#wbw80: Château Montaud - 2012 Vignobles Ravel, Cotes de Provence

Thanks to original founder Lenn (@lennthompson) and Tim (@WineCast) for resurrecting Wine Blogging Wednesday, starting today, with dry rosé wines. I hightailed it to our local Whole Foods and found a value Cotes de Provence - the Château Montaud - 2012 Vignobles Ravel ($12). I believed I sampled an earlier vintage at a Wines of Provence tasting, but this #wbw80 allowed me to concentrate on just this wine.  The rosé is a blend of two of the major Provence players (Cinsault & Grenache) as well as a touch of Syrah and Tiboure.The grapes macerate on their skins for some color and flavor, then the grapes are gently pressed. This flavor is more cherry than strawberry, a slight peppery and silky mid, and a nice acidic finish. And we finished the bottle in less than 30 minutes - very drinkable and a bargain. Cheers to rosé, Provence, and #wbw80.

#WBW74 Value Sparkling Wine: Yellow Tail Bubbles - Keeps on Bubbling

This month we finally got around to opening a bottle of sparkling wine that we had received late last year - just in time for Wine Blogging Wednesday 74 which is focusing on Value Sparkling Wine. This was the Yellow Tail Bubbles Sparkling White Wine, a very affordable sparkling wine ($10) accompanied by an interesting closure device. This is the Zork, a bottle topper that pops like a cork but can also be used to reseal the bottle, and only available on Yellow Tail sparkling wines. If you don't finish the bottle the first evening, then seal the bottle and in theory, the Zork will maintain the gas pressure. And in fact, it does work. One week ofter opening, we opened the wine - and yes, we wouldn't recommend this length of time, but the wine was still carbonated. Since this wine isn't carbonated using méthode champenoise, I suspect Yellow Tail injects a little extra carbonation to help maintain gas levels over an extended time.

Now to the wine and, really, for a $10 wine - this is a good deal. Its not completely dry, but with decent fruit, low alcohol (11.5%), and a creamy finish complements to a secondary malo-latic fermentation. Don't get too many inexpensive sparklers going through a secondary fermentation - maybe the grapes were picked a little early - holding more acidity. If you are looking for an inexpensive sparkling wine, this one's for you.