Red Wines

The Top 14 Red Wines to Try Before You Die!

"Life is too short to drink bad wine," said Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (worth looking up if you don't know who he is), and I tend to agree with him. Don't waste your precious, limited time drinking the plain old ordinary stuff. Drink something good and something with meaning. Yes, some are pricey (if you've got shallow pockets), but there are ways around that. There are also some absolute bargains — even for the most cash-strapped, penny-pinching student of wine. Before you grab another bottle of vin ordinaire, here are 14 red wines that you must try:

  1. First Growth Bordeaux
    First Growth Bordeaux is ridiculously expensive. Many oenophiles drool over the stuff without having tasted a drop. One reason I believe it's important to tick it off your bucket list is so you know you haven't actually been missing out on that much!
  2. Penfolds Grange
    Penfolds Grange is Australia's flagship red wine and regarded as one of the World's great wines and the first Grand Cru wine of the New World.
  3. Gran Reserva Rioja
    Gran Reserva Rioja has been bottled aged to perfection on release. You get oodles of bottle age complexity without having to wait.
  4. Californian Cabernet Sauvignon
    Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon (along with Chardonnay and the help of a wee English fella) changed the wine world forever ... and for the better.
  5. A really good red Burgundy
    No other wine captures people's attention, taste buds, and wallets as does a really good red burgundy.
  6. Northern Rhone Syrah
    The Northern Rhone is the birthplace of Syrah producing dark, full-bodied, bold wines. Back in the day, Bordeaux's top chateau would add some dark, beefy Northern Rhone Syrah to improve their own wines!
  7. Chateauneuf-du-Pape
    The legendary wine critic Robert M. Parker Jr reckoned the rich, round, sumptuous and opulent texture found in Châteauneuf-du-Pape is virtually unmatched in the wine world.
  8. Beaujolais
    Beaujolais can be summed up in three words: Yum! Yum!! Yum!!! It's not an expensive wine but can lift one's mood in an extraordinary way.
  9. Mendoza Malbec
    Malbec from Mendoza is one of the darkest, most full-bodied, seductive, velvety, exuberantly fruited red wines you'll ever drink.
  10. Chilean Carménère
    Carménère is the variety that helped put Bordeaux on the wine map. It nearly became extinct until a curious discovery in Chile.
  11. Californian Zinfandel
    Cabernet, Pinot Noir, and Chardonnay might all have more prestigious reputations in California, but Zinfandel is its signature grape and one that the State can really call its own.
  12. Barossa Valley Ancestor Vine Grenache
    Ancestor Vines are ones that were planted in the 1800s. So, they've been alive across three Centuries. They've been producing wine since Queen Victoria was on the throne! They also just happen to produce wines with über ripe, concentrated raspberry flavor and a silky smooth texture that is next level.
  13. Chianti (with Italian food!)
    Chianti is the perfect accompaniment to pizza and pasta (...and possibly liver and fava beans!). Chianti goes great with many Italian dishes and can really lift a meal to the next level.
  14. Amarone
    Amarone, like Champagne, was never supposed to exist. It was an accident. Yet, it's a heady celebration of the senses: profound, hedonistic, and impressive.
Remember ... life is short, drink better.