I love to discover new things! Life is just too short to limit yourself to a routine of the same old things, over and over. While I do have a few “old favorites,” when I’m in a restaurant and I see a dish I’ve never tried, I’ll order it. I’ll go to a gallery or museum to see the works of an artist I may have read about or heard of, but whose work I haven’t seen before. To me, discovery is one of the true thrills of life, one of the things that really makes me feel alive.

I’m like that with wine, too. There are some wines that I return to or buy year after year, true, but I love to find wines that I’m not familiar with. Maybe it’s a wine made from a grape I don’t know, or from an area whose wines I haven’t tried before, or made by a winemaker who is doing something different. It might be a wine that has been made from the same vineyard since the time of the Romans, or from a vineyard in an area that was never known for wine before.

The best (and often the most interesting) of these I bring to you every month as my Discovery Wines. Here, from the dozens I’ve tasted, are the three I’ve chosen for this month. I think you’ll like them, and, like me, will want to share your discoveries with your friends!

Chardonnay, Miali, Lunalba

Our good friend Michael Lerner keeps finding these delicious, well-priced wines for us! This one comes from Salento, Italy, and is just so well made and beautifully balanced, it will make you a Chardonnay fan all over again! Really, it’s so much better than almost any California Chardonnay I’ve had at twice the price! Appealing fruit flavors, crisp acidity, mouth filling richness, a smooth-as-silk feel on the tongue... and a bargain! $10.95

Pic-St-Loup, Lavabre ‘Tradition’

Another wine from one of our favorite importers, Eric Solomon. This wine is a blend of red grapes grown just outside Avignon in the Rhône Valley. Taste this wine, and you’ll see why I think of it as the “kid brother” to it’s more famous (and more expensive!) neighbor, Chateauneuf-du-Pape. Ripe, rich flavors of plums, stewed figs and berries along with a hint of the aroma of the wild herbs and grasses of the hillsides, the “garrigue.” $12.95

Prosecco, Mastro Colombo

Life is too short to miss out on sparkling Prosecco! This lovely, dry bubbly from Veneto is simply filled to the brim with lively fruit flavors and aromas! Keep a bottle in your ‘fridge, chilled and ready to pop open whenever you feel that life should be a celebration! Mixed with a splash of peach nectar, it’s the classic Bellini,just as it’s made in Harry’s Bar in Venice. Mixed with orange juice, it the best tasting Mimosa in town. There may be no better wine for brunch than Prosecco, and there may be no better value in Prosecco than Mastro Comombo! $12.49

Buy Darrin’s October Discovery 3 Pack: Save 10% . . . $32.74

Part 3 of “Did You Say WHITE Burgundy?” will appear next week.