Region: Belgium & Colorado

Price: $10.99/22-oz at Total Wine

Style: Fruit beer

Sight: clear ruby, cotton candy pink circlet

Smell: fresh-picked cherry, Pinot Noir, purple or red Flintstones vitamins

Taste: dark Hudson cherries, dry rosé, spice cake

Overall:  My very simple understanding of this undertaking in the Lips of Faith series is that a cherry lambic from Old Belgium blended with a non-cherry ale at New Belgium.  Right from the pour this beer is absolutely gorgeous.  It’s a glass full of my birthstone—ruby—with a wide column of fine, miniscule bubbles floating silently but expediently from the depths to the surface. As a whole, it looks so clean, clear, and unflawed that it’s as if someone found a perfectly smooth, solid, oval ruby, and happened to have a piece of glassware that fit it like a glove.  Stunning—I honestly don’t know if I’ve ever looked upon a prettier beer.  I’m sure, however, you’re also interested in its personality, so I’ll move on to the aromas…

Something about this smells just like a Pinot Noir—bright acid and tart red fruit.  The cherry note is very fresh, barely ripe, right off the tree.  Funny enough, there is also a snap of something that recalls the Flintstones vitamins I’d crunch on my way to elementary school—specifically the red and purple ones.  

There is no candy and nothing artificial on the palate whatsoever.  If you’re used to your cherry lambics being sweet, look again—New Belgium has fine-tuned a tastefully dry blend here.  It tastes like a cherry fruit chew; not the fake plasticky kinds like Life Savers or Gummy Bears, but rather the responsible-school-lunch varieties you never fully appreciated for their nutritional value—the ones made from 100% real fruit juice and little else.  The cherry flavor is very real and unadulterated; it doesn’t taste too far off from the dark cherries we keep on the table at home.  

There’s a protean maturity at play here that I really admire; somewhere this beer crosses a line and acheives wine-like complexities and flavors.  I’ll go ahead call it “vinous”—but not in a heavy Port or busty Cabernet kind of way.  It drinks like the dry rosés of Provence: light- to medium-bodied, fresh red fruit flavors, zero residual sugar, especially satisfying during spring and summer months.  It’s satisfyingly circular that this beer has traveled all the way across the Atlantic to America, only to bring me right back across the Atlantic to the South of France.

I don’t think I can recommend this highly enough.

Pair this with a bagel & cream cheese to achieve maximum deliciousness.

Region: Rueda, Spain

Price: $13.99 at Total Wine

Sight: pale daffodil yellow

Smell: lemon drop, pineapple, piña colada, flowers

Taste: pineapple, wet rock, green and white Smarties, flowers, mango, medium-bodied

Overall:  What a success.  Out of 8,000 different wines in the store where I work, this is consistently one of my top go-to recommendations for a winning bottle of white wine.  Verdejo is a grape out of Spain—a lesser-known, cheerful, spring-and-summer white; one that could play the adorable little sister to the opulent, languid whites of the French Rhône.  Citrusy and tropical, but not so zesty as a Sauvignon Blanc, Verdejo tends to be a little fuller, slightly rounded, with only a hum of minerality.

Arindo smells like a vase of summer florals, candied lemon, and piña colada.  On the palate, a wave of pineapple rolls through, steeped with daisies and lime candy.  Stony minerality adds some shading and lends to a clean finish, which is basically a sun-kissed meadow of wildflowers, a hint of tart candy, and a touch of mango.  The most incredible thing about this wine in its entirety is the balance.  There are no sharp edges or jarring soprano notes; in fact, I would describe this wine as an alto.  It sits in the same warm range as a cello.  Not too deep or heavy, but still somewhat low.

As an added bonus, the rich, deep-set tropical fruits combined with the just-enough acidity of a mere suggestion of citrus actually make this wine a great partner to some surprising foods.  Foods like bacon burgers, pizza, or pastas in red sauce that you might associate with red wine may actually be a spectacular companion for your Verdejo.  Again I say, do not underestimate the white wine.  Try it for yourself!

Region: Valdobbiadene, Prosecco

Price: $14.99 at Total Wine

Sight: pale, almost clear in color, very busy bubbles

Smell: pear, lime, sugar cookie, cream

Taste: pear, green apple, toast, lime finish

Overall: This Prosecco is pale—but in color only.  It exuberantly bursts with personality the second it hits the glass.  The supercharged bubbles race to the top and form a crowded bead halo around the top of the drink.  Bright aromas of pear, green apple, and lime invite you in, with a bakery bass note of sugar cookies and cream.  These same flavors swirl across the palate, while the scratchy carbonation rolls with an attractive tension all the way through.  The orchard fruits lead the way to a dense core of brut toastiness; then zesty Persian lime finishes with a sweeping gesture.  This Prosecco can easily run with the best Crémants of France, and at just over $15, it will bring you the elegance of the true Champagne you covet—without the hefty price tag.

Region: Veneto, Italy

Price: $16.99 at Total Wine

Sight: muted ruby

Smell: cherry, plum, milk chocolate, lavendar

Taste: fresh cherry, red currant, plum, mocha, roses, forest

Overall: This is an Italian red for Pinot Noir lovers.  Valpolicella is known for being somewhat light; but far from being flimsy and fruity, the Ripasso style boast more density and complexity than an entry-level Valpolicella, as it absorbs richness and flavor from post-Amarone raisins during the vinting process.  This one in particular is silky and bright, with food-friendly Italian acidity highlighting plush red fruit flavors.  Nuances of earth and an autumn forest contrast nicely with chocolate and mocha notes.  I love this wine and quite frankly I’m surprised that they don’t charge more for it.  I highly recommend this for someone who is used to drinking California and other New-World reds; this is a good middle ground between New World fruit and Old World restraint.

Region: Columbia Valley, Washington

Price: $11.99 at Total Wine

Grapes: Roussanne, Marsanne, Viognier

Sight: honeysuckle nectar

Smell: peach, pear, honeysuckle, pineapple

Taste: lemon candy, pears in syrup, buttercream, full-bodied

Overall:  I probably love white Rhone blends more than anyone I know (see exhibits A and B)—saturated, perfume-bottle aromatics and a decadent, oily texture are a combination for the rich and powerful.  Any combination of Roussanne, Marsanne, and Viognier is likely to leave you a lot like the way the air smells after a handsome man walks by wearing lady-killer cologne.  (And people think only red wine can be sexy.  PLEASE.)  

This one in particular is out of Washington, and for reasons uncertain I’m not all too surprised that it veers more towards sweet than the other blends of this style that I’ve tried.  The bouquet is an adamant introduction to an over-the-top floral arrangement studded with tropical and orchard fruits.  After the wine swirls around the glass, it drips heavy, reluctant tear drops, more like oil than water.  Over the palate, it stretches warmly (+13% ABV) and languidly with real weight to it—much like a good cuddle.  The fruit turns a little candied, all the citrus is soft, and what smelled of fresh pear suddenly tastes like a pear poached in syrup.  A creaminess exists, like a buttercream frosting—but if it’s possible for you to imagine, none of this is overwhelmingly sweet.   

I really like it.  Quelle suprise !

Region: Mendoza, Argentina

Price: $11.99 at Total Wine

Varietal: 80% Chardonnay, 20% Malbec

Sight: very pale salmon pink

Smell:

Taste: strawberry wafer, tart peach, raspberry, lemon

Overall: Plot twist: So this is a rosé—I really had no idea!  I poured it into my gorgeous Bormioli stemware and was utterly surprised to discover a pinkish-orange tinge to the wine.  The glass of the bottle was so dark and the label so unassuming that I had no idea I was buying pink when I bought it.  But don’t misunderstand—there are no complaints here!  This being an Extra Brut, there is anywhere from 0-6 grams per liter of sugar occurring in this bottle.  Basically what that means is that there’s Demi-Sec (sweet), Extra Dry (less sweet), Brut (not sweet at all really), and Extra-Brut (decidedly unsweet).  This is the first Extra Brut I’ve seen with my own eyes on a retail shelf (they’re not too popular in the States), and also it’s the first sparkling I’ve seen to incorporate Malbec (thanks, Argentina), so naturally I had to give it a go.  As I mentioned, it’s surprisingly pink in color, and it smells exactly like those delicate strawberry wafer cookies (pictured above).  I love those things, and would have them for breakfast regularly during sophomore year of college, when I was reluctantly involved in 8am math classes.  This tastes a bit like those cookies as well, with the added bonus of raspberry and a squeeze of lemon.  Also it carries the distinct flavor of the innermost edible part of a peach—you know the tart, bloody-looking bit that surrounds the pit?  This sparkling wine reminds me a lot of that.  As far as the dryness is concerned, no I don’t detect any sweetness whatsoever, but also no, it doesn’t seem ridiculously abrasive.  My adventure into Extra Brut territory wasn’t all that much more thrilling or dangerous than regular Brut territory, but this is delicious nonetheless.  I find it to have a delightful scrubbing sensation with deceptively sneaky acidity, and this bottle of bubbles would be the perfect casual apéritif.

Also, I’d like to add, if you ever see anything by Finca Flichman, buy it.  It’s probably good.  I speak from experience.  Whether it’s Extra Brut, Misterio Cabernet Sauvignon, Misterio Malbec, Gestos anything, or the Chairman’s Blend, it’s a good bottle of wine.  Finca Flichman from Argentina will never steer you wrong.

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: 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: 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.