Some red wine to while away the winter blues

Despite being my birthday month, February is always one of my least favorite months, largely due to the weather. Be it rain, ice or snow, there’s always too much of it for my liking. My favorite things to do when the weather strikes are to get a nice bottle of red and stay home. With that in mind, here are a few heavier red wines to keep you warm through whatever Arkansas weather throws your way next.

Marietta Armé Cabernet Sauvignon,

$22

When folks ask me to recommend a cabernet in the $20 range, I typically steer them to the wines of South

America, but this Sonoma-based winery makes some of the best bang-for-yourbuck bottles you can find in Arkansas. This cabernet is dark and brooding and will benefit from a little time in a decanter, but I promise the wait is worth it.

Catena Zapata Paraje Altamira Malbec,

$25 Argentina’s Catena Zapata winery produces a number of different malbecs under several different labels, but this is one of my favorites. Grown in the Paraje Altamira appellation at high elevation, bright sunny days and cold nights gave these grapes perfect conditions to make a wine that is expressive in all the best ways. A year spent aging in French oak barrels adds a layer of vanilla, clove and cedar over waves of violet petals and blueberries. Your first campfire of the year won’t be complete until you’ve opened a bottle.

Chateau Belle-Graves Lalande de Pomerol,

$38

What would a wine collection be without Bordeaux? Sure, you can drop a few mortgage payments on some of the region’s best bottles, but this is a budget-friendly option that proves why cabernet sauvignon and merlot truly are the Han Solo and Chewbacca of the wine world. The 2015 vintage is in stores now and should be starting to peak around its 10th birthday.

Robert Keenan Merlot,

$45 This wine was my “aha” moment with merlot and is still the first bottle I tell merlot skeptics to seek out. The Keenan winery is known for balancing Napa Valley’s opulent and overt fruit with a restrained and refined touch.

Ridge Vineyards Lytton Springs,

$48

I’m already an admitted zinfandel queen, but this zin-based blend from Ridge, California’s be-all and end-all producer of the grape, is the wine that will win you over if you’re still on the fence about it. Year after year, this wine balances rich and dark fruit with a savoriness that only gets better with age. A few bottles of the 1996 vintage are among the most precious wines in my cellar.

Vietti Barolo Castiglione,

$50 I’ve mentioned before that Italy’s nebbiolo is one of my favorite grapes to collect, and this is a perfect introduction to everything that makes it so special. With its pinot-like light body and cabernet-like bitterness, nebbiolo embodies the “float like a butterfly, sting like a bee” mentality in the wine world. And best of all? It’s incredibly long-lived. The 2015 and 2016 vintages of this wine are readily available and will live well into the 2030s.