Hello and welcome back.
There are plenty of new and different things happening with the newsletter this month.
In terms of the quantity and the depth of the discounts, there has never been a month of wine deals like this December and they include many old favourites.
There are eighty-three (most ever!) great value wines available in December, including eight new Wine Picks and twenty-nine 90+ point wines, including one priced at $12.99. I have also added a new wine style category - Port Style Wines, and am kicking that category off with two new wines for you to explore.
Why the Christmas bounty? Just a hunch, but I think that the general economic atmosphere of inflation, shrinkflation and flat out price gouging has made us all pull back on our purchasing where we can. It wouldn’t surprise me if this was also true of liquor and wine sales.
Whatever the reason, it seems that the folks at B.C. Liquor stores are doing their best to attract your business this month. If this newsletter was a wine store, the bottles would be piled to the roof. In fact there are so many deals that I felt I had to increase my usual top 5 value wines to 12 top value wines to do justice to all these great deals .
In order to concentrate the selection somewhat, I focused more on the deeper price discounts. As a result, all the wines chosen are a minimum of two dollars off (about 25% of the wines chosen). The other 75% have even larger discounts with many in the five, six and seven dollar range and a few are ten dollars off per bottle.
With so many great value wines on sale, it made the newsletter’s scroll a bit lengthy. To minimize this, I have not duplicate listed the Top Picks separately above the main listings, though you will see the top twelve picks noted in that wine’s profile. I will be also in the next few days, be sending out a separate post to you just listing the 12 Top Picks along with detailed reasons for why they were chosen.
And as a bonus, it being the festive season, there will also be a newsletter this month with a list of the best wines (all December Wine Deals) to match with holiday fare.
As always, new wine picks are placed at the top of each flavour profile category, previous picks now on sale are next and the Rarer Bird category is listed below that.
Wine Bargains - Let's Get Started
The wine bargains below are independently reviewed by me and most are widely available from B.C. government stores.
For December, the wines chosen are in these styles:
Ripe Fruit Forward Reds (34 wines, 3 new, 1 rarer) | Savoury Fruit Reds (18 wines, 1 new, 1 rarer) | Lighter Fruit Reds (2 wines, 1 rarer | Medium Bodied Smooth Whites (6 wines, 1 new) | Bigger, Oak Influenced Whites (7 wines) | Crisp Dry Whites (5 wines, 1 new) | Aromatic Whites (4 wines) | Rosé (1 wine) | Sparkling (4 wines, 1 new) | Port Style 2 wines, 2 new)
For detailed descriptions of the wine styles see An Illustrated Guide To Wine Styles
Ripe Fruit Forward Reds Style (ripe cherries)
New Wine Picks
TOP WINE PICK #12 BLACK SAGE VINEYARD CABERNET FRANC 2020 - OKANAGAN VALLEY, CANADA
$32.99 reduced to $26.99 until Dec. 30 - 750 ml.
When I worked in a VQA wine store (sold only B.C. wine) over a period of seven years I got to taste the Black Sage Vineyards red wines regularly. I found that they were literally hit or miss, i.e. a particular vintage might have an outstanding cabernet sauvignon and a sub par merlot. There was never a year that was all hits or all misses. But hit or miss is not all a bad thing because there were hits and this cabernet franc is certainly on the hits list. 2020 is an excellent year for Okanagan wines.
On the nose, typical very "dusty" fruit with sage, Mediterranean herb, preserved cherries, pencil shavings, raspberry, baked red fruit pie. It showed a little tannic grip but had some length and good cabernet franc character. More graceful than forceful, this subtle cab franc has an interesting layered finish, with a supporting acidity that provides interest and frames the fruit well. Reminds me somewhat of a right bank Bordeaux especially St. Emilion.
Cabernet franc is the genetic parent of cabernet sauvignon and is typically lighter and softer. B.C. generally does a great job on cabernet franc. They are well worth trying starting with this one. Tasted ✓ 90 Points
Find Store Nearest You SKU: 593038
PENFOLDS MAX'S CABERNET SAUVIGNON 2020 - SOUTH AUSTRALIA
$29.99 reduced to $24.99 until Dec. 30 - 750 ml.
Classic, full cabernet sauvignon aromas of blackcurrant, hope chest cedar and briar. The flavour density on the nose follows through with big bodied flavours of blackcurrant, chocolate with some complexity and distinct briar on the finish. Sizable alcohol provides the big bodied heft but there is also an agreeable fruit intensity combined with a balancing acidity that pulls you along. Cabernet lovers would do well to jump on this. It's a lot of wine for the money at this December sale price. Tasted ✓ 90 Points
Find Store Nearest You SKU: 579680
TOP WINE PICK #11 SUNROCK VINEYARDS SHIRAZ 2020 - OKANAGAN VALLEY, B.C.
$34.99 reduced to $25.99 until Dec. 30 - 750 ml.
Begins almost port-like, with dense syrah fruit, some floral notes, lifted, subtle bramble and briar. The aroma is much more Rhone Valley, France than Australian with blue fruit, black fruit, white pepper. This follows through on the palate with classy complex, not too jammy shiraz fruit with moderate tannins and muffled alcoho. It shows graceful, savoury, flavour changes, and it lingers a while. Overall, more about subtlety than, big bodied impact. You could hold for an additional 2 to 5 years to see how it developed. Drinks like a Rhone syrah costing half again as much. Tasted ✓ 90 Points
Find Store Nearest You SKU:365635
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