The Wine Curmudgeon

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

Housekeeping, visitors, and ratings at the Wine Curmudgeon

A couple of items as we start the new year:

• Final tally on visitors for 2009 -- we had a 114 percent increase from the beginning of the year. Thank you so much for coming to the blog, as well as for the kind emails and comments.

• The blog's Technorati ranking is 28,906 out of the 100 million or so that the company tracks, which is pretty impressive for a one-man operation like mine. But that's not all. The Wine Curmudgeon is tied for 1,652nd place among food and wine blogs, with luminaries like Napa Valley Wine Radio. That impresses even a crank like me.

• I'm thinking about making some minor design changes, like dropping the "You might also like" items that are automatically generated for each post. They don't seem to add much. My goal is to streamline the way the blog looks and to make it easier to use. Any thoughts are welcome, either in the comments here or by sending me an email.

Wine Curmudgeon, Technorati ranking

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

Happy New Year from the Wine Curmudgeon

The blog is off today, but the Wine Curmudgeon will return on Monday with the 2010 $10 Hall of Fame. Next week, in fact, will focus on cheap wine and where it is headed in the New Year.

Until then, enjoy this, courtesy of deflares at You Tube -- the second in holiday series of what happens when you don't have a screwcap. Happy New Year.