Prieure de Montezargues, Rosé, 2009, Tavel, Rhone

Rosé. For a long time, North Americans dismissed pink wines as little more than a change of pace beverage for ladies who chug their white wine with ice cubes and debate the sexual currency of leopard pattern versus fluorescent green miniskirts. This slander is connected to white zinfandel. Sweet, sloppy and fractions from a California Cooler, white zinfandel is pretty traumatic if you enjoy dry, well-built wines.

Rocca delle Macie, Chianti Riserva, 2006, Tuscany, D.O.C.G

Italy is a demanding wine region. As a modern nation-state, Italy is just a bit older than Canada. It's an incredibly diverse, complex and slightly illogical cobbling together of micro-regions with distinct idiomatic dialects, cuisines, hand gesturing, blood vendettas, hairstyles, virgins and wine-making styles. Schiopettino. Uva de Troia. Nuragus. Ribolla Gialla. Pignolo. These are neither diseases nor dead Emperors. These are grapes. Varietals that dominate pockets of the country. Having said that, Tuscany is what most people picture when the word Italy is lobbed into a conversation - villas, hilltop monasteries, cyprus trees and those cool straw-cased bottles that you can find in the basement kitchens that Italian mothers cook in so as to avoid wearing out the nice main-floor kitchen.