You may not have noticed, but I enjoy wine, and my range of wines is getting wider as I am trying more and more varietals and styles of winemaking.  My local wine shop and wine club, The Fine Wine Source, is always asking me, if I spot any trends or interesting wines from looking at other sites and writers.  Though, I am sure that he is way ahead of me, on all categories.  Earlier this year, he touted a Gazela Vinho Verde that has a natural petillance and I thoroughly enjoyed it, bought a case and then wondered how my Bride would take to it, and she fell in love it, as well.  Trust me, we have bought several cases of it, and the summer and hot weather are not even close to being over.  Well, I discovered in my readings and perusing, that there is a Gazela Vinho Verde Rosé, and I mentioned it to the owner of the shop and he brought some in.

Gazela Vinho Verde Rosé NV is made by Sogrape Vinhos of Portugal, and it appears as if in the future this wine will also be labeled as “Aire.” Vinho Verde has developed its own coterie of followers and I think the group gets larger every year, as it is just an easy wine that is perfect for hot weather and with water nearby, either a pool, lake or ocean.  Portugal, it is often said, has had a rather foot-loose and fancy free about grape varieties in certain areas, as even the winemakers cannot state for sure what has been planted over the decades, if not centuries.  In the Vinho Verde region there are over fifteen thousand hectares planted and seventy percent is white.  Most of the Vinho Verde Tinto is for domestic consumption, but I guess they are exporting more, since the white has become so popular.  To give you an idea about the grape varieties that may be encountered just for the Tinto, the ones recommended are: Azal-Tinto, Borracal, Brancelho, Espadeiro, Padeiro-de-Basto, Pedral, Rabo-de-Ovelha and Vinhao.  Other permitted varieties are: Alicante-Bouschet, Docal, Espadeiro-Mole, Grand-Noir, Labrusco, Pical, Touriga-Nacional, Trincadeira-Preta and Verdelho-Tinto. The wines are made in Stainless Steel and the malolactic fermentation takes place in the bottle, which causes the natural petillance or effervescence of the wine.  This wine was frothy and plenty of big bubbles appearing in the glass after pouring.  The wine had a nose and a taste of watermelon and strawberries in a raspberry color.  Very easy and definitely quaffable, in fact my Bride said that she likes this wine even more than the white. 

I also tried Mulderbosch Vineyards Cabernet Sauvignon 2019 from South Africa.  Mulderbosch Vineyards was founded in 1989 in the Koelenhof region of Stellenbosch.  The winery makes still and sparkling wines from estate fruit, as well as with growing partners in Stellenbosch and the Coastal Region of South Africa.  They began with twenty-five hectares of vines that they converted over from a run-down fruit farm.  They began with Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay, then Chenin Blanc and then their Rosé of Cabernet Sauvignon was a trailblazer in that category.  The winery was acquired by Terroir Capital in 2011.  The Cabernet Sauvignon vineyards are farmed to achieve high acidity, as they are only used for this wine style, and then when harvested, the fruit is treated like Sauvignon Blanc, using cold fermentation and natural yeasts and very short aging to maintain the fresh fruit.  The wine is a soft blush-pink color with a nose of sweet cherries, watermelons and pomegranates.  The wine had those flavors comingled in a dry crisp finish, along with notes of aromatics and a delightful finish of terroir.  A very enjoyable and much more serious wine to be enjoyed, especially with foods.