The Wine Curmudgeon

Wine review: Penfolds Koonunga Hill Cabernet Merlot 2007

One of these days, I need to write a post about the vast, almost endless selection of Australian red blends that cost $10 or $12. These are solid, dependable wines -- the Rosemounts, Lindemans and McWilliam's -- that are a step up from the livestock wines that have dominated the Aussie export market for the past decade.
Until then, consider this: The Penfolds ($12, sample), which is a a good example of the quality and value that these wines deliver. The biggest problem with most cheap red wines is that they're offensive -- literally. Ask a beginning wine drinker who says he or she doesn't like red wine, and they'll tell you it's because the wines are too green (flavors of unripe fruit) or too tannic.
The Penfolds is neither, and the plum fruit is quite pleasant. Is it a complicated, sophisticated wine? Nope. But it is more than a fair value, the kind of thing to pick up at the grocery store on the way home from work. Drink this with burgers, sloppy joes or meatloaf.

Penfolds, red wine, wine review, Australian wine, red blends

Mini-reviews 7: le Freynelle, White Hall, Rex Goliath, Beaujolais

· Chateau la Freynelle 2007 ($15, purchased): This white Bordeaux has a bit more citrus than in the old days, but the minerality is there, and the semillion adds a nice, rich touch.

· White Hall Vineyards Viognier 2008 ($17, sample): Virginia winemakers continue to impress with viognier, and this wine explains why. It's much closer to a French Rhone than California, with a bit of oiliness and not too much oak.

· Rex Goliath Pinot Noir NV ($9, purchased): The Wine Curmudgeon has always been ambivalent about Rex Goliath as a brand, so I was surprised to find this pinot to be as pleasant as it was. It's not red Burgundy, but it's not $60, either. Note: Rex Goliath does two pinots: a California and this, which is from southern France.

· Louis Jadot Beaujolais Villages 2008 ($10, purchased): I have been drinking this wine for about as long as I have been drinking wine, and it remains more or less the same -- cheap, grapey, and dependable.

wine reviews, cheap wine, inexpensive wine, Virginia wine, white Bordeaux, pinot noir, Beaujolais

Amazon.com, Prohibition, and the three-tier system

Prohibition -- the constitutional amendment that made it illegal to manufacture or sell alcohol in the U.S. -- ended 76 years ago. But its legacy is still with us.

That's what I find most intriguing about the news that on-line retailer Amazon.com has killed its plan to sell wine through a business called AmazonWine. It has been running a pilot program for about a year, testing the incredibly complicated logistics involved in selling wine to 50 different states. Last week, though, it said enough was enough. The company didn't give a reason, but most people who are supposed to understand these things say Amazon couldn't solve the distribution problems.

Or, as industry consultant John Fredrikson, who knows as much about this stuff as anyone, put it: "People have no idea how complex this is, dealing with 50 different [state] governments. You wonder if a company like Amazon, which is well organized to sell just about anything, can't pull it off. But wine is different from anything else they are selling."

More about the decision and what it means after the jump:

Wine of the week: Melini Chianti Borghi d'Elsa 2008

Much has changed in the wine world over the last 70 years. This wine is not one of them.

Do you want an old-fashioned, "this is the way Italy used to make cheap wine" wine? Then look for the d'Elsa (about $10, sample). My Italian wine expert tells me that Melini has been exporting this wine to the United States since at least the end of World War II, and probably did it before then as well.

So what will you find? A simple, satisfying, well-made wine that is about as Old World as wines get these days. That means tell-tale Italian acid, some red fruit and more tannins than we're used to from this kind of wine. In fact, the d'Elsa is still made with the traditional Chianti grapes -- a mix of sangiovese, canaiolo, and the white grapes malavisia and trebbiano. Drink this with anything remotely resembling Italian food, and especially spaghetti and meatballs or sausages, peppers and onions with tomato sauce. Highly recommended, especially for those of us who are tired of Old World wines that have abandoned their birthright in an attempt to appeal to the so-called American palate.

wine reviews, wine of the week, Melini, Chianti, red wine, $10 wine, cheap wine, inexpensive wine

Wine bits 101: Amazon ends wine plan, soil and wine, top value wines

· Amazon won't sell wine: Amazon.com has ended a trial program to sell wine on-line, the company has confirmed. The Wall Street Journal reported that the online retailer killed its pilot plan, which has been underway for about a year, in the wake of the bankruptcy of the company which was supposed to handle  plan and continuing frustrations with with individual state liquor laws. This is huge news, and I'll probably have more about this later this week. The three-tier system that governs U.S. liquor laws makes it almost impossible for a national retailer to sell wine.

· Soil doesn't flavor wine: If you teach wine, you teach that soil -- the mineral quality, the type of soil -- affects the flavor of wine. But, says a study at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America, that probably isn't true. Research has shown that the theory that minerals could influence the flavor of wine is flawed, since the amount of minerals in wine is so small that it can't be detected through human taste and smell. More research is needed to figure out why some wines have a mineral flavor, if it isn't the soil.

· Best cheap wines: The Beverage Testing Institute, which focuses on value wines, has picked its top labels for 2009. Among the winners: Black Box shiraz, Ravenswood's $8 zinfandel, and Hogue riesling.

Amazon wine, soil, terroir, minerals, cheap wines, Beverage Testing Institute