Tag Archives: cheap wine

Wine of the week: Chateau Bonnet Rose 2018

chateau bonnet roseThe Chateau Bonnet rose comes from one of the world’s best cheap wine producers – and may disappear if the 25 percent wine tariff takes effect

What better way to say goodbye to all of the wonderful cheap wine we may lose in the wake of the U.S.-European Union trade war than with the Chateau Bonnet rose?

The Chateau Bonnet rose ($11, purchased, 13%) will be much missed. It’s the quintessential $10 wine – well-made, consistent from vintage to vintage, and speaks to terroir. In this, it’s a blend of merlot and cabernet sauvignon, so it’s a little fuller than a Provencal rose, rounder and not quite as zesty. This is neither good nor bad; just different, since these grapes come from Bordeaux and not Provence.

Look for red fruit (ripe-ish cherries?), but the wine also has rose’s lift and freshness. It’s not a heavy rose, like those made for red wine drinkers in California, but one with its own style. Highly recommended, and a candidate for the 2020 $10 Hall of Fame.

A word about prices: The price of the Bonnet wines has been going up for the past couple of years, mostly because all Bordeaux has become more expensive regardless of quality. The red blend has been closer to $16 than $10 for a while, and the white is closer to $15 in some parts of the country. The rose was $10 was last vintage, but may be as much $13 depending on where you live.

If you can find this wine (or any of the Bonnets) for less than $13, buy as much as you can. These will almost certainly be tariff casualties, since there is little reason to expect consumers to pay $17 for a $10 wine. Hence, once the current inventory is gone, it’s likely that little will be imported to the U.S.

Imported by Deutsch Family Wine & Spirits

Wine of the week: Sunshine Bay Sauvignon Blanc 2018

sunshine Bay Sauvignon BlancThe Sunshine Bay sauvignon blanc may be a one-note wine, but it’s well made and a value at $7

The 2017 vintage of this wine was one more Aldi private label disappointment. But one of the many wonderful things about wine — like baseball — is that there is always the next vintage. And the 2018 Sunshine Bay sauvignon blanc is everything the other one wasn’t.

Don’t expect this New Zealand white to mimic a stunning Sancerre or the craftsmanship and terroir of New Zealand’s Spy Valley. Rather, the Sunshine Bay sauvignon blanc ($7, purchased, 13%) is a one-note New Zealand sauvignon blanc. But it’s a very well done New Zealand sauvignon blanc — grapefruit, but not too nuch; a hint of minerality on the black, and clean and crisp throughout. It’s not insipid, it’s not stupid, and it doesn’t have a trace of residual sugar, the way too many California sauvignon blancs are selling themselves these days.

In this, it’s one more reason to taste the wine before you judge it. And, as opposed to the 2017, it’s a big step up from most other $7 supermarket Kiwi sauvignon blancs.

Imported by GK Skaggs

Wine review: Three Citra Italian wines

Citra Italian winesThese three Citra Italian wines deliver everything great cheap wine should – quality, value, and a more than fair price

When the wine world looks to be at its worst and the Wine Curmudgeon is contemplating something as depressing as a return to sportswriting, great cheap wine always saves the day. This time, it was three Citra Italian wines.

Citra is a co-op, buying grapes from nine growers in one of the less well known regions of Italy, Abruzzo. Which, to be honest, is not always a sign of great things. But its consulting winemaker is the legendary Riccardo Cotarella, and that changes everything.

Cotarella is the man behind Falesco’s Vitiano wines, as good a cheap wines as ever made. These are wines – red, white, and rose – that you can buy and not worry about vintage or varietal. They will always been worth the $10 or $12 or $14 they cost. In fact, they’ve been in the $10 Hall of Fame for as long as there has been one.

The Citra aren’t quite that well made yet. But the three wines I tasted could get there sooner rather than later. Each of the wines is about $10 and imported by Winebow:

• Citra Sangiovese 2017 (sample, 13%): This is what cheap Italian red wine should taste like — earthy, with tart red fruit and professionally made. It isn’t rough or amateurish, like a wine from the 1980s, and it hasn’t been focused group to take out the character and interest. Highly recommended.

• Citra Montepulciano 2017 (sample, 13%): This red is another example of a red wine made with the montepulciano grape from the Montepulciano d’Aburzzo region that offers value and consistency — some tart and peppery red fruit, a clean finish and competent all around. A touch thin, but these wines aren’t necessarily supposed to be rich and full.

• Citra Trebbiano 2017 (sample, 12%): Any review of this white is going to make it sound lacking, one of the perils of wine with the trebbiano grape. It’s not as lemony and as crisp as the Fantini trebbiano, and it doesn’t approach the grandeur of the Gascon Tariquet ugni blanc. But it’s not lacking when it comes time to drink it. Look for some tropical and soft citrus fruit, and buy a case to keep around.

Wine of the week: Cantia Cellaro Luma Grillo 2017

luma grilloThe 2017 version of the Luma grillo, an Italian white, is just as enjoyable and as delicious as the 2016 – and that’s saying something

Vintage difference is a good thing. What isn’t good is inconsistency from vintage to vintage, when quality appears and disappears seemingly at random. This is something that happens to wine at every price, a function of our post-modern wine world and its focus on price instead of value. So when you find a wine that shows vintage differences, but doesn’t show inconsistency, buy as much of it as possible. Which is the case with the Luma grillo.

The Luma grillo ($11, purchased, 12.5%) is a Sicilian white, and grillo is one of my favorite grapes. Grillo is a Sicilian specialty, and offers a welcome change from chardonnay and sauvignon blanc – not as rich as the former and not as tart at the latter. This vintage shows lemon and green apple fruit, and even some almond and spice. It’s exactly what grillo should taste like – balanced, interesting, and light but food friendly.

Highly recommended. This is a Hall of Fame wine and a candidate for the 2020 Cheap Wine of the Year, assuming availability isn’t a problem like it was with the equally wonderful 2016.

Imported by Gonzalez Bypass

 

Premiumization be damned: $139.36 for 14 ½ bottles of cheap wine

cheap wine

Look at all those bargains at Jimmy’s just waiting for us to buy.

It’s still possible to buy quality cheap wine for $10 a bottle

So what if the cheap wine news these days is about failure? The Wine Curmudgeon, undaunted by the obstacles of premiumization, perseveres. The result? 14 ½ bottles of quality cheap wine for less than $10 a bottle.

How is this possible? I followed the blog’s cheap wine checklist. It’s even more valuable today, when $15 plonk is passed off as inexpensive. So look for wine from less pricey parts of the world, wine made with less common grapes, and shop at an independent retailer who cares about long term success and not short term markups.

The retailer was Jimmy’s, Dallas’ top-notch Italian grocer – so the wines are all Italian. Here are the highlights of what I bought for less than $140, which includes a case discount but doesn’t include sales tax.

• A couple of bottles of the Falesco Est Est Est, $10 each. This white blend used to be $7 or $8, but it’s still a value at $10.

• A 350 ml can of the Tiamo rose for $5 – hence, the half bottle in the headline. There wouldn’t be an onus about canned wine if all canned wine was this well done, . Highly recommended.

• Banfi’s Centine red Tuscan blend, $10. The Centines (there is also a white and rose) are some of the best values in the world. This vintage, the 2017, was a little softer than I like, but still well worth $10.

• Principi di Butera’s Sicilian nero d’avola, $10. This was the 2016, but it was still dark and plummy and earthy, the way Sicilian nero should be. Highly recommended.

• A couple of roses – a corvina blend from Recchia, $8, and the Bertani Bertarose, a $15 wine marked down to $8. Because who is going to buy a $15 Italian rose made with molinara and merlot? They were in similar in style – fresh and clean, with varying degrees of cherry fruit.

More about buying cheap wine:
• Cheap wine checklist: $82.67 for a case of wine
• Once more: A case of quality wine for less than $10 a bottle
• Nine bottles of wine for $96.91

Wine review: Antoine Delaune Chardonnay 2018

Antoine Delaune chardonnayThe French Antoine Delaune chardonnay is a $6 Aldi white that hints at what the discount grocer can accomplish with its wine

Aldi, the discount grocer, has never seemed to be able to deliver cheap wine quality in its U.S. stores the way it does in Europe. There have been exceptions, but for the most part the wines have been Winking Owl and its ilk. So where does the French Antoine Delaune chardonnay fit into this?

Hopefully, it’s the beginning of Aldi’s commitment to better quality cheap wine — a good thing, since the chain will open a store near my mom in the spring, and we know the trouble she has buying quality cheap wine. The Antoine Delaune chardonnay ($6, purchased, 13%) is a sign that Aldi is focusing more on selling competent and professional wine that you can buy, drink, and not worry about.

This is not to say it’s white Burgundy, the epitome of French chardonnay. But it does taste like chardonnay (some green apple); mostly tastes like it came from France (none of that California slickness); and is clean and fresh without a hint of residual sugar. It’s not even especially thin, which is usually what happens at this price.

And it’s not quite a wine of the week. It’s not stupid, but it is a little too  simple and straightforward and the lesser quality of the grapes does show. Plus, you’ll need to open the screwcap 10 or 15 minutes before you drink it, since the wine needs to breathe.

Mostly, the Antoine Delaune chardonnay is worth $6. That’s an accomplishment these days; I recently tasted a $20 chardonnay that was too precious for words, tasting more like non-alcoholic wine than anything.

Imported by Prestige Beverage Group

Labor Day wine 2019

Labor Day wine 2019

Fire up the grill and break out the Labor Day 2019 wine

Enjoy Labor Day 2019 with four wines that focus on value and quality

It has been a mild summer in Dallas — lots of rain in June, an unseasonably cool day in July, and no 100 degree days until July 30. Having said that, Labor Day means cooler weather sooner rather than later, so let’s celebrate with Labor Day wine 2019.

These four bottles will get you started, and don’t overlook the blog’s porch wine guidelines:

• Bonny Doon Malvasia Bianca 2018 ($18, purchased, 13.5%): This California white is nothing if not interesting, as well as a terrific food wine: Flavors of orange, lime, and then more orange. This means it’s varietally correct, and there is freshness and a very zippy acidity.

• Sierra Cantabria Rosado 2018  ($12, purchased, 13%): This Spanish pink, made from tempranillo in the Rioja region, does all it should for the price — a little orangish red fruit, some stoniness on the back, and crisp throughout.
Imported by Fine Estates from Spain

•Ludovicus Garnacha 2015 ($12, sample, 14%): It’s amazing that this Spanish red has aged this well, given the grape and the cost. Rich and full, easy tannins, lots of dark fruit (cherry? blackberry?), and surprisingly clean and un-cloying for a garnacha. Needs food — Labor Day barbecue, anyone?. Imported by Ole Wine Imports

• La Granja 360 Brut NV ($6, purchased, 11.5%): This Spanish bubbly from Trader Joe’s is pleasant and sweetish, more like Prosecco than Cava. That means  softer fruit (less tart green apple and more red delicious) and a much softer mouth feel. But the bubbles are tight, and you can do a lot worse for $6. Imported by Evaki

Photo: “Picnic-2004-681” by Nashville First Baptist is licensed under CC BY 2.0 

For more about Labor Day wine:
• Labor Day wine 2018
• Labor Day wine 2017
• Labor Day wine 2016