Category:Wine of the week

Wine of the week: Honoro Vera Verdejo 2020

by Wine Curmudgeon Posted On

Honoro Vera Verdejo 2020 bottle
Honoro Vera Verdejo 2020/$7-$12

$10 – or even less – delivers a Spanish white that offers quality and value

Those of us who drink a lot of cheap wine will see Honoro Vera on store shelves a lot. Sometimes, when we buy it, it’s a fine wine and great value. Sometimes, not nearly as much.

I’ve never been able to figure out this inconsistency, but I’ve accepted I need to take my chances with the brand. Fortunately, the Honoro Vera Verdejo 2020 ($9, purchased, 13.5%) is firmly in the first group – not just value and quality, but a wonderful example of verdejo, a Spanish white grape.

In fact, the wine does this even though it’s blended with sauvignon blanc, which is usually a sign in Spanish wine that the producer is trying do a little winemaking, either to nudge the wine in a cheaper or more smoooth direction.

But not in this case. The wine is little less tart than some verdejos, and there is a little more tropical fruit in the middle, courtesy of warm climate sauvignon blanc. But it still has that crisp and fresh lemon fruit that verdejo is known for, and sort of pithy finish is interesting.

So simple, but not stupid, and varietally correct. And just the thing for a busy holiday season when it’s time for dinner, even if dinner is only takeout chicken.

Imported by RTM Imports

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.

Wine of the week: The Wolftrap White 2020

by Wine Curmudgeon Posted On

The Wolftrap White bottle
The Wolftrap White 2020/$9-$12

South African white blend reminds us how wonderful $10 wine can be

Once, in those long ago days when quality $10 wine was not an exception, white blends made with less common grapes were not unusual. Today, of course, in the age of sweet $25 supermarket chardonnay, one has to look long and hard to find those kinds of white blends.

Unless one knows to look in South Africa.

The blog has featured a number of these wines, several from Boekenhoutskloof, a producer in the Western Cape. The 2020 vintage of their The Wolftrap White ($10, purchased, 13.5%) is another excellent example of what can be with these kinds of grapes and quality winemaking.

I tasted the wine twice – once, shortly after it was released, and about a year later. The difference was quite intriguing. At first, it was a little heavy with less fruit (and mostly from the viognier). It was still balanced and enjoyable, but not what I expected.

But the year’s age gave it more fruit (apricots, maybe some citrus), and more of that wonderful viognier-driven oiliness, Plus, it was less heavy and more fresh. All in all, a lot more than I expected for $10.

Highly recommended, and a Hall of Fame quality wine. Chill this, serve it for Thanksgiving, or just keep it around the house because it’s so enjoyable.

Imported by Vineyard Brands

 

Wine of the week: Scaia Rosata 2021

by Wine Curmudgeon Posted On

Scaia rosato bottle
Scaia Rosato 2021/$10-$15

This Italian pink is just the wine to mark the blog’s 15th annual birthday week

Let’s get the bad news out of the way first. This wine, one of the all-time great cheap roses and just the thing for wine of the week for birthday week, is going to cost a little more this year. Plus, it could be difficult to find, given all the pandemic shipping woes and that it’s always a little late getting to this country.

Having said that, the Scaia Rosata 2021 ($12, purchased, 12.5%) – glass cork and all — is well worth all of the aggravation. It’s almost as well done as the legendary 2020 vintage, which earned Cheap Wine of the Year honors in 2022

Know that this vintage is a little more French in style, which means it’s crisper, more direct, and more minerally, without that interesting touch of softness Italian roses sometimes have. But there is just the right amount of strawberry fruit, a touch of some herbal thing, and everything else is in the right place – so no faux sweetness, lots of freshness and that intriguing color. Credit much of this to rondinella, the red grape used to make the wine and that shines here.

Highly recommended – as it always is. Yes, Thanksgiving, and Christmas, and New Year’s . And, yes, wine to buy and drink and enjoy and remember why we like wine.

Imported by Dalla Terra

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.

Wine of the week: Les Deux Moulins 2020

by Wine Curmudgeon Posted On

Les Deux Moulins wine label
Les Deux Moulins 2020/$10-$18

Yes, sauvignon blanc from France’s Loire can cost less than $15

One of the great joys  of wine is tasting sauvignon blanc from the Loire in France for the first time. Even these days, when most sauvignon blanc takes after New Zealand, there’s still something deliciously different in a Loire wine.

The catch, of course, is price (and yes, I’m as tired of writing that as you are of reading it). These are everyday wines in France, where paying less than $7 a bottle is common. But the same wines can cost $15 or more in the states.

Which brings us to the Les Deux Moulins 2020 ($17, purchased, 12%). Why is a $17 wine the wine of the week? Because it costs as little as $10 in some parts of the country, and I’m not going to pass up the chance to review a top-notch Loire because a Dallas retailer wanted extra margin.

The Les Deux Moulins is a well-made Loire sauvignon blanc with a little more citrus fruit and a little less flintiness than I expected. Having said that, it’s professional and quite drinkable, and doesn’t taste of grapefruit. There is some lemon zest and an enjoyable, almost pithy quality, on the end. It’s not big and powerful, but it’s not supposed to be.

This is seafood wine – simple grilled fish (even fried catfish) as well as chicken breasts marinated with lemon juice, olive oil, herbs, and garlic.

Imported by Paris Wine Company

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