It's always a great day when a new wine portfolio crosses my desk, so I was thrilled to peek at the offerings from Valgiani, a Bay of Banderas wine distributor with a gorgeous little wine & deli café/retail shop in Punta de Mita.
The portfolio is heavy on Mexican wines, as can be expected here in a tourist-heavy culinary region of Mexico that’s rightfully proud to display what the country can offer to the outside world. They say to drink and eat from the same place, and it truly is fun to try Mexican wines with local cuisine.
My area of expertise, however, is wines from other parts of the world, and so that is the part of the portfolio I want to focus on here. First, though, a couple of housekeeping notes. I’ve seen a lot of wine portfolios in my decades in the industry, and each distributor has their own way of showcasing their offerings. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t. And also, as our world evolves, so do wine lists.
I was interested to see that Valgiani’s “natural wines” were easily identified, indicating this is a wine trend that may be controversial to some but isn’t going away any time soon. I was also pleased to see the wine growing regions and grape varieties noted beside each bottle, very helpful information. However, as anyone who reads my weekly #thirstythursday reports on Facebook or Instagram will know, I find knowing the vintage to be of utmost importance when selecting wines, and was dismayed to see that vintages were only indicated on a handful of premium wines on this list. I find this to be an oversight of many distributors, both here in Mexico and also in Canada where I used to work as a buyer. I don’t know why this important information is so hard for vendors to add to portfolios, but it’s a real pet peeve of mine and for me, it can make or break a sale.
Anyways, on to the good stuff. The first thing that caught my eye was the listing of wines from Alsace. I’ve written before about how pickings are slim here in Vallarta for wines from this region, and those that are available can often be priced astronomically. There’s a Grand Cru Riesling on this list for under $700 pesos that might be of interest…. depending on the vintage.
My eyes lit up when I saw the Godello/Treixadura blend from Rafael Palacios, something I’ve been wanting to try. Godello is hardly a household grape variety like Chardonnay or Merlot, and I’m really looking forward to tasting something a little more ‘out of the box’.
If strange Spanish wines aren’t your cup of tea (or sherry), don’t worry, as Valgiani has numerous offerings of more conventional wines from around the world. I noticed that a decent portion of their portfolio is priced under $300 pesos, meaning it’s accessible to those of us who want to stay within a “Tuesday night wine” kind of price range. I’m going to cull together a selection of wines to buy from this list and will report back on my findings soon.
Oh! There was an unexpected hidden gem at the very end of Valgiani’s portfolio that made me very curious - delightfully named Velvet Sodas from Puebla. With flavours like passionfruit and grapefruit, I’m guessing these will make wonderfully refreshing summer sippers. I can’t wait to try them out.
Valgiani’s website is still under construction but you can reach them on Instagram. Cheers!