What Wines I'm Drinking this Spring 2023 - Sommelier Picks!!

Hi you guys it's Vivian the Psalm next door and I am back with another episode of what I'm drinking this spring. If you like this content please hit that thumbs up button, subscribe to my channel, and let us get started. Now this spring has been really crazy in terms of weather. It has been cold, it's been warm, it's been hailing, it's been pouring, and I think the wines kind of are all over the place and reflect that. Let's start off with some of the whites. Not this one yet. So one of the whites that I have been drinking is a Chablis and I don't know if we've talked about this already. Chablis is from northern Burgundy, the most northern area. Always remember when you see Chablis it is 100% Chardonnay. Right off the bat 100% Chardonnay. You know there are people who are like oh I don't really like Chardonnay and it depends on like why do you not really like Chardonnay. Like to be honest I'm personally not like a California like stereotypical Chardonnay. There is a producer like Stoney Hill which I really really like in Napa that does Chardonnays but they do it like more Burgundian style and then within like Burgundy, Chablis has its own style. It's typically much more pure than the more southern Burgundy styles of like Chardonnay and I think that's why I fell in love with Chablis in the first place. So in Chablis, they're famous for this the soil or like this marl clay. It's Kermidgian? Kimmeridgian? Kimmeridgian. But anyway the soil has these seashells and all these prehistoric fossils in it and that adds a lot of minerality and like kind of like a saltiness to the wine that's really really great. So there are four different types of Chablis that you will see. This one is just regular AOC Chablis. So this is actually the second in the tiers. So it starts off with Petit Chablis, Chablis Premier Cru and then the best would be Grand Cru. As you go higher up there's more oak introduced. So for example this producer Domaine Pinson, they make all four different types of Chablis with the different classifications. They make a Petit Chablis and 100% stainless steel. Very very clean, pure. The vines and their slopes face more eastward so that means it doesn't get as much sun. More sun is better because it's still pretty cool but that that means that it probably doesn't have as much flavor as the southern facing slopes. So as you get into higher classifications the slope starts to face south. Premier Cru will have old, they'll be aged in older oak barrels meaning that it parts less flavor and then for Grand Cru they'll start using a little bit of new oak in it. It'll have more of that vanilla flavor that people really like. I've had Grand Cru Chablis and to be honest I just kind of would rather just have it clean and that's just me that's just personal. Now for my other two whites. I kind of wanted to delve into, and this is the wine that I'm drinking, volcanic white wines. I am currently drinking Greco di Tufo and this is from Campania, Italy. Around like 30 miles east of Naples, of Mount Vesuvius. Tufo is actually the type of like porous rock that this region is like known for. Lots of great drainage. It doesn't really hold water very well so the vines have to work really really hard, dig deep into the soil to find nutrients and water and that's kind of why you get really beautiful color because of the thicker skin so much more golden hue. Like white blossoms, pear, lemon and then like it has that like minerality but like a slight bitter smokiness to it. DOCG regulations on this are the most stringent in Italy. I think this is really underrated, really underrated for the quality. Got this one I think like $23. The other volcanic wine that I had was from the Canary Islands, a little island off the coast of Africa that Spain like took over. Talk about active volcano. I think they blew up two years ago which is crazy because I went there on that same island. Probably looks totally different. While it had the lemon minerality note but there was like an extra um it sounds horrible to say but like kind of like a smoky, a little bit of a rubber tire note to it which you're probably like ew why would I drink that? It wasn't overpowering or anything. Bittery, no it's like lemon peel and it was yellow. It was like a yellow gold color and bone dry. Delicious. Let's get into my red wine. I don't remember if I talked about this wine before. The grape is menthia and this is grown in northwest Spain right above of Portugal. What is menthia? Menthia is this medium body licorice pepper spice balanced with the red fruit like pomegranate and turt red cherries. Usually it's like a very easy drinking wine. Really great for summer and Guimarao is one of the best in Ribera Sacra and so I highly suggest drinking some menthia. Explore it. Do it. This has been everywhere. People really this is like one of those like cult wines like people really love Chateau Mazar. Have you guys had it because it really is so it's so popular. So this is from Lebanon from Becca Valley. It is a blend of Garenade, Cinco, and Cabernet Sauvignon. Everyone touts that like for the price point this is one of the best and like now that I think about it you know this is 2015. I bought it this year. Didn't really do the aging. That's eight years. Got this for like $60 ish. Some people told me on IG that I opened this too soon. They just drank the 2011 and it was perfect. Blackberries, black cherries, cassis, black pepper. The note that hit me the most was like the cocoa like chocolatey cocoa flavor. It was very dominant. The tannins were very rounded. You know what? It was really good. It was tasty. It's it's worth the experience. It's worth drinking it. Learning about it. You know me. You know me. If you if you've been following me you know I am a Nebbiolo stan. I love Nebbiolo but this is the first time I've had it from La Spinetta and La Spinetta is so fashionable. It's one of those producers that's really blown up and they really understand and can tap into what the consumers want and I have yet to buy their Barolos or Barrescos. Maybe when I have more funds. Nebbiolo. It's like the poor man's Barolo. This was like around $30 which am I paying a little bit for the brand name? Absolutely. So there's that but it was pretty solid. I liked it. It's pretty good but last but not least probably not that exciting. OG Coteron Igagal. Dark, intense, peppery, spicy, savory. Like what? Goes great with like any type of hunk of meat. You can roast it. You can braise it. You can try to think of other ways. You can smoke it and under $20. Yo in this economy you gotta have you gotta have some wine that you're just like no-brainer let's just have on the reg. If you've had a Coteron at a restaurant, there's like a 90% chance that you've had this already. Really solid southern realm. So if you guys don't know about Coteron, there are different levels just like for Chablis. So you have Coteron. This is like basic basic but then you have Coteron villages. It will literally say Coteron villages on there. So that's second level and then third level is when they actually named the villages. One of like the more famous ones is Segure. I probably mispronounced that but that village is like an example of a really good Coteron village. So if you see that higher level of Coteron. Now don't get confused with other southern realm AOC villages. Rasto, Tavo, Vakaras, Chatonotapap. Those are different and they have their own AOCs. Coteron villages, it's its own own designation. Southern Rome is all about blends. A lot of times you'll see three main grapes right so Syrah, Gurnash, and Muvedra. GSM, GSM. Remember that? GSM. But this one's actually Syrah based. Mostly Syrah which is why it's like I don't know peppery kind of wildish flavor. But yeah so those are the wines I'm drinking. Oh my god I'm gonna be putting a video soon and I'm gonna put this wine on blast. Oh god it was painful. Comment down below to let me know which ones that you guys have tried before. What you guys have thought about it. What are you guys drinking? And cheers you guys. I'll catch you guys.