Category:Wine of the week

Wine of the week: Mont Gravet Rose 2021

by Wine Curmudgeon Posted On

Mont Gravet rose bottle
Mont Gravet Rose 2021/$7-$15

It’s Labor Day weekend, which means it’s time for this French pink

Yes, the Wine Curmudgeon tastes a lot of crappy wine. Yes, I have to deal with knucklehead PR people and talk to too many marketing types who think their brand is special because it’s their brand, all $25 and sweet, smooth of it.

So why do I keep doing this? Because I get to tell the blog’s readers – who care about wine in a way that almost no one else in wine does – about wines like this.

The Mont Gravet Riose 2021 ($10, purchased, 12%) is that kind of extraordinary wine. Each vintage, it delivers uncommon value and does so for around $10. Is it any wonder the Gravet rose has been in the Hall of Fame for almost as long as there has been one?

The 2021 is dry and very Provencal in nature — so wild strawberry fruit (but without the garrigue), stony, and clean. And, once again, it shows what the underappreciated cinsault, the grape used to make the wine, can do with rose.

What else to know? The Gravet is a step up from the blog’s beloved La Vieille Ferme pink, which is a recommendation in and of itself, and a reminder that you don’t need to spend more than $10 for great rose.

I wish all of those flocks of PR and marketing people could understood that – we’d all have more fun drinking wine.

Imported by Winesellers Ltd.

Wine of the week: Two Birds One Stone 2019

by Wine Curmudgeon Posted On

Two Birds One Stone bottle
Two Birds One Stone 2019/$10-$12

Cheap French red wine that’s worth drinking – who knew it still existed?

I tasted the 2018 version of this wine last summer, and was impressed. It wasn’t quite wine of the week material, but it reminded me of the kind of everyday red wine that was common not all that long ago.

And, of course, no longer is.

So get out the debit cards, Bitcoin, and even cash — because the Two Birds One Stone 2019 ($10, purchased, 12.5%) is wine of the week material. It’s a fruitier and more polished effort than the 2018, and a noticeable step up in quality.

The wine is made with carignan, usually used for blending. That’s because the grape can be difficult to work with as a varietal since it has lots of tannins and acidity. These were noticeable in the 2018 (the wine geek term for the result is “rustic”), but are well under control in the 2019. In fact, it’s dark and deep in flavor, with lots of almost syrah-style black fruit and a finish that reminds me of the legendary Mont Gravet Carignan.

Drink this – and you can even chill it – with almost any summer roast, beef or chicken. There is apparently a 2020, but I haven’t seen it or tasted it.

Imported by Wine Circle Imports

 

Wine of the week: Ant Moore Sauvignon Blanc 2021

by Wine Curmudgeon Posted On

Ant Moore sauvingon blanc bottle
Ant Moore Sauvignon Blanc 2021/$10-$17

So far, New Zealand’s sauvignon blanc Armageddon seems to be less Armageddon-y than thought

There are certain things you can count on hearing all the time in the wine business – each harvest, despite challenges, is going to produce an excellent vintage, for example, or that bad weather will cause devastating shortages and higher prices in a region’s wine production.

And no, I have never been able to figure out why they aren’t mutually exclusive conditions. But that’s wine for you.

I mention this to note that the Ant Moore is the third New Zealand sauvignon blanc to appear as a wine of the week since forecasts of the New Zealand sauvignon blanc Armageddon last fall. So maybe, just maybe, the devastating shortages weren’t quite so devastating?

The Ant Moore 2021 ($10, purchased, 12.5%) is the kind of wine that represents the strength of the country’s production: Professional, varietally correct, and a step up from supermarket quality. There isn’t too much grapefruit, the finish is almost minerally, and something that sort of resembles tropical fruit in the middle – always a sign of a well-crafted Kiwi sauvignon blanc.

And all for $10. No wonder this is exactly the kind of kind of wine that if you like, you buy a case.

Imported by USA Wine West

Wine of the week: Barossa Valley Estate GSM 2018

by Wine Curmudgeon Posted On

Barossa Valley GSM bottle
Barossa Valley GSM 2018/$10-$17

This Aussie red blend speaks to terroir, and at a more than fair price

The last several years have not been kind to the Australian wine business – a tariff wall in China, one of its best markets; drought and oversupply at home; and a continuing lack of interest in the U.S.

So those of us who are looking for value have been able to find more and more of it with Aussie wine.

The latest example is the Barossa Valley Estate GSM 2018 ($12, purchased, 14%), a Rhone-style red blend from a quality Australian producer that has been on the blog before. The 2018, more grenache than syrah and mouvedre, is a step up from the 2017 and takes this style of Australian wine where I haven’t seen it in a long time.

That’s because it’s peppery and spicy, but not all that jammy, something that was rarely the case with Australian wine in year’s past. On the other hand, there’s enough red fruit from the grenache so that it tastes like where it came from. In all this, it’s a substantial, but not a heavy, wine and I enjoyed drinking it a lot more than I thought I would.

Drink this with summer barbecue. Highly recommended, and a candidate for the 2023 Hall of Fame and Cheap Wine of the Year. And who thought they’d ever read that on the blog about a wine from down under?

Imported by Delegat USA

Wine of the week: Protocolo Blanco 2020

by Wine Curmudgeon Posted On

Protocolo Blanco bottle
Protocolo Blanco 2020/$6-$10

Have $8? Want white wine for dinner? Then it’s time for the Protocolo Blanco

Once again, Spain is the answer to the question for those of us who want quality wine – and even to be able to buy it in the supermarket — but don’t want something smoooth or priced to hit some marketer’s sweet spot (which is much more than $10).

The Protocolo wines have made regular appearances on the blog for the past couple of years; the rose has been an especial value. So it’s no surprise to find the 2020 version of the Blanco ($8, purchased, 12%) here: It’s intelligent cheap wine, made to fill a market niche that too many others refuse to acknowledge.

This vintage of the Blanco isn’t as full and rounded as the 2019 was, and it’s a a little short in the back – the finish just sort of drops off. But it’s certainly worth $8 (and maybe a couple of bucks more, depending on how sad the rest of the wine section looks). It’s a blend of two especially Spanish grapes with some lemon fruit (though the wine is not especially tart). There’s also a dose of stone fruit in the middle.

In other words, just the white wine for a blazing hot Dallas summer — or summer anywhere else, for that matter.

Imported by Fine Wines from Spain

Wine of the week: Badenhorst The Curator Red 2020

by Wine Curmudgeon Posted On

Badenhorst The Curator Red label
Badenhorst The Curator Red 2020/$10-12

One more South African wine that shows its producers care about value and quality

Several years ago, a South African wine trade group official told me his country needed to premiumize – focus on selling more expensive wines in the U.S.

Boy, am I am glad so many producers in South Africa ignored that advice.

The most recent example is Badenhorst’s The Curator Red 2020 ($12, purchased, 14%), a red blend that has about half cabernet sauvignon and is rounded out with shiraz, cinsault, and grenache. It’s not exactly a Rhone blend knockoff, not with all that cabernet, but the effect is sort of the same: A big wine, with lots of dark fruit (blackberries and almost plums?) and hearty, but not unpleasant, tannins. And, somehow, a little rustic, so no one will confuse it with one of those supermarket red blends that is so smoooth.

In other words, just what we look for on the blog – an everyday wine that offers much more than it costs. It needs food, but that’s not a problem – burgers during the week, barbecue during the weekend, and pizza when you don’t feel like cooking.

Imported by Broadbent Selections

Wine of the week: Shannon Ridge Sauvignon Blanc 2021

by Wine Curmudgeon Posted On

Shannon Ridge sauvignon blanc bottle
Shannon Ridge Sauvignon Blanc 2021/$10-$14

Sauvignon blanc offers value and quality – so, yes, it can be done in California

Every once in a while, someone emails to ask why there aren’t more California wines on the blog. The reason, of course, is price – there just aren’t many $15 or less from the Golden State that offer the kind of value and quality that readers here expect.

A very pleasant exception is the Shannon Ridge Sauvignon Blanc 2021 ($11, sample, 13.8%). It’s classic California sauvignon blanc at a more than fair price.

That’s possible for a couple of reasons. First, the grapes come from Lake County, where the land is less expensive and allows producers more leeway with pricing. Second, the producer has a history of terrific cheap wine, including the sometimes hard-to-find Wrangler Red.

So let’s count our blessings. The sauvignon blanc features some lemongrass, some lemon zest, some stoniness, and even a little tropical fruit in the middle that doesn’t get in the way. In other words, there’s a lot more going on than most supermarket whites at this price, and no one has sugared it up (another problem with California wine at this price).

Highly recommended, and a candidate for the 2023 Hall of Fame. This is summer wine, chilled, either on its own or with any number of summer salads (grain bowls, even, for younger wine drinkers) or grilled poultry.