The "It" Wines of 2014

Many of us enjoy a glass of wine with a good meal.  Some types of wine -- nice chardonnay, good pinot noir -- never lose their appeal.

But there are fashions in wine as in so many other things. This year, two newish varietals, one red and one white, seem to be in vogue.

The red wine is Tempranillo,  (tem-prah-KNEE-oh, I think) made of a black, or noir, grape traditionally raised in Spain.

Now the grapes are raised and bottled in South America, the United States and South Australia.  The wines are interesting to complex, good with a variety of foods and not particularly heavy. (I'm looking at you, cabernet sauvignon.)

At dinner with friends last week, the Significant Other and I drank a perfectly delicious 2012 Turkovich tempranillo from Yolo County, California.

Note:   Last year's fashionable red, malbec, still is very popular.

In the white wine category, Viognier (vee-yon-NYAY, according to the SO) is this year's winner, hands down.  The first viogniers came from France's Rhone Valley.  Starting in the early 1990s, the grapes were widely planted -- again in North and South America and Australia -- and the vines are now yielding fine dry wines with pleasant floral aromas.

Last month, I bought a very nice viognier at Whole Foods for about $12.  When I went back to get another bottle of same this week, it had sold out.  (As I said, viognier is trending this year.  Oh, well.)

In order to find a viognier to recommend, I consulted the useful website ThumbsUpWine.com.   It currently is recommending a 2012 viognier from McManis Family Vineyards in California.  A bottle sells for about $10, and ThumbsUp says it's worth more like $26.




A votre sante!