Best Bottles for Five Types of Wine Drinkers
Just in time for holiday gifting, Good Better Best Wines compares the bestselling wines in North America and reveals the tastiest, widely available wines—with bottle images, to help you find them on shelves. Flipping through the pages, we paired bottles that ranked best in their categories to five types of wine lovers—to help you wrap up your holiday gifting.
For the Social Butterfly
Freixenet Cordon Negro Brut Cava
Spain
You can’t go wrong with bubbles for the social butterfly, right? This traditional blend of Macabeo, Xarello, and Parellado is dry, restrained, and starts with gentle aromas of green apple and salt before washing over the palate with racy, restrained flavours of sea spray, white grapefruit, and lemon zest. Lifted and well balanced. Light-bodied with 11.5% ABV.
For the Foodie
Wente Morning Fog Chardonnay
California
The foodie will appreciate this toasty, barrel-aged Chardonnay tastes refined and harmonious as it swathes the palate with creamy–crisp flavors of best-ever lemon meringue pie, followed by a resonant finish of toasted coconut and vanilla. Here’s a wine that’s quietly assertive, graceful, and full of charm—and is just so gastronomically versatile. Medium-bodied with 13.5% ABV.
For the Europhile
Ecco Domani Pinot Grigio
Veneto, Italy
For the recipient who loves all things European, reach for this classic Pinot Grigio from northern Italy. It starts with seductive dry-roasted cashew and Brazil nut aromas that give way to a swift hit of tightly stitched lemon and pineapple. Then resonant allusions of raw almond and hazelnut return on the finish. With seamless texture, bone-dry appeal, and bracing acidity, this wine offers outstanding value. Medium-bodied with 12.5% ABV.
For the Die-Hard Carnivore
Columbia Crest H3 Cabernet Sauvignon
Horese Heaven Hills, Washington
Lovers of steak and big red wine will appreciate this deeply undervalued red that offers more concentration, complexity, and length than most under-$15 Cabs. Lashings of super-ripe red and black berries laced with warm cocoa, granite, toasted oak, charcoal, black tea, and red and black licorice rivet the senses. The length lingers with a twist of cherry and vanilla on the finish. Full-bodied with 14.5% ABV.
For the Wine Aficionado
Estancia Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon
Paso Robles, California
The aficionado will appreciate the complexity and elegance of the Californian Cabernet. Lovely, powdery scents of talc, dried currants, and black cherry lead to a classy and smart-tasting expression. Layered flavours of red berries, damson, cocoa, violet petals, cassis, sage, and warm gravel unspool slowly. Then the finish leaves a discreet note of salt, sage, and stone. Doesn’t drink like an under-$15 bottle! Medium-bodied with 13.5% ABV.
About Carolyn Evans Hammond
Carolyn Evans Hammond is an internationally-recognized opinion leader in the world of wine. She’s a bestselling wine book author, the wine columnist for The Toronto Star (syndicated), a freelance journalist, and a seasoned wine judge. And she posts regularly on all social media platforms.
