I never get tired of trying new wines, and my local wine shop The Fine Wine Source helps me stay happy.  I mean most of the wines that I try there, have already been curated by the owner and his staff, to make sure that you are getting the best wines in the Michigan market.  So, when I had a chance to try some wines that may possibly be found on the shelf there, or at Vertical, their restaurant, I was more than eager and pleased.

We tried Bodegas Nexus & Frontaura “Nexus One” Ribera del Duero 2018 and this wine making family goes back to 1840 for their original estate.  In 2000, the winery had a weather station installed in their Pago de Valdelacasa estate. In 2008 the Nexus project was completed with one-hundred-twenty-hectares devoted to the wine production of Tempranillo Tinta de Toro.  The vineyards useRihe wine is aged for eight months in French Oak.  The wine was a nice dark red with notes of red fruit, flowers and walnuts.  On the palate the wine was fruit forward with spices, balanced and silky with a nice medium count finish.

Also enjoyed some Ca’ del Bosco “Maurizio Zanella” Rosso del Sebino IGT Lombardy 2017.  Ca’ del Bosco is most known as a sparkling winemaker in Franciacorta DOCG in Lombardy, but they also make still wines using classic Italian and French grape varieties.  The estate had their first wine produced in 1972 and they have one-hundred-eighty-four-hectares of vineyards. The estate was developed and grown by Maurizio Zanella for his family, and though it was acquired in 1994 by the Marzotto family’s Gruppo Zignano, Zanella still manages the estate as an independent entity.  Sebino IGT designation was created in 1995 and covers both red and white wines in Lombardy and allows great flexibility for the winemakers. This particular wine is fifty percent Cabernet Sauvignon, twenty-five percent Merlot and twenty-five percent Cabernet Franc, with the average age of all the vines being about thirty-years-of-age.  Twenty-one days of fermentation on the skin, the juice is aged for three years in oak, seventy percent new, and then blended and aged for an additional thirteen months, and then another year of bottle aging.  The wine had a nice ruby red color with notes of plums, vanilla and cigar-box tobacco.  On the palate great rich cherry flavor, with elegant tannins and a long finish.  An excellent wine with food or with friends.