FIND THIS WINE ONLINE:
Dark ruby color, shading to a clear purple edge. Fresh and clean aromas, plums and subtle raspberries, lead into a bright red-fruit flavor, full and ripe for a Nouveau, nicely balanced with crisp fresh-fruit acidity. Really one of the best Nouveaux I’ve tried over the years, enjoyable on its own and good with food, nicely balanced at 13% alcohol.

Look for vendors and check prices for Domaine Rochette 2017 Beaujolais Villages Nouveau on Wine-Searcher.com. Read article.

Reddish-purple, fading to a clear garnet edge. Abundant fruit on the nose, but gone is the old “banana” or “artificial strawberry” aroma – a characteristic of its commercial yeast – that used to be an identifying marker for Duboeuf. It’s still fruity to be sure, but this is fresh, natural fruit, strawberries and raspberries and a whiff of raspberry liqueur. The aromas give a sweet impression, but the wine is nearly dry, with good fresh-fruit acidity to hold it in balance. Red fruit and crisp acidity linger in a fairly long finish. 13% alcohol.

FIND THIS WINE ONLINE:
Check prices and locate vendors for Georges Duboeuf Beaujolais Nouveau on Wine-Searcher.com.

Click here for a list of the best Beaujolais Nouveau on Wine-Searcher.com. (It’s below the interesting article about Nouveau at the top of this page.) Read article.

Deeply hued clear garnet color. Attractive red-fruit scents over a base of loamy earth, an appealing minerality on the nose. The flavor wakes up to bright and fresh red-berry, plum and cranberry flavors nicely balanced by palate-cleansing acidity and moderate 12.5% alcohol, with soft tannins building gentle astringency harmonizing with tart red plums in the long finish. This shows the distance a Beaujolais can reach when a decent model stretches out.

FIND THIS WINE ONLINE:
Find vendors and compare prices for Henry Fessy Château des Reyssiers Régnié on Wine-Searcher.com.

Use this Wine-searcher link to browse all the wines of Henry Fessy and find vendors that carry them.

Finally, here is Wine-searcher’s list of many wines of Régnié, ranked by quality. Read through the short article discussing the region to get to the lengthy shop list. Read article.

A Loire Valley wine made from 100 percent Pinot Noir, avoiding the Gamay often used in the Loire Pinot blend, this is a dark-purple wine shading to a garnet edge. A high-toned scent of cherry liqueur and licorice, bold fruit that seems a bit “New World” for a Loire red, gives way to tart cherries and a distinct cranberry note, appropriate for Thanksgiving, that carry over in a dry, quite acidic flavor that will serve well to cut through the fat and richness of a holiday feast. Little obvious tannin, and moderate 13% alcohol.

FIND THIS WINE ONLINE:
Find vendors and compare prices for Nicolas Idiart Loire Valley Pinot Noir on Wine-Searcher.com. Read article.

Transparent, light straw color, unusual for a variety generally known for its pinkish to light-red skin that often imparts a rich, even rosy color. There’s nothing light about the aromas or flavors, though, which show characteristic Gewurz boldness. I pick up only a whiff of the Chinese-dessert lychees that often signal Gewurz; here they’re shy behind a more in-your-face sense of stone fruit – peaches and apricots. Stone fruit and lychees carry over on the palate in a bright, bold flavor that’s bone-dry – a rare thing in a Gewurz – with tart meyer lemon and “rainwater” minerality joining in. 14.3% alcohol is a bit pushy for a white, but it works in this wine, with zingy lemon curd lingering in a very long finish.

FIND THIS WINE ONLINE:
Find vendors and compare prices for Gundlach-Bundschu Sonoma Coast Estate Vineyard Dry Gewürztraminer on Wine-Searcher.com.

Gundlach-Bundschu also sells the more recent 2016 vintage direct to the public for $25 a bottle, $270 for a case of 12. Read article.

Clear ruby color, quite dark at the core but shading quickly to a clear edge. Light red fruit and a pleasant whiff of ripe, just-cut tomato – a characteristic that I often find in cool-climate Pinot Noir – shows in the nose and on the palate. It’s brisk and acidic in the flavor, tart and palate-cleansing, rather light-bodied, with a soft edge of tannins and a hint of stony minerality in the finish.
13% alcohol in a wine that’s distinctly Pinot Noir, more reminiscent of the Old World than the New.

FIND THIS WINE ONLINE:
Locate vendors and check prices for Oyster Bay Marlborough Pinot Noir on Wine-Searcher.com. Read article.