Category:Red wine

Wine of the week: McManis Petite Sirah 2020

by Wine Curmudgeon Posted On

McManis Petite Sirah bottle
McManis Petite Sirah 2020/$9-$15

Grab this $10 California red for holiday drinking and dining

The Wine Curmudgeon has long had a soft spot for petite sirah, a red grape that once did wonderful things in California and then faded into the distance, usually because it wasn’t cabernet sauvignon. These days, it’s mostly used as a blending grape, often for sweet red blends.

So when I find a $10 petite sirah from a top producer, I get that much less curmudgeonly. The McManis Petite Sirah 2020 ($10, purchased, 13.5%) is not just a great petite sirah, but a great cheap wine from perhaps the best producer of affordable wine in California.

This is another McManis wine that demonstrates that it’s still possible to make quality, cheap, and varietally correct wine in California. It’s oh so petite sirah — plummy and rich with sweet dark fruit, dark and interesting, but also fresh and vibrant. It’s not smooth or too heavy or sloppy at all, in the way some wines made with less popular grapes are made to convince us they taste like something else.

This is food wine for the holiday season and highly recommended – so much so, in fact, that it’s all but certain to make the shortlist for the 2023 Cheap Wine of the Year.

Thanksgiving wine 2022

by Wine Curmudgeon Posted On

turkey holding a wine glassFour Thanksgiving wine 2022 suggestions

How about another Shakespeare quote this year? Or, more exactly, not quite a Shakespeare quote? “Gnarly, dude.” Because, after the past couple of years, it’s time for a good laugh.

So enjoy the holiday, and especially these Thanksgiving wine 2022 suggestions. The blog’s guidelines for holiday wine buying are here.

• McManis Pinot Noir 2020 ($12, sample, 13,5%): Lots of nits to pick with this California red — too much oak, it doesn’t need all that vanilla, and the acidity seems a bit out of whack. Having said that that, this is about as close to legitimate pinot noir from California at this price as you’re going to find. It’s fruity (berries and cherry), but not overblown, and the tannins are soft. It is wine, and not smoooth.

• Anne Amie Pinot Gris 2021 ($20, purchased, 13.9%): Would that all wine at this price was this well made and this true to its variety and terroir. This Oregon white has lots of lime, but is also balanced — a bit of mineral and some zippy acidity. Highly recommended from one of the WC’s favorite producers.

• Veuve du Vernay Brut NV ($9, purchased, 11%): There are, apparently, warehouses and warehouses jammed with inexpensive French sparkling wine, made with methode Champenoise for $10 or so and that are well worth drinking. This is one of them, soft but more than just fizzy, with some lemon and apple fruit and a longish finish. Imported by Patriarche USA

• Les Maitres Vignerons de la Vidaubanaise Le Provencal Rose 2021 ($15, purchased, 13%): Well-made and spot on Provencal rose, so there is garrigue, barely ripe berry fruit, and oh so stony. If you can find it for $13, buy a couple of bottles. Imported by Michael Corso Selections

More about Thanksgiving wine:
• Thanksgiving wine 2021
• Thanksgiving wine 2020
• Thanksgiving wine 2019
• Wine of the week: Cantina Cellaro Luma 2019
• Wine review: Patricia Green Dollar Bills Only Pinot Noir 2020

Wine of the week: Matchbook Cabernet Sauvignon 2020

by Wine Curmudgeon Posted On

Matchbook Caberrnet sauvignon bottle
Matchbook Cabernet Sauvignon 2020/$10-$18

Top-notch, and even age worthy, California cabernet for around $12

The Wine Curmudgeon is speechless – almost type-less, in fact. The Matchbook cabernet sauvignon is a great California wine that most of us can afford and that is widely available.

How often does that happen anymore?

So, gathering my senses to give this wine its due: Know that the Matchbook Cabernet Sauvignon 2020 ($12, purchased, 13.9%) does all it is supposed to do:

• Tastes like California cabernet and not a red wine called cabernet that has been blended with who knows what to take out all the cabernet characteristics.

• That means dark berry fruit that opens up and becomes less brambly, fine-grained tannins, a bit of cedar, and even sort of dusty. It’s almost age worthy. And I still can’t believe I’m writing this.

• It’s not from Napa or Sonoma, but from the less expensive Dunnigan Hills in – gasp – the Central Valley. It’s not aged in the most expensive oak. And it’s blended with petit verdot, malbec, and petite sirah, all of which adds to the whole.

How impressive is this wine? There’s a Winestream Media critical rave from someone who agrees with me about as often as I buy $150 rose.

Highly recommended, and certain make the shortlist for the 2023 Cheap Wine of the Year (as well as next year’s Hall of Fame.

Expensive wine 162: 10000 Hours Cabernet Sauvignon 2019

by Wine Curmudgeon Posted On

10000 Hours Cabernet Sauvignon 2019 bottle
10000 Hours Cabernet Sauvignon 2019/$26-$40

Once again, Washington state producer offers quality and value – and just in time for the holidays

Thank you, 10000 Hours.

In an era when finding expensive wine worth writing about has become past difficult, this Washington state producer has done the blog proud twice.

The first was in January, with its red blend. Today, we have the 10000 Hours Cabernet Sauvignon 2019 ($30, sample, 14.5%), which takes the red blend in a decidedly Washington state cabernet direction.

That means a dense, rich red wine that doesn’t taste like it came from Napa – so less obvious oak, more intriguing tannins and lots and lots and lots of black fruit. So layers and layers, though hardly subtle. The winery’s tasting notes probably wax a little more poetic about espresso beans than they should, but I’ll forgive the excess. The wine is that well done – and it’s hardly the kind of style that I wax much poetic about.

The rest of the technical stuff: Five grapes the blend, though 84 percent cabernet; the grapes come form Washington state’s Red Mountain, a highly acclaimed region; and this wine will age maybe 8 or 10 years, another plus at this price.

Highly recommended, and just the thing for a holiday dinner for a red wine drinker who wants to go a slightly different direction.

Wine of the week: Cantina Cellaro Luma 2019

by Wine Curmudgeon Posted On

Cantina Cellaro Luma 2019 bottle
Cantina Cellaro Luma 2019/$10-$16

Does this Sicilian red herald a return to the island’s history of quality and value?

One of the first regions to suffer from the evils of premiumization was Sicily. First, the hipsters got hold of it and bounced up the prices of the best wines, from the Mt. Etna region. Second, importers followed suit with many of the not so best wines, riding on the hipster wave, and value slowly disappeared.

I wrote this in 2010, and it’s almost universally no longer true – and not just because the post is 12 years old. Rather, it’s because Scilian wine has gone In such a different direction.

So imagine my shock when I saw this bottle, from a long-time favorite producer, at a local retailer. I practically dropped it on the floor, I was so excited.

And my excitement was deserved. The Cantina Cellaro Luma 2019 ($12, purchased, 13%) is Sicilian red wine that speaks to what cheap wine should be. It’s easily one of the best Sicilian nero d’avolas I’ve tasted in years — varietally correct, with dark, fresh and almost plummy fruit, a bit of spice, some substance and body. In this, it’s an an honest wine. No one has tarted it up or smoothed it out or boosted the alcohol to appeal to the so-called American palate.

Highly recommended, and a candidate for next year’s Hall of Fame. And yes, serve it with red sauce, sausages, and pasta as the weather cools.

Imported by Gonzalez Byass

Wine review: Patricia Green Dollar Bills Only Pinot Noir 2020

by Wine Curmudgeon Posted On

Patricia Green Cellars Pinot Noir "Dollar Bills Only" bottle
Patricia Green Cellars Dollar Bills Only Pinot Noir 2020/$17-$20

Bring on the smoke taint paranoia – even when there isn’t any smoke taint

Smoke taint is one of the least understood phenomena in the wine business. Little research was done previous to the West Coast fires of the past several years, and the most important work was done in Australia. Which, given how different Australia’s terroir is from the rest of the world, might mean those results don’t necessarily apply elsewhere.

Nevertheless, certain American wine consumers know all – like the Patricia Green Dollar Bills Only Pinot Noir 2020 ($19, purchased, 12.9%) is tainted to the hilt.

Sigh. Would these people do their own plumbing or electricity the way they pass judgment on wine?

First, Patricia Green is a top producer, and it’s accusing the winery of a great malfeasance to say it’s selling smoke-tainted wine. Second, the wine tasted as it should to me, as well as to the others I tasted it with. And I like to think I’ve picked up a few things in more than two decades of tasting wine professionally.

The wine didn’t taste of smoke. It tasted like Patricia Green pinot noir. That is, a stunning Oregon pinot noir from a top producer that is heads and shoulders above almost everything else at that price. It’s berryish and sort of herbal and funky, while the tannins do exactly what they should in a pinot noir.

So why all the hoopla? Two reasons, I think. First, it costs less than $20, and we all know that great pinor noir has to cost much more than that. Second, it’s not big, it’s not sweet, it’s not smooth, and it’s not dark and rich. Which, as we all know, is what point noir is supposed to taste like these days.

So nuts to the wine geeks. Highly recommended, and just the thing for the holidays.

Wine to drink while you’re waiting for fall to arrive

by Wine Curmudgeon Posted On

John Fogerty wearing a flannel shirt
If flannel is good enough for Fogerty, then it’s good enough for the WC

Because it’s time for flannel shirts already, dammit

October has not been very October like, even for Texas. We’ve set a bunch of record highs, and it was in the 90s several days last week. But the blog’s unofficial weather forecaster has promised (or, what passes for that, given it’s weather we’re talking about) that this week will be rainy and coolish. Which is enough for the WC.

So three wines to drink while I’m waiting for that forecast to come true.

• Domaine Les Deux Moulins 2020 ($17, purchased, 12%): Well-made French sauvignon blanc from the Loire with a little more citrus fruit and a little less flintiness than I expected. Having said that, it’s professional and quite drinkable. Look for some lemon zest and an enjoyable, almost pithy quality at the end. May cost two or three dollars less elsewhere in the country. Imported by Paris Wine Company

• De La Beche Morgon Cuvée Vieilles Vignes 2020 ($17, purchased, 13%) Sophisticated, top-notch Beaujolais, with more heft and less soft fruit (still berryish) than the wines from that French region that I’m used to. Needs food — and when do we say that about Beaujolais? Highly recommended. Imported by Vintage 59

• Boutinot Cuvee Jean Paul 2021 ($10, purchased, 12%): A sort of goofy blend for rose (grenache 60%, cinsault 30%, syrah 10%) that made love it all the more. Delightful, fresh, sort of fruity (cherry?, berry?) French pink. It’s not especially crisp, but it’s not supposed to be. Imported by Boutinot USA

More wine to drink. …
• … while you’re waiting for the avocado pits to sprout
• … when you’re waiting for an ice storm
• … when everyone (and it does seem like everyone) wants to buy your house