LCBO Sale Pick of the Week: June 4

Mountain Fish 2013 Agiorgitiko (Peloponnese, Greece)

Sale $11.10, Regular $13.15
Discount (until June 21): $2.00
LCBO # 392480 | 750 mL bottle

Tastes like: A brighter Merlot. And quite lovely at that.
Pairs with: Cold cuts, lamb pops, hard cheese, nachos, black bean burger, bavette and burgers.
Good for: Sandwich fixings out back, with a bottle on chill.
Alcohol: 13.5%
Drink: Now.

Why we're drinking this
Like most other wine geeks, we love Greek wine. But we’ll spare you the obvious head-smackingly mundane observations about the unpronuncability of Greek grape varieties. We think smart readers can figure this one out. (Just feign an outrageous pan-European accent as you attempt it, while twirling the ends of a wide-ranging mustache.) This wine is made of Agiorgitiko from a few vineyards around Nemea, where the grape has been grown for, you know, just 2,500 years or so. It’s a bit of a workhorse grape, appearing in everything from rosés to substantial cellar-busters. It can even be a sweet wine. We like versatility, so… we like this.

Tasting note
Lots of colour, mostly purple. It smells like it too, with ripe fresh blueberry, blackberry, black cherry and plum. It’s like a Merlot, but lighter, more lively, and less Merlot-y. Sure, it’s got that Kool-Aid “pong,” but that’s why you need to serve it a little chilled. Those ripe berries and the wine’s lively acidity make it a real freshener. This is not a complex wine, which isn’t what you want for serving in the backyard with a few easy finger foods. But this is a real nice lively drinker for an impromptu weekend mixer. Everyone will like it—even your snob friend who’ll correct your pronunciation.

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This week's selection by kwäf Taste Bud Dick Snyder