Great Buys for your Holiday Table

Our December issue focuses on some pretty high-powered wine regions where it’s easy to justify splashing out for a special dinner. We’ve combed through our recommendations from the December 2021 Edition to find these 12 wines at prices that may lead you to treat yourself more often.

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SPARKLING WINE

Light, crisp and herbal, this is a palate-whetting, bone-dry sparkler made from rkatsiteli grown in Armenia’s far west. —T.Q.T

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WHITE WINE

Savory to the point of austere, this balances its saline mineral flavors with a smooth, unctuous texture. Hints of lemon oil are its only concessions to fruit; otherwise, this is all about rocks. That nakedness makes it a particularly good companion with delicate dishes, like sashimi. —T.Q.T.
Imported by Wilson Daniels, St. Helena, CA

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An amber-hued qvevri wine, this plays up rkatsiteli’s herbal edge, adding crunch and freshness to its golden-raisin fruit. It feels clean, with dry tannins and a salt-and-pepper spice. —T.Q.T.
Imported by Georgian Toast Imports, Cambridge, MA

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RED WINE

A steal of a syrah, this doesn’t skimp on dark plummy fruit and oak: The glass seems filled with a smoky savor. Pour early and often for barbecue. —P.J.C.

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Despite a generous rasher of cocoa nibs and chocolate from the oak, there’s a cool savor to the flavors beneath, of olive and black fig and eucalyptus, with a texture that’s polished, even fleshy. It’s a lot of wine for the price. —P.J.C.

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Easy richness fills this wine with red-cherry scents, notes of tobacco and charcoal. It’s full and ample, ending with a little salty bitterness that would meld with seared duck breast. —J.G.

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Inky-black and concentrated, this wine holds itself with graceful power. With air, pretty notes of strawberry and pomegranate emerge, vivid red fruit with a sunny character over the blackness. —J.G.
Imported by Monsieur Touton Selection, NY

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With bright wild-strawberry and red-cherry scents grounded by a green-olive verve, this wine’s youth is its best feature: Like a plump Chinon, it leads with berry fruit, cut grass and tobacco. —P.J.C.

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At once fleshy and bright, with black tea and pomegranate accents, this estate-grown wine has a light minerality to ground that bright fruit. Irresistible. —P.J.C.

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From vineyards surrounding Fuenmayor, this wine ferments without additions, presenting a crunchy, dynamic RIoja with rose and barnyard scents to its lean and ferric tannins. —J.G.
Imported by The Artisan Collection, Brooklyn, NY

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TOKAJ

Made solely from superripe, late-picked fruit rather than undergoing the complex winemaking process of Tokaji Aszu, this is sumptuous wine. It tastes like late fall, with notes of baked apples and burnt orange; its earthy gingerroot notes add savor, warm spice and complexity. And the acidity shines through it like autumn sun, cool and bright, cleansing the palate and setting the wine up as an excellent partner to cheese. —T.Q.T.
Imported by Monsieur Touton Selection, NY

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PORT

Bin 27 presents the plump Fonseca style in a wine that’s remarkably easy to drink. Its scent of purple plums emanates from a luscious texture, the wines freshness firmed up by schist tannins. —J.G.
Imported by Kobrand, Purchase, NY

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The wines on this page were chosen by our editors, from our tastings for the December 2021 edition. After our editors made their selections, we offered wineries the opportunity to promote their award with a bottle image and brand links.

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This story appears in the print issue of December 2021.
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