I asked the mother in our home to suggest what wines she would like for this special Sunday and then quickly added “for no more than $35.00 a bottle”. I obviously set the bar too low and it was somewhat disregarded, but here is some of her wish list to pick from.

Champagne is a must and Billecart Salmon has been described as tiny diamonds exploding on your tongue. Possibly the U.K.’s most eminent wine critic Jancis Robinson, writes of tasting eighteen of the best known non vintage cuvees blind and that the Billecart Salmon Brut Reserve was the most impressive for her. The Wall Street Journal called it the best of them all. In this day of large corporate owned Champagne firms this is one of the last family owned and it is run by Antoine Billecart, a descendant of the family that founded this house in 1818. This is truly a Champagne lovers Champagne for $55.95.

Countless gophers, that love to feast on young vine roots, live in a Chardonnay vineyard owned by the Shafer family of Napa Valley. They call it Red Shoulder Ranch after the red shouldered hawks that hunt gophers by daylight. Nesting boxes house owl families that do the night shift in this sustainably farmed sixty eight acres in the cool Carneros Region of Napa.

We presently stock the 2011 Shafer Red Shoulder Ranch Chardonnay that rates 94/100 in the International Wine Cellar Review. It refers to “superb acidity, penetrating minerality and an amazing, racy quality”. Robert Parker has called it, over the years, California’s finest non-malolactic Chardonnay and for those of you not in the know, malolactic is a second fermentation caused by bacteria, that most of the world’s wines go through. This step converts malic acid (found in green apples) to lactic acid (found in milk) and so you can imagine the effect on taste. By avoiding malolactic with this wine the family feels that it is just one step closer to what the vineyard has to offer. Winemaker Elias Fernandez says that his Chardonnay swims with floral aromas and flavours of white peach, honeysuckle, grapefruit peel, kiwi and toasted almond. It truly is a benchmark for $64.70 and may I suggest fresh halibut as a matching partner.

Red from that glorious valley called Napa has been requested and fortunately a few from one of the finest vintages in memory, 2010, have started to arrive. Tapestry from Beaulieu (BV) Vineyard is a “Bordeaux blend” of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Cabernet Franc, Malbec and Petit Verdot. Imagine dark blueberries, melted dark liquorice, sweet black currants, loamy earth and elegant tannins. For over one hundred years this winery has shown how wonderful these valley wines can be. $52.50.

One more wine showing such classic Napa fruit is the Franciscan Winery 2010 Magnificat, another blend and this time mostly Cabernet Sauvignon with some Merlot and Petit Verdot. It is interesting to see how two wines of quite similar price (Magnificat is $49.85) and from the same general area, can be quite different. The Magnificat offers impressive aromas of black plum, crème de cassis, dusty cocoa, sweet anise and vanilla. It is ripe and luscious with velvety tannins and rich, voluminous mouth-feel.

Faust 2010 at 83% Cabernet Sauvignon, 13% Merlot, 3% Malbec and 1% Cabernet Franc is made at a spectacular Napa estate called Quintessa and it draws on fruit from Coombsville which is Napa’s newest AVA, and also Mount Veeder, St. Helena, Rutherford and Yountville. Dense and inky, the core is a beautiful, rich, ruby colour. It is all there; blackberry, black cherry, ripe raspberry, tea leaf, cassis and dark chocolate. $74.25.

If any of the last three are not of interest for Mother’s Day I would suggest that they would be excellent choices to put in the cellar for a few years.

This column is a paid advertorial for Burrows, Lightbourn Ltd. Michael Robinson is Director of Wine at Burrows, Lightbourn Ltd. He can be contacted at mrobinson@bll.bm or on 295-0176. Burrows, Lightbourn have stores in Hamilton (Front Street East, 295-1554), Paget (Harbour Road, 236-0355) and St George’s (York Street, 297-0409). A selection of their wines, beers and spirits are available online at www.wineonline.bm.