Tag Archives: $10 wine

Planet Bordeaux II: More French wine you can afford

BordeaixAnyone who says the French don ?t understand social media or the importance of cheap wine need to note the Planet Bordeaux promotion that has been going on for the past couple of years. Almost all of the wines I ?ve tasted as part of the campaign have been well made ? several even better than that ? and have cost around $10. Plus, we got to tweet about them.

Friday night ?s Twitter tasting featured six whites and two roses. The Twitter conversation was quite lively, as these things usually are, I wasn ?t able to add my curmudgeonly wisdom after the first couple; my Internet connection has been spotty for the past month or so, and it was up and down on Friday. Still, the wines were impressive ? more, after the jump:

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Mini-reviews 41: Eurl Patrick, Fougeray de Beauclair, Chateau Massiac, House Band

Reviews of wines that don ?t need their own post, but are worth noting for one reason or another. Look for it on the final Friday of each month:

? Eurl Patrick Barri re Village 2010 ($10, purchased): I bought this wine because I didn ?t expect it to be worth drinking (I am the Wine Curmudgeon, after all). But it wasn ?t French bad ? green and tannic. Instead, it was California bad ? overripe and extracted, without tannins or acid, and made in the grocery store style.

? Fougeray de Beauclair Bourgogne 2009 ($20, purchased): Another attempt to find drinkable red Burgundy for less than $40 with mixed results. Slightly rustic (pencil lead on the front and a rough, interesting finish), but not much fruit, even for Burgundy, and a bit thin in the middle.

? Ch teau Massiac Minervois 2008 ($15, sample): Surprisingly fresh and fruity (black cherry?) red blend from southern France that includes syrah. But still dark and almost brooding; I'm not sure how it would fare with Americans used to Central Coast merlot.

? House Band White NV ($10, sample): This white blend takes full advantage of California's plethora of cheap, quality grapes and solid winemaking skills. It's dry and fruity, but not overdone in any way.

Wine of the week: Ludovicus Blanco 2011

wn_204120118063741Last week ?s discussion about the book ?Grape-a-hol ? made me wonder: Do I do enough to find $10 wine that doesn ?t taste like grape juice with alcohol? Are the wines I review worthy of being reviewed?

Then I found the Ludovicus ($10, sample) in my database, and felt a whole lot better about what I do and how I do it. This Spanish white is the kind of wine that the big multi-national wine companies claim they make, but know, deep down, that they don ?t even try to do. It has a little bit of citrus fruit, but this wine isn ?t about fruit. Rather, it ?s made with the Spanish version of grenache blanc, so it has spiciness, minerality, and even a bit of honey ? a combination that I don ?t taste in a lot of other wines. It ?s surprisingly complex and yet still drinkable at the spur of the moment, something else that hardly ever happens.

I wrote in my notes ?No idea how this wine can be this good at this price. ? It ?s almost certain to make the 2013 $10 Hall of Fame, and is highly recommended ? another reason why Ole is Spain ?s best wine importer.

Wine of the week: 14 Hands Hot to Trot Red 2010

14 Hands Hot to Trot RedChateau Ste. Michelle, the Washington state multi-national that does the 14 Hands, is on a roll. It placed four brands in the top 20 in a recent survey of best-selling $10 wines, only one less than E&J Gallo and as many as Constellation and The Wine Group (which does Cupcake) combined. That ?s a very Rocky-like performance given how powerful its competitors are.

Equally as impressive is that a 14 Hands wine is a wine of the week for the second time this year (despite this one ?s very silly name). I try not to do that sort of thing, but it ?s difficult to overlook 14 Hands ? combination of quality and value. Which, no doubt, is why Chateau Ste. Michelle sells so much wine.

The Hot to Trot ($9, purchased) is a red blend ? mostly merlot, syrah and cabernet sauvignon ? that is simple but well made. It doesn ?t try to do too much, and it doesn ?t taste like winemaker Keith Kenison used his chemistry set to take it in any one direction. Look for some spice and lots of black fruit and that earthy Washington state feel, especially in the back.

Very nicely done for the price, and should please anyone who wants a glass of red wine but doesn ?t want to make a big issue of it. Pair it with basic red wine food like meat loaf and mashed potatoes.

Wine of the week: Feudo Arancio Stemmari Sangiovese 2010

Stemmari SangioveseThe display at the wine shop did its job: ?Sangiovese from Sicily! ? How could the Wine Curmudgeon pass that up?

That ?s because Italian sangiovese usually comes from just one place, Tuscany, and it makes some of the most famous wines in the world. It ?s also not cheap. The Stemmari ($8, purchased), on the other hand, was cheap and comes from a part of the world hardly known for sangiovese. But regular visitors here know how much I appreciate the Sicilian wine renaissance, and Feudo Arancia is a top-notch Sicilian producer.

The Stemmari did not disappoint. No one will ever confuse it with a high-end Chianti or Super Tuscan, two of the best-known Tuscan sangioveses, but it tastes exactly like sangiovese. To be honest, I had my doubts whether it would. The wine is a little short, in that its flavors end abruptly, but what is there is varietally correct ? sour cherries, a little earthiness, a little cedar. It ?s just not as well developed as in a better quality wine.

Which does not imply there is anything wrong with the Stemmari, and especially at this price. You get more than $8 worth. Drink this with any red sauce, pizza, and even burgers. Just don ?t tell a wine snob it ?s from Sicily until after they taste it.

What do Americans want? Cheap wine, of course

The blog always enjoys an uptick in visitors in September, and the final four months of the year are always the most read. But a funny thing happened on the way to the usual increase in visitors: It has been a surprisingly large increase, some 5 percent over the last four weeks, and was generated by would-be wine drinkers looking for cheap wine.

How do I know this? Because I can track the search terms people use to get here, and there is no mistaking what they were looking for — and looking for in numbers they haven ?t in years past:

? Top cheap wines 2012

? Best cheap wines 2012

? Best cheap red wine and best cheap white wine

Notice the trend? More, after the jump:

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Wine of the week: Chateau Saint-Florin 2011

Chateau Saint-FlorinWhat makes this French white blend interesting is that there doesn ?t seem to be anything interesting about it. It doesn ?t have a cute label, no one wrote glowing prose about it, and there isn ?t a hip and with it QR code. It doesn ?t come
from an especially fashionable region of France and it ?s almost impossible to find any reference to it on the Internet.

None of which matters in the least. The Saint Florin ($10, purchased) is a solid and sturdy white Bordeaux, a blend of semillon and sauvignon blanc from the Entre-Deux-Mers area within Bordeaux ? a part of France where dozens of wines like this are still made that offer value and quality. Call it an honest wine
from Jean-Marc and Catherine Jolivet, who are fourth-generation
winemakers from Soussac in Bordeaux and own another small producer
in Entre-Deux-Mers.

The Saint Florin is fresh and clean, with some grassiness, a little citrus and a sort of stony finish. Plus, it's just 12 1/2 percent alcohol, and all of this makes it a terrific food wine. I paired it with with shrimp and linguine, and I don ?t know that the result would have been all that much better with a more pricey Sancerre or a sauvignon blanc from Napa.