Best wishes & joyeuses fetes to all our followers for the festive holiday season. You and yours deserve a special treat. These days finding a good wine value – especially in Canada – is usually an oxymoron. The government taxes are not helpful in seeking out wine bargains. Additional issues are adding to the problem with threatened Trump tariffs from the USA and the weakening Canadian dollar – now at $1.45 to purchase an American buck and heading towards $1.50. However the one helpful break is the GST/HST tax relief (of at least 5%) including on wine purchases from December 14, 2024 to February 15, 2025. Accordingly now is the time to take advantage of buying that special value bottle to gift or reward yourself for enjoyment on a future special occasion.
Your scribe has a key recommendation at QPR (Quality-Price Ratio) for you to seek out the 2019 BARBARESCO RISERVA PRODUTTORI DEL BARBARESCO. Yours truly was there during this harvest with insights as advised here on October 21, 2019 and at a recent 2009 vertical on June 17, 2024 reported here. All nine vineyard crus are recommended as most worthy well balanced classy quality Nebbiolo in this wonderful vintage. Though always a big fan of high altitude complete RABAJA (and the south facing warmer bigger MONTESTEFANO site from older vintages) my top pick in 2019 is their classic outstanding vineyard ASILI. Already given a perfect score of 100 by Kerin O’Keefe “an absolute stunner” and 98 by Ian D’agata “this is a beauty” Asili comes with high accolades. The best news is that it is available at the British Columbia Liquor Stores at the excellent price of $77.99 Canadian (would be $113+ at current US exchange rates) while more costly than that everywhere else. Super that these wines are approachable with pure vibrancy early on but can easily be aged for 25+ years developing more complexity with your own patient storage. Not cheap wine but not expensive for the very high quality delivered. Wines with such high respected near perfect scores from any wine region are very expensive. Believe me it is a true bargain to get a wine treasure at this price awarded around 100 points by Piedmont experts. Take advantage of this rare opportunity now.
Merry Christmas and the start of Hanukkah on December 25, and a very Happy New Year 2025!
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