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New Arrivals:

• Barossa Valley Estates E&E Black Pepper Shiraz
• Barossa Valley Estates E&E Sparkling Shiraz
• Glaetzer 'Amon Ra' Shiraz
• Glaetzer 'Wallace' Shiraz/Grenache
• Hardy's 'Thomas Hardy' Cabernet Sauvignon
• Hardy's HRB-D636 Cabernet Sauvignon
• Mollydooker 'Blue Eyed Boy' Shiraz
• Mollydooker 'Maitre D' Cabernet Sauvignon
• Mollydooker 'The Boxer' Shiraz
• Mollydooker 'Two Left Feet' Cab/Merlot
• Peos Cabernet Sauvignon
• Peos 'Four Aces' Shiraz
  
• Small Gully 'Black Magic' Shiraz
  
• Small Gully 'Mr. Black's Concoction' Shiraz/Viognier
  
• Woodstock Shiraz
• Woodstock Shiraz/Cabernet

• Ch. Duhart-Milon 1995 (Cellar Release)
• Ch. Giscours 1995 (Cellar Release)
  

 

 

 

 

 

Our Wine

We are proud to offer a truly unique, eccentric, and broad selection of wines from around the globe. We spent countless hours tasting and researching to find the very best that each country has to offer, and to bring them to Lethbridge at a price that won't break the bank. We endeavor to make your wine buying experience, interesting, lighthearted, educational and rewarding, and our selection reflects that commitment. With over 1900 wines in stock every day, you are sure to find something that tickles your fancy.

 

Our Top 10 of 2011: What a Year it Was!

 

#10 (10 points) - Les Vins de Vienne Cotes du Rhone Rouge

       We actually have two wines from this collaborative producer this year. A collaborative effort from three of the "big names" behind modern Rhone Valley winemaking, Les Vins de Vienne has been one of our most consistently excellent labels for us the past few years, and one of the best values for Rhone Valley wines I've ever found. This particular little Cotes du Rhone is very notable for being much bigger, fuller, and richer than you normally expect for Cotes du Rhone. This is due to it being a simple and impressive blend of 50% Syrah, and 50% Grenache: The two highest quality grapes used in Cotes du Rhone production. This higher than usual proportion of Syrah makes this a particularly bold expression, and calls to mind the more northerly parts of the Rhone Valley, where Syrah is king, rather than the softer wines of the South.

   I'm really quite pleased that this wine snuck in this year, after several years of getting votes and just missing the cut. A startlingly good French red that anyone can appreciate, and a very good value to boot.

Our Price:   $19.95

 

#9 (13 points) - CARM Douro Classico

   If you know me at all, you know that my passion for red wines begins with Portugal, and most especially with the Portuguese 'National Grape': Touriga Nacional! CARM has been featured in our Top Ten Wines before, and I'm pleased to see it in the rankings again, after a couple of vintages away from the list. CARM is proof-positive that even with zero marketing, and with a completely unfamiliar product, and (until recently) terrible packaging; you can still be a success if the wine inside the bottle is good enough. CARM is that good: It is a totally indiginous blend of Touriga Nacional, Touriga Franca and Tinta Roriz (Tempranillo), with just a touch of oak to temper the fruit and spice.

   Good Portuguese wines can be tricky to find, as there is a tendency to either price them too aggressively (low priced Portuguese wine is rarely good), or to blend them with more "familiar" wines, such as a Touriga/Cbernet blend, or to make them in a very old-fashioned (infected, oxidized) manner. CARM is unique in that the wines are affordable, but not cut-rate, the grapes are all correctly Portuguese, and winemaking is modern, sterile, and remarkably well-done. This is a wine that gets too little credit.

Our Price:   $19.95

#8 (14 Points) - CVNE Vina Real Crianza

    It's funny to see that all of our Old-World wines are clustered at the bottom of the list, while our New World wines are clustered together at the top. We overwhelmingly sell more New World wines in a year than we do Old World. I'm not sure of the numbers, but it's probably pretty close to 10 to 1 in favor of New World wines. On the other hand, with the exception of Max, just about everyone here in the store are pretty dyed-in-the-wool Old World drinkers, and this is probably the one bottle I see go home with current and former staff more than it does with customers.

   CVNE is another surprisingly succesful little line for us here at the store, and just like Vins de Vienne and CARM, thier success is driven by the fact that they grossly over-deliver in terms of qualiuty considering the price tag attached. The Vina Real is just a classic Rioja, with all the dusty fruit, leather, earth, and spice that you expect from this region, without being overly oxidized or too austere. Classic in it's style, it is also surprisingly universal in it's appeal, being a fantastic 'gateway drug' into the world of Spanish wines.

Our Price:   $19.95

#7 (15 points) - Les Vins de Vienne St. Joseph

  The second wine from this wonderful French producer, this time more in line with their traditional 'Northern Values', in that this wine is 100% Syrah. Sourced from the rather large, though quite obscure (compared to say, Crozes-Hermitage) region of St. Joseph; which comprises most of the West bank of the Rhone between Saint Peray and Condrieu. As compared to the Cotes du Rhone, the St. Joseph is drier, more powerful, and has a profound gamey/earthy, almost savoury component to it. The complexities of cold-climate Syrah are fully on display with this wine, and happily at a far smaller price than other Rhone regions such as Cornas, Crozes-Hermitage, or even most Vacqueyras.

   A baby Hermitage, at about athird  the price, this wine is finally getting a mention in our Top Ten, and all I can say is that I'm surprised it took this long!

Our Price:   $30.95

#6 (16 points): Goulart Reserve Malbec

   What can I say about this wine that I haven't said already? Wine of the Year 2009, Runner-up in 2010, now in it's third year on the list, and only it's first time outside of the Top Five. In an Argentine market currently best summed up as 'Flooded with Terrible Wines" this continues to the flagbearer for what Argentina is really capable of. Massive, potent, and heady; surprisingly restrained on the oak, but with just an amazing bouquet. All the cinnamon and white pepper spice we expect from great Malbec, but with a level of curranty fruit that puts some surprisingly top-flight Cabernets to shame.

   The Argentine craze is dying off, and as it does, this wine is slowly sinking down the charts, but there are few other Malbecs that deliver the way this one does.

Our Price:   $25.95

#5 (18 Points): Heartland Shiraz

     Our perennial top-seller, from winemaker Ben Glaetzer. The first truly, earth-shakingly succesful red wine we launched in my time here, and still a favorite city-wide. Ben Glaetzer's magic seems to be endless, with his ability to find both incredible purity of fruit, and remarkable complexity, seemingly regardless of vintage conditions, and at a staggeringly low price.

     I was recently reminded of just how good Heartland Shiraz really is, when I went to a dinner party over the holidays. I hadn't thought ahead to bring wine, so I grabbed the first thing at hand on my way out of the house, which happened to be a bottle of Heartland. At this particular dinner, 7 of the 8 bottles that night were Australian Shiraz (the last was an appallingly bad Argentine Malbec), all at about the $20 range, and the Heartland was absolutely head-and-shoulders the best wine of the night.

   I often think of Heartland as being our 'House Wine'; and don't treat it with the respect that it deserves, but when you line it up with it's direct competition (the Wolf Blasses and McWilliams of the world) you see just how dramatic the comparison really is. I realize that Heartland has been on our Top Ten list for several years now, but try it against just about any other $20 Shiraz out there, and you'll remember exactly why.

Our Price:   $19.95

 

#4 (19 Points):  Some Young Punks 'Passion Has Red Lips'

   I'm always rather surprised that the Some Young Punks wines are as good as they are, becuase it's tough to take them seriously. Maybe that's by design, and I do rather like the labels, but it's nice to see them really knock it out of the park with this one.

   When this wine arrived, no-one liked it. I mean absolutely no-one. People avoided it in droves. The Battle Island was much more drinkable, and serious, and the Pssion was just too young, too fiery, too sweet, and not nearly serious enough. Six months later, and everything has changed. The Passion Has Red Lips has managed to lose the overly-bright tannic edges of its youth, and round into something as freewheeeling and fun as anythin g else on the shelf, but with some deceptive structure and quality lurking in behind. Big, brash, and yet amazingly layered with it's fruit, this wine made believers out of even the most jaded Old-World fans like me.

Our Price:   $19.95

#3 (30 Points) Small Gully 'Mr. Black's Concoction' Shiraz/Viognier

    Our very best selling product in the store over the course of the year. We sold an absolutely staggering amount of Mr. Black's, and it was an absolute buzzword city-wide for all of 2011. But this isn't about sales figures, so I actually rather like this wine in the #3 hole. No question that this wine, with it's almost sinister blend of white wine in with the red, made an impact in the local wine scene that will be felt for a long time. 

     Classically Barossa in style, bringing the big fruit, the big power, but with the Viognier contributing an almost etheral floral character, this wine is definitely outside-the-box for your typical Aussie red. Smooth, potent, and eminently drinkable, this wine had taken acouple of runs at the Top Ten in previous years, but our tendency to sell it all out in the irst couple hours after it arrived meant that it wasn't eligible for the top prize. I'm actually a little surprised that this wine didn't repeat this year, but I DO like the two wines that finished above it even better!

Our Price:   $21.50

#2 (41 Points) Woodstock Shiraz/Cabernet

    Wow. That's the only word for this wine. This is another of Ben Glaetzer's wines, and in my humble opinion, it might be my favorite wine from him in ages. First off, I think this is actually a superior wine than either the Woodstock Shiraz, or the Woodstock Cabernet, both of which happen to be 5 dollars more expensive than the Shiraz/Cabernet. Further, this is 100% McLaren Vale fruit, which is generally both the most expensive fruit out of Australia, as well as the region the Ben seems to have the best handle on as a winemaker.

To say that Heartland Shiraz is an incredible wine is absolutely true. To say that this wine, even more than Amon Ra, might be the greatest testament to Ben Glaetzer's skill as a winemaker is also true. This wine got me, ME, Mr. 'I don't drink bloody Aussie wine' back drinking Australian red wines. It's not just that good, it's that good at under $20.

 

Our Price:   $19.95

2011 Wine of the Year (56 points) -

St. Clair 'Pioneer Block' Sauvignon Blanc

    Well, here we are! our Wine of the Year 2011! I said it would never happen again, but we have a white wine as our Wine of the Year again! And what a white wine! It has made converts out of red wine drinkers, and sweet white wine drinkers, and brought beer drinkers to waxing poetic about it.
 It combines everything good and pure about New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc: The grass, the grapefruit, the lemongrass, the mineral aspects, the almost over-the-top acidity, the gorgeous tropical fruit, and the remarkable razor's-edge balance.

To say that this wine redefined our white wine section would honestly say too little. This redefined white wine sales for us in general. White wine sales weere up 15% vs. last year, pretty much entirely down to sales of this wine. For redefining white wine, for making New Zealand an even bigger deal than Argentina, and for making me eat my words that 'A White Wine Will Never Again be Wine of the Year'. The St. Clair really has earned its stripes.

Our Price: $23.35