The Benedictine Abbey Stift Göttweig is one of the oldest wineries in Austria producing wine since 1083 in the Kremstal. In 2006 winemaker Fritz Miesbauer of Domaine Wachau fame and who was already successfully managing Stadt Krems (one of the staff favorite value Gruner Veltliners) took over. His team started cultivating the vineyards and producing the wines, focusing on the classic Austrian varietals Gruner Veltliner and Riesling. It is at this point the wines saw a renaissance in quality and availability. The Gruner Veltliner Messwein or altar wine is a great entry into the world of these charming, easy drinking wines. The nose shows pear and apple and the light to medium bodied palate delivers notes of apple and spiced lychee. This will be great with the cauliflower soup but also work with the amuse bouche. 

The Gulfi winery is the gold standard for the production of Nero D' Avola in Sicily. The Cerasuolo di Vittoria is a blend of 50% Nero D'Avola and 50% Frappatto. This blend makes for a charming, fragrant lighter red wine that is immensely crushable. The nose shows ripe berry fruit with violet and rose notes and the light to medium bodied palate has juicy raspberry fruit with lively minerality. This gorgeous bottle of red will make for a winning pairing with roasted chicken.

Banyuls is a small French wine region only a couple of miles from the Spanish border, on the Mediterranean Coast. The dessert wine produced here has become justly famous over the years (maybe even better than fine ruby Port!). This 2022 Banyuls vintage, from Domaine La Vieille, is made primarily from Grenache Noir grapes with just a dash of Carignan. The fermentation process in making the wine is purposely arrested by adding distilled spirits to become "fortified" for longer life and to retain the desired high level of sugar for a decadently rich palate of sweet strawberry, black currant, and raspberry, touched with a hint of spice. This will be fun with the eclair.