Countries Featured in a Wine Month Club
Every month my wine month club features wines from two separate countries. The trick is that no single country can be featured on two separate occasions during the same calendar year, meaning in essence we are tasting wine from at least 24 countries during every year.
As you might expect, there are some of the usually suspects which go quickly. America, France, Italy, Spain, Australia and Chile are without a doubt usually done before summer comes around. Maybe that speaks to poor planning on the part of the wine of the month club? I don’t know, but I do know that we always seemingly end up with some interesting wines at different points of the year. Here are some which stuck out for me.
Switzerland: I had never tasted a wine made in the country, nor had I ever heard of them even having wineries before receiving a wine in my shipment. That being said if you think about it, shouldn’t the Swiss make a ton of really good wine? I mean, they border Italy to the south and France to the west. Doesn’t that sound like prime old world wine region real estate? It does to me, although no one thinks of them producing wine. Part of the reason behind that is twofold. First, they simply don’t produce a ton of wine in Switzerland. Secondly, the wine has to be grown at fairly significant altitude which has never been done in Europe. It speaks volumes to the changing nature of the wine industry that Swizz wineries had to bring in winemakers from Arizona and New Mexico to start new projects because they were the only ones both willing to come, as well as having the experience to produce quality wines. Anyway, stick to the white wine choices here-they are certainly your best bet!
South Africa: So they have been on wine drinkers list for a while for a number of reasons, not the least of which is their creation of Pinotage-but I have really enjoyed the Cabernet Sauvignon being created in and around Johannesburg. It is their major wine producing region and Cabernet Sauvignon is certainly the most sold wine in the world today, but the combo was both interesting as well as unique given that I knew the wine I was drinking was made and grown near the cradle of civilization itself. I loved that when I opened the bottle!