Tag Archives: California wine

Expensive wine 165: Roederer Estate Brut NV

Roederer Estate Brut bottle
Roederer Estate Brut NV/$25-$35

Can a $27 wine deliver value? Yes, if it’s this Roederer bubbly

Buy this wine for $27, as I did, and you’ve found one of the world’s great values in sparkling wine.

How can this be, WC, some of you are asking – a $27 wine? Trust me. When I wax poetic about a $27 wine, it’s a value.

Now, some of the reason for this is that sparkling wine prices, including many previously affordable cavas and Proseccos, have gone wacko for reasons I won’t whine about now. Just know that it’s difficult to find a quality bubbly for less than $20 any more. Hence, $27 isn’t as ridiculous as it used to be.

The other thing to know? Roederer makes terrific sparkling wine, and California’s Anderson Valley is a terrific place to make sparkling wine. And it doesn’t hurt that a major Champagne house owns Roederer, so there isn’t much of a learning curve.

This bottle ($27, purchased, 12.5%) is an example of all of that, a blend of more chardonnay than pinot noir. So look for firm, tight bubbles (and lots of them), as well as lots of fruit (lemon, green apple). It’s also very fresh – much fresher than I expected – with a hint of yeast in the back.

Highly recommended, and especially if you can find it for around $25. And yes, this is the perfect wine for The Holiday that Must Not be Named next week.

 

2023 Turner Cheap Wine of the Year: Matchbook Cabernet Sauvignon 2020

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

California’s Matchbook Cabernet Sauvignon 2020 is the blog’s sixth annual Turner Cheap Wine of the Year

Cabernet sauvignon is supposed to be California’s glory, yet finding one that tastes like cabernet at an affordable price — or even almost affordable — is practically impossible. This wine, which used to be more than adequate, is now so sweet that I had to spit it out when I tasted it the other day. And the most popular California cabernet on Wine-Searcher costs $89.

So thank you, Matchbook. Thank you, thank you, and thank you, for showing that it’s still possible to make quality California cabernet that we can afford to buy. How well done is this wine? The Cajun Oenophile, who dislikes fakey California red wine even more than I do (and also misses the Big Guy) agrees with this choice. That speaks volumes.

What makes the Matchbook ($12, purchased, 13.9%) so terrific? It’s an honest wine, with dark berry fruit that opens up and becomes less brambly, but doesn’t approach smooth. Plus, the tannins are actually part of the wine, the oak doesn’t get in the way, and there’s maybe even a bit of cedar — just like the $100 cabernets. And availability is quite good, too.

Check out the award’s shortlist here, which also explains why the award has been named in honor of the late Mack Turner, the Big Guy. Selection criteria are here; I considered wines that cost as much as $15 to take into account price creep and regional pricing differences.

More Turner Cheap Wine of the Year:
• 2022 Turner Cheap Wine of the Year: Scaia Rosato 2020
• 2021 Turner Cheap Wine of the Year: MAN Chenin Blanc 2019
• 2020 Turner Cheap Wine of the Year: Le Coeur de la Reine Gamay 2017

Wine of the week: Broadside Merlot 2019

Broadside Merlot bottle
Broadside Merlot 2019/$12-$19

We celebrate the New Year with an affordable and professional California red

Quality, affordable California wine – let alone quality, cheap California wine – has long been in short supply. The reasons vary; the results are too often sappy and soft wines that really don’t taste like wine.

So, in 2022, I made a conscious effort to look for California wine that met the blog’s criteria, but wasn’t from McManis. One of the results: two wines from Broadside, the cabernet sauvignon and, today, the merlot.

Broadside’s 2019 merlot ($14, purchased, 14.5%) is a well-executed California red that does something that doesn’t happen often anymore. It tastes like merlot; most of the varietal at this price are either sweet, made to taste like cabernet sauvignon, or both.

Instead, it has merlot’s characteristics, even at such a high alcohol level. That means it’s less rigid in structure – call it rounder instead of pointed, and noticeably less tannic. There is some black fruit and even a little spice. All in all, a nicely made bottle of wine, even if the company that turns out Broadside also pumps out shelves and shelves of supermarket plonk (as well as the surprisingly pleasant Stephen Vincent wines).

This is food wine, most notably red meat. But it would be amiss with a weeknight meatloaf, either.

Holiday wine gift guide 2022

wine racks at a storeThe Wine Curmudgeon’s holiday wine gift guide 2022 — value, value, and more value

Once again this year, the WC received the same sort of news releases for holiday season wine gifts — lots of overpriced items that hardly anyone actually needs. That means you, Yeti wine cooler.  Plus, and as always, lots and lots of plus for the Coravin opener, which begs the question: How many Coravins does one person have to have?

Which doesn’t those of us much good who want quality and value, as well as a gift we will enjoy. Which brings us to the blog’s 2022 holiday wine gift guide. As always, keep the blog’s wine gift buying guidelines in mind:

• Give the gift of the blog, and save the WC from all that Substack subscription advice.  One year of the newsletter at 20 percent off, just $56. Click this link to send a gift subscription. Use the email address of the person getting the subscription where it asks for an email, add a credit card, and they’ll get the $10 Hall of Fame, the Cheap Wine of the Year, and all of the rest — plus the rants and analysis that have made the blog what it is.

• Windows on the World, 35th edition ($21): There are probably a trillion wine books, including mine (which is almost out of print). But the Zraly is almost certainly the best overall look at wine and how to make sense of it. I own a couple of editions, and it has been the textbook for most of the college wine classes I have taught. And if it seems like I recommend it regularly, that’s because it’s that good.

• The Language of Yes Syrah 2020 ($40, sample, 13.9%) is a collaboration between Randall Grahm, who is about as iconoclast as wine gets, and E&J Gallo, which isn’t. Ever. In any way. Hence, it’s an interesting and well-made wine that doesn’t taste particularly a Randall Grahm wine, and especially a syrah. Remember this? Instead, it’s less meaty, but fruitier (black fruits) and more rich. And, because it is what it is, it has received high praise from the Winestream Media. That’s something that doesn’t always happen with Grahm wines.

• Yes, wine glasses seem sort of cliched — until yours break and you need new ones And then they’re expensive and confusing.  But a company called made-in has quality glasses — four red and four white for $69.

Photo:”More Wine Racks” by Didriks is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

More holiday wine gift guides:
• Holiday wine gift guide 2021
• Holiday wine gift guide 2020
• Holiday wine gift guide 2019

Mini-reviews 163: Black Friday edition 2022

People waiting in line for Black Friday
“Why does the WC keep reviewing wines that are hard to find?”

Reviews of wines that don’t need their own post, but are worth noting for one reason or another. Look for it on the fourth Friday of each month. This month: four whites for Black Friday 2022

• Bodega Marichal Sauvignon Blanc 2021 ($12, sample, 12.7%): Uruguayan sauvignon blanc that is spot on and resembles the old Chilean style (some lemon, maybe some minerality). Simple and not stupid. Availability may be a problem. Imported by Global Vineyard Importers

• Adega de Portalegre Conventual Reserva Branco 2018 ($11, sample, 12%): Why would I get a sample for a wine that isn’t available in the U.S.? Your guess is as good as mine. Too bad it isn’t: this Portuguese white blend is subtle and interesting, with some stone fruit and spice.  Imported by Wines of Portugal

• Bodegas Godelia Blanco 2020 ($12, purchased, 13.5%): One more label with little U.S. distribution, but find it for $15 or less and you have a terrific buy. Spanish white is subtle — almost stone fruit, but more crisp than viognier and not as rich as chardonnay. A fine food wine. Imported by Europvin USA

• Pavette Sauvignon Blanc 2020 ($12, purchased, 12.2%): The California white (though the link says it’s from Washington state) gets points for effort. Not many are still bothering to make quality wine at this price in California. It’s a bit too tart, though, and needs a little more fruit other than the grassy aroma.

Wine of the week: Matchbook Cabernet Sauvignon 2020

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: Rickshaw Sauvignon Blanc 2021

Rickshaw sauvignon blanc
Rickshaw Sauvignon Blanc 2021/$9-$18

The California white remains a stunning wine – both for quality and value

The Wine Curmudgeon stumbled on the Rickshaw last fall, when I picked up a previous vintage at a Dallas retailer that was closing it out. It turned out to be was one of the best stumbles I’ve made in a while.

Rickshaw, for lack of a better term, is the second label for, again for lack of a better term, a hipster brand called Banshee (which is owned by one of the less big Big Wine companies). It wasn’t seen much at retail before the pandemic, but started showing up on store shelves in the past couple of years as restaurants cut back.

Which, again, is our good fortune. The 2021 Rickshaw ($15, purchased, 13.5%) is one of the best wines at this price that I’ve tasted in years. There’s nothing halfway about it, no shortcuts to lower quality and increase margins, no dumbing down to bamboozle the consumer. This is classic California sauvignon blanc, the kind of wine that made the state famous in the first place.

It has subtlety – never easy in sauvignon blanc – as well as depth and length, and even a sort of complexity – again, not easy in this kind of wine at this price. Look for lemongrass and lime zest and lots of stoniness.

Highly recommended, and certain to make the Hall of Fame next year and the shortlist for the 2022 Cheap Wine of the Year. Which is the catch – price is all over the place. It costs $16 on wine.com and as much as $18 elsewhere; my local retailer sold out of the $12 past vintage in a couple of days.

But find the Rickshaw for $15 or less (and it’s out there at that price), and it’s easily the best value California white you’re going to taste this year.