Every year, I take one of my first wine blogs of a New Year and talk about upcoming trends in the wine world. I’m always reading about wine and so I find it interesting when they come to fruition. In the past, I have written about wine in cans, Rose becoming even more popular and online wine sales growing. Here’s a few trends to look for this year.
- Chilling Red Wines
Putting light and fruity red wines into an ice bucket, just like you would white wines, has been a practice of Sommeliers in culinary hot spots like New York and San Francisco for years now. This trend has taken off everywhere. It’s no longer taboo to chill red wines, and people were once embarrassed for putting ice in red wine, but our room temperatures are too warm for red wine. This is a topic that comes up in every wine tasting. People admitting to chilling red wine. Well, I do too. I try to bring it down to 15-degrees Celsius. And your lighter fruitier wines like Beaujolais, Pinot Noir and Zinfandel taste much better when chilled. Here’s a wine you can try chilling and let me know what you think.
This wine has made a bit of a comeback in my wine rack. I’ve had it the last few Friday nights and I just love it. Smooth, easy to drink and much better when chilled. It’s $23 a bottle and available in just about every province in Canada. I enjoyed it while home for Christmas as well.
2. Low Alcohol Wines
People are choosing a healthier lifestyle and many people can be conflicted with choosing healthy and still enjoying their favorite beverage, whether it be with a meal or all on its own. Wine makers are listening, and more are coming out with low alcohol or zero alcohol wines.
Nova Scotia’s award winning winery Benjamin Bridge has come out with a non-alcohol version called Piquette Zero.
I haven’t tried it yet, but their website describes it as
“Piquette Zero is a lively and delicious alcohol-free wine-style beverage, offering a creative and unprecedented craft option to industrially dealcoholized wines that are so often stripped of their character.”
3. Cocktails will be popular and simple
I made this cocktail for guests last Christmas and have served it several times since. Easy. Cranberry juice, Prosecco, lime juice and fresh cranberries in the glass to give it a festive look, and a lime wedge. You could take it a step further by adding a liquor like Grand Marnier.
I have tried this beauty recently, and it’s appropriately called Beauty of Chaos. On sale right now, it’s under $17 a bottle. From the Columbia Valley in Washington State, this big juicy Cabernet is a great wine at a great price. Gorgeous berry flavors.
Well, the Omicron variant has hit Atlantic Canada hard. I did get to Newfoundland for Christmas, which was awesome. As the sign says, wine is the glue that is holding this shitshow together.
Stay safe everyone. Till next week, Cheers
Darlene
Wine-It’s Just My Opinion 
Hi: I noticed in today’s blog that you suggest 15 degrees for cooling red wine. At the wine tasting in Luxor West before Christmas I asked you what the right temperature was and I thought I understood you to say to cool it to 13 degrees. Which is the right temperature?
Terry Franklin
On Sat, 8 Jan 2022 at 12:05, Wine-It’s Just My Opinion wrote:
> darmyers posted: ” Every year, I take one of my first wine blogs of a New > Year and talk about upcoming trends in the wine world. I’m always reading > about wine and so I find it interesting when they come to fruition. In the > past, I have written about wine in cans, Ros” >
Hi Terry. For light and medium bodied reds, 13° to 16° is in my opinion the perfect temperature. For heavier body reds like Cabernet Sauvignon, the industry standard is 16° to 18° Hope this helps. Thank you for reading