The Wine Curmudgeon

Wine of the week: Vignerons de Caractere 2007

The Caractere (about $7, purchased) is cheap French wine the way the Wine Curmudgeon remembers it -- interesting and inexpensive, and not tasting in any way like California wine. In fact, if it had a screwcap, the Caractere would be close to perfect.

It's a red blend of syrah and grenache from southern France that doesn't have much fruit (plums, perhaps?), but does have lots of earthiness and enough tannins and finish to make it pleasant to drink. Serve this with any wintery stew or beef dish, or use it to make coq a vin.

Highly recommended and a candidate for the 2011 Hall of Fame (hint, hint to the Texas wine business, which produces some quality syrah and grenache).

wine reviews, red wine, French wine, wine of the week, cheap wine, $10 wine

Wine of the week: Tamás Estates Pinot Grigio 2008

The Wine Curmudgeon has been taking a lot of heat lately about his love of cheap wine, especially from colleagues in the wine writing business. They're probably just jealous. They have to wade through oceans of very ordinary $20 wine to find something interesting to write about, while I get to write about the Tamas Estates pinot grigio.

This wine has long been a favorite, despite going in and out of availability, changing names (it was once called Ivan Tamas), and redoing its label at least once.

The current vintage (about $10, purchased) is more pinot grigio-like than the ones I remember, and I'm pretty sure it was called pinot gris back then. Pinot gris is more or less the same grape as pinot grigio; the difference is mostly in the style the winemaker uses. This is made mostly with pinot gris, but it's less turpentine-ish and has more fruit (soft lemons?) than similarly priced pinot grigio from Italy and California.

Highly recommended, and a candidate for the 2011 Hall of Fame. Drink this chilled on its own or with salads, and it's even soft enough to handle spicy foods like jambalaya.

cheap wine, $10 wine, inexpensive wine, pinot grigio, white wine, wine reviews, wine of the week

Wine of the week: Reds 2007

The only thing the Wine Curmudgeon misses about corks are the ones that came with Reds before the wine switched to screwcaps. They had pictures of famous Reds -- Lenin, Trotsky, Stalin -- and its slogan was "Wine for the people."

Fortunately, the wine under screwcap is as dependable as ever and the slogan is still applicable. The current vintage (about $10, purchased) is a blend of zinfandel, carignane and petite syrah. It's more Italian in style than I remember, but there is enough fruit (dark berries) and spice to make Americans happy. Plus, it doesn't have any of the unpleasant tannins and acid that often come with this style of wine. Its producer, Laurel Glen, is another example of how to to use Lodi fruit to make great, cheap wine.

This is a big wine, with 14.5 percent alcohol. It's balanced, so the alcohol isn't a problem, but it's probably better with food than on its own. That means red sauces and sausages, as well as other winter fare. I drank it with my pal Jim Serroka's epic borscht, loaded with cabbage, potatoes, beef and pork, and it worked quite nicely.

Reds, red blends, California wine, $10 wine, cheap wine, inexpensive wine

Winebits 111: Cheap wine edition

A roundup of cheap wine news, in honor of the 2010 $10 Hall of Fame:

• Bubbly prices lose fizz: If you're in France, that is. Champagne prices were discounted dramatically for the New Year's holiday by producers desperate to move product. Grocery store chains like Carrefour and Auchan were selling real Champagne -- the stuff made in the Champagne region, and not elsewhere in France -- for less than euro10 (US$14) a bottle. That's almost unheard of, but the Champagne business is in serious trouble. Exports in the first half of the year plunged 45 percent. (And I'm sorry about the bold-faced lead-in for this item -- I couldn't help myself.)

• Value wines from Tastings.com: The Web site run by the Beverage Testing Institute released its 2009 best buys, and the results were encouraging for those of us who like cheap wine. "Fortunately for those on a budget, the under $20 categories are ripe with good tasting wines. And for the first time since we started this competition earlier this decade, some of the highest scoring wines were not just under $20 and $15, but under $10." The site rated wines in 16 categories, including top 10 red and white wines for $8 and less.

• Kevin Zraly on cheap wine: The author of the Windows on the World wine book, which is probably the best introductory book on wine, offers his take on the best wines in the world for $15 or less.

cheap wine, inexpensive wine, $10 wine, value wines, Kevin Zraly, Tastings.com

The 2010 $10 Wine Hall of Fame

Four wines made the 2010 $10 Wine Hall of Fame and a fifth was an honorable mention, the most since the Wine Curmudgeon started the Hall almost a decade ago. Details are here. The wines are:

• A California chenin blanc from Vinum Cellars called CNW, for Chard-No-Way.

• Notorius, a white wine from Sicily.

• La Ferme de Gicon, a red blend from the Rhone that may take the place of the Solaz as my favorite red wine for $10 or less.

• vini merlot from Bulgaria, which may be the best cheap merlot I've ever tasted.

The honorable mention is the 2007 Bota Box cabernet sauvingon. Its price works out to $5 a bottle, which is a steal. However, it's not a full-fledged member of the Hall because I can't vouch for any newer vintages, and I'm not sure how long this vintage will be available.

In fact, despite the weak dollar, 2009 was a banner year for cheap wine. Besides the five inductees, we have an honorable mention and only two wines dropped out -- the legendary Osborne Solaz red blend, which is being phased out, and the Falesco Vitiano wines, which cost more than $10 because of the weak dollar.

For previous $10 Wine Hall of Fames:

• 2009
• 2008
• 2007

cheap wine, $10 wine, inexpensive wine, $10 Hall of Fame