Tag Archives: inexpensive wine

Wine of the week: McManis Petite Sirah 2020

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

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 to drink while you’re waiting for fall to arrive

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

Wine of the week: Protocolo Tinto 2019

protocolo tinto label
Protocolo Tinto 2019/$6-$12

Once again, Spain’s Protocolo delivers a dependable and reliable cheap wine

Want to know the biggest problem with the various Spanish Protocolo wines, which have made regular appearances as wines of the week over the past couple years? They’re so well priced and so well made that when I buy wine, I buy them just to drink – even when I should be buying different wine to review.

The Protocolo Tinto 2019 ($7, purchased, 14%) is no exception. It’s the kind of dependable, reliable, and professional red wine that tastes like red wine that we see less and less of these days. (And is one of the reasons why I worry about the future of the wine business.)

What does that phrase, dependable and reliable, mean? It means the Protocolo tastes like tempranillo from Spain, and offers value at this price. So maybe some black cherry fruit and the requisite temparnillo acidity and background tannins. It’s not very complicated, and there won’t be orange zest or Rioja dustiness, but this is a $7 wine and not a $30 one.

And don’t worry about the 14 percent alcohol – that seems more of a labeling trick to evade the Trump tariff than an actual measurement. The wine is neither especially hot or rich; rather, it’s just a red wine to have with dinner, whether takeout pizza or meatloaf. Plus, it’s so widely available that even the crankiest among you should be able to buy it.

Imported by Fine Estates from Spain

 

Wine of the week: Mont Gravet Carignan 2020

mont gravet carignan
Mont Gravet Carignan 2020/$10-$12

Consider this an ode to one of the great cheap red wines of all time

This wine has been reviewed on the blog five times, with nary a cross word. Sometimes, it’s not as amazing as at other times, but it’s always worth drinking, always a fine value, and has always cost around $10.

So it’s no wonder the Mont Gravet Carignan ($12, purchased, 12.5%) is a wine of the week yet again. The 2020 vintage of this French red is as it always is — simple but not stupid, professional, and a stunning value in an age when a fancy label and a slick marketing campaign add $10 to the cost of a very ordinary bottle.

Carignan is usually a blending grape, but can make terrific varietal wines with the proper care. Which would be here — berries and cherries, maybe some spice, soft tannins, not too much acidity, and a front, middle, and a back. Think about that for a moment. How many $20 wines have you tasted that are overwhelmed by too much fruit or sugar or whatever?

And, let’s get this out of the way: Is it sweet? It is tart? Is it jammy? No!!!! (and yes, I meant to use all of those exclamation points.)

Highly recommended, and certain to return to the Hall of Fame next year. Chill this a touch if you want (ice cubes, even), and drink it with any late summer barbecue or fall casserole if and when the weather gets cooler.

Imported by Winesellers Ltd.

 

Mini-reviews 161: The “even more wines that make me cranky” edition

women drinking wine
“How can a wine taste like berry-ish 7Up?”

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 wines that made the WC even crankier than usual

• Segura Viudas Brut Rosada NV ($10, purchased, 12%): This Spanish sparkling wine was once among the greatest of cheap wines. Now, thanks to consolidation, it tastes like poorly made Prosecco, too sweet, too soft, and with flabby red fruit. Can someone tell me what the point of that is? Imported by Freixenet USA

• Montes Sauvignon Blanc Limited Selection 2021 ($15, sample, 13.5%): This Chilean white doesn’t hearken to the country’s great days of sauvignon blanc. It’s a one-note wine (lots and lots of lemongrass) that doesn’t taste especially Chilean. Imported by Kobrand

• TerraNoble Cabernet Sauvignon Gran Reserva 2018 ($18, sample, 14%): Chilean cab that tastes more like California — which, if the tasting notes are correct, is supposed to be the case. Sweet dark fruit and very rich, but not much else going on. Why do producers take the tannins out of cabernet? Imported by Winebow

• Borgo San Michele Mariage Brut NV ($18, sample, 11.5%): The multi-decorated bottle is more interesting than the wine, which is berry-ish 7Up – soft and boring, even for this style of Prosecco. Imported by Taub Family Selections

Wine of the week: Mont Gravet Rose 2021

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.