The Wine Curmudgeon

Wine of the week: Chateau de Riviere Chinon 2009

One of the difficulties with deciphering French wine is a label that looks like this one. It's old-fashioned, with nary a hint about what's in the bottle. And what is a Chinon?

Even wine types who are moderately familiar with France are likely to be confused, because Chinon is just not that well known. It's a red wine region in a part of France, the Loire, that is known for white wine if it's known at all. So when someone sees this bottle in a store, it's not surprising if they walk past.

Which would be a mistake. The Riviere ($8, purchased) is fabulous cheap wine, and raises the question yet again of why we don't see this kind of effort from California more often. The Rivere, made with cabernet franc, is a simple wine, but not insulting like so many of its West Coast brethren. Look for some red fruit, maybe a hint of violet, some sweet tannins, a little pepper, and enough acid to balance that odd combination. The wine, also, is not green or unripe in any way, which is often the case for cheap cabernet franc.

It's red meat wine, but also easy enough if you want to drink it on its own. Highly recommended and almost certain to make the 2012 $10 Hall of Fame.

Winebits 202: Cheap wine, postal service, wine on TV

• Drink cheap wine: Slate, which just fired its wine writer, has an odd piece claiming that most wine is overpriced, criticizing Slate for recommending expensive wine, and advocating that we drink wine that costs less than $10 a bottle. Sound familiar? The post is intriguing to say the least, and the comments are so harsh that you'd have thought that Brian Palmer, who wrote it, is telling Americans to run down the street naked. I don't say it's odd because Palmer likes cheap wine; after all, the Wine Curmudgeon is perhaps the foremost enthusiast for cheap wine in the country. Or that he argues that one reason why European wine consumption is so much higher than ours is that prices are so much lower there. Rather, it's the dig that the article takes at Slate, and, by implicaton, departed wine columnist Mike Steinberger. Are some axes being ground?

• Delivering wine by mail: Anyone who doubts that the Congress no longer has a grasp on reality need look no further than this -- a proposal to let the U.S. Postal Service deliver wine. Currently, the postal service is forbidden to handle booze, but the usual group of bi-partisan senators wants to change that as a way to boost revenue for the cash-strapped agency. What their proposal doesn't take into account is HR 1161, the anti-shipping bill that aims to eliminate the very shipping that this bill wants to allow. If I had the stomach for it, I'd look and see which of this bill's sponsors has also spoken favorably about HR 1161. But I don't have the stomach for it, because I'm afraid of what I would find.

• TV wine programs: Kris Chislett at BlogYourWine offers some clear-eyed analysis about why wine makes for a lousy TV show, noting that the programs are usually too long and the format is usually as visually dull as reading a wine magazine. This is something that I have always wondered about; somehow, programs on HGTV about people buying homes are a hit, but wine shows, to quote Chislett, "put me to sleep faster than 4 glasses of Australian Shiraz….laced with horse tranquilizers." He thinks one failing is a lack of personality, which may be true. On the other hand, even someone with a TV persona would have a difficult time making a Wine Magazine-style discussion -- "Doesn't this wine have cheery notes of leather?" -- worthwhile.

Birthday Week begins next Monday

The blog celebrates its fourth anniversary next week, which means a brightly colored chart, a couple of long posts with lots of bullit items, and the annual review of Tormaresca Neprica, the wine that has attracted the most visitors over the past four years.

Plus, of course, prizes -- because the Wine Curmudgeon doesn't celebrate the blog's birthday without thanking the people who have kept me here since 2007. I'll give away a copy of George Taber's new book (hopefully autographed), "A Toast to Bargain Wines"; a bottle of Neprica; two tickets to DrinkLocalWine's fourth annual conference, DLW 2012 in Denver; an EasyLift corkscrew set; and a copy of the new Jacques Pepin cookbook, Essential Pepin (because he's not only a great chef, but a fan of cheap wine).

Each morning next week, in addition to the regular post, there will be a prize post. To win the prize, pick a number between 1 and 1,000 and leave it in the comment section of the post. At about 5 p.m. central each day, I'll go to random.org and generate the winning number. The person whose number is closest to the random number wins the prize -- and no, you can't pick a number someone else has picked. Everyone 21 and older is eligible.

Plus, of course, prizes -- because the Wine Curmudgeon doesn't celebrate the blog's birthday without thanking the people who have kept me here since 2007. I'll give away a copy of George Taber's new book (hopefully autographed), "A Toast to Bargain Wines"; a bottle of Neprica; two tickets to DrinkLocalWine's fourth annual conference, DLW 2012 in Denver; an EasyLift corkscrew set; and a copy of the new Jacques Pepin cookbook, Essential Pepin (because he's not only a great chef, but a fan of cheap wine).

Each morning next week, in addition to the regular post, there will be a prize post. To win the prize, pick a number between 1 and 1,000 and leave it in the comment section of the post. At about 5 p.m. central each day, I'll go to random.org and generate the winning number. The person whose number is closest to the random number wins the prize -- and no, you can't pick a number someone else has picked. Everyone 21 and older is eligible.

Book review: A Toast to Bargain Wines

Buy this book. "A Toast to Bargain Wines" may not be everything you need to know about cheap wine, but it's close enough. George Taber, the author of several acclaimed wine books, including the legendary "Judgment of Paris," has nailed cheap wine in a way few others have -- or have cared to.

More, after the jump: 

Wine review: Becker Estate Pinot Blanc 2009

This is not the sort of wine that shows up on the blog much, since it's a little pricey and not necessarily easy to find. And, in fact, my tasting notes are not as complete as they should be, since I didn't expect to write about it.

But the more I thought about it, and as distressed as I have been with far too many of the wines that I've tasted this fall, I thought this German white wine worth a review. The Becker pinot blanc ($20, sample) is wine that is not just well made, but made honestly and with passion. It's the antidote for all of the cynical, market-driven wines that I've had to taste, and it was a pleasure to drink.

Becker is one of Germany's best regarded modern producers, and its pinot noirs are compared with some of the best in France. The pinot blanc (or, as Germans call it, WeißerBurgunder) may not get those kind of raves, but it certainly deserves its own. It's a lush wine that somehow combines rich fruit (apricot, candied lemon) with the crispness and minerality typical of German wine. At 12 1/2 percent alcohol, it's dry, but fruity enough to give the impression of sweetness for those leery of wines that are too acidic. 

Chill this, and drink it on its own or with almost any holiday dinner. It would go especially well at Thanksgiving, and the sweet wine drikers at the table should be both stunned and pleased that they're enjoying a dry wine so much.

Cherry cough syrup wine

The Wine Curmudgeon has been tasting lots and lots of grocery store red wines lately, almost all of them samples, and he is not happy. Why do so many of these wines taste like cherry cough syrup?

These are not supposed to be sweet wines. They're labeled and sold as dry red wines, with alcohol levels of more than 13 1/2 percent. Nevertheless, they taste sweet and sticky, just like cherry cough syrup. Which, frankly, is kind of gross. More, after the jump:

Wine of the week: Pillar Box White 2009

The recession continues to provide us with terrific wine values, of which the Pillar Box White is the lastest example. The wine is made by Australia's Henry's Drive, best known for its Pillar Box red blend and various shirazes favored by the Wine Magazines. Henry's Drive, before the Australian wine glut, was quirky enough to appeal to people like me but not so quirky as to alienate the establishment. And if the wines were a couple of bucks too expensive, no one seemed to care.

The list price for the Pillar Box white (purchased) is $14, which means it should show up at varous retailers in the U.S. for $12 or so. In which case it would be a fair value, if not a great one. So how much did I pay for it? Eight bucks. Not bad, huh? Someone, apparently, had a lot of wine to move.

And I got a lot for my $8. The white is a blend of chardonnay, sauvignon blanc, and a Portuguese grape called verdelho, which the Aussies have had some success with. It needs food, since it's more than a little puckery from the sauvignon blanc. Still, having said that, the grapefruit wasn't unpleasant, and there was even a little oiliness, which helped balance the acid. Chill the Pillar Box and grill some shrimp or chicken breasts marinated in garlic and olive oil to go with it, and you should be more than happy.