I like good Shiraz, and I love great Shiraz that doesn’t cost $45.00 a bottle, which means that Mary-Lou Nash’s 2008 Black Pearl Shiraz gets my vote this month as a Top Pick. This wine really blew me away, but don’t just take my word for it. John Platter (South Africa’s rendition of wine critic Robert Parker, Jr.) rated the 2008 Black Pearl Shiraz four stars, and for good reason. Mary-Lou Nash knows how to make fine, natural wines with plenty of sensual appeal. Moreover, I can recall tasting quite a few perfectly good Shiraz/Syrah wines that cost twice the price from Australia and California that can’t hold a cork to Black Pearl. Hence, Black Pearl is hands down one of my Top Picks.
Frankly, my other Top Pick is a much tougher choice, and I might as well pick it blindfolded because each of the other three features this month has merit and appeals to me. With that said, Domaine des Quatres Routes’ 2010 Muscadet is an ideal summer wine, and by June I’m ready for summer and seafood. Having grown up on an island fishing and clamming, authentic Muscadet appeals to me for its simplicity and affinity to clams, oysters, scallops and just about anything else that crawls or swims in the sea. Never complex but always refreshing, good Muscadet like the 2010 Domaine des Quatres Routes reminds me of long summer days at the beach followed by plenty of clams and steamers on the half shell. However, in an ideal world one begins such an evening with Domaine des Quatres Routes’s 2010 Muscadet and has a bottle of the 2008 Fioravante Reserva Cabernet Sauvignon open to accompany whatever you have cooking on the grill for a main course.
A Votre Santé!
Don
