,a href=â€http://www.latimes.com/features/food/la-fo-0105-wow-20130105,0,2590158.storyâ€>2009 Bosco Agostino Barbera D’Alba: Wine of the Week. (Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)
Each week, restaurant critic S. Irene Virbila hand-selects a wine for you. This week’s pick: If you don’t like this Beaujolais, you don’t like Beaujolais period. Pair it with a great burger or steak, grilled sausages or a chicken tagine.Click here for more, plus pricing.(Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)
Perfect as an apèritif or with grilled fish, steamed mussels, fish soup or even a roast chicken. Click here for more, plus pricing.(Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)
Open a bottle with pasta dishes, pizza, grilled sausages and panini. It’s a summer-weight red that works with just about anything. Click here for more, plus pricing.(Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)
I happened to have it with rack of lamb with mustard and bread crumbs, and it worked beautifully. I just wish I had another bottle or two. Click here for more, plus pricing.(Richard Derk / For The Times)
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Classic northern Rhone Syrah in all its intricate glory, dark plums overlaid with exotic sweet spices and violet. Click here for more, plus pricing.(Rick Loomis / Los Angeles Times)
An elegant and smooth new world Pinot that carries the taste of Santa Rosa plums and sweet Asian spices. Click here for more, plus pricing.(Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)
Drink it with a classic bruschetta -- inch-thick toasted country bread rubbed with a garlic clove and drowned in extra virgin olive oil. Click here for more.(Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)
A perfect warm weather wine, it’s great with chilled shellfish, Dungeness crab, steamed mussels and grilled fish. Click here for more.(Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)
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Have it with grilled sausages, salami and prosciutto, with braised pork belly and rustic pasta dishes. Click here for more.(Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)
It’s a great party wine for the price. Serve it with salty nuts, olives, tapenade, shrimp toast, pad Thai or other spicy food. Click here for more.(Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)
This wine has everything going for it -- beautiful fruit, an enticing aroma, good structure and layered flavors. It also has something indefinable: character. Click here for more.(Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)
It’s terrific with Thai food. I also like it with cheese. An absolute steal at $20 for a wine of such finesse. Click here for more.(Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)
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At less than $20, it’s a great buy for a wine with this much character. Click here for more.(Gary Friedman / Los Angeles Times)
Remove the price tag before you pour this wine: Nobody is going to believe this isn’t a Cabernet in the high $20s or $30s, instead of one for $10. Click here for more.(Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)
Pour it for a smoked trout salad, seafood pasta or a butter-poached lobster. Click here for more.(Ricardo DeAratanha / Los Angeles Times)
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Crisp and golden, it tastes of grapefruit rind and ripe pears. It has a wonderful freshness and minerality coupled with a lush texture and a long finish. And it’s less than $20. Click here for more.(Richard Derk / Los Angeles Times)
This bottle shows its best with hearty braised meats and stews. Break out that daube pot or cast-iron casserole, throw in some beef or pork, onions, shallots, herbs and a bottle of wine. Several hours of simmering later: dinner for your sweetheart. Click here for more.(Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)
Fresh and round, it has a chiseled structure and wonderful balance. Click here for more.(Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)
Have it with burgers, pizza and flatbreads, grilled meats and also braised lamb shank with beans and rustic bean soups. A beautifully balanced food-friendly wine. Click here for more.(Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)
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Tasting of plum, dark cherries and earth, it’s intense and tightly focused, with the tannin to age. Click here for more.(Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)
It would be great with a seafood platter too, or a whole steamed red snapper, shrimp ‘n’ grits or crab cakes. Click here for more.(Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)
The 2008 is a supple beauty, a blend of 50% Merlot and 35% Cabernet Sauvignon with a little Cabernet Franc and Petit Verdot. Lush and round, with a deep ruby color and gorgeous ripe fruit, the 2008 Le Serre is a vibrant, deeply satisfying wine. Click here for more.(Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)
A single sip of this stunning Sauvignon Blanc from northeastern Italy immediately gets your attention. The 2009 Venica & Venica “Ronco delle Mele†is one intense mouthful, ripe yet fresh, with an overlay of citrus and flowers and a lingering finish. Click here for more.(Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)
Don’t just dream about the turquoise waters of the Aegean or the sunset seen from the island of Santorini when you can drink this stunning white wine made there. Click here for more.(Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)
It’s tremendously food-friendly, delicious with smoked trout or salmon, mushroom frittata or soup, chicken fricasee or vegetable casseroles. Click here for more.(Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)
This terrific Côtes du Rhône is perfect for a winter daube or stew, a roast or grilled lamb chops with herbes de Provence. Click here for more.(Glenn Koenig / Los Angeles Times)
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The fruit is dark and ripe, but there’s no trace of jam in this elegant and lush wine from the vineyard that surrounds the estate’s cellars. Click here for more.(Glenn Koenig / Los Angeles Times)
A great warm-weather wine, it would work with a seafood stew, grilled salmon or a composed salad. And because the tannins are so soft, it’s also a great bottle with fresh cheeses. Click here for more.(Glenn Koenig / Los Angeles Times)
The bubbles are small and perfect. It’s a terrific bottle to keep on hand for any occasion. Click here for more.(Glenn Koenig / Los Angeles Times)
Its tannins are big, but softened, and it has a finish that just doesn’t let go. It’s a big, gentle bear of a wine. Click here for more.(Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)
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This one’s a beauty. Have it with a simple roast chicken, grilled salmon, sausages and stews. Click here for more.(Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)
The result is a wine with a rich and honeyed perfume and finely spun flavors of hazelnut, citrus and slate. Click here for more.(Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)
The wine isn’t shy: It has a rich, full flavor and a vibrant acidity. Click here for more.(Kirk McKoy / Los Angeles Times)
Enjoy it with anything from the raw bar, steamed shellfish or a nice piece of fish. Click here for more.(Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)
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Bring on the shellfish platter, the shrimp and lobster cocktails, the cherrystone clams on the half shell, the seafood paella, the poached salmon in sorrel sauce. Click here for more.(Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)
Pop open a bottle to enjoy with a plate of Serrano or other raw-cured ham, a pork roast with rosemary or some barbecued pork chops. Click here for more.(Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)
Less than $30, this buttery, nuanced 11-year-old wine is an amazing value. Click here for more.(Anne Cusack / Los Angeles Times)
I’d also pair it with steamed mussels with celery or a spaghetti with clams. If you’re nostalgic for veal scalloppine, this is the wine. Click here for more.(Glenn Koenig / Los Angeles Times)
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Have it with peel ‘n’ eat shrimp, steamed clams or mussels, grilled fish or light pasta dishes. Click here for more.(Mark Boster / Los Angeles Times)
At around $20, this wine is easygoing and ready to pair with roast chicken, chicken fricassee, hearty pasta dishes, bean soups and summer grills. Click here for more.(Bob Chamberlin / Los Angeles Times)
On a sweltering hot day, nothing could be more refreshing than a well-chilled glass of Arneis from Piedmont. This one from Giovanni Almondo in the Roero (the other side of the Tanaro river from Barbaresco) is crisp and minerally, with an enticing scent of white peaches. Click here for more:(Glenn Koenig / Los Angeles Times)
On a warm summer night, serve it slightly chilled, which brings the wine into focus. It’s great with just about anything you’d want to eat in this weather -- a charcuterie spread, grilled sausages or skirt steak, mixed grill or Santa Maria barbecue. Click here for more:(Glenn Koenig / Los Angeles Times)
