Borgogno | Freisa d'Asti | 2005

This is a really nice, young, juicy red wine from northern Italy. It's so fresh you can't help but picture folks picking wild strawberries at a picnic in the countryside, but the decent tannins and duskiness of it force you to take it a little more seriously than you expected at first smell, and keep it from getting boring. Freisa is another of those mysterious indigenous Italian grapes that you don't find anywhere else. It is sometimes made into slightly fizzy, off-dry wines, but this is both still and dry.

NAME: Borgogno
GRAPE: Freisa d'Asti
PLACE: Piedmont, Italy
VINTAGE: 2005
STYLE: pale ruby, light/medium-bodied, dry, fresh, juicy, medium tannins, medium acid
FLAVORS: just-picked red fruits, strawberries, roses, violets, cherries, powder, dusky, a little bitter on the finish
PAIRING: any lighter meat dishes and pastas
PRICE/SOURCE: $12.99 at Astor Wines

Montinore Estate | Pinot Noir | 2005

Oregon's Willamette Valley is known for pinot noir, but I must have always been choosing poorly at the store until this one. It's got all those quintessential pinot noir elements: lighter body, good acidity, and the red fruit and earthy, smoky, mushroom-y flavors. It also manages to fall perfectly between the austere and sometimes disappointing Burgundies (in Burgundy, France, the red wines are always made from pinot noir grapes, but are always called after the place, not the grape) in my price range and the sometimes over-the-top ones of the hot California vineyards.

NAME: Montinore Estate
GRAPE: Pinot Noir
PLACE: Willamette Valley, Oregon
VINTAGE: 2005
STYLE: medium ruby in color, medium body, juicy, tasty, fruit forward, long & spicy finish
FLAVORS: red & black cherries, earthy, smoky, mushrooms and a little flowers
PAIRING: wild mushroom sauce on anything, poultry, pork
PRICE/SOURCE: $17.99