Pumpkin Spiced Everything, Even Wine!
They don’t look like powerful cultural influencers.
How does this happen? Pumpkins seem so innocuous. But they start taking over anything and everything in sight by Labor Day each year, and their reign continues well into January. The phenomena of this gourd has even crept into wine notes, which is clever, because ‘pumpkin spice’ notes are really just grape and barrel descriptors (‘cinnamon’, ‘nutmeg’, ‘clove’, ‘ginger’ ‘allspice’ and so on) that can be applied to many different wines and styles of wine.
We set out to find the wines that not only integrated these notes well, but drank well too, given the time of year, the shorter, darker days, and the looming holiday feasts.
Here is what Wine LALA recommends for the pumpkin spice lover in you!
If you are interested in any of these wines, please order through the links to our affiliate sites, or contact us and we can order them for you!! Winelala can often provide discounts to the prices that are shown. As always, recommendations are based on merit only.
Trimbach Gewurztraminer 2016, Alsace, France: Gewürztraminer is one of those grapes that makes really specific, spicy wine, which can easily lead to strong opinions on it (the definition of ‘gewürz’ means ‘spice’.) So if you’re on the fence regarding it, Trimbach makes solid wine, definitely worthy of investigation. Here, you’ll find hints of peach, lychee, and dried apples, along with nutmeg and clove on the finish. This will definitely be a bit of a departure from the norm, but is also an easy transition from pumpkin spiced syrup in your latté to (seemingly!) pumpkin spiced wine your glass!
Rutherford Hill Chardonnay 2015, Napa, CA: This is a little outside the profile of most of our recommendations given that it’s rounder bodied and more robust than what we normally recommend, but that’s what makes it the perfect parallel to pumpkin spice! The wine opens on apple, pear, and saline notes that transition into brioche, vanilla, caramel, and barrel spice. Lees aging lends added texture and depth, making this an excellent wine to sip by the fire during the fall when caffeine just won’t do.
Approx $24.99, based on availability, or we can order it for you.
Cambria Clone 4 Pinot Noir 2015, Central Coast, CA: Cambria’s Clone 4 is a solid choice for pinot noir, regardless of whether you’re specifically seeking out pumpkin spice notes, which here, come through as vanilla, cinnamon, and cardamom, that lift up bright red berries and pomegranate. Robert Parker even liked this bottle and its plush, velvety finish (if you’re into his ratings): 90 points from The Wine Advocate.
Bodegas Muriel Reserva 2014, Rioja, Spain: The pumpkin spice in this ruby red wine exists here in a wonderful way. Cherry nose and palate notes float on the top, but essence of orange peel lingers just below. It is this orange note that in combination with licorice, vanilla, cinnamon, clove, and tobacco from oak aging, reveals the pumpkin spice in this round, elegant Rioja. And it’s value priced!
Croft Reserve Tawny, Douro, Portugal: We are excited to start recommending fortified wines! We’ll start with Croft’s Reserve Tawny Port. Tawny ports get very sophisticated and complex - and expensive - very quickly, but fortified wines, especially from this region of Portugal, are super, super interesting. (We say this without hyperbole, despite the use of excited adjectives.) Even the winemaker basically says ‘pumpkin pie spice’ in the notes, which include “cardamom, spice, butterscotch and elegant redcurrant, interwoven with attractive nutty aromas.” The dominant top notes here are red berries and nuts, but what we’re interested in along with the spice, is the relative esoteric nature of this style of wine.