Tag Archives: Rickshaw

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.

Rickshaw’s sauvignon blanc shows it’s still possible to find quality California wine that offers value at a price we can all afford

Once upon a time, in a wine world far different from ours, sauvignon blanc was made in a variety of styles. French winemakers took a couple of approaches – one in Bordeaux and one in the Loire. New Zealand wines, new to the market, featured what would become its trademark grapefruit style.

In California, the same grape produced a decidedly different wine, with less minerality than France and hardly any grapefruit. The wines were aromatic, with lemongrass and what we used to call “freshly mowed lawn,” and the fruit was more lemon than anything else.

Today, though you can still find some of the French style if you’re willing to pay for it, it’s almost impossible to find the California style. Most producers, and especially at the blog’s prices, make New Zealand-style sauvignon blanc and leave it at that (unless they sweeten the wine up).

Which is why I was so excited to find this previous vintage of the Rickshaw ($12, purchased, 13.5%) at a Dallas retailer.

This is classic California sauvignon blanc, and if it’s a little short in the back, chalk it up to age. The 2020 bottle in the link shouldn’t have that problem. This is a delicious, well-made, and fairly priced white wine. It has those California cut grass aromas, as well as some stoniness and citrus fruit that is more lemon than grapefruit. And it’s very fresh, despite its age.

Highly recommended, and I say this even though Rickshaw wines have always been kind of geeky, aimed more at restaurants than at retailers (and its more expensive label mate, Banshee, is even geekier). And yes, I know the brand has been sold to a burgeoning Big Wine company; so far, though, so good.

Chill this wine, bring it out for fall barbecues or spaghetti and clam sauce, and be glad someone in California is thinking about quality at this price.