Great Value Wines

Summer Wine

2008-08-20T13:54:00.000-07:00

Summer isn't over yet, and here is a good white wine for summer evening sipping: River'sTale from South Africa.

South Africa has dramatically beautiful wine country and a long and checkered wine history. Things are on the up-and-up lately, but it is still relatively unknown in the wine world, which makes it a good place to go treasure hunting

This wine comes from the Orange River region in the north of the Cape Province along the west coast of South Africa. Most of South Africa has a Mediterranean climate, cooler than the lattitude would suggest due to a cold Atlantic current. The climate in the Orange River area is hotter, making irrigation necessary. This is the area that produces crisp Chenin Blanc and Columbard that made South Africa seem the world's best source of bargain white wine.

River's Tale is a blend of 55% Chenin Blanc, 25% Chardonnay, and 20% Colombard. Interesting. I got crisp, clean flavors and pears and mellon. I paid only $3.95 a bottle, a great value.

Other End of the Spectrum - 1976 Lafite

2008-08-02T12:21:00.000-07:00

I recently opened a bottle of 1976 Chateau Lafite Rothschild. Here's the story.

Many years ago, in my nascent wine enthusiast days, I bought some very good Bordeauxs. Ah, those were the days! The wines you could get for five or six dollars a bottle!

Well, I decided to splurge. I had recently gotten married, and I decided to buy a case of the best available wines from that vintage. I went to the wine store and got a case each of 1976 Lafite and Latour. I paid about thirty dolars a bottle, which was hugely expensive in those days.

Frank Schoonmaker: " Chateau Lafite - In the opinion of most impartial experts, and perhaps in the mind of the general public as well, the ne plus ultra of Claret and the greatest red wine vineyard in the world. Lafite or Lafite-Rothschild was ranked first among the First Growths in the Bordeaux Classification of 1855, and has maintained its place with surprising consistency over the decades. Its special fame dates from the 17th. century, when it was the property of M. de Segur, and it was purchased in 1868 by Baron James de Rothschild."

Hugh Johnson: "Lafite ---- makes about 800 barrels if its fabulously expensive wine; a perfumed, polished, gentlemanly product."

Claude Feret: "The celebrated growth of Lafite is of remote origin and very ancient renown. It occupies the finests crests in Pauillac, a region the Latin poet Ausonius spoke of as early as the year 325 B.C. The bouquet of Lafite is very suave, and of incomparable delicacy; its savor brings together, at the same time, the taste of almonds and the scent of violets."

Once in a while, on our anniversary, I open one. This year was one of those years, so I got out my last 1976 Lafite and opened it (what am I waiting for, right?).

What was the wine like? Well, its hard to live up to that kind of hype. The wine was definitely polished and smooth. I got flavors of cherries. The tannin was all gone, so it was not a blockbuster sort of thing, something more subtle. Relatively low alcoholic content, only about 12%. It was almost ethereal ; something to savor. An interesting experience, not the type of wine you run into every day, to say the least

If you happen to have any lying around, I recommend drinking them up; they will not improve with any more age.

Stealing My Thunder

2008-07-24T14:12:00.000-07:00

A book has been published about many wines being over-priced, and how we should stop buying them because good wines are available at lower prices: http://blogs.roanoke.com/fridgemagnet/stop_buying_expensive_wine.html

German Wines

2008-06-29T13:17:00.000-07:00

Most people think of beer as the characteristic German beverage, but Germany also produces some very distinctive and unique wines.

The grape is the Riesling. Other grapes are grown in Germany (e.g., Sylvaner, Muller-Thurgau), but I don't recommend them.

The Riesling is a very misunderstood grape and wine. It is intended to be a desert wine; that means sweet wine, and that is where many people start to have trouble. "Desert wines" are called such because they are meant to be served with - desert!! A big, tannic, red wine just won't go with desert. We need a sweet wine, to complement the sweetness of the desert, but it's not quite that simple. Many sweet wines are flat, flabby, and awful. The sweetness can be used to cover up poor quality.

In addition to the sweetness, the wine needs balance, structure,and acidity. That is what makes them hard to produce. Examples are true port, sauternes, German riesling, and Hungarian tokay. These are some of the world's truly great wines, but they are desert wines.

In Germany, the Riesling grape reaches it's full potential and produces what some regard as the world's best white wine. Sometimes. Germay is a cold country, and in many years, the weather is such that the grapes don't ripen sufficiently, so no good wine can be produced. Unsuccessful vintages are so spectacularly unsuccessful that many times the grapes are simply discarded or sold in bulk to the producers of sekt or cheap, jug wines. But, as Hugh Johnson says, "When the sun shines and the Riesling ripens and goes on ripening far into October, the great bosomy smell of flowers and honey which it generates would be too lush without the apply emphasis of acidity. Then the Saar (a region in Germany) comes into its own. It makes sweet wines which you can never tire of. The balance and depth make you sniff and sip and sniff again".

The secret is a balance of sugar with acidity. In years when it comes out right, there is nothing else like a German riesling.

Most of the good vineyads are on hillsides beside rivers (Mosel, Saar,Ruwer, Rhein), sometimes so steep that they literally use ladders to get up into the vineyard. The soil is mostly slate. The best vineyards usually face south, where they have the greatest chance of getting enough sunlight to ripen the grapes

The quality of a German wine is detemined by the amount of natural sugar in the juice. The more, the better. There are four terms that are used to indicate this level of sweetness and quality: spatlese, auslese, beerenauslese, trockenbeerenauslese.

Spatlese means "late harvest". This occurs in years when the weather co-operates and the grapes can be left on the vine longer than usual, making them riper and higher in sugar content. Next up the quality scale is auslese. This is a wine made from selected bunches (the ripest) of late harvest grapes. Beerenauslese means "selected berry picking"; they take the ripest individual grapes and segregate them. Very labor intensive, and very expensive. Finally, there is trockenbeerenauslese. Here, the super-ripe grapes are attacked on the vine by the botrytis mold, which has the effect of taking water out of the berries and concentrating the juice. It produces a wine that can best be described as comparable to a true Sauternes.

Since the location of the vineyard plays a large role in determining the chances of the grapes to ripen, it is important in evaluating a German wine to be able to determine exactly where the grapes were grown. The best vineyards are well established in certain wine villages. Thus, label reading is important with German wines. In general, a top German wine will indicate on the label the village and vineyard where the grapes were grown. Thus, Piesporter Goldtropchen is made from grapes grown in the Goldtropchen vineyard in the village of Piesport (much like a person from New York is a New Yorker). Berkasteler Doktor is from the Doktor vineyard in Berkastel. Zeltinger Sonnennuhr. Etc.

These German wines from top vineyards will always be very expensive. Buy one sometime to see what the excitement is all about. Then, for value, look for a generic German Riesling not from a named vineyard. It won't be as spectacular, but good inexpensive ones can be found, and that is our mission.

A final comment: I am not a fan of California Rieslings. They all seem flabby to me. Surprisingly enough, Virginia does produce some interesting Riesling wine (Jefferson Vineyards, Abingdon Vineyards).

Chianti

2008-06-11T10:42:00.000-07:00

Chianti is both a wine growing region and a style of wine (as is Bordeaux). The region is huge, stretching from Florence south to Siena in Italy. The style was formally established over a century ago by the illustrious Baron Ricasoli, sometime Prime Minister of Italy, at his castle of Brolio. As long ago as 1872, he distinguished between two forms of Chianti: a simple one for drinking young, and a more pretentious one intended for cellar aging. He allowed some of the then prevalent white grape, Malvasia, into the blend of early drinking Chianti with the red grapes of the time, Sangiovese and Canaiolo.

To make a long story short, Chianti has evolved over the years (remember those straw covered bottles?) to the point where there are now three levels of quality: Chianti, Chianti Classico, and Chainti Classico Riserva.

A wine labeled as simply Chianti can come from grapes grown anywhere in the Chianti region. It will generally be a simple but pleasant wine with lots of fruit flavors meant for early consumption. But there are lots of poor Chiantis, so one must be careful.

Chianti Classico comes from a smaller region that should produce higher quality results.

And finally, Chianti Classico Riserva is a producer's most serious wine, made from low-cropped, top-quality Sangiovese vines, aged in wood, with a life expectancy of ten years or more.

The opportunity for us is in simple Chianti. There is so much of it, prices are low, and gems can be found, especially as a summer wine.

One example is Caposaldo Chianti DOCG. It is a "brand name" owned by Kobrand Corporation. The grape blend is 75% Sangiovese, 10% Cabernet Sauvignon, 10% Merlot, and 5% Malvasia. So the style is a combination of the old (Sangiovese and Malvasia) and the new (Cabernet and Merlot). It has a nice cherry red color and well structured, intense flavors. I got it for $6.95 a bottle, a good value.

As a side note, the name comes from the Roman Empire's most famous race horse. Competing for an astounding 24 years and winning 1500 of over 4000 races, the horse was named Caposaldo by Emperor Nero.

If you can't find this one, experiment with some other Chiantis, but be sure it says DOCG (Denominazione Di Origine Controllata Garantita) on the label, which means that it is guaranteed to come from the Chianti region.

Falcon Ridge Syrah

2008-05-22T14:01:00.000-07:00

This wine is from California's Central Coast region. This area is quite large, extending from the vineyards just south of San Francisco all the way down to the greater Los Angeles area. Some of the delimited regions within the Central Coast are Santa Ynez, Santa Barbera, and Paso Robles. However, a wine labeled as just "Central Coast", as this one is, would probably not come from one of the smaller delimited regions within the overall Cental Coast region that are generally considered to produce better wines, but could come from anywhere in the entire Central Coast, probably from a lesser area.

Syrah is the red wine grape of the Rhone Valley in France. It is the variety of red Hermitage and one of those used in Chateauneuf-du-Pape. It gives a deep-colored, slow maturing wine, high in tannin.

The particular example is excellent. It has a rich, ripe feel to it with flavors of blackberries and currants. Almost chewy.

Falcon Ridge Winery is somewhat obscure, as it apparently does not have a web site, and I could find nothing on it. But the wine speaks for itself.

It is a great value at about eight dollars a botttle. I found it at Trader Joe's.

Wisdom From The Founding Fathers

2008-05-11T13:36:00.000-07:00

"For me, fine wine is a necessity of life."
Thomas Jefferson

"We hear of the conversion of water into wine at the marriage in Cana as of a miracle. But this conversion is, through the goodness of God, made every day before our eyes. Behold the rain which descends from heaven upon our vineyards, and which incorporates itself with the grapes, to be changed into wine, a constant proof that God loves us, and loves to see us happy."
Benjamin Franklin.

Chateau Plaisance and Other Bordeaux Treasures

2008-04-21T13:43:00.000-07:00

I recently saw a Bordeaux wine at my local wine store that said Chateau Plaisance 2005 Bordeaux Superior, among other things, on the label. I became curious as to the provenance of this wine, since the store clerk told me that the distributor where he bought the wine said that the name "Chateau Plaisance" was just a generic, made-up name and didn't really mean anything. Well, this is just not plausible, since in France, wine labeling is taken very seriously; what you can and cannot put on a label is tightly controlled by strictly enforced laws. In France, calling a wine Chateau something or other just to make it sound impressive would not normally happen, or only under very special circumstances. So I became curious, and decide to undertake a little research project on this wine.

I couldn't find anything about a Chateau Plaisance in most of the standard reference books. So I went to the "bible" of Bordeaux references which lists and describes over 7000 wine producing estates in Bordeaux. According to this book, Bordeaux and Its Wines by Claude Feret, there are a total of five Ch.ateau Plaisance in Bordeaux, all of them more or less obscure. By the way, it’s not unusual for the same name to be used by more than one wine growing estate in Bordeaux. How many Chateau Bel-Air or Belair are there?

One of the Chateau Plaisance is in the Cadillac region of Bordeaux, an area that produces dessert wines in the Sauternes style, so this one is not the one we are looking for. There is another one in St. Emilion and another in Montagne St. Emilion. As I see it, neither of these is a likely candidate, since if a wine could be labeled St. Emilion rather than Bordeaux Superior as our Chateau Plaisance is, it would be. And none of the information about these two estates seemed to jive with the label on the bottle of Ch. Plaisance.

So, by the process of elimination, we are down to two remaining candidates, and both of these are in the Medoc region. One of these is in the Saint-Seurin-de Cardourne district, which is just to the north of St. Estephe, in the Haut Medoc. This estate is apparently entitled to use the appellation Haut-Medoc, and again, if a wine could use that instead of just Bordeaux Superior, it would. And again, none of the information in the book seems to indicate that this one is the one.

Now we are left with only one candidate. This one is located near the village of Macau, which is just south of Margaux in the southern Medoc. This chateau is very obscure; very little information is given about it. However, on the label of my bottle of Chateau Plaisance there are the words “Macau en Medoc” and “Margaux”. So this is almost surely our guy. According to the book, this wine is only entitled to the appellation “Bordeaux Superior” or “Bordeaux”, rather than “Haut Medoc”, so that is consistent with what we see on the label.

The label also indicates that this wine was “Mis en boutelle au chateau”, or “bottled at the chateau”. This is a guarantee of authenticity; if the wine is sold in bulk and bottled by a dealer where it could be adulterated, it cannot be labeled as “chateau bottled”. These laws are very strictly enforced in France; no one there would dare to fraudulently label a wine as “chateau bottled”. So we know that our wine did indeed come from some Chateau Plaisance in Bordeaux, and the only possibility is the one near Macau. The production is tiny, only about 500 cases, although that information is quite old, and it could well have changed by now.

To summarize, I was able to determine for sure that there is a real wine growing estate in Bordeaux called Chateau Plaisance; actually, there are five of them. I also know for sure that my bottle of wine came from one of these estates (since it is “chateau bottled”), and I can be very confident that it is the tiny estate in the vicinity of Macau in the southern Medoc. This wine is therefore an authentic estate grown and bottled Bordeaux, albeit from an obscure, minor estate.

Other than being of intense interest to the wine enthusiast, the lesson here is that there are so many "chateau" in Bordeaux that you can go treasure hunting among the more obscure ones to find bargains. My bottle of Chateau Plaisance cost $18.95, which, while above our "great value" limit of $10, is low for a chateau bottled Bordeaux. And with a special sale going on at my wine store, I can get a case of it for somewhere around $16 a bottle, which is getting good.

A good way to find a value among real Bordeaux, which tend to be grotesquely expensive, is to explore the many unknown, obscure chateau that there are. With ove 7000 to choose from, the fun never ends.

More Evidence That Price Is Not Necessarily Related To Quality

2008-04-01T09:41:00.000-07:00

I read an article in the Weekend edition of the Wall Street Journal recently that reviewed Merlots from California in the $20 to $50 price range. The conclusion was that most of the wines were mediocre at best! Fifty dollar wines!! These evaluations were done by professional tasters, so their opinions have credence.

This is the just more evidence of what I have been saying for a long time: In the wine world, price is not necessarily related to quality. You can pay a lot of money for a run-of-the-mill wine, and you can find some real gems for a relative pittance. Many producers seem to think that the wine consumer is too stupid to know the difference when they slap a fifty dollar price tag on an ordinary wine.

Now about Merlot, it is important to keep in mind that it has traditionally been used as one of the wines in the classic Bordeaux blend, along with Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, Petit Verdot, and Malbec. The relative proportions of the blend vary from producer to producer in Bordeaux, but the wine is almost always a blend with about 20% Merlot. Also keep in mind that Bordeaux wines have been regarded as some of the absolute best red wines in the world for hundreds of years, so we should pay attention to how they do things.

Yes, in the Pomerol district of Bordeaux, the wines are usually about 80% Merlot, and some are 100%. But overall, Merlot is a component of the Bordeaux blend. It wasn't meant to "stand alone", except in some very special situations.

Here is what Bordeaux and Its Wines (the Bible of Bordeaux reference books) says about Merlot: "Merlot was often looked upon in its former times as an auxially variety. However, wine made from it has very real qualities, a lot of bouquet, savor and softness, which attenuates the firmness of the Cabernet wines and make them drinkable sooner."

I say go for a Merlot and Cabernet blend. Here is a good one: duo by Alto de Casablanca in the Maipo Valley of Chile. It's 74% Cabernet Sauvignon and 26% Merlot. Very good, lucious, deep, and rich flavored. It meets our criterion of a great value; don't pay more than eight or nine dollars a bottle, maybe less. Or do some experimenting with other Bordeaux blends from Chile.

Zinfandel

2008-02-29T14:13:00.001-08:00

Don't buy them. After the advent of that horrid White Zinfandel, it's been all downhill, even for the reds.

Two Buck Chuck

2008-02-17T12:45:00.000-08:00

When I lived in California, I went to a gourmet food and wine store called Trader Joe's. It's a great store in many ways, but especially if you are on a quest, as we are, to find great values in wines. They have a large selection of wines from all over the world, many of which are priced inexpensively. It's a great place to go treasure hunting.

One of the wines you will find there is a brand label called Charles Shaw. You can buy almost any varietal under this label: Cabernet, Merlot, Chardonnay, Shiraz, Sauvignon Blanc, etc. So what? Well, in California, they sell for two dollars a bottle. Yes, two dollars a bottle!!! Outside of California, it's a little more. And the wine is good. My favorite is the Shiraz. I bought a lot of it while I lived in California. Now, there is no Trader Joe's near me, so I can only go there once in a while. But when I do, I stock up on two buck Chuck Shiraz. My recommendation is to find a Trader Joe's if you can, buy one bottle of each variety of the Charles Shaw line, and then settle on your favorite.

White Bordeaux and Sauvignon Blanc

2008-02-04T08:41:00.000-08:00

Bordeaux is most famous for it's super-premium Chateau red wines, plus the sublime desert wine Sauternes. But there is another, lesser known, side to Bordeaux: dry white wines. These are made from the Sauvignon Blanc grape, and they can be excellent. Unfortuntely, much of the white bordeaux we see is fair to poor, so we must be careful.

A good, white Bordeau is a brilliant golden yellow in color, and has tastes of butter, lemon, and tangerine. It is great as an aperitif or with seafood as a first course. To me, it's a nice change from the ubiquitous Chardonnay.

The best white Bordeaux comes from the Graves district, which gets it's name from it's gravelly soil. It is little known that Chateau Haut Brion, one of the creme-de-la-creme of the super elite Bordeaux red wine chateau, and which is in the Graves district, also produces (in very limited quantities) a dry white wine made from Sauvignon Blanc.

For a white Bordeaux, I like the generic Sauvignon Blanc from Premius (a brand name). It is labelled Bordeaux, so it doesn't necessarily come from Graves, but it is quite good and has a reasonable price, if you can find it. It has all the best attributes of a white Bordeaux.

I also have a few bottles of Chateau Maine-Bonnet, 2002 vintge, a white Bordeaux that is from Graves. This one is goood also, and I got it for under ten dollars, but it's not quite as enticing as the Premius.

I have recently tried another white Bordeaux called Chartron La Fleur. It will give you an idea of what this wine is all about, but it's a little thin. Worth trying, though.

Now lets talk about Sauvignon Blanc from elsewhere in the world. The grape does something different outside of Bordeaux. It usually produces what is often described as a grassy, earthy wine. It can be entrigueing, but you have to like this style of wine.

For an extreme example of this style of Sauvignon Blanc, try something from Australia called Silly Mid On (which is a Cricket term). The wine is actually a blend of 78% Sauvignon Blanc and 22% Semillion. It has a very unique taste, but is a bit pricey by our "great value" standards. Or try some other Australian Sauvignon Blanc.

For something more reserved, but still in the earthy style, try the Joel Gott Sauvignon Blanc from California. This is more reasonably priced, but still very good, and a little more subtle.

Finally, for a zestier style of Sauvignon Blanc, find something from New Zealand.

In all cases of Sauvignon Blanc from somewhere other than Bordeaux, try a single bottle first, and then go back for more if you like it. The earthy style is not for everyone.

White Bordeaux is hard to find, but worth the search.

Update - January 23, 2008

2007-10-26T14:04:00.000-07:00

Specific recommendations are all the way down at the bottom of the blog.
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Update - January 23, 2008
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Here is a very good red wine at a great price, if you can find it: Chateau de Segries from the Lirac region of France.

Lirac is a small, relatively unknow Appelation Controlee region in the larger Rhone region. It is only a mile from the famous Chateauneuf-du-Pape on the other side of the Rhone river. The experts generally agree that Lirac, due to its climate and soil, has high potential, but that this potention is usually not achieved. Historically, Lirac has been mainly rose and white wines, but the production of red wine is increasing.

Chateau de Segries is one of, if not the, top red wine producing estates in this region, and it is the exception to the "unrealized potential" situation. The wine has a deep red cherry color and complex, spicy flavors. It is aged for 12 - 18 months before being bottled unfiltered. It is bottled on the premises, so you know for sure what you are getting. The blend is mostly Grenache with Syrah and Cinsault, with the Syrah tending to dominate. It is a very good wine. I got the 2003 vintage; take whatever is available.

This is just the situation we are looking for: A good red wine from an obscure region with high potential. Maybe someday Lirac will be discovered (when more producers go for top quality results), but for now it is overshadowed by its neighbors. That gives us a buying opportunity. I have seen Chateau de Segries priced from $9.95 to $17.95 a bottle. Don't pay top dollar for it, but at $9.95 it as a great value. With a case discount, you could get it down to nine dolars a bottle!

As for other Lirac wines, I would be careful. Buy one bottle first, and if it is good, go back for more.

Update - January 11, 2008
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Winter is port drinking season. As far as I'm concerned, one of life's great pleasures is to sit in front of a crackling fire on a cold, winter night, sipping a glass of good port.

Port is a desert wine. That means it is drunk with, you guessed it, desert, or after dinner by itself. However, don't confuse a true desert wine such as port with a cheap, sweet wine. Desert wines are sweet, but there is much more to them than just that. True desert wines balance the sweetness with acidity or tannin or other essences from the grape skins such that the resulting product is complex as well as balanced.

Port as we know it today was developed in Portugal by English merchants in the early seventeenth century to appeal to English tastes. To this day, the British are a major market for port. Winston Churchill was a notorious port drinker. He also smoked cigars, by the way. Port wine and a good cigar - there is a real old-fashioned after-dinner activity!

Port is a unique wine. The production method makes it what it is. Port is made by running off partially fermented red wine, while it still contains at least half its grape sugar, into a vessel a quarter full of brandy. This causes the fermentation to stop due to the high alchoholic content of the brandy (the yeast can't live in the high alchohol level). The net result in the wine is two things. First, the wine is sweet due to the unfermented sugar. Second, the wine is high in alcholic content due to the added brandy. Port wine usually has about 20% alcholhol content, so you have to sip it. But it a truly memorable experience.

Genuine port comes from the Douro Valley in Portugal. The climate and terrain make for difficlut growing conditions. The rocky mountains go right down to the river's edge, so the vineyards are all terraced, some of the terraces dating back to the 17th. century. Various grape varieties are used.

A true vintage port is incontestably one of the world's great wines. Vintages matter in the Douro Valley, so not every year is "declared" to be a vintage. In off years, a blended, non-vintage port is made, as is also done in vintage years with less-fine grapes.

Vintage port is very expensive. I recently treated myself to a Fonseca 1983 Vintage Port. Ethereal. If I were a rock music star, I'd drink this or something comparable all the time. But here in the real world, we can't afford it. What to do?

The so called "wood ports" offer a good alternative. These ports are aged in wood casks (vintage port, interestingly enough, is not), and mature in a different way into something more mellow, but still very good. Look for a Tawny or Ruby port from one of the big-name port shippers, such as Cockburns. Tawny port is aged longer and can also be expensive, but moderatley priced ones can be found. Ruby ports are more "ordinary", if you want to call any port that, but they are still true port, are more accessable price-wise, and they will give you an idea of what port is all about.

A final comment. My feeling is that if you want to engage in an old fashioned past-time, do it with the real thing. Real port from Portugal, that is. I have tried several "ports" from Australia and they all come up short even against a Ruby port from Portugal. California ports? Puh-leeze. So go for the real thing. There is enough price varity available for all to be able to experience a real port from Portugal. And for your fiftieth wedding anniversary or some such event, get a true vintage port.

Update - December 18, 2007
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I went to a small tasting recently that featured high end wines. They ranged from a $14.95 white wine blend (viognier, rousanne, marsanne) to a $42.95 pinot noir. These were all very good wines, except that some of them were too high in alcholic content. One was 15. 1 %, another 14.5 %, etc. Traditionally, table wine has been in the range of 12 to 13.5%. German rieslings are around 9%. I do not like those high alchoholic, blockbuster wines. To me, it negates one of the strongpoints of wine as being the drink of moderation. A table wine with fifteen percent alchohol? Not for me. I want something more subtle, more sublime, something that caresses me rather than clobbering me.

Here is a real find: La Terre, a California shiraz, at $5.95 a bottle. It is very good; rich, mellow flavors; good color; stands up to air. With a case discount, you can get this down to close to five dollars a bottle!!! A great wine value.

Update - December 11, 2007
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Merry Christmas!!!

Since there seems to be some confusion about this in some quarters of our society, I want to emphasize that it's Christmas, people, not "winter break"! That tree we all put in our living room and decorate at this time of year is a Christmas Tree; it's not a "community tree" or a "town tree" or a "loving life tree". Those who are unsure about this, take note: Martin Luther came up with the concept of decorating a tree at Christmas-time when he was walking home through the woods late at night on a December 24 after attending Christ Mass at midnight. He looked up though the evergreen trees and saw the stars in the sky above, and thought it was so beautiful. Thus was born the idea of the Christmas Tree. So don't give me any of this "community tree" nonsense. If there are any lingering doubts, the U.S. House of Representatives has taken action to remove them by voting 372 to 9 yesterday to officially recognize Christmas. The President of the United States lights a National Christmas Tree every year. Any questions?

On the wine front, lets venture off the beaten path a little bit. Instead of serving punch or egg nog at your Christmas party, try a Vinho Verde.

Vinho Verde is a wine region in northern Portugal. It is Portugal's most distinctive and best contribution in the way of table wine. The name literally means green wine, but it describes the wine' s fresh, underripe style, not it's color, which is almost always water-white. The grape variety is Alvarinho. It is deliberately picked early, and the wine is bottled young, prior to the secondary fermentation. The result is a dry, clean, acidic wine. Most Vinho Verdes are also slightly sparkling with scintillating little bubbles. Very refreshing.

I found several Vinho Verdes at Trader Joes, at good prices. I'll mention only one by name: Espiral. It was only $3.95, and was very good. At that price, it is truly a great value. It had some nice, tart pear flavors and a slight fizz. It makes a great aperitif, or serve it with shell fish. It's low in alcohol, only 9%, so you don't have to be too concerned about overdoing it.

There are, of course, many other Vinho Verde wines. Try any of them, as long as the price is low, and then pick your own favorite. It will be hard to go wrong.

Update - October 25, 2007
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Here's a gem for you. I have known that Thomas Jefferson was an avid wine drinker, but I didn't know that Benjamin Franklin was also, until recently. Consider this quote: "We hear of the conversion of water into wine at the marriage in Cana as of a miracle. But this conversion is, through the goodness of God, made every day before our eyes. Behold the rain which descends from heaven upon our vineyards, and which incorporates itself with the grapes, to be changed into wine, a constant proof that God loves us, and loves to see us happy." - Benjamin Franklin.

I recently did something that I have been wanting to do for years; I took a long-haul train trip. Specifically, I rode the California Zephyr train from Chicago to Sacramento, CA to visit my 94 year old aunt (I'm laying up treasures in heaven). I was somewhat apprehensive about doing this, since it meant being on the train for two days, and once started, there was no turning back if I didn't like it. But it was Great!!! I loved every minute of it. What's the connection to wine? Well, coming out of Denver in the morning light, then going through the Rockies around Aspen in the late afternoon, sipping on a glass of wine as the phenominal scenery rolled by --- I highly recocmmend it. The food was reasonably good, too, and you meet some interesting people. I had a "roomette", and I slept like a baby. It was so much fun that, next, I plan to take the Southwest Chief train from Chicago to L.A. through the desert Southwest.

Well, back to wine. Thanksgiving is coming up. There is always a problem in deciding what kind of wine to serve with a Thanksgiving dinner of turkey and all the fixings. What wine goes with turkey? Red wine is for read meat, white wine for fish or chicken, rose is sort of in the middle. A lot of people use rose with turkey, but I don't recommend it. To me, almost all rose wine is poor; the worst of both worlds; not full bodied like a red, and not crisp and clean like a white. Blase and uninteresting, to me.

Go with a pinot noir, if you can find one at a resonable price. That will leave out virtually all red burgundies from France, the classical pinot noir wine. Very good (usually), and very expensive (always). Look for a pinot noir from Washington or Oregon; you can sometimes find them and they are usually good. Don't overspend, though; remember our guidelines.

It's better to have an American wine for Thanksgiving, anyway.

Update July 16, 2007
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You Won’t Believe This One
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As I have been promoting the benefits of wine, a recent newspaper article was almost too bizarre to believe. But apparently the story is true, as reported by the Associated Press in our local newspaper.

It seems that some people were having a late dinner party, and at around midnight a hooded man got into the patio through an open gate. He pointed a gun at the head of a 14-year-old-girl and demanded money. Everyone froze. Then one of the dinner guests offered him a glass of wine; incredibly, he accepted. The host was apparently a wine connoisseur as he was serving Chateau Malescot St. Exupery (more on this later). The intruder took a sip and said, “Damn, that’s good wine”. I’m not making this up. Then the host gave the intruder a whole glass, then the whole bottle. The intruded also had a bit of Camembert cheese, and put the gun away. Then he apologized and asked for a hug! Then a group hug! Everyone complied, of course. The man left shortly thereafter, crystal wine glass in hand. No one was hurt.

Wow, don’t ever be caught without wine to offer people.

The intruder had a good wine palette, as Chateau Malescot St.-Exupery is indeed “damn good wine”. It is a chateau (wine making estate) in the Village of Margaux which is in the Medoc region of Bordeaux. Margaux wines are considered to be some of the most polished and fragrant bordeauxs. Malescot St.-Exupery is ranked as a “third-growth”. In 1855, the most prominent Medoc chateau were rated and classified into five levels of superiority. Any of these classified growths is one of the most prestigious and finest Bordeaux wines available. Even though 1855 was a long time ago and much has changed, the ranking remains as a recognized cachet and confers bragging rights. A third growth is undoubtedly one of the elite wines of all of Bordeaux and the world. Damn good wine.

Summer Picks
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It’s summertime, and the living is easy. Unless you’re growing grapes, as I am, and then you work your butt off. But we won’t go into that. Here are some summertime wine recommendations: white, red, sparkling.

1) Angove’s Bear Crossing Chardonnay
This is from Australia (you know by the name). They are making a lot of good wine in Australia nowadays. The problem with a lot of it is that it is too high in alcoholic content for me. A lot of them are 14%. It’s very sunny in Australia, and the grapes consequently get very ripe. All of that sugar in the juice means a high alcoholic content. When buying Australian wines, be aware of this.
This wine has gobs of flavor balanced with some oak. Very good. Cheap, too. I got mine on a close-out sales so it was a very good buy. Look for it, but don’t pay more than six dollars a bottle or so.

2) Beaujolais
This is a region in France that produces a very distinctive light, red wine made for early consumption. It is made from the Gamay grape, which doesn’t do much anywhere else in the world, fermented in a special way, and made to be drunk young. It is light and very grapey – a good red wine for summer. There are three grades of Beaujolais wine. Wine labeled as Beaujolais can be made form grapes grown anywhere in the region, so it is considered ot be less fine. Beaujolais Villages can be made only from grapes grown in certain designated villages that are more highly regarded for grape growing. Finally, wine from a set of named villages (e.g. Brouilly, Morgon) are the finest.
I am not going to recommend any specific wines, since there are many good ones and prices tend to be low. Buy some and pick your own favorites. The named village wines will be too expensive, so stay with a plain Beaujolais or a Beaujolais Villages. Don’t pay more than our ten dollar limit; you should still have plenty to choose from.

3) Comte de Galeyran
This is from an obscure region in France called Limoux, which is in the Western Languedoc part of southern France. The wine is called Blanquette de Limeaux. It is a sparkling wine made from an also obscure grape – Mauzac. The wine is produced in the traditional Champagne method of individual bottle fermentation. It is an excellent Champagne substitute. I got it at Trader Joe’s for less than six dollars a bottle, a true wine value if I ever saw one.
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April 21, 2007
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Why Wine
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Do you find it as astonishing as I do that Jesus’ first miracle was to turn water into wine? It was done at the request of His mother. He made a lot of it, too - six water pots containing two or three firkins each. A “firkin” is about eleven gallons, so that comes out to somewhere between approximately 120 and 180 gallons. And He knew enough about wine to make good wine, as the dinner guests commented to the host that the best wine, what Jesus made from water, had been saved until last.

Yes, there is no doubt that Jesus was a wine drinker, according to the Bible. In fact, His enemies accused Him of drinking too much wine. At His last worldly meal, he served a simple supper of bread and wine to His disciples.

Another notable wine drinker was Thomas Jefferson, one of the most brilliant minds in American history. He was a lawyer, statesman, politician, champion of the rights of man, rebel, Founding Father, inventor, philosopher, educator, farmer, man of letters, - - - .
Mr. Jefferson planted a vineyard and hired an Italian viticulturalist and wine-maker. The vineyard was destroyed during the Revolutionary War, though, and was never replanted. After the war, while in France as the United States ambassador, Mr. Jefferson visited Bordeaux and had kegs of its best sent back home to America. While President of the United States, he ran up a $25,000 wine bill (a huge sum for the time) entertaining dignitaries. In later life while retired, if you want to call it that, at Monticello, he commented that good wine was a necessity of life for him.

You health food advocates may be interested in how wine is made. It is a completely natural process. No artificial anything. In fact, grapes can and will spontaneously turn themselves into wine if given a chance.

Wine is made from fermented grape juice. Let’s not get into fruit wine. The process is to add yeast to grape juice, and wait. Actually, you don’t really have to add the yeast, since it occurs naturally on the grape skins. In any event, the yeast metabolizes the naturally occurring sugar in the grape juice turning it into alcohol and carbon dioxide. The CO2 bubbles out of the liquid, and when all of the sugar is so converted, the yeast die (lack of food) and what you have left is wine.

Wine has been around for at least 5000 years, and was probably discovered when some grapes were left in a bowl for awhile. They became overripe, the juice oozed out, the aforementioned natural yeast on the skins went to work, and voila, wine! Nobody had to do anything. Completely natural.

Louis Pasteur said that wine is the most hygienic of all beverages since nothing that will hurt you can grow in it. The combination of alcohol and acid does the trick.
Yes, it is true that almost all wine nowadays contains sulfites as a stabilizer and preservative. The world is not perfect.

And now the best part of all. In addition to being a great meal companion and bringing a lot of enjoyment into our lives, as well as being the favored drink of many luminaries, wine is actually good for you!!! Red wine, anyway. We all know of the studies showing that red wine is good for the heart. In addition, a recent study by the Harvard Medical School and the National Institute on Aging shows that heavy doses of the red wine ingredient resveratrol lowers the rate of diabetes, liver problems, and other fat-related ill effects in obese mice. “They’re chubby but inside they look great”. It is unknown whether the same effects will be seen in humans, but all in all, I don’t see how it could get much better!

My Experience
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I have been drinking and tasting wine for forty years. To me, a glass or two of wine with the evening meal is one of life’s great pleasures. It’s part of the joy of life; a gift from God. Wine can make even the simplest meal seem special.

I have been through all aspects of the wine experience. The first wine I ever tasted was a burgundy, I think, while I was in college. I was sipping on it while watching a movie on an otherwise boring Saturday night. I went through a Lancers and Mateus stage (I wouldn’t touch them now, if they are even still available). I moved up to Bordeaux, and spent a lot of time learning about them. I was into German wines for awhile. I learned about Port. I lived in California for 20 years, and experienced California wines. Then high prices motivated me to look to South America (Chile, Argentina). Lately, Australia has come on strong. Now that I live in Virginia, I am learning all I can about Virginia wine.

I have read a lot about wine. The first wine book I read was a little paperback explaining the basics of the different types of wine and the wine growing regions of the world. Later, I read Hugh Johnson’s World Atlas of Wine cover-to-cover. I still use this one as a reference. I read Robert Parker’s Bordeaux and Michael Broadbent’s’ Great Vintage Wine Book. I got into Bordeaux in a big way and bought a reference book that gives information on all 7000 Chateau in Bordeaux. I went through a Wine Spectator phase and was reading that regularly, although I don’t anymore. Etc.

For years, I went to wine auctions in San Francisco. This was one of the best wine learning experiences I ever had. My game would be to find some high quality but overlooked wine that I could get for a “bargain” price. I would read through the auction catalog, identify potential targets, look them up in my reference books, go to the auction, and buy those that were available at a relatively low price.

I have bragging rights. My wine cellar contains Lafite, Latour, Mouton, La Mission Haut Brion, Cos D’Estournel, Vieux Chateau Certan, Bordeaux from the 1953, 1957, 1958, 1959, 1961, 1962, 1964, 1966, 1967, 1970, 1971, 1975, 1976, 1977, 1979, 1981, 1982, 1983, 1984, 1985, 1986, 1990, and 1998 vintages. On New Year’s eve of the year 2000, I opened a bottle of 1900 Port.

My Philosophy
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If we are to make wine a part of the daily joy of life, we have two major issues to deal with: 1) wine pretentiousness, and 2) the cost.

I have come to believe that there is far too much wine pretentiousness and elitism in the world. For example, here is a quote from Michael Broadbent’s book where he is describing a certain Bordeaux vintage: “They now resemble a girl well past her bloom of youth, whose heavy make-up is wearing thin, revealing a distinctly washed-out and blemished complexion underneath.” Puh-leeze!!

Let’s get past all of that and deal with wine in a very confident, down-to-earth, un-intimidating fashion. Let’s follow the advice of Albert Einstein who said that everything should be made as simple as possible, but no simpler. (It’s the “but no simpler” part that makes that a truly profound statement, but we’ll let the philosophers work on that aspect of it.) When it comes to wine, we will keep it simple.

Next, let’s talk about cost. I stopped buying my favorite wine, Bordeaux, because they got too expensive. I have bottles of Bordeaux in my cellar that I bought years ago that are now worth hundreds, maybe thousands of dollars each! But what good are they? I don’t drink them because I would feel guilty consuming something so expensive, and I know I’ll never buy anymore because I just refuse to pay that much for a bottle of wine, so they just sit there. I guess when I go on to greater glory, they’ll be included in my estate sale.

Look at it this way: Is a $100 bottle of wine better than a $20 bottle of wine? Probably; but it’s almost surely not five times better, and you may have to wait ten or so years in order for the superiority to reach it’s full potential. What would you rather have, one bottle of wine that will be great ten years from now, or five slightly less fine bottles you can enjoy right now?
Robert Parker has it too easy; he doesn’t have to consider the cost. All he has to do is buy extremely expensive wines, tell people how good they are, be hailed as an expert, and collect exorbitant consulting fees! Here is my challenge to all the Robert Parkers of the world: Don’t tell me about anymore superb wines that can be had for the bargain price of $40 a bottle; I don’t want to hear it! Go out and fine me a truly good bottle of wine for $6.95; that I want to hear about.

And with all of the wine now coming in from places like Australia, South Africa, Chile, and Argentina, there are ample opportunities to find some real gems at low prices. Many wines are priced solely on snob appeal: “If we charge less than $20 a bottle, people won’t think it’s any good.” But with so many wines to choose from, if one looks, one can find the exceptions - wines selling for less than $10 a bottle that are clearly better than some other wines costing two or three times as much. But you have to sample a lot of wines to find these gems.

I recently read an article in the Wall Street Journal about how hard it is to find a great American Chardonnay even for $50! Life is full of problems. Here is the telling part, though. Buried in the article is this gem: “In fact, as far as we can tell, if a winery wants its new Chardonnay to be taken seriously, it needs to charge at least $50 and probably more.” So the pricing in many cases has nothing to do with the quality.

So let’s out smart the wine snobs. My belief is very strongly that any numbskull can go out and spend a lot of money and get a great bottle of wine. You don’t have to know anything; just buy the most expensive wine you can find. However, it takes real skill, knowledge, and ability to find a great bottle of wine for less that $10, or even less than $5 a bottle, although it can be done.

France
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Unfortunately, much of the world’s best wine, of all types, comes from France. Bordeaux, Burgundy, Champaigne, Chablis, Rhône, Beaujolais, Loire, Alsace, Vouvray, etc. Does it get any better than this?

I say “unfortunately” because France is also where the French are. Talk about snobbery! Those ungrateful *******, if it weren’t for we Americans, they would all be goose-stepping and speaking German now! How many Americans died so that France and the rest of Europe could be free? And yet they have no gratitude whatsoever; in fact, they are down right rude.
If you want to really annoy your French friends, though, don’t talk about WWII, instead remind them that every single grapevine in Bordeaux is grafted onto a native North American rootstock! That’s right, all of the grapevines in France producing all of that super-premium wine are actually part American! Not only did we save them from the Germans, we saved their wine industry!! This is a long story involving a little bug known as the phylloxera, and we don’t have time to go into it now. If you are interested in learning about it, let me know.

But the French do know their wine. One reason is they have been at it for so long. The best sites in Bordeaux were known five hundred years ago. There was the great quality ranking done in 1855.

Sadly, most of the French wines have gotten way too expensive, and it will be very difficult to find any that meet our “great value” criterion. But we will keep looking!

Tasting
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I went to a vineyard association meeting recently where we tasted twenty wines at one sitting. Sometime buyers will taste a hundred wines in a day. There is only one way to sensibly do this sort of thing. First, you taste only a small sip of each wine, and then you spit it out without swallowing. At these tastings, you are provided with a spitting cup for just this purpose. Kind of gauche, but that’s how it’s done, by necessity. This is standard practice in the industry.

This methodology creates a problem in that you can’t really tell much about a wine by taking a small sip and then spitting it out. There have been so many times that I tasted a wine, thought it was good, took a bottle home, and then concluded that something must be wrong because it’s not that good. The difference is due to several factors, I believe. First, at home, I have more than a small sip. Also, I actually swallow it, so the taste buds on the back of my tongue come into play and I get the full sensory experience of the wine. Another factor is that wine will change when it is exposed to air (oxidation). For some wines, especially young reds, this is usually good. They need air in order to open up. And finally, most wines are meant to be consumed with food. A good steak and red wine complement each other, for example. So when you have wine with food, the wine may well taste a lot differently than when you sipped it at the wine store.

All of this means that those little sips that are spit out can be very misleading. So, before recommending any wine, if at all possible, my wife and I will consume a whole bottle with a meal. That way, we get the full expression of the wine as it “breathes” (is exposed to air over some period of time), complements the food, and activates all of our taste buds.

Dessert Wines
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First of all, let’s distinguish between true dessert wines and wines that are just sweet. As mentioned previously, most wines are meant to go with food. Dessert wines are, you guessed it, for serving with dessert. They are sweet, in order to co-ordinate with the dessert, but they are more than just a sweet wine. The best, such as Sauternes, Port, and high-end German Rieslings are structurally balanced with acidity and sweetness such that they are truly remarkable creations. They have a backbone to support the sweetness. Without the support structure, sweet wines tend to be “flabby” and uninteresting.

My favorite dessert wine is Sauternes. I mean a true Sauternes from that region of Bordeaux; don’t be fooled by something from California labeled “sauternes” – this will undoubtedly be a very poor wine. But real Sauternes is ethereal. Sauternes has always been a very expensive wine due to the production process (which I don’t have time to go into here), but the prices have now hit the stratosphere, so I don’t buy them anymore. I have two bottles left in my cellar. We’ll never find one that meets the “great wine value” criterion.

Ports are also excellent dessert wines. Port and something chocolate, what a combination! Again, only get the real thing, from Portugal, not from California or Australia (especially not Australia). Fortunately, there is a greater supply of real Port available, and reasonably priced ones can still be found. Occasionally, you can find one that meets my “great value” criteria.

Our Mission
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Our mission is to find great wine at less than $10 a bottle, and the Holy Grail is a great bottle of wine for less than $5 a bottle.

Recommendations
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Reds
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1) duo
This is a Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot blend from the Maipo Valley of Chile. Very good, luscious, deep, with rich flavors. The price should be sevne or eight dollars a bottle, a great value. Look for it or another blend from Chile. 4/1/08

2) Two Buck Chuck Shiraz
If you live near a Trader Joe's, go buy one bottle of each variety of the Charles Shaw wines. Decide on your favorite, and then stock up. Of the reds, I like the Shiraz the best. It's a little more structured than the Cabernet, which I thought was a bit soft (but still worht trying). 2/17/08

3) Chateau de Segries
This is from the Lirac region in France (in the Rhone Valley). It is a plummy, spicy wine with a nice cherry color. It has enough complexity to be interesting, but not overly pretentious. Very good now, but will also keep. Don't pay more than $9.95 a bottle. 1/23/08

4) La Terre
This California shiraz is a steal at $5.95 a bottle. I got the 2003 vintage, but take whatever is available. It has good structure and nice, ripe, full bodied flavors. A very good red wine; I'm going to stock up on this one. 12/18/07

5) American Pinot Noir
Pinot noir is the great grape variety of Burgundy in France. Wine made from this grape is earthier and more subtle than most other red wines, such as cabernet. And a little lighter. Sublime is a good way to describe it. But almost all real Burgundies are extremely expensive due to low production and high demand. Look for a reasonably priced American pinot noir from California, Oregon, or Washington. I also found one from New Zealand that was very interesting. 10/25/07

6) Beaujolais
This is a region in France that produces a very distinctive light, red wine made for early consumption. It is made from the Gamay grape, which doesn’t do much anywhere else in the world, fermented in a special way, and made to be drunk young. It is light and very grapey – a good red wine for summer. There are three grades of Beaujolais wine. Wine labeled as Beaujolais can be made from grapes grown anywhere in the region, so it is considered to be less fine. It's usually the best value, though. Beaujolais Villages can be made only from grapes grown in certain designated villages that are more highly regarded for grape growing. Finally, wine from a set of named villages (e.g. Brouilly, Morgon, Fleurie) are the finest.

I am not going to recommend any specific wines, since there are many good ones and prices tend to be low. Buy some and pick your own favorites. The named village wines will be too expensive, so stay with a plain Beaujolais or a Beaujolais Villages. Don’t pay more than our ten dollar limit; you should still have plenty to choose from. 7/16/07

7) Col Des Vents 2004
This one is from the Corbieres region in southern France, right up next to the Pyrenees mountains bordering Spain. In the past, this area was the considered to be the hinterlands and of no particular interest, but now it is one of the regions in France that people are looking to for good wines at a reasonable price. The quality has gone up, but prices can still be reasonable. The principle grape varieties here are Carignan, Grenache Noir, Cinsault, Syrah, Merlot, and Cabernet Sauvignon. The best estates age their wine in new oak for twelve months or so. The 2004 Col Des Vents is an outstanding red wine; berry flavors, well structured and balanced, with a smooth finish. I got it for $6.95 a bottle, and at this price it is one of the greatest red wine values I have come across. Buy it! 4/20/07

8) Dom Martinho 2001
In 1992, The Rothschilds of Chateau Lafite fame in Bordeaux bought a hugh estate in the Alentejo region of Portugal, fixed it up, and started producing quality wines. The flagship label is Quinto do Carmo, and the “second” wine (less fine) is Dom Martinho. It is made primarily from the Tempranillo grape with some Cabernet Sauvignon and others. It reminds me of an aged Bordeaux, which is perhaps not surprising given the owners. If you want to get an idea of what Bordeaux-style wine is all about without breaking the bank, try this one. I got the 20001 vintage at a close-out sale for $5.95 a bottle; with the case discount, that comes out to a little more than five dollars a bottle, a stunning value! You probably won’t get it this cheap, but at anything less than $10 a bottle, go for it! Don’t worry too much about the vintage. 4/20/07

Whites
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1) Premius Sauvignon Blanc
Golden yellow in color, buttery lemon and tangerine tastes. Very good as an aperitif or with seafood as a first course. 2/4/08

2) Espiral Vinho Verde or any other reasonably priced Vinho Verde
Vinho Verde is a wine region in northern Portugal. It is Portugal's most distinctive and best contribution in the way of white table wine. The name literally means green wine, but it describes the wine' s fresh, underripe style, not it's color, which is almost always water-white. The grape variety is Alvarinho. It is deliberately picked early, and the wine is bottled young, prior to the secondary fermentation. The result is a dry, clean, acidic wine. Most Vinho Verdes are also slightly sparkling with scintillating little bubbles. Very refreshing. 12/11/07

3) Angove’s Bear Crossing Chardonnay
This is from Australia (you know by the name). They are making a lot of good wine in Australia nowadays. The problem with a lot of it is that it is too high in alcoholic content for me. A lot of them are 14%. It’s very sunny in Australia, and the grapes consequently get very ripe. All of that sugar in the juice means a high alcoholic content. When buying Australian wines, be aware of this.
This wine has gobs of flavor balanced with some oak. Very good. Cheap, too. I got mine on a close-out sales so it was a very good buy. Look for it, but don’t pay more than six dollars a bottle or so. 7/16/07

4) Comte de Galeyran
This is from an obscure region in France called Limoux, which is in the Western Languedoc part of southern France. The wine is called Blanquette de Limeaux. It is a sparkling wine made from an also obscure grape – Mauzac. The wine is produced in the traditional Champagne method of individual bottle fermentation. It is an excellent Champagne substitute. I got it at Trader Joe’s for less than six dollars a bottle, a true wine value if I ever saw one. 7/16/07

5) Arancio Chardonnay 2003
One doesn’t often see Sicilian wines, especially varietals such as Chardonnay. Sicily is volcanic in origin, so its soil is generally acidic. This wine is very interesting; golden yellow, melon flavors, mellow but sharp. Very crisp and clean. A favorite of mine, especially since it is out of the ordinary. I got it for $7.95. 4/20/07

6) Rockbridge St. Mary’s Blanc
Rockbridge Vineyard is located near the charming little town of Raphine in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia (easily accessible from I81 at exit 205). This wine is made from the Vidal grape, a French-American hybrid that does well in Virginia. There is also some Virginia Chardonnay in this wine, (fifteen percent, I think), which makes for a complementary combination. The Vidal tends to be soft and fruity, while the Chardonnay adds some counter-balance. The wine is fermented completely dry. A very nice find, especially at nine dollars a bottle, and a good opportunity to try a Virginia wine. But you can only get it at the winery, so the next time you are traveling I81, take the time to pay them a visit. 4/20/07

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