Over the next several weeks, we'll be featuring a lot of highlights from the recent trips to France and Italy that many of our wine team took, along with recommendations for some of their favorite wines there and here.

A recent trip to the Rhone valley with the ABC wine team confirmed what many in the industry have been saying for a few years: the 2009 and 2010 vintages in this region were stellar, laden with one outstanding value after the other. 

We tasted many incredible wines from these years, but it was a visit to Domaine Du Grand Bourjassot that sealed the deal for me.  This is a small family operation, farming one acre from the region of Vacqueyras and 7.5 acres of Gigondas.  We tasted multiple vintages of both wines, blends of Grenache and Syrah, and all were outstanding.  My favorite was his 2009 Gigondas.  For me, this was a major "wow wine," and one of the best I tried on this trip.  Hopefully it will be landing on the shelves of ABC in the near future. 

Until then, I highly recommend these other personal favorites from the Rhone Valley.  They are all spectacular buys at their price points.

Rasteau Cotes Du Rhone Village Dame Victoria 2009

 Eric & Joel Durand St Joseph 2009

 Cristia Gigondas 2010

Dave Malone is the wine consultant at our Thomasville Road (1930 Thomasville) location in Tallahassee.

You can follow him on his personal Twitter feed @DaveMtheWineGuy or check out his blog at davemthewineguy.blogspot.com