Make Room for Chillable Reds

Pour Decisions

One of the stranger roles I play in the wine industry is to assess wine lists. I’ll receive tomes from fancy restaurants the world over, and then I’ll grade them on their wine choices, as well as the wine list’s layout and legibility. I know, sounds pretty dull and niche, rather like arguing not just how many angels can dance on the head of a pin but if their dance steps are jaunty enough.

It can be eye spinning, with some of the lists numbering thousands of wines. So, I’m not just a wine nerd, I’m a wine dweeb because I actually enjoy it. I learn things, especially as I’ll see the same restaurants’ lists change year after year as certain wines and styles become more fashionable and others lose their luster amid sales declines.

Usually, these changes are minor; sometimes they are glacial. But this year’s crop offered some jaw- dropping developments, at least to a geek like me. For instance, Bordeaux. Please understand that I’ve been in the wine business for half a century; I’m more traditional than I care to admit. Bordeaux, France, is the first among equals; it’s the place from which wine fame arose and the region that has traditionally earned more money for its wines than any other. Sure, Burgundy can be as much or more
expensive, but a typical Burgundy’s volume is measured in hundreds of cases. Bordeaux chateaus typically produce thousands or even tens of thousands of similarly priced cases.

It must be admitted that though there are five thousand or so wine brands in Bordeaux, only a few hundred have enjoyed the benefits of market dominance or pricing power. But even that now seems in danger. Many of the lists I have perused contain hundreds of Burgundy offerings; most have reduced their Bordeaux estate wines to only a few offerings.

I’ve never seen anything like it, and as I’ve reached out to sommeliers to ask their views, many opine that Bordeaux and, it must be noted, its Cabernet brethren in Napa, are no longer fashionable. Then why Burgundy, I would ask? Because it’s a lighter wine; that was more or less their answer.

This is generally true; red Burgundy, made from Pinot Noir grapes, is usually lower in tannins, less powerful and bitter, and easier to drink when it is young. Some of these lists have embraced the change in consumer preference by focusing not only upon Burgundy but Pinot Noir from other places, like Oregon, California, and New Zealand. The smarter ones have plucked other light-bodied grapes from relative obscurity, like Gamay or Cabernet Franc. A few intrepid list writers have been even more enterprising by featuring local wineries.

It’s a fascinating development in consumer preference that allows Missouri grapes, like Chambourcin, Noiret, and St. Vincent, to enter the conversation. Chambourcin, in particular, has exploded in popularity as a red wine, though I don’t expect Missouri Chambourcin to show up on any of these wine lists. The classic regions are too compelling for the natty-dressed, dapper dandies who run some of these wine programs to give Missouri wines attention. But locally, restaurateurs are more attentive to changing tastes; “chillable” red wines are popular everywhere, not just here.

Chambourcin is an ideal red to drop into an ice bucket. You won’t ruin it, and the chill adds to its bracing tartness. Whether or not fancy restaurants are advertising it, I guarantee they are chilling some red wines these days. Missouri just so happens to have ideal examples of chillable red wines made from grapes in our state.

Chillable Reds
Adam Puchta Winery • Chambourcin 2024
Eagles’ Landing Wine • Crunchy! 2023
Edg-Clif Vineyard, Winery & Brewery • Chambourcin 2024
Defiance Ridge Vineyards • Faolán Estate Chambourcin 2023
Les Bourgeois Vineyards • Mizzou Vintage: Dry Red 2019
Noboleis Vineyards • Chambourcin 2022
Shamrock Hills Vineyard & Winery • Chambourcin 2024

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This article was originally printed in the July/August 2026 issue of Missouri Life.