I don’t know if the economic boom of the 90’s or exceptional growing conditions are responsible but it sure seems wine has become more popular among the masses and that there a quite a few good labels out there. Nowadays, your average grocery store might carry 100+ names and a liquor store thrice that.
I’m curious if you have a good recommendation of a tried & true vintage. Not something rare and only of a particular year, but a good table wine for dinner or the patio that been tasty every time you’ve tried it.
I’ve been in a bit of a rut and would like to expand my palete’s world a bit. My favorite for the last several years have been the California Cabernets. If you promise you won’t deplete the stock, I’ll recommend a few.
Estancia (Jeez, this one’s good, year in and year out),
Wild Horse, Clos du Val and Simi. They’re all about $14 - 16. Save a few bucks with Wente or Clos du Bos.
Do you have a favorite variety and vinter you’d like to share?
Black Opal and Black Marlin (Australian wines)
Bully Hill =-- upstate NY wines with terrible distribution. They have a HUGE list of wines, but you have to order direct from them in most cases.
I’ll second Cal on the Black Opal. Cost Plus/World Market usually has it for 7.99, which is about half of what it’ll cost in stores.
Trader Joe’s has an unusually good and cheap selection, since they rebottle under their own label.
I’ll admit I’m biased, since I make my own, but it seems that there’s a lot of really good stuff out there for 5-10 bucks a bottle recently.
Bolla can be good, as can Concha Y Toro and Louis Jadot. Another strategy I have is to learn the names of good and consistent importers, and try a range of what they offer.
Mostly what I do is to find grapes that I like and buy those, regardless of who made them. Mourvedure, Cabs, Shiraz, etc. Since I don’t drink white wine unless forced, this works well.
Rosemont Estates is good. Lots of variety with them, some outstanding blends too.
I am partial to Giovello Pinot Grigio (and it’s less than $8 a bottle, though not as good as Santa Margerita, which I definately recommend if you like Pinot Grigios).
Hogue Cellars makes very good Reislings.
And my favorite Pinot Noir is by J vineyards…but I usually drink Camelot Pinot Noir because I’m pretty frugal, very tasty stuff.
I’m usually a bargain shopper as far as wine goes…my next purchase will be a Cakebread Sauvignon Blanc. A fraction of the price over the Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay they make. Makes me happy to appreciate unpopular varietals
As for California Cabs, I adore Cloverdale Ranch and Clos Pegase (though Clos Pegase is a bit pricey.)
I have been trying Cabernet Francs to avoid paying too much…if you’re especially adventurous, try Shooting Star’s Cab Franc. Soft velvety yet still lush wine. Made me want to lounge naked by a fire. Mmmmmmm
Cal! I took a tour of Bully Hill when I was a kid and lived in Rochester! My mom’s favorite picture of my sister and I is of us sitting outside the vineyard, each with an empty wine bottle filled with wild flowers we’d picked!
Even though I don’t know shit about wine, I got married at a Vineyard in Rochester, New York called Casa Larga, and I always buy five or six bottles of their various wines when I go back home to visit.
Oh my lieu, my idea of pricey is a bit different than your’s I think. Silver Oak is incredible but I doubt there’s anyway I could justify paying that much for a bottle of wine. (Though there is a place out here selling Silver Oak, '97 I believe, maybe a '98 for the low low price of $50 a bottle.) I usaully go for the bottles that are under $15. (and hey, if ya like sweetish wines that come in a box, the mountian rhine ones are drinkable. Not great but a hell of a lot of wine for 7 bucks. Good for parties and cooking too.) [sub]You’re revoking my membership in the wine snob club now, aren’t you?[/sub]
My wife and I enjoy an aggressive cabernet. The current family favorite is Rodney Strong. The 95 was great and now rather pricey. The 99 is quite good.
Canoe Ridge makes great a great merlot. It’s hard to find here in Ohio but worth the look. Very sophisticated.
I’ve also got to agree on the Rosemont Estates Shiraz. (They’re getting some good press here) Avoid their lesser label Rosemont. It’s nowhere near as good and only a few dollars less.
Caveat: I like big, distinctive reds with a fair amount of varietal character, so keep that in mind.
I’m no wine expert, but my favorite wine bargain recently was picking up several bottles of the 1996 Citra Montepulciano D’Abruzzo at a local grocery for under $5 each in a closeout bin. Montepulcianos aren’t for everyone, but as they’re off the Chardonnay/Cabernet/Merlot beaten track, people tend to shy away from them, which keeps the price down – it’s quite easy to find very enjoyable Montepulciano D’Abruzzos for less than $10/bottle. Same thing (to a lesser extent) with the various Sangiovese wines (though they typically run few dollars more) – Sangiovese grapes are one of the more common varieties used in quality Chiantis, if that gives you an idea of their character.
The Lindemans Bin 40 Merlots tend to be consistently drinkable and reasonably priced ($10-$15 in stores, $25-$40 in restaurants).
I love Châteauneuf-du-Pape Rouge (and similar Côtes-du-Rhone reds), but it’s typically more expensive and harder to find, and thus it’s harder to get a feel for which vintners consistently produce good product. It’s also hard to find other people who’re as enthusiastic about it as I am (I like a wine that’s big and strong enough to break every other bottle in the cellar, but a lot of people find it to be too much), so I tend not to buy it, generally opting for something that’s likely to go over better with my wife and our guests.
Of course it all depends on your taste in wine. If you like sweeter wines like Gewurziener (spelling?) or Rieslings, go for Mosel Saar. Actually the Hogue white wines that’ve come out in the last few years have been good too.
For reds try Georges de Boeuf’s Merlot or Cabernet Sauvignon. This is a consistently good, inexpensive wine.
Oh another good red is stuff put out by Rabbit Ridge.
jarbaby: I’ve taken many a tour of Bully Hill, not to mention other Finger Lakes wineries. (I used to live in Rochester, too.) That’s how I first discovered Bully Hill. Sadly, most of the wineries I used to tour have gone under. Happily, they’ve been replaced, so there are still a lot of them.
I can get Bully Hill wines if I look for them, but I can only get a selection of three of four, and they make a LOT more wines that that.
The last time I toured was two years ago. MilliCal got grape juice in the then brand-new tasting room. We ended up buying two bottles of it.
(Secret admission: Another Finger Lakes wine I love is Widmer’s Lake Niagara. Pepper Mill cannot comprehend this. The wine is so “foxy” that it has an aroma similar to Welch’s Grape Jelly. I say that it’s an essential part of a labrusca varietal, and it’s not at all as sweet as Mogen David or Manishevitch. Pepper says it’s just too sweet.)
Sadly, the owner died just within the last year or so.
Still, with wines like “Hamburger Red” and “Love My Goat”, ya gotta love the unpretentious approach. There’s a little liquor store by our summer house in the Adirondack’s that carries a wide variety of Bully Hill.
There are some great Aussie producers: Rosemount Estate, Wolf Blass, etc, but if you want a reasonably priced Australian wine which is guaranteed to be a good drop, try anything from Wyndham Estate. They do a brilliant Cabernet Sauvignon, and some nice shiraz blends. Anything in their “Bin” series is going to be good. I’m not familiar with their whites though.
Another vote for Black Opal, here. Specifically the Shiraz. Lindemans is also great for Australian red - either Cab or Shiraz. My mother swears by a Chilean wine called “Los Boldos” which she buys by the case.
I buy almost all my wine at Trader Joe’s when I want decent stuff. I’ve gotten in the habit of trying their sale wines lately and have decided that you just can’t go wrong there. Most recently they had an Argentinian wine called “Rincon del Sol” for $3 a bottle. I bought a bunch and so far they’ve all been very good (not as good as Black Opal, though).
The best wine I’ve ever had was the house wine at Emeril’s Delmonico Steakhouse in Las Vegas. Unfortunateley, I don’t remember what it was (except for about $100 a bottle).
rackensack: You and I are on the same wavelength. I also adore good Chateauneufs-du-Pape and Cotes du Rhone. In fact, I was just planning tonight’s dinner of ribeye steak and a Cote du Rhone as I opened this thread. I also love these wines with good garlicky lamb chops or assertive roast chicken. But these southern French wines are at their most heavenly with a ripe, runny camembert cheese after dinner.
I also search the sale bins for Chiantis, Montepulcianos, Sangioveses, etc. I’m starting to become seriously attached to Italian wines, and I made the mistake of recently splurging on a $50 Barbaresco. Warning: do not start on the Barbarescos. You’ll never go back.
Are any of you posting about New York state wineries? I can’t tell by the winery names. I find California chards too big, sweet and buttery, and I understand they are this way because California’s warm climate ripens up the grapes too well. I’d like to try a chard from a cooler climate to see if they are more to my taste. Can you recommend any?
puglvr, I’m not a big fan of Chards, but you might try Fat Bastard from Australia. It’s usually about $11 a bottle or so. You also might try some from the Oregon and Washington regions, like Hogue Cellars. The French Chards are usually aged in stainless steel rather than oak barrels, so they tend to be a little cleaner and have more fruity than oakiness/buttery flavor. I don’t know anything about the NY wines though.
There’s a number of great wineries on the east end of Long Island who’s quality is that of California. We make the rounds every year in the fall and go on buying binge. Try a Chard from Hargrave if you can (they just changed names but I don’t believe there’s any bottles available under the new name). Bidwell is also great if you can find it. Palmer and Pindar are a little easier to find…we’ve had good luck with them as well.
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I suspect you’re looking for a good vintner, not vintage
[/nitpick]
Try Christian Mouiex. $7 a bottle. He’s chief winemaker for Petrus, and puts out a very very decent bottle of wine from his family estates. Very fruity, not terribly complex, but not bad, either. It held its own at a blind tasting with my snobbish friends.
