Marques de Caceres - a fantastic Rioja

Next time you’re at your local Safeway (or comparable supermarket), look for this wine in the Spain section of the wine aisle. I’ve been drinking this particular Rioja for more than a dozen years now, and it remains unbelievably consistent. It’s not one of those wines that will blow you away with its depth and complexity. It’s just yummy, and always has been. Good fruit up front makes it so easy to drink…and drink it you will. Have several bottles handy because your friends will be putting this back incredibly quickly…and at $8/bottle you can actually afford to drink the stuff. Riojas are generally quite easy on the palate and are versatile to pair with food, the longer aged reservas and gran reservas being more complex with deeper tannins than the younger crianzas. Drink this vino during the colder months, and then when things turn warm, add some sugar, fruit, ginger ale, and ice and turn it into refreshing sangria.

Martin Family Cabernet

I hosted a dinner party over the weekend and the wine was flowing again. The best of the bunch (by far in my opinion) was a Cabernet from a small Dry Creek Winery called Martin Family. We discovered them a couple of years back during Dry Creek Valley's annual Passport event. The Cab was big and fruit forward, and it was a great complement to the big hunk of steak that we ate. I've got a couple of bottles of Syrah and Zin remaining in my Martin stash...and now I'm very much looking forward to finding out if they're as good as their Cab is.