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Tuesday’s Wine

Updated Tuesday, October 6

Every Tuesday we feature two bottles whose quality far exceeds their value — largely thanks to exceptional winemakers who choose to make affordable wine. These are wines that you can enjoy on a Tuesday night with an easy dinner; the bottle will extend to Wednesday night, saving money for the weekend.

White

Bodegas GallegaPorta da Ria

Galicia, Spain · Rías Baixas · Albariño

Albariño is one of the few Spanish whites that commands a higher price — but the premium bottles are on a short list of names, and the regional tier underneath it sits much lower in the quality to affordability ratio. What Bodegas Gallega did, closing the difference in quality, is allowing time to develop the wine: for nine months, the wine aged on its lees, stirred, when most Albariño at this price is bottled by spring to sell for the summer and seasonal seafood. Tank space and patience are built into the expense, and they are what give weight to the consideration of when to bottle.

Rías Baixas is farmed in fragments. Generations of Galician inheritance split the land into parcels, called minifundio, measured in rows, so thousands of growers work plots smaller than a city block or, in some cases, a backyard; smaller batches of wine mean higher prices. A microclimate from Atlantic maritime influence — rain, cool air off the estuary–meets plentiful sunshine and high humidity, which generously increase acidity and fruit development. Don't assume Bodegas Gallega's Porta da Ria is meant only for shellfish. The lees weight makes it a roast chicken wine, which is a better Tuesday pairing.

$19 Add to bag

More round & full wines

Red

Julie KarstenMétaphysique des Cuves

Rhône, France · Côtes-du-Rhône · Grenache, Syrah, Cinsault · 2023

Côtes-du-Rhône is the base of the Rhône's pyramid, some thirty thousand hectares of it, and it carries no premium at all — so a careful grower bottling under it collects the appellation's average price what the quality may truly be worth. Julie's winery is also on the Gard side of the river, where land costs a fraction of what it costs across the water, on the same garrigue with the same grapes under the same sun.

Ten hectares near Castillon-du-Gard, farmed organically by a winemaker whose stated aim is living soils for living wines. Wild yeast, big vats, almost no sulfur, no fining or filtering — and up to two years before release, when most wine at this price is sold within nine months. Grenache, Syrah and Cinsault. In ten years, with Julie Karsten's talent, her Metaphysique cuvée bottle should logically have a much higher value than twenty-two dollars. But some French producers would rather sacrifice profit for allowing wine drinkers to afford a good bottle.

$22 Add to bag

More velvety wines

Two new bottles every Tuesday, while they last.