Wine Reviews, Affordable Wine Finds & More

Seidelberg Merlot, 2003, $7!?

2009-06-21T15:49:00.001-04:00

Don't be afraid of the bargain bin, you'll find some true diamonds in the rough. My local wine store must have bought WAY too much of this vintage and they were dumping it for pennies on the dollar. Their loss, our gain...

I've never had much luck finding a South African red I like, but the Seidelberg Merlot really surprised me! I was immediately met on the palate with smoke, then smoked bacon and ripe berries. It was thoroughly enjoyable and a unique departure from my recent tipples. Drink the Seidelberg 2003 Merlot now, it should pair nicely with your next BBQ or cheese plate.

Cheers!

Arona Sauvignon Blanc 2008, $9

2009-06-09T20:29:00.002-04:00

LOVED this wine. Not only was it affordable, but it exuded some under-ripe peach notes on the nose and palate...delicious. Most wine is made to drink young and the 2008 Arona is no exception.

Australia cranks out a LOT of beefy reds, but I've been very impressed with New Zealand's whites. Buy a bottle (or three!) of the 2008 Arona Sauvignon Blanc with confidence, it's joy in a glass on a hot, humid day.

Cheers!

Non-Grape Based Wines, Hakutsuru Sake $13-$15

2009-05-17T10:00:00.005-04:00

Sake. Say it with me, "Sa-Kay", not "Sa-Key". Correct pronunciation matters. On your next dine out would you ask for a nice Mur-Lot (Merlot)? ;-)

I really enjoy Sake' and there's a lot of misinformation floating around about how to drink it. Click below for information on the different grades and types of sake'.

Some general misconceptions I've encountered:
1. You should drink sake warm/hot. While a nice warm glass of sake on a cold night is good, most sake should be drunk chilled. Reserve the warm/sake for the cheaper bottles. Warming a junmai ginjo would be a waste of good sake.

2. Only good sake comes from Japan. Japan makes some of the finest Sake in the world, but I've encountered some beautiful bottles out of California, very affordable too.

3. Sake is really strong. Sake can range from 13% alc by volume to 17%, about the same as a stronger white wine to a really strong red. Sake is clear but it's not vodka.

I highly recommend the bottle in the photo above. The Hakutsuru is very light, fragrant, dry but still has a nice sweetness. This is an easy drinking sake, sure to be a party pleaser.

Cheers!

Wine & Price, Fuzzy Math

2009-05-05T20:29:00.004-04:00

I started this blog because I wanted to share that high quality wine doesn't have to be expensive. A LOT goes into the price of wine... you have the acreage costs, growing costs, yields, overhead, storage, shipping, middlemen, market pricing, etc. If you really start to calculate, it's amazing you can get a quality bottle for $10! But I digress..

Recently I was encouraged by a friend that knows a lot more about wine to splurge on a premium bottle. This wine was not only expensive but it was suppose to be top rate. Normally $60 a bottle, it was marked down to $30, a "steal" for some. Running an affordable wine blog has it's responsibilities. I really want to practice what I preach, so several times a year I will splurge to see if the extra cost brings the added enjoyment. Usually I'm disappointed, perhaps the expectations don't live up to the hype. Was the $60 bottle good? Yes. Was it $60 good, no. Was it $30 good, debatable. Perhaps my palate still needs more refining, but I wouldn't recommend the bottle to my readers at that price.

All this price-to-quality issue got me thinking, there must be a way to equate a general increase in price to overall enjoyment. I've been toying around with an unscientific model. Humor me here because this probably very silly. Say you have a $10 bottle of your favorite wine. In my experience a $20 bottle would not be twice as good, but it would probably be 20%-30% better. So the extra $10 in cost gave you a 20% bump in enjoyment. Perhaps an accurate perception will temper our expectations and thus improve enjoyment as well? Or maybe I shouldn't do math equations while drinking wine...

Cheers!

Wine on Tap?

2009-05-01T14:00:00.001-04:00

A great article from the NY Times below, originally posted here. This is a great idea and think of all the glass, cork and general waste it could save?

On Tap? How About Chardonnay or Pinot Noir
By ERIC ASIMOV

THE bartender pulls the handle and the liquid pours forth from keg to glass with the distinctive gushing sound that has launched a zillion thirsts. Ah, yes, that fresh draft flavor — nothing like wine on tap.

Wine? On tap? Is this another attack by the same philistines who insist on screw caps, stemless glasses and other means of depriving wine lovers of their pretensions?

On the contrary, wine, stored in kegs and served through a method similar to a draft-beer line, may be the glorious future of by-the-glass pours in bars and restaurants.

It’s just a trickle right now, but the keg and tap system has successfully taken hold in restaurants in Los Angeles and San Francisco, and in wine bars in the city of Napa, Calif.; in Atlanta; and in Traverse City, the heart of Michigan wine country. And it’s coming soon to New York City, to no less a place than Daniel Boulud’s downtown outpost, DBGB, tentatively scheduled to open on the Bowery in May.

“It’s the wave of the future,” said Colin Alevras, DBGB’s beverage manager, who will have 24 taps at his disposal, 22 for beer and one each for a house red and a house white. The number of wine lines may increase there, he said, if the public is receptive.

What makes wine on tap not merely good but brilliant? It’s not the tap, it’s the keg.

Taps themselves have been used for many years as part of complex preservation systems intended to protect open bottles against the demon slayer of wine, oxygen. Perhaps you’ve seen such a system, bottles in a refrigerated glass cabinet, taps on the outside, a Medusa’s tangle of hoses extending upward in an effort to rebuff the oxygen with inert gases like argon. Systems like these are an improvement over the half-empty bottle recorked behind the bar, but they are imperfect, complicated and expensive.

The bottles are a problem. Even with the best preservation system the wines don’t always stay perfectly fresh. A lot of wine is thrown away, or served in poor condition, resulting in a lesser experience at a greater price for consumers and a lot of waste for the restaurant.

“You have to calculate in your pricing the wine you didn’t sell, the wine you had to throw away,” said Sang Yoon, the chef and owner of two Father’s Office restaurants in the Los Angeles area, and a true believer in the keg and tap method. “The wine is 20 percent cheaper right off the bat.”

Mr. Yoon served wines by the glass the conventional way at his first Father’s Office in Santa Monica, where his fanatical pursuit of top-quality ingredients and superb craft beers, along with an autocratic style (“no substitutions, modifications, alterations or deletions,” the menu reads) turned his little bar into a cult restaurant. But he wanted something better for the wine when he opened his second restaurant, in Culver City.

“I can’t remember having had a positive wine-by-the-glass experience unless the bottle was freshly opened,” he said. “As an owner, you also come to realize how wasteful wine by the glass becomes. As a result your pricing has to reflect that waste, so most places serve cheap wine with big markups for glass pours, which equals bad value for consumers.”

Then it hit him. “Why can’t we just serve good wine out of a keg like we do with beer?” he said. In kegs, which keep out the air, wine could stay perfectly fresh for months, he reasoned. Mr. Yoon found a restaurant in Atlanta that was serving wine from modified beer kegs, and, with an energy borne of obsession, he set out to perfect the system.

He found a treasure-trove of five-gallon soda kegs, big enough to hold about 25 bottles of wine each, no longer used by the bottlers, who had turned to bag-in-box containers. He worked to persuade wineries to fill the stainless steel kegs for him. And he custom-designed coolers for the wine kegs, separate from the cooling system he used for the 36 beers he offers on tap.

“Whites are kept at 46 degrees, and reds 55 degrees,” he said. “Once the wines hit the glass, the temperature rises about two degrees, thus bringing the actual service temperature to 48 and 57 respectively. I did a lot of testing.”

Mr. Yoon now offers eight wines on tap, including wines from Brewer-Clifton, Melville, Stephen Ross and Flowers, and with the reusable kegs he estimates he saves having to dispose of 10,000 bottles and related packaging a year.

It was on a scouting trip to Los Angeles last year that Mr. Alevras of DBGB visited Father’s Office to look at Mr. Yoon’s beer system. He came away fascinated by wines in kegs.

“It’s beautiful in its simplicity,” he said. “Gas goes in as wine goes out.”

Gas? Well, of course. That’s how a beer keg works. Except beer systems generally use a high-pressure carbon dioxide system, which carbonates the beer. Wine simply needs a low-pressure system in which gas pushes the wine from keg to tap and occupies the empty space in the keg, preventing oxidation. Mr. Yoon uses nitrogen, which the restaurant produces itself with a reverse osmosis generator.

While Mr. Yoon may have improved the system, he by no means invented it. For centuries in the ancient wine-producing regions of the world, a barrel and a tap method was the low-tech way to dispense wines in countless bars and taverns. Even today, you see wine on tap frequently in Europe, even if it doesn’t have the sleek 21st-century perfectionism of Mr. Yoon’s system.

Europe was the inspiration for Craig and Anne Stoll, the owners of Delfina in San Francisco. In their new pizzeria, which opened in October, they serve vino alla spina, as wine on tap is called in Italy.

At Oxbow Wine Merchant, a retail shop and wine bar in Napa, Peter Granoff is going through two 15-gallon kegs of white wine a month.

“We can pour a very nice glass of wine, five ounces, for $4 or $5,” said Mr. Granoff, an owner. “There are no packaging costs, the kegs get used over and over. No corks, no capsules. I would guess the consumer savings is 25 or 30 percent, depending on the wine.”

Gillian Ballance, the wine director at the Carneros Inn in the Napa Valley, was intrigued enough by what she saw at Oxbow to put in a tap at Farm, one of the inn’s restaurants, about three months ago. She’s now serving verdelho from Scholium Project for $6 a glass.

Is wine by the keg a novelty? Or is this just the beginning of a trend that will benefit purveyors and consumers? It makes too much economic sense, I think, for it not to take hold.

But it won’t happen overnight. While the technology is not new or experimental, existing beer lines cannot simply be converted for wine. It’s far easier, restaurateurs say, to install wine lines to begin with, preferably during construction. “You can retrofit almost anything,” Mr. Granoff said, “but it gets really expensive.”

So far the public seems to be embracing wines on tap, although Mr. Granoff isn’t taking chances. He likes to offer customers a glass to taste, and tells them only after they try it how the wine was dispensed.

“Their jaws kind of drop,” he said. “You’ve gotten past their perception, by giving them the wine without telling them where it’s coming from.”

Top Affordable Wine for 2008

2009-04-19T15:02:00.003-04:00

I featured Panarroz several months ago when it was selling in the $8-$9 range. Much to my surprise the local wine store was clearing it out for $5.97 a bottle! This is an absolute steal and gives the wine my 2008 Affordable Wine of the Year stamp. How many cases will YOU get?? (I got three)

Cheers!

Wine Stained Clothing and Other Wine Uses

2009-04-16T20:48:00.006-04:00

When you love wine, you tend to surround yourself with all things "wine", even clothes... My favorite t-shirt is dyed with Cabernet Sauvignon and labeled "Official Wine Taster". Kitchy I know, but it's really a great idea. If you're a vineyard with left over grapes, why not dye clothing? The process is as organic as you get and the color is beautiful and durable.

Several years ago some vineyards in France experienced a banner crop. With quality wine coming from countries around the world the French were stuck with millions of gallons of wine that they couldn't sell. As such, several vineyards petitioned the French government to sell the wine as fuel! Now that's a commodity I can invest in!

Cheers!

Spring is in the air

2009-04-11T19:52:00.003-04:00

I've recently discovered the artist Alphonse Mucha, and I can't stop looking at his work, stunning. The image to the left is from his Seasons series...this one aptly named "Spring". Spring is a conflicting time for a wine drinker like myself... the weather is warming, my electric and gas bills aren't forcing me to sell off belongings just to pay them, the flowers are blooming, etc. But alas, this is the beginning of the end of big red wine drinking season. It's really hard to tipple a dense syrah when the weather is pushing 70 degrees.

This year I'm making a promise to feature more white's and rose's on the site. Stay tuned for the first post.

Cheers!

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Cotes du Rhone Parallele 45, $9!

2009-03-22T10:49:00.003-04:00

When I first started experimenting with red wine, I happened upon the Cotes du Rhone Parallele 45. Unmistakable with the large "45" on the label, this wine packs a lot of value for your buck. I have to admit, I'm not a big fan of French wine making, but then again, I can't afford the really good stuff! If you're looking for a no nonsense introduction however, Parallele 45 exhibits excellent fruit, subtle tannins and good acid. Every vintage I've tried from this maker going back to 2001 I've thoroughly enjoyed.

Cheers!

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Wine Cork Recycling

2009-03-10T19:44:00.005-04:00

If you're a regular wine drinker like myself and environmentally conscious, you likely have a LOT of wine corks lying around. The corks are great reminders of bottles past but they can also be a Martha Stewart-esk project for your next rainy weekend. I created a trivet out of my favorite bottle corks several years ago, it makes a wonderful yet functional accent to my dinner table. How very metro-sexual of me! I'm in the process of filling a large demijohn with the rest.

Not crafty but still want to do your part for the environment? Your local Whole Foods store will take your corks and recycle them for you. If you've ever seen cork flooring, it's beautiful and primarily comes from recycled cork.

Cheers!

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Red Wine Stain Removal

2009-03-04T20:07:00.003-05:00

It was bound to happen sooner or later, the dreaded red wine spill... Fortunately I addressed the spill quickly with a little warm water and soap, but it was also a dark carpet so I'm sure I missed a little. A little curious, I did some searching for the unlucky few that spill on a lighter carpet. I enjoyed this post though I'm not crazy about the domain name! Nonetheless, I offer up a twice over re-posted red wine stain removal secret:

Mix a little soap and a little hydrogen peroxide together. You must use BOTH ingredients. Spray, pour, or dab the mixture on the stain

One warning: Since peroxide is a bleaching agent, the remedy could potentially bleach some colored fabrics. Always test a small patch before going hog wild with this miracle recipe!

Cheers! (carefully)

Wine-O's Hangover Cure

2009-03-02T13:35:00.003-05:00

I learned decades ago when enough, was "enough", but occasionally I'll push the boundaries in the name of fun. Unfortunately that leaves most of us a little hungover the next day. Coffee is an essential part of my morning, every morning, but did you know a cup before bedtime will chase the headaches away? I've tested this theory on myself several times as well as friends, it works like a charm. After a night of fun and frivolity with wine, a simple cup of coffee will save the day. It must act as a charcoal of sorts, filtering out toxins from the liver, oh and it tastes good too. Be sure to drink some water as well. Give it a try, let me know what you think!

Cheers!

Dessert Wine the Japanese Way, Choya Ume-shu

2009-02-16T20:22:00.003-05:00

The Japanese LOVE their version of the plum or "ume", pronounced, "ew-may". The two most common forms are pickled (ume-boshi) and fermented into wine (ume-shu).

For foreigners, pickled ume or ume-boshi is something you'll likely try at least once, it's part of the foreigner hazing. If you didn't grow up on ume-boshi, you'll cringe at the salty, bitter creation (but eventually learn to love it, like me!).

Fortunately the wine is MUCH more pleasant, divine really. It's a great, affordable dessert wine, perfect for any occasion. As you and your friends polish off a bottle, have fun eating the fermented plums at the bottom, but watch out for the pit! The most marketed brand is Choya. Resist the urge to buy the cheaper brand made in China, it is NOT very good. If you're looking for some indication of taste, it's somewhere between a peach and plum.

I had the pleasure of visiting and ultimately living in Japan for several years. I even tried some homemade ume-shu made by a Junior High School teacher, it was incredible. I recall he had a 5, 10 and 15 year old batch, if only I were that successful in home brewing...

Cheers!

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More Wine Shop Antics!

2009-02-07T20:09:00.002-05:00

I mentioned in a post several weeks ago a bait and switch problem at my local wine purveyor. I clearly didn't learn my lesson and gave the shop another shot at winning my business today... Unfortunately I discovered another infraction that was either pure laziness or intentional deceit.

In this particular store, rated wines are labeled with their score beside the price tag. It draws the eye and makes it easier for some to find an affordable, quality wine. Be careful though wine shoppers, make sure and read your labels closely. Make sure the rating and year on the label matches the year on the bottle. A rated wine for a 2006 vintage does not make the 2005 or 2007 equally as good. It's true that a good wine maker can crank out excellent wines year over year, but the one thing they cannot control is weather! Caveat emptor

Cheers!

Can't Smell Your Wine?

2009-02-01T13:42:00.004-05:00

To really taste and enjoy your wine to the fullest, you need to smell it! As you know, taste is 75% from smell. Unfortunately the Winter time is an ongoing battle with the cold and flu, and it's gotten worse in recent years. For me getting a cold is a cruel, cruel trick, not only do I feel crummy, but I can't drink or enjoy my wine!

I'm proud to say this year, I am COLD FREE (so far)! Believe it or not, I don't live in a bubble, in fact, I have three germ carrying children in daycare and work in a converted warehouse surrounded by other sick people. So what do I owe my newfound wellness? I've become a very vocal proponent and user of Ayr Saline Rinse bottles. A simple squeeze bottle where you mix a small amount of salt and warm water. I've used everything from simple table salt to kosher salt and even sea salt. Simply mix, tilt head and squeeze in one nostril and let it run out the other; it's a modern day netty pot. Without getting too graphic, you'll be surprised what you're able to flush out. I do this once in the morning and again at night.

So why let cold and flu season get in the way of your next wine tasting. Give nasal flushing a try, it's easier than you think and you'll be healthier for it.

Cheers!

Sebastiani Cabernet Sauvignon 2005, $12-$14

2009-01-28T10:20:00.005-05:00

A great way to discover new wines is to partner up with other wine lovers, for periodic tastings at home. To compare and contrast wine's try selecting one varietal from a specific growing region or Country. Try comparing the same varietal from Country to Country or from year-to-year. Then try different varietals in the same way, you'll be amazed at how much you'll learn in this exploration. When you're given the opportunity to taste side-by-side you'll start to get a feel for wine making styles, how climate and weather affect taste, how aging in oak versus stainless steel adds complexity, etc; it's a lot of fun too and doesn't break the bank!

A wine I discovered doing this very exercise was the Sebastiani Cabernet, a wonderful specimen provided you give it ample time to open up. I would suggest an hour in the decanter to really coax it open. Sebastiani is a well rounded wine, perfect combination of acid, tannin and fruit. Frankly it's a steal at $12 in the world of overpriced California Cabs. I tried my first bottle several years ago and still return to it in the wine store, knowing I'm getting an affordable yet solid wine for my buck.

Try a tasting at home, see what value wine's you can uncover. Cheers!

Wine Rating Bait & Switch, Tssk tssk

2009-01-20T13:10:00.004-05:00

Often times when a wine is reviewed by an expert, it has yet to be bottled. The wine will be tasted directly from the barrel and be given a rating range from 91-94 (100 pt scale) prior to bottle aging. When I'm feeling lazy, I'll rely on these ratings to decide which wine to buy and judge if it's a good value for the money. Much to my chagrin I discovered a clever bait and switch tactic from my local wine purveyor...

The Glaetzer Wallace 2006 Shiraz was given a range of 91-94 from a 2007 barrel tasting by the Wine Advocate. The local store displayed prominently a rating of 94 instead of the range, VERY deceiving. If you have the time an inclination, do your research online before you're forced into making a snap decision in-store, it seems you can trust anyone these days.

For what it's worth, I give this wine no greater than a 90, too low in my opinion for it's $20+ price tag.

Cheers!

Brett in Wine, No Thanks!

2009-01-11T12:23:00.002-05:00

def. "Brett" aka Brettanomyces

1. Brett: My college roommate Junior year that would drink no less than a case of Milwaukee's Best Light (Beast) on a weekend night and go for a half hour run the next morning to "sweat it off" without regurgitation or incident.

2. Brett: A non-spore forming genus of yeast that causes a barnyard or horse sweat smell in some wine's, usually from France (in my experience!).

I'm not a fan of some "Old World" wine's primarily because of the Brett used in the wine making process. While the use of Brett isn't isolated to just Old World countries, unfortunately I find myself avoiding French wine all together... Any Brett lovers out there, tell me your story!

Cheers.

Wine Based Holiday Gifts

2009-01-03T11:04:00.004-05:00

Happy New Year everyone!

If your friends and family know you enjoy wine, hopefully you received a wine "themed" gift this year. I was the fortunate recipient of six bottles from an advertiser (not related to this blog). Many thanks to NovusVinum.com I particularly enjoyed the Gayot Vineyard sparkling wine!

The second item I received was a wine aerator, which purportedly accelerates the speed in which the wine "opens" up. Instead of waiting 30-60 minutes, simply pour the wine through Vinturi into a glass or decanter, and enjoy. The device introduces oxygen into the wine through a slender tube and creates a gargling sound. I've used it several times and to be honest, I haven't noticed much difference. I would argue that I can introduce as much oxygen into the wine by elevating the bottle and pouring; gravity causes the wine to churn and creates a similar effect. Vinturi retails for around $40 so make your own decision.

Cheers!

Panarroz Jumilla 2006, $7-$8

2008-12-03T20:23:00.002-05:00

Depending on where you live in the world, there are two main staples of diet; bread or rice. I'm not sure if the naming of this wine was intentional (pan = bread) (arroz = rice), but I like the idea of wine being the third staple! Either way, this affordable wine will go with both.

When I first tried Panarroz a few weeks back, I wasn't immediately smitten. But with most affordable wines I'll buy at least two bottles, which saves me a trip back to the store if I really like it. The second bottle made me a believer... This mourvedre, grenache and syrah blend was fruit forward, but nothing like the pop in your kisser from the Luchador.

There are some amazing values coming out of Spain recently, Jumilla in particular. If you come across Panarroz in the wine aisle or another from this growing region, pick-up a sampler and see what you think.

Cheers!

Thanksgiving the Argentine Malbec Way

2008-11-26T11:30:00.002-05:00

If you're hosting Thanksgiving this year and looking for an affordable wine to serve, or visiting the in-laws and want to impress on a budget, try these affordable wine buys:

2007 Guggenheim Malbec or Cabernet Sauvignon, $9! No relation to the museum (I'm sure they got full licensing rights to use the name...yah!) An excellent value wine here, very easy drinking and should go well with ham, turkey or tofu-loaf!

2006 Colome Malbec, $20... twice as much, sure... but ten times better. That's a ratio you can feel good about. I don't use this word often when referring to wine, but the Colome is downright sexy. It greets you with truffle and mocha on the nose and ends with dense currant fruit, rounded tannins and a very long finish. If you want to impress this wine will do the trick. Let it breath for about an hour before drinking for optimal enjoyment.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

Cheers!

Buckingham Palace Wine Cellars

2008-11-19T21:23:00.006-05:00

Wine Fun Fact of the Day: Buckingham Palace has one of the largest wine cellars in the world with over 25,000 bottles. The oldest bottle in the collection was dated 1815 (likely vinegar now!).

Now, if I could just get an invite for dinner... Maybe I could sneak in as an Au pair.

Thanks to NPR for the hour special on Buckingham, fascinating.

Next post, an affordable Malbec for $9!

Cheers!

A Wine Lovers Holiday Wish List!

2008-11-04T13:04:00.002-05:00

It's a tad early to be making Christmas requests, BUT how COOL would this be?

A California Company called Crushpad enables anyone to launch their own wine brand. Crushpad handles the fermentation, refining, bottling, labeling and will even connect you with buyers for your wine. It's a tad pricey at $5,900 to $10,900 per barrel, which works out to around $19 a bottle on the low end, a D- on the affordability scale, but nonetheless a fun concept to think about for an entrepreneur or budding wine mogul! According to the website a few of their private label wines were ranked in the 90's by Wine Spectator, not too shabby!

The grapes are sourced from:

Cabernet Sauvignon from Napa Valley, Red Mountain
Merlot from Red Mountain
Syrah from Santa Barbara, Mendocino
Zinfandel from Howell Mountain, Dry Creek Valley
Grenache from Mendocino
Pinot Noir from Anderson Valley, Sonoma Coast, Santa Lucia Highlands
Chardonnay from Sonoma Coast, Russian River

If anyone tries the service, please send me a bottle, I'd love to review it on the blog!

Cheers!

Wine Shopping Online

2008-10-23T13:07:00.004-04:00

No, that's not a Rose' unfortunately... I've been out of commission for the last week and a half with a nasty cold. I try not to drink while I'm sick, needless to say a depressing prospect for an avid wine drinker.

I wanted to dedicate this post to buying wine online. I've personally been shopping online since the early Nineties, when the Internet was basically AOL and local BBS's. From the very beginning I was hooked! I could comparison shop, find the best prices and at any hour of the day. I've never been a fan of department stores or wading through crowds to find what I need. Occasionally I shop for wine online and have it either drop shipped to my local store (at no charge) or sent directly to my house. From the comfort of your computer chair or couch you can Google just about any wine, it's reviews or visit the Wine Library for a video of a tasting. It really takes the bottle roulette out of picking an affordable, quality wine.

If you're looking to buy wine online, where do you go though? I use Wine Legend, a chain here in NJ for most of my buying, but I frequently use Wine Searcher an excellent comparison shopping engine for just about any wine. Simply plug in the name and year of a wine and it brings up multiple results sorted by price. I get frequent sale emails from Wine Legend touting their low prices. If I see a wine I like, I'll plug it in Wine Searcher, typically resulting in prices $3-$4 cheaper per bottle! Sometimes it's not worth the hassle or shipping expense to shop this way, but it does give you good pricing perspective.

Cheers

Armador Merlot, Chile 2005, $8!

2008-10-15T16:18:00.002-04:00

I love Merlot! There was a period several years ago when Merlot was almost a dirty word to the wine elite. Merlot had gotten SO popular many people refused to drink this beautiful varietal. White Zinfandel maybe, but Merlot?? The sentiment was even highlighted in the 2004 hit movie "Sideways". Here's a quote from the movie:

Jack: If they want to drink Merlot, we're drinking Merlot.

Miles Raymond: No, if anyone orders Merlot, I'm leaving. I am NOT drinking any fucking Merlot!

If you're a Merlot lover like myself but don't like paying too much, you'll love this Chilean beauty. At only $8 a bottle it's an absolute steal. Exhibiting eucalyptus notes and a hint of cinnamon it's a very easy tipple.

Cheers!