INSIDER'S PICK: 2014 CHATEAU SAINT-ROCH MAURY SEC 'KERBUCCIO' (Wine Advocate 90-93points) $20.99

Before we get fully flung into the Thanksgiving mode for the next two weeks, we thought we should have one last wine to taste that's completely non-compatible with turkey, in a good way. Maury is one of the regions in the French Catalonian part of Roussillon that was best known at one time for making fortified wines. As that industry has largely faded out of fashion in recent years many old vineyards were sold, uprooted, or abandoned. Thankfully some of the better sites have been saved by opportunistic wineries looking to re-purpose those vineyards into regular table wines. A lot of them take advantage of the hearty base fruit character fueled by the warm dry growing conditions to craft bold, full throttled and very modern tasting wines like this one.

Built mostly from Syrah and Mourvedre with a splash of Carignan, this inky purple colored wine has an unlikely floral, almost impossibly pretty aroma. Whiffs of citrus and magnolia blossoms mix in with cherry and blackberries, at times making it easy to convince someone there are some white grapes is the blend somewhere. But there aren't, we checked. On the palate the texture is deep and polished with no hard edges or aggressive oak flavors, and the schist soils help provide an underlying minerality that give the finish life that could otherwise be lost under all the rich dark fruit. A perfect wine to match with your anti-Thanksgiving steak or pork roast dinner.

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