with other seasonal flavors like pecan nuttiness, some continuation of cinnamon, and an added bready yeast.  The hops kick in on the mid-palate and fill more of a structural role from there—if bitterness could ever be soft, this would be that occasion.  After the beer is gone and the bitterness fades, only a vague earthy notion of topsoil lingers.  Quite nice.  Well worth the excitement and the $6!

Region: McLaren Vale, Australia

Price: $16.99 at Total Wine

ABV: 14.5%

Sight: opaque black, ruby rim

Smell: red plum, burning firewood, dark chocolate, crème de menthe

Taste: plush, black cherry, black raspberry, red velvet, soft spice

Overall:  I could tell from the start of the pour that this wine was going to be villainously dark.  It pours a deep, almost murky black—impossible to see through—with a fresh blood-red rim.  It’s stunning, really.  Immediately the aromatics waft in, even from a distance, with both a smoky and a dessert-like air.  The warmth of the alcohol carries up a baked red plum, smoked cedar planks, and dark mint-chocolate truffle.  As the wine opens up, the tannins maintain a reassuring tension; then the plum-skin acidity tones down and sinewy dark fruit flavors swirl through layers of muted black pepper and red velvet cake.  The finish is decidedly cherry and unexpectedly long—what you thought was going to be a hug ends up as a cuddle.  And there’s no harm in that.

Region: South Eastern Australia

Price: $5.99 at Total Wine

ABV: 7.5%

Sight: very pale greenish yellow, fritzy little bubbles

Smell: peach, orange

Taste: sweet, canned peaches/pears, orange

Overall: Yes, really—a $6 Moscato.  Deal with it.  This effort is from Casella Wines, who are also the makers of Yellow Tail.  This sweet little value play is EXACTLY what most of my (OF AGE) college friends are looking for.  If I had to describe this in one word, I would probably just say “cute.”  It smells sweet and peachy with a hint of citrus.  It tickles the palate with a light little effervescence, tastes like a canned fruit cocktail with a hit of orange peel to pucker you up.  The sweetness and the tartness balance each other out nicely, and neither one is over-the-top.  The big peach note and the fritzy bubbles basically make this a Moscato d’Asti-on-a-budget.  If you’re really not looking to spend much, but you’re on your way to a party and want something cold that tastes like candy and summertime, try this.  It’s a $6 bottle that drinks like a $9 bottle.  Ambitious?  No.  But it’s definitely enjoyable for the price.