Tag Archives: wine of the week

Wine of the week: Chateau Bonnet Blanc 2022

Wine of the week: Chaeau Bonnet Blanc 2022
Chateau Bonnet Blanc 2022/$8-$20

This French white blend remains one of wine’s great values

The blog’s final wine of the week is a French white blend, Chateau Bonnet Blanc — one of the great cheap wines of all time. It has been a wine of the week five times and has been a regular in the Hall of Fame since the first hall appeared on the blog in 2008.

Of course, wine being wine, I haven’t reviewed the Bonnet Blanc for three years. For one thing. I haven’t seen it much on store shelves since the 2018 vintage. For another, when I have seen it, the price has been as high as $20, which is ridiculous. It’s a great cheap wine, not a mediocre supermarket wine.

So be glad I found the Chateau Bonnet Blanc 2022 ($12, purchased, 13%) in time for this post. This vintage is mostly what it has always been, a traditional white Bordeaux blend of sauvignon blanc and semillon. The semillon is still noticeable, and it adds some richness and a little spice.

But there’s also a touch more lemon fruit and less minerality than in previous years, so the wine tastes a bit less French in style and more like New Zealand. Still, that could be a vintage difference and not a deliberate attempt to focus group the wine.

Regardless, I bought six bottles of it (with a new label, even) before tasting it, and I haven’t been disappointed. You can’t offer higher praise than that, can you?

Imported by Monsieur Touton Selection

Wine of the week: Stemmari Grillo 2022

Stemmari grillo bottle
Stemmari Grillo 2022/$8-$15

This Italian white is a great cheap wine from a great cheap wine producer

Those of you paying attention will remember this Italian white made the shortlist for the 2024 Turner award for cheap wine of the year, which will be announced next week.

Which is why I’m using it as this wine of the week. It’s that good.

Sicilian wines have long been a staple of the blog, even after premiumization took terrific $8 and $10 wines and boosted their prices to $12 and $15 without increasing quality (and, yes, I’m looking at you).

But Stemmari, along with a couple of other producers, continued to fight the good fight. The Grillo ($8, purchased, 13%) shows its commitment to the quality wines that most of us can afford to drink. Even Wine-searcher, despite its focus on the most expensive wines in the world, says nice things about grillo like this: “It has become a viable contender for the quintessential Italian table white: light, easy-drinking and often associated with very good value.”

In this, the Stemmari is classic: Nutty. Spicy. Green apple and stone fruit. Fresh. Clean. Which is why, when I go to Jimmy’s in Dallas (which has a Stemmari display), I buy a couple or three bottles. You should, too, when you get a chance.

Imported by Prestige Wine Imports

Wine of the week: Mionetto Prosecco NV

Mionetto Prosecco bottle
Mionetto Prosecco NV/$8-$15

This Italian sparkler shows why Prosecco has become so popular in the U.S.

One of the most fascinating things that has happened in wine over the blog’s history has been the rehabilitation of Prosecco, the Italian sparkling wine. Some 20 years ago, it wasn’t that important in the U.S. — or especially well made, either.

Then, one rather large producer in northern California changed all that. It brought La Marca to the U.S., and — as if by magic — the quality of most Proseccos improved and they started offering value around $10. In fact, by most measures, Prosecco is the best selling style of sparkling wine in the country.

The Mionetto ($8, purchased, 11%) illustrates this change perfectly. Is it taut and sharp? Nope. Is it layered and complicated? Nope. Those are Champagne qualities, and Prosecco never aspired to that. Rather, it wanted to be an everyday sparkler, which means soft, sweetish, and easy to drink — Sunday brunch and Mimosas, anyone?

The Mionetto is softer than I prefer, but it has decent enough bubbles for a Prosecco, since the bubbles aren’t supposed to be too bubbly. But it’s not too sweet, there’s some decent lemony fruit, and even a touch of yeast. In all, there is much more going on than one would expect, and especially for the price.

Drink this for a holiday dinner, to toast the New Year. or just because you want something different to drink with Asian takeout.

Imported by FXM USA

Wine of the week: Monte Antico Toscana 2019

monte_antico_bottle
Monte Antico Toscana 2019/$9-$16

This Italian red blend offers quality and value for just $10

This Italian red wine used to show up around Dallas for as little as $5 a bottle, and though it’s not that cheap anymore, it’s still $10 in much of the country.

In other words, just kind of quality cheap wine we have celebrated for almost 17 years on the blog,

This vintage of the Monte Antico Toscana ($10, purchased, 13%) remains an example of the classic, everyday bottle of Italian red wine. About the only thing missing from this sangiovese blend (for those of us of a certain age, of course) is the wicker basket.

Look for sour cherry fruit, but it’s also a bright, almost fresh wine, despite its age, and the tannins are pushed way, way back. This vintage, which is the current one, seems to have a bit more depth than the last one I tasted, which was likely the 2016. There was also a 2018, though I didn’t see it in Dallas.

Highly recommended, and just the thing for takeout pizza when the holiday crush gets overwhelming.

Imported by Empson USA

 

Wine of the week: Les Costières de Pomérols Picpoul 2022

Les Costières de Pomérols Picpoul bottle
Les Costières de Pomérols Picpoul 2022/$8-$16

This vintage of the French wine is different from the last, but that doesn’t make it bad

Wine is not necessarily supposed to taste exactly the same every vintage, no matter how hard Big Wine tries to make it otherwise. Because, as I learned a long time ago, vintage differences are one of the things that make wine wine.

Case in point: The Les Costières de Pomérols Picpoul 2022 ($12, purchased, 13%). Picpoul is a white grape that is known for the tart wine it makes — hence, lip-stinger. The 2022 is softer and not as tart as previous vintages of the Costieres de Pomerols, but that is neither good nor bad. It’s just different.

The 2022 has more golden delicious apple fruit (sort of geeky wine descriptor alert!) than the more typical lemon and citrus. But the other bits of a well-made picpoul are there, including a touch of green herbs and that classy, clean finish. Chill it and drink on its own, or with almost anything that isn’t big, red, meat.

It’s also worth noting that picpoul wines remains tremendous values, despite everything else going on in wine. I checked the Wine-Searcher list of most popular picpouls for this post, and 18 of the top 20 cost $15 or less.

A wine of the week doesn’t get much more curmudgeonly than that, does it?

Imported by Kysela Pere & Fils

Wine of the week: Cellier des Dauphins Reserve Grenache-Syrah 2019

Bottle of Cellier des Dauphins Reserve Grenache-Syrah 2019
Cellier des Dauphins Reserve Grenache-Syrah 2019/$10-$15

A red Rhone that is both affordable and enjoyably rustic

The WC has often had a difficult time evaluating red wines from France’s Rhone region. Many of them have a quality that can be off-putting — an earthiness that can sometimes get out of hand, producing a rough and occasionally unpleasant wine. The catch is that earthiness is an important part of these wines, so how much is too much?

The Cellier des Dauphins Grenache-Syrah 2019 ($12, purchased, 14%) offers an example of the correct amount of earthiness. It’s just what one would expect from this sort of wine at this price — rustic and earthy, but not disagreeably so, and surprisingly balanced given its grenache-style red fruit, which can be too jammy. It’s not for all tastes — it’s hardly smoooth — but for those who want to see what the Rhone is like but don’t want to spend $40, this wine do the trick.

Which shouldn’t be surprising, since the Cellier des Dauphins wines usually provide value, and I’m especially fond of the rose.

The red is a food wine, and needs something substantial — takeout pizza perhaps, as the holidays get closer. Or even something beefy for an informal holiday dinner.

Imported by Monsieur Touton Selection

Wine of the week: Marqués de Cáceres Verdejo 2022

Marqués de Cáceres Verdejo bottle
Marques de Caceres Verdejo 2022/$7-$15

Spanish white is cheap, available, and enjoyable — what more do we need?

The Marques de Caceres verdejo is a long-time blog favorite; three times a wine of the week before this, and always consistent, well-made and a value. Yes, it’s a supermarket wine, but that describes its availability and is not meant as a slight to its quality.

The 2022 ($10, purchased, $13.5%) isn’t quite as impressive as previous vintages, but that there are vintage differences in a $10 wine sold at supermarkets says a lot about the wine, the producer, and the importer (another WC favorite, Vineyard Brands). It means everyone involved understands cheap wine is about more than just being cheap.

This vintage is clean, simple, and enjoyable. There isn’t much going on but tart lemon fruit from the veredejo grape, but there really doesn’t need to be. This is wine for dinner in the middle of the week, whether with takeout chicken or if you want to use up the can of tuna in the pantry with some leftover couscous. Or, even, if you just want a glass during all of the holiday bustle.

No muss, no fuss — because that’s what we really want from wine, don’t we?

Imported by Vineyard Brands