Wine of the Week (Under $10): Les Rials 2008 White

It’s rare to find a white wine that pleases the wine aficionados as well as the casual sippers—and works with lightweight summer fare as well as spicy dishes.

Last week our local wine merchants, John and Kevin at New Milford Spirit Shoppe, (at the end of Grove St. in New Milford, CT) walked Tim over to a display and said, “This is the best white wine under $10 that we get in the store, and it only comes once a year—in spring.”

The wine was Les Rials 2008 from Domaine de la Chanade in the Cotes du Tarn (Gaillac region) of southwestern France. If you want good French wines under $10, you pretty much have to look for the Gaillac, Minervois, or Languedoc regions. But there are some terrific bargains from these areas of southwestern France.

At the Spirit Shoppe, Kevin and John sell twice as much Les Rials each spring as they have sold the previous year, and online you’ll see most wine merchants saying something very similar: “Best-selling white wine every summer.”

The Les Rials is from a 1,000-year-old white varietal grape named Len de L’el, which has a long stem, so the label also says, “Loin de l’oeil,” meaning “far from the eye”. This is a fruity, but not too fruity, wine with orange and lemon aromas.

This bottle typically sells for $8.99, but sometimes you can find it on sale. Do not hesitate to buy it. We served it with a very spicy salad, and it stood up very well to the aggressive flavor in the food. It also worked marvelously with our guacamole appetizer.

 Domaine de la Chanade Les Rials White 08 750ml 2008  $8.99