2023 Wine Challenge
Jan. 6, 2023
Emma Egli
Happy New Year, everybody! This year, one of my goals is to get back into wine tasting in a fun, easy and approachable way. Lately when I go to the store, I have found myself gravitating exclusively toward French wines. As much as I absolutely L O V E French wine, I want to venture back outside my comfort zone. There are so many excellent wines produced across the world that deserve a place in my tasting notes and I need a bit of motivation to re-engage myself in what they have to offer.
So - what's the challenge?
Every month this year, I am going to try (at least) one wine from a different country and share my thoughts. I spent some time going through my WSET notebooks, various wine textbooks and websites collecting names of countries I wanted to explore in my glass this year. As an additional twist to the challenge, I am going to try to pick bottles that are less than $25. I have a theory that you should be able to find a good bottle of wine that represents the terroir of a region in each country at an affordable price! Each month, I will post a short summary here on the blog.
Feel free to join the challenge by going to your local wine store to pick up a bottle from the country of the month! I would love to hear what you find and what you think of it in the comments. :)
PS - there are a couple countries that didn't make the list. Perhaps they will make surprise appearances throughout the year!
- Portugal
- Mexico
- Republic of Georgia
- Hungary
- Canada
- China
- Austria
And some of you may notice that France is not on the list at all... that is because Kyle and I visited the Rhône Valley and Burgundy wine regions in June 2022. Hence the gorgeous picture above - there are many more pictures I plan to share this year in addition to posts about our travels in France. To start, here is my Paris Travel Guide!
Wishing you a happy 2023! :)
comments
Kathy Bush
May 24, 2023
Hello Everyone! Apparently there is not a large demand for Greek wine where I live as it was a bit of a challenge to find it. I hit pay dirt at the 3rd liquor store that I went to. I purchased a lovely white named ZOE. It was light and fruity and very enjoyable. The cost was $ 15.80 for the bottle. I would purchase this wine again. Really a nice wine for summer. Cheers!
Kathy Bush
June 19, 2023
Hello. So I purchased my Australian wine and am here to comment. I went with a recommendation from the clerk at the liquor store. To my surprise the wine he selected is delicious. It is a Cabernet Sauvignon by "19 Crimes". No doubt, the name of the brand seems to be for marketing purposes, but the wine was quite delicious in my opinion. It has a subtle sweetness with vanilla aromatics, red currents, dark cherries and mulberries fruits. I did some research and back in the 1800's if a person was convicted of one of the "19 Crimes" in Britain they were exiled to Australia. Interesting. So there is some history involved in selecting the name. The bottle of wine cost $ 9.99. A true bargain. I went back to the liquor store and bought 2 more bottles. I liked it that much. I also want to note that this same company has partnered with Snoop Dog and has made a CaliRed Wine. The grapes used are from Califirnia. I just opened a bottle to have with dinner. It is also very good at $ 11.99 a bottle. May you enjoy this brand as much as I have.
Kathy Bush
Sept. 23, 2023
Hi Emma and everybody. So I missed playing for the month of July. Could not locate any Swiss wine where I live. For August the Italian wine I chose is a fun, sparkly, slightly sweet blue wine. It is by Saraceni. I have to order it online directly from them and just love it. It is perfect for any celebration. For this month I have chosen Snoop Dog's CaliRed. It is by 19 Crimes. 19 Crimes is Australian, but this wine uses only California grapes. The wine is very tasty. A bit of a lingering sweet, but mostly dry. So good with anything Italian or with beef dishes. Have fun trying these wines. TY.