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Five Wines That'll Blow Your Mind

The Vintage Mirrors the Year

By Robb Walsh 

The 1992 vintage and the 1993 vintage of the same wine from the same winery can taste dramatically different. It's all about the sun and the rain and the fog and the frost. Some wine lovers memorize the vintage charts. Others say that if you buy wine from great wineries, you never have to worry about the bad years.

This week, we asked Antonio Gianola, wine wizard at Catalan Food & Wine and former wine guy at Da Marco, for his thoughts on the subject — and for the names of Five Wines That'll Blow Your Mind.

Antonio Gianola: Wines blow my mind when the purity of the grape is in the glass, and when the winemaker knows that it's his or her job to accurately reflect the conditions of that vintage year — not to interfere with what the earth gave us.

$15 or less

2006 Domaine Skouras Moscofilero

Peloponnese, Greece

This wine just astounded me. As a grape, Moscofilero is the Blanc de Gris of Greece. Since it's light and refreshing, it would be great as an aperitif, but it has tart acids. This is a perfect wine for when the day is hot, the sea's a deep blue and lunch just came from the water.

$30 or less

2005 Hirsch "Heilgenstein" Grüner

Veltliner

Kamptal, Austria

This Grüner Veltliner is a fabulous vinous mirror of the Austrian mountains, where it is grown. This wine might remind you of a Riesling crossed with a Viognier. It would be perfect with a cold asparagus salad or boiled crawfish. Long live the screwcap!

$60 or less

2001 "Clos du Papillon" Savennières

Loire Valley, France

The Loire Valley is known as the "garden of France," and the Chenin Blanc grape is its most prized fruit. The amazing different styles of Chenin have wooed me back to regular drinking of white wines. Dom. des Baumard's 2001 "Clos du Papillon" Savennières is a real gem. Savennières may be a wine geek's rarity, but is easy to enjoy with seared scallops or soft-shell crabs.

$120 or less

2002 Gevrey-Chambertin "Au Vellé"

Burgundy, France

The late Dennis Mortet was a rock star of a wine producer. He may no longer be with us, but his 2002 Gevrey-Chambertin "Au Vellé" lives on. It was unfortunately his last vintage of Pinot noir. The wine is sumptuous, with notes of cherries and raspberries. It is masculine, concentrated, exotic and meaty, like simmering beef stew in your glass. It would be heavenly with grilled lamb chops.

Unlimited

1995 Amarone della Valpolicella Riserva Veneto, Italy

Giuseppe Quintarelli's 1995 Amarone della Valpolicella Riserva is undisputedly brilliant. Quintarelli is the master of the traditional style of Amarone. It is made from grapes that are dried under the eaves of the winery after the harvest. I have only tasted it once. I imagine sharing this bottle with good friends over an artisan cheese plate. I heard a rumor that someone in Houston may carry his wines soon. Let's hope it's true, because right now you have to travel all the way to the Italian Wine Merchant in New York and pay $565 for a bottle.