Red Wine

From: Valpolicella Classico, Veneto, Italy Price: $14 Serve with: Pasta Bolognese, grilled meat This lush, soft, seductive red wine offers a medium-full body and appealing flavors of black cherries, Asian spices, mountain herbs and a subtle earthiness. Imported by Leonardo Loscascio, this is a wine with a lot of character — a cut above the ordinary Valpolicella — that doesn't need further aging to be immensely satisfying. — Michael Dresser

1993 Georges Duboeuf Morgon, Jean Descombes ($10)The ultimate Beaujolais? Perhaps. In so many years this is the star of Georges Duboeuf's line of single-estate wines. The 1993 is a fine example. It offers unusual fullness for a Beaujolais, with terrific cherry and raspberry flavors and aromas that let you know how the term bouquet was applied to red wine. The Burgundy-like richness is balanced by racy acidity and, unlike most Beaujolais wines, it has the intensity to rival a fine pinot noir.

2002 Double T Napa Valley Red Wine ($20). Perhaps our local diner chain would like to upgrade its wine list? This Bordeaux-style blend from Trefethen Vineyards would enhance any wine list or home cellar. It's a full-bodied, intense, lush red wine with notes of black cherry, black currant, vanilla and cedar. The elegance and purity of flavor are typical of Trefethen -- one of the Napa Valley's class acts. It's good to see this winery come in with a red in this price niche. -- Michael Dresser

Zinfandel makes several different styles of red wine in California, roughly reflecting the county of origin. One of the most distinctive - and best - is that of Mendocino. This version from the reliable Edmeades winery is an excellent expression of the style - with high-toned, spicy, wild berry flavors, a pleasing acidity and well-concealed alcohol, even at 15.5 percent. It's an excellent value in a red wine ready for early consumption. Serve with: pasta, grilled red meat

Like any rule, the mandate that red wine goes with red meat and white wine goes with fish has its exceptions.Sommelier Anne Bennett, fine wine director for Southern Wine & Spirits in Miami, says that while the formula remains valid in general, there are arguments for serving red wines with fish."

Longtime readers know I am a strong proponent of boxed wines. It is a great delivery system, but at the end of the day it's about the quality of the wine inside. This red wine is simply the best red I've encountered in a box to date. It's a medium-bodied wine with ripe, intense flavors of raspberry and wild berries and a touch of earthiness. It's just a very well-rounded red wine that's ready to drink young but doesn't seem fragile or weak. At the equivalent of about $5 a bottle, this is a steal.

1995 Mont St. John Carneros Pinot Noir ($16).This red wine is organically grown, but don't hold that little dollop of political correctness against it. It's a fabulous pinot noir, with intense flavors reminiscent of the grape's native Burgundy. Its color is light, but the wine has plenty of body and excellent length and grip, plus a measure of black raspberry flavor. It would hold its own with many $40 Burgundies.Pub Date: 7/13/97

When a friend of mine reads a restaurant wine list, he asks: "What kind of wine do we want, red or red?"That approach pretty much sums up my feelings on the correct color of wine. While I will drink white wine, especially if it has bubbles, on the whole I would rather have red.For years red was the unfashionable hue. Your beverages were supposed to be "white, bright and light." As someone who preferred his liquids turgid and heavy, I was decidedly out of step.But recently it has become fashionable to drink red wine.