No Wine Over $20-Reviews and the LA Wine Scene

This is a blog about wine but not necessarily devoted to wine. Do not be surprised if you read about golf, healthcare, politics, media or anything else we feel like describing and weighing in on.

We knock off Victor Hugo because we are proudly literate (especially dokkerm), unbound by convention, and declaring a call to action. Molly Pitcher guards the right bank as we take on trophy wines and fashion-driven price-bloated trend-setters. If you agree with our battle cry then you will like this blog. NO WINES OVER $20. We date the beginning of our campaign to the first vintage of the Mondavi-Rothschild Opus project. We recall with a smile the Underground Wine Journal editorial titled Hokus Opus. Stand upon the ramparts of good sense. There are too many wines around priced at or below $20 to let them languish in the floor stacks of retail shops. Our raison d'etre is to approach these wanderers and let you know what they had to say about their terroir.

Given that, here is the first entry about trophy wines from our past. We are purging our cellars of the spoils from earlier collector wars. Here are the goods. Friday June 8 the evening's selections included in order, (1) 1990 Prince Poniatowski Aigle Blanc Moelleux Vouvray (2) Rochioli 1999 Estate Pinot Noir (not a designated vineyard), (3) Dehlinger Estate 1994 Pinot Noir Reserve, and 1997 Williams Selyem Allen Vineyard. I also opened a Lascaux 2005 from the Languedoc for those moments when we were out of wine and I did not feel like walking back to the cellar. DokkerM evaluates...

"Each was a perfect representation of the winery. For my taste, the Dehlinger was the favorite. Idiosyncratic but rich and balanced. The Rochioli is a classic - I'll have to rummage around and see if I have any single vineyard '99's. The W/S was spectacular, but more fruit forward than I would prefer (not that I would spit any out, mind you)."

Stu (that's me) says the 1990 Vovuray was outstanding. I tried this in May in a SF restaurant, Pres a Vie. Found it over the Internet in Glendale - ETC Wines. $21/btl. The restaurant offered 16 tasting flights that evening. The flight that included the Vouvray declared

"a dreadfully misunderstood varietal. Filling your glass with pineapple, spiced ginger and lime..."

DokkerM covers most of the rest. The 1999 vintage in Dry Creek was pretty great. The Rochioli bottle was released at $40 or more. The W/S was typical candy fruit in your face. That evening I think the good doctor said you just want to open your gullet and pour it in. Another guest said he would take care of the bottle if we thought it was so unsophisticated. He is so transparent and a W/S swine.

The Dehlinger was the last in my cellar. Bought it on release for ~$35. Five years on it had a repelling barnyard nose and flavor that made me wretch. Thankfully I laid it down for another 7 years and now it is a legend in our backyard. Delicate, cherry fruit, lacey, enchanting. Like a Nawlins madame.

The Lascaux is a great buy at $10. You can get it at Kermit Lynch in Berkeley. Light spice, mild pepper. Easy drinking and perfect with BBQ.

To arms!! (and legs)

I don't know where to start: under $20? The list goes on and on. So, I'll start here:

2005 Capestrano Montepulciano D'Aburzzo - between $8 and $12. Plums and leather and loads of character, better the next day.

Try Cline's 2005 Viognier. About the same price. Peaches and spice.

Try any white blend from SoFrance.

xxoo le king

Please take a look at David McMillan's youtube video that got picked up by the LA Times a couple weeks back. David is wonderfully talented and pretty dang funny. And I happen to know he likes wine and stogies. Don't tell his grandma.

Mouse sent some wine picks under or around $20. Mouse is the King of sub-20 wines. He begged me for years to try grenache blanc. Being a pinot apostle at the time naturally I thought he was silly. Cute. And here he is again suggesting any white blend from southern France. Believe him. I have a couple photos I took in a snooty LA wine shop yesterday of their sub-$20 wines. We are a movement!!

Southern France - the Languedoc and surroundings - is my #1 wine destination. When we visited in 2000 it was impossible to spend more than $10 on a bottle of local grenache/syrah/mourverdre etc. All wines are blended with distinctive styles. The Languedoc used to be the bottom of the French wine barrel 20 years ago. A favorite claim-to-fame is there was such an ocean of plonk coming out of the region they used to sell it off as fuel.

Wine meets golf idea: I am thinking that it might be fun to try and draw some correspondence between the ridiculously hard Oakmont course and wines that are equally tough to love. Example - the absurdly long 288 yd par 3 8th hole. Think excess without a point. Think only accessible to the biggest hitters. Is this not a metaphor for Screaming Eagle, Harlan and other similar trophy wines? What is the point of going to all the effort to be distinctive when after all is said and done you either make par or you don't. Or the Oakmont Brazil-waxed (thank you Mr. McCord) greens. Analog to wines so impossible to approach and at the same time so consistently the same (no flats, all slopes) I wonder if Robert Parker was on the design team.

Send your thoughts.

I just watched David Mac's vid once more, this time with peewee (darling daughter) and he inspired me to put this post out that has been marinating in my brain the past week. I have several topics including the "attack" bit, taking "no-wine-over-$20" too far, and whatever else spills forth.

Taste enough wine, read enough tasting notes and you will come across something like "on the attack the wine showed forward fruit with firm grip". What up with "the attack"? Never got this. Makes me think the taster plays alot of chess. Tasting wine requires a field of reference. If you are a competitive chess player when you choose to go on the attack is very important, downright strategic. I guess a real chess-playing, wine-taster would also have a place for putting the other tasters in mate. The ultimate move might be saying something so cool and sufficiently summative the other tasters simply tilt their collective kings.

What about music as your field of reference? If you have trouble finding a vocabulary that fits your understanding and experience of wine try something with which you are more comfy.
The Large (photo, looking like Bobby Zimmerman from Nashville Skyline) would do well here being a music fiend. "The first taste is a straight ahead rush like Steely Dan breaking into Bodhi Satva at the SM Civic in 1998 on that bootleg CD you gave me. They pumped it almost double time. Then the wine finds a groove. Think Stanley Clarke on Dancer picking his bass like a banjo. Delicately busy".

Tasting wine? Forget the attack. What can you liken your experience to that you know and love?

OK. When we say no-wine-over-$20 we are not endorsing "2-buck-Chuck" and his gang of 1 million. $6 for a bottle of whatever in Pavilions is a step in the wrong direction. It seems like any decent wine shop I step into today has the floor stacks of the wines we love. Look cheap. Taste great. Even though I did find it difficult a decade ago to spend more than $10 for any grenache-syrah-carignane blend in Languedoc, I do not think that will happen again (until we get to Mendoza Spring 08). So in the meantime, until you fly to Argentina's wine country, I guess the corollary to our battle cry is "no-wine-less-than-$10". Prove us wrong.

Last note: summertime is rose' time and there are plenty of great pinkies under $20. The Large brought Commanderie de Peyrassol 2006 Côtes de Provence Rosé to (yet) a(nother) family get-together. Pick it up around $16 all over town. Color is dusty pale salmon. Flavors are mineral, bright, light, almost like a pouilly fume (semillon).

Congratulaciones a Angel Cabrera de Cordoba Argentina!! Campion golfero de los Estados Unidos!!

Where are the notes on the <$20 wines? We taste enough wines on the weekend (my wife a bissel more often) to post some ratings. Before I get around to posting some notes, I will ask the good dotore' (generously available for palate abuse) to offer notes on the 1999 Oratorio he bought in Costco years ago and held onto until last Friday June 22. In the meantime here are notes on 3 other wines we busted out.

2005 A. Scherer Pinot Noir: Alsatian pinot noir. Think northern Italy PN. Or Swiss PN. Or Austrian PN. I have tasted PN from each region always on somebody's good tout. These are wines grown in cold - not cool - regions. PN needs cooldown weather. However, a parka in August is too much cooldown. The problem with any of these wines is they have little fruit. So they come off as "sinewy" when well-made and anorexic when not. On the other hand, if you like lean woody wines with an APB out on the fruit this could be for you. (Interestingly, Mendocino - a north of Napa cool growing region - can produce terrific PNs, i.e., Navarro).

2005 McKenzie-Mueller Carneros Cuvee Rose': My wife loves McKenzie-Mueller wines. I am quite fond of his pinot noir, cab franc and malbec. His cab sauvignon is very well made, never heavyweight, always balanced. Bob McKenzie has an understandably loyal following. We are in the wine club and order wines direct (25% off) on release. A recent M-M newsletter (I am getting to the point dammit) referred to a request by some clubbies that Bob create a "reds-only" option. These followers apparently do not wish to buy the chardonnay, rose', etc. offerings that usually accompany the red releases. Bob is thinking about it. I usually take the white wines and the rose' in support of a family winemaker who is also a wonderful host should you visit his Carneros winery (which you should if you get the chance). We are guessing the rose' is cab franc. The alcohol is listed at 14.7%. The "standard deviation" accepted in wine metrics is plus/minus 0.5% so the alcohol could be >15%. We prefer wines no higher than 14% and applaud winemakers who keep it close to 13%. We are thinking the "reds-only" folks have been in the club longer than we have.

1989 Chateau Nairac: Golden-copper color, tartrate crystals (?) floating in the soup otherwise looks absolutely perfect. Musty nose but a long way from corked. Still some acid on palate but mostly honeyed...and some mustiness. Never got to the second glass. Dr. M's call and a good one once again. I bought this after having a delicious 1979 Nairac maybe 10 years ago and I expected more. Of course, 1983 is the Sauternes vintage. I would snap up a 1975, 1976 or 1983 Nairac if I had the chance (of course I would also burst the 20$ cap but c'est la vie).

Best suggestion for "field of reference" when tasting wine...surfing!

You may have noticed that for a wine blog touting wines under $20 we review many wines more than $20. In fact, we do not post the prices of the over $20 along with the under $20 probably seeking to attain a "sensational" balance only understood by folks with mild ADD.

Here are 2 wines with costs posted, both currently available.

2003 Morgon Vielles Vignes Kermit Lynch Selection (Guy Breton) $16: It's a Beaujolais from an OK vintage. The 2005 vintage gets the press - justifiably - and we have been loading up on those wines as they appear in the bins of our fave retailers (see links to your left and order online). This bottle was touted by a Kermit Lynch floor clerk in Berkeley. It is obviously something left over, on the shelf a little long-ish, for which the clerk will be rewarded having moved a bottle or two ("nice job Jason"). In many other stores this would tick me off. But in Kermit it turns out OK because he has integrity and a great palate. This is a lot selection by Kermit from one of his preferred vintners (Breton) and bottled with the most non-descript label. You have to read carefully to figure out it is a KL selection. What is that? Humility? Probably. The wine is not humble. It is very nice. Spice on the nose, cranberries in the mouth. I need more for Thanksgiving! Lightweight, almost thin. Let's say reedy. But it fills out enough with a little air to provide just enough body to make Nicole Richie envious.

2006 Anglim Rose' $14: Steve Anglim is one of my favorite Paso vintners. Sources everything. I bought this because the 2005 was so enchanting with its dusty salmon color and delicate flavor with just enough acid. I am telling you it was like a petal. The 2006 was getting closed out at the local cheese shop so I scooped the half dozen. Well, it is not the 2005. This wine is almost hot pink in color. And the nose is profoundly bright with minerals (that would be a gentle touch with acid). Black cherry flavors dominate. There is strawberry too. 14.3% alcohol. Blend is 38% grenache, 33% syrah, 15% mourverdre, and 14% viognier. How French! Steve Anglim makes terrrific wine and this one is priced in my hit-away zone.

July 4th is a big holiday and this year the 4th is a Wednesday which means no working Thurs and Friday! You want to get your rose' wines and your Moscatos on chill and ready for sipping 'round the pool, spa or bath. If you have never had a sip of Moscato d'Asti please think about it before plunging over the falls. This is a white Italian wine from Piemonte with a slight spritz. The good ones are mind-bendingly easy to swallow...like soda pop. With alcohol around 7% and flavors of peach, honey, lime and mo mo mo you will drink the entire bottle in 30 minutes.

By the way, before we get to the wines, get thee to the North Berkeley website. It is outstanding. I write alot about Kermit Lynch's taste and selections and how terrific is his palate and offerings. However, his website is strictly flapjacks. Not that he needs to be any more fanciful. I just know he could show more about what he likes and does - read his book "Adventures on the Wine Route" and you will get my point. And sign up for the NB email list.

2005 Trenel Chiroubles $15 (Robt. Chadderdon selection): This is the wine that got us started on restricting wine purchases to under $20. The 2005 vintage in Beaujolais was highly touted and has turned out to be pretty darn goot. DokkerM and I have purchased '05s from multiple sources (Kermit, NB, Whole Foods, Woodland Hills Wine Co -WHW, K&L H'wood) and they never disappoint. Sometimes they delight. This is the wine touted to us by Steve at WHW a year ago. It is still great. Medium to light weight. Still showing some tannin. Black cherries, perfectly balanced. A Williams Selyem of Beaujolias. How can you not love it? Need to get more if Paul Smith still has some. Never saw it anywhere else. Also bought the Morgon but have not opened it.

1996 Elio Altare Barolo (from the cellar): Took it to a (Provencal) restaurant. Altare is one of the top producers in Barolo. Another example if you have never tried a Barolo... The 1996 vintage was spectacular. The 1997 got more press which goes to show you should always try to get more info than what is available thru the wine industry. The flavor/nose combo for Barolo is "tar and roses". Great Baroli have that. This did not and it was still great. I have tasted Baroli that do. It did have red cherry flavors, medium weight, great depth of flavor that dawdled on my palate like my wife getting ready to go out. The 1996 vintage is fruity, although less so IMO than the 1997. 1996 has more stuffing. I am sitting on another case or so of mixed labels. Had the 1996 Alessandria a month ago (also wonderful) that let me know the vintage is ready for consumptive intentions. So, you might ask the obvious question...how does it stack up to those '05 Beuajolais? I will defer to you.

2005 Garnacha de Fuego old vines $8: A Jose Ordonez selections wine with cool packaging, fire licking up the label like the intro to a Latin movie about "the romancia". Ordonez is a hot importer. Column forthcoming on hot-shot importers. Unfortunately, this time we had a dud. Cloudy in the glass (not tossed around it's been on my bar for weeks) and jukki in the mouth. Spit it out asparagus and week old pancake mix. I had several bottles this past winter and enjoyed each one. Nothing spectacular but I wouldn't throw it out of my cellar either. For $8 (of bottles stored well) you could do a wedding up right. Bad lot? Most likely. Open one before you buy a case.

2005 St Supery Napa Cabernet $25?: This was the other dinner wine that had to stand up to the Altare Barolo, hardly a fair fight. I had the waiter ice it down and it came out cool. Fruity, cab flavors, without wood and cedar flavors or nose. Tasted very nice. St. Supery is the kind of Napa winery I like to visit but I would never buy wine on premises. They are too widely distributed. I like to visit because their tasting charge is not $40 and their wines are well made. How many cabs are in my cellar? McKenzie-Mueller new releases, and a couple older bottles by Togni.

I gotta go find some Moscatos...