The Wine Curmudgeon

Wine of the week: Tractor Shed Red 2010

The Wine Curmudgeon is always looking for $10 red wine that tastes like it costs more than $10. These are the most difficult cheap wines to find, though I’m not sure why. Yes, it’s easier to make quality cheap white than red, but not easier to make cheap quality sparkling. And there is plenty of the latter.

So I ask a lot of people if they can recommend a red that’s worth serving as a wine of the week. Many of the people I ask are retailers, and their choices are spot on more often than not (which is one reason why the forthcoming cheap wine book spends a lot of time discussing how to find a good retailer).

That was the case with the Tractor Shed ($10, purchased, 13.5%), and a tip o’ the Curmudgeon's fedora to Jeff Stuart at Spec’s in Dallas for the suggestion. It’s a California red – from Napa Valley, no less -- that combines an old-fashioned field blend with modern winemaking to produce a fruity wine with character and qualities other than just the fruit. Most of the fruit (sweet cherry?) is in the middle, surrounded by spiciness in front and earthiness and pleasing tannins on the finish.

This is a red wine to keep around the house and open as needed. It will pair with most red wine foods, but is also pleasant enough to drink on its down. Highly recommended, and a candidate for the 2014 $10 Hall of Fame.

Wine of the week: Leonce Bocquet Chablis 2012

$15 Chablis. That is a value. That tastes like Chablis.

Let me repeat that, to demonstrate how practically giddy this wine made me: $15 Chablis. That is a value. That tastes like Chablis.

Because, frankly, it’s rare to see $15 Chablis, even more rare when it’s a value, and more rare again that it tastes like Chablis. Affordable Chablis – chardonnay from the Chablis region of Burgundy in France – doesn't get much better than this.

So what’s the catch? Because, as regular visitors here know, the Wine Curmudgeon always expects a catch. In this case, it’s that the Bocquet ($15, purchased, 12.5%) may not be as available as I would like. It’s not exactly a private label, but it’s close enough. Which means that if the wine is in your market, it’s likely to be at only one retailer.

If you can find it, buy some and expect steely acidity, a touch of lemon fruit, and more complexity than one expects in a $15 white Burgundy. It was a bit thin in the back, but, on the other hand, it wasn’t too fruity or too tart in an attempt to cover up that thinness. And did I mention that it only cost $15?

Wine of the week: Trivento Malbec Reserve 2012

The Wine Curmudgeon does not drink much malbec, other than to taste it so I can write write that I don’t drink much malbec. The vast majority of the malbec we buy (and we buy wineries and wineries of it, with malbec sales up almost 50 percent in 2011) is full of sweet fruit and without balance, the dreaded cherry cough syrup style of wine.

The Trivento ($11, sample, 14%) isn’t one of those wines. It’s a surprisingly solid Argentine malbec that outshines most of the other $10 versions that are on store shelves. Yes, there is lots of blueberry fruit aroma and flavor, the hallmark of cheap Argentine malbec and all that most of the other wines offer.

But the Trivento also has a fine, grippy back end, and that was the surprise: Nicely done tannins and even some acid balancing all that fruit and letting you know that this is a red wine made to taste like a red wine. That’s a rare treat.

Also surprising: The wine needs food, which is something that most of the others don’t. Serve it with beef, as the Argentines would,  or even roast chicken.

Wine of the week: Domaine des Cassagnoles 2012

A friend read the manuscript for the cheap wine book and said he had a fairly big question: “Why aren’t there any wine recommendations?” Because, of course, all wine books have to have wine recommendations.

The Cassagnoles ($10, purchased, 12%) helps answer his question: It’s the quintessential cheap white wine – professionally made and interesting, yet simple enough to appeal to people who are scared of wine and who don’t want to spend a lot of money for something that they don’t know.

It’s produced in the wonderfully white grape and citrus style that defines Gascon white wine, and is made with grapes that don’t show up too many other places – one-half colombard, with ugni blanc and gros manseng filling out the blend. It’s fresh and bright and lively and the bottle is gone before you know it. Wine for weeknight dinners doesn't get much better than this. That's why it's in the $10 Hall of Fame and should stay there for a long while.

But what happens if I recommend it in the book, and a reader can’t find it locally? Or buys an older vintage, which is worn out and off-putting? Or buys the wine one year when it isn’t well done, which is possible given the vagaries of the wine business and that the book probably won’t be updated every year with new recommendations. They’ll fire off an angry email.

That’s why the book is about the process of cheap wine – its history, why cheap wine is possible, what makes a quality cheap wine, and how to find one. Then the reader won’t be complaining. He or she will will be too busy drinking great cheap wine they found themselves, like the Cassagnoles. What more could I ask for?

Wine of the week: Hedges CMS Red 2011

Hedges has made terrific $10 wines for as long as the Wine Curmudgeon has been championing the cheap wine cause, and this version of its trademark red blend of cabernet sauvignon, merlot, and syrah is no exception.

There are many reasons to recommend the 2011 ($14, sample, 13.5%), the 25th vintage of this label: The distinctive Washington state fruit-forward style (cherry and black cherry), which speaks to respect for the grapes and not consumer focus groups; surprising balance for wine that offers this much fruit, so that it actually has tannins and acid to offset the former; and the price, which will be at least a couple of dollars less than $14 at most retailers.

This is a food wine, a little heavier than past vintages. This doesn’t mean it’s better or worse – just different, and there is nothing wrong with that. Serve it at summer cookouts, burgers and the like, all of which will play nicely with the wine’s fruity style. Grilled sausages, perhaps?

Finally, a note about the label, which is about as anti-cute as possible: Hedges has made a concerted effort to be different over the past several years, and that included forming a group to eliminate wine scores. The label, with its flourishes and faux fleur de lis, is part of that. I’m not sure I like it, but I appreciate the difference.

Wine of the week: Bieler et Fils Rose 2012

The United States would not be celebrating its 237th birthday this week without its French ally in the Revolutionary War, and especially without a French victory in a naval battle off Virginia’s Chesapeake Bay in 1781. The latter made it possible for George Washington to force the British surrender at Yorktown that ended the war.

So what better way to celebrate The Fourth than with a French rose made by an American? The Bieler ($11, sample, 12.8%) comes from Charles Bieler and family, who shows up on the blog a lot for his cheap and extremely well-made wine. This one is no exception.

It’s from the Provence region, where some some of the best rose in France is made. It’s bone dry, but shows a little more fruit than usual (cherry and raspberry?). This is another indication of its quality, because the extra fruit doesn’t make the wine taste sweetish (an effect some producers go for to make the consumer think the wine is sweet). That’s because there is more than enough acidity for balance – what Bieler calls tension. When he makes the wine, he says he wants a balance between ripe grapes, to provide fruitiness, and unripe grapes, to provide acidity. He found it here.

Highly recommended. Serve chilled on its own or with any holiday barbecue or meal (and yes, that means red meat), from now through Thanksgiving.

More about Fourth of July wine:

• Fourth of July wine 2013
• Fourth of July wine 2012
• Wine of the week: Gruet Brut NV
• Memorial Day and rose 2013

Wine of the week: Cono Sur Bicicleta Pinot Noir 2012

The Cono Sur was the first wine we tasted during our pinot noir extravaganza this month, and it didn’t do much for me. I thought it was more like the Beaujolais I drank in the 1980s than pinot noir.

Two dozen pinot noirs later, I changed my mind.

It impressed me so much, in fact , that the Cono Sur ($9, sample, 13.5%) overcame my pre-disposition against Chilean pinot noir, which is often overpriced, poorly made, or both, and cute labels, a rant that regular visitors have read many times. What changed my mind was the aroma, earthy and spicy, and the taste, cherry fruit that wasn’t too fruity, and surprisingly soft, pinot-like tannins.

Does this wine taste like red Burgundy or top-notch Oregon? Of course not. It doesn’t even taste like Mark West or its knockoffs, the fruity, low-acid, red wines that have revolutionized pinot nor and made it affordable and accessible.

Instead, it’s an excellent example of how to make a wine taste like its varietal at this price, using carbonic maceration instead of traditional fermentation (which explains my confusion with Beaujolais, where carbonic maceration is common).

One warning: The Cono Sur, thanks to its screwcap, takes a while to open up. That’s one reason why it didn’t impress me when I first tasted it. But give it 15 or 20 minutes, and you’ll be pleasantly surprised. Highly recommended, and a candidate for the 2014 $10 Hall of Fame.