Sicily’s Stemmari Grillo 2022 is the blog’s seventh annual Turner Cheap Wine of the Year
Usually, one of the wines on the shortlist for the blog’s Turner Cheap Wine of the Year award is just enough better than the others so that I don’t have much trouble choosing the winner.
Not so this year. All six of the wines were award worthy, and each would have been a fine choice. So how did I settle on the Stemmari Grillo ($8, purchased, 13%)?
Call it a shout out to the late Mack Turner, who the award is named after. He and I spent more than a few Sunday afternoons drinking this wine, and we were rarely disappointed. And, without fail, he wold always ask,”Where did you get it?” and then we would wax poetic about Jimmy’s, the Dallas Italian grocer that sells this.
What to know about the wine? Nutty. Spicy. Green apple and stone fruit. Fresh. Clean. Drink chilled, on its own or with almost anything except big red meat.
The award’s shortlist is here. Selection criteria are here; I considered wines that cost as much as $15 to take into account price creep and regional pricing differences.
More Turner Cheap Wine of the Year:
• 2023 Turner Cheap Wine of the Year: Matchbook Cabernet Sauvignon 2020
• 2022 Turner Cheap Wine of the Year: Scaia Rosato 2020
• 2021 Turner Cheap Wine of the Year: MAN Chenin Blanc 2019