A New Malbec from Wapisa

“These Wapisa Malbecs offer plenty of bang for the buck…”

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It’s been a little slow around here since an upper respiratory ailment paid a visit to our house last month. I haven’t gotten out on scouting missions as much as I would have liked, and when I have, nothing new in the way of wine has jumped out at me. That all changed when my wife Kim and I went to pick up fresh provisions at our friendly neighborhood Costco a few days ago.

This is the 3rd consecutive vintage of Wapisa Malbec that has shown up in the last year. I’ve been impressed by the ’20 and ’21 models, and this one is as good, if not even better than those.
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Rhône-ish Boy

“This hardy red is perfect for everyday drinking.”

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I’m always in the market for a good, inexpensive red Rhône or Rhône-style red wine. I first fell in love with these critters back in the late ‘80s, when the legendary Tim McCarthy of Cost Plus Wines in Detroit’s Eastern Market put a bottle of the Chateau Chapelle Saint-Pierre Côtes-du-Rhône in my hands. It cost all of $6, and it was a beauty, with no rough edges whatsoever. We went through cases of the stuff, until it finally dried up, but by then, I knew what was what, and Grenache-Syrah (et al) based wines would become my standard for decades to come.

Of course, what was inexpensive back in the day cost rather less than it does now. Currently, if I can find a satisfying red for $12-13, I’m going to jump on it. This wine is a good case in point. I’ve seen it around for a while now, but I avoided buying it initially because of the “cute” cicada troubadour on the label, not wanting to succumb to the “Yellow Tail syndrome,” as I like to call it. However, I finally gave a bottle a closer look, and when I noticed that it is imported by my friends at A.H.D. Vintners, that was all I needed to know. A.H.D. maintains one of the finest portfolios in the Detroit market, and I have confidence in the quality of just about everything they sell.

The entry level wine from Chateauneuf du Pape producer Chante Cigale, this is a blend of Grenache and Carignane. The “Vin de France” designation means that grapes can be sourced from anywhere in the country, but they most likely come from the Rhône Valley or the adjacent Languedoc region.
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La Cuvée Mythique

“This is one of those wines I want to drink on a regular basis.”

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I had intended to post a report on this wine a few weeks ago, but an upper respiratory ailment came to visit and put me down for the count here at Adams, Heritier and Associates. Recovery took longer than I had anticipated, but I’m finally back in the saddle, and happily, the wine is still available and worthy of your consideration, so here’re my impressions.

I go back to 2003 with La Cuvée Mythique. I liked it a lot back then, but lost track of it for several years. I ran into a batch of the latest vintage during my recent visit to Total Wine, and it was an easy choice to try again, given my previous enthusiasm for this bottling. I should add that it is listed as “limited quantity” availability, so you might want to pick some up sooner, rather than later.
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A Tasty Beaujolais-Villages

“The more I sip, the more I like.”

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I think I may have found a new favorite not-quite-everyday wine.

The funny thing is, I looked at this one on the shelf at Westborn Market in Berkley for at least a month before I finally decided to take a chance and give it a try. I’ve enjoyed more than a few Nicolas Potel wines over the years, but they were all red Burgundies, for which this producer is best known. Finally, I reasoned that they would probably treat Gamay in essentially the same manner, with the same “house style,” as they do Pinot Noir, and that is exactly what I found here. What’s more, there’s a goodly amount of this available, so Westborn Beverage Manager Steve Rapson must like it, and I have come to trust his judgment in matters such as this. Continue reading

Oregon QPR

“These are both good enough that I wouldn’t mind paying
a little more for each if I had to…”

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It has occurred to me more than once that most of the wines reviewed in this blog over the past year have been from Europe, especially France and Italy. There are a couple of reasons for this. First, it’s a simple matter of availability, and second, my primary focus is on QPR selections that fall into the $10-20 range. These days, it’s getting harder and harder to find good values in domestic wines, but that’s not to say they can’t still be had.

Not long ago, an old friend and colleague of ours who now resides in Oregon sent my wife Kim some bottles of his favorite everyday drinkers from his adopted state. He purchased said wines online at Total Wine, and I picked them up at our nearby Sterling Heights location. I got a taste of some of them, and two in particular stood out for me, one white and one red. Continue reading

One From Gaja

“…this is a pleasure to drink right now, but its best days are still ahead of it…”

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My hopes were higher than my expectations for the big game, but in the end, there was only disappointment to be had either way. There’s been a lot of “armchair quarterbacking” going on around the Motor City since Sunday evening’s NFC Championship game, but all I will say is that it was a game the Detroit Lions could have very well won, which makes the outcome even crappier.

We did have some good wine to drink, however. I wanted something special for such an important game, and again, I figured a 20-year old wine should do the trick, especially one from a winery no less iconic than Gaja, located in Piedmont in northwestern Italy. It was just the “regular” Gaja Barbaresco, and not one of the even more prestigious (not to mention pricey) single vineyard selections, but it did the trick all right, with one timely qualification. Continue reading

Rhône-ish

“More Red Rhônes and… Detroit Lions?!”

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I found these two wines this past Saturday at our friendly neighborhood Costco. We love all the Rhône varietals, so it was an easy choice to buy them both and bring them home. Being that I almost never indulge in alcohol during the day, I had no intention of opening anything during yesterday afternoon’s Lions-Buccaneers game. I figured I’d just wait and see how the game went, and maybe open something accordingly afterwards, but my wife Kim wanted a glass of red wine during the 2nd half, and after looking over the selection in our wine rack, she decided on the Gigondas.

Happily, the Lions won the game, and are moving on to the conference championship next weekend against the San Francisco 49ers. The Gigondas turned out to be quite good too, as I found when I poured myself a glass last evening. Afterwards, I decided to see what the Côtes du Roussillon is all about, and I really enjoyed it as well, although it’s rather different in style from the southern Rhône. Here are my impressions of each. Continue reading

Got Chave?

“Red Rhônes and… Detroit Lions?!”

OK, I admit it, I jumped back on the bandwagon just like hundreds of thousands of win-starved football fans around the Motor City and beyond. The Lions finally put together a good team and made the NFL playoffs for the first time in how many years? I’m old enough to (vaguely) remember watching the Lions on a black and white TV the last time they won a league championship back in 1957. I have even clearer memories of those great early ‘60s Lions, who would have been the best team in pro football, had it not been for the damned Lombardi-Starr Green Bay Packers. Since then, it’s mostly been tough times for the guys wearing the Honolulu Blue jerseys.

I was geeked up for the Lions-Rams game, and I wanted a good bottle of something to open, so, considering its age, I figured this one was a safe bet. JL Chave Hermitage is one of THE great wines of the world, vintage after vintage. At its best, it is among the very finest expressions of Syrah to be found anywhere. We’ve had a lot of wonderful experiences with Chave Hermitage, and this had been in our cellar for a number of years, so I decided its time had come. As it happens, it isn’t quite as “mature” as I expected it might be. Continue reading

Dry Riesling From the Mitten

“I’m hard pressed to name a better dry Riesling that’s available
at this price point here in the Detroit market.”

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I used to sell a lot of Riesling in a previous life in wine retail. Many of my customers were looking for the sweeter stuff; they had no idea just how versatile the variety is, and were quite surprised when I informed them that there are plenty of dry variations of the theme to be had as well. Many of the more obvious examples come from places like Germany, Alsace and Austria, but there are also a number of great choices to be had produced everywhere from Australia to Washington, New York, Ontario and right here in Michigan.

One of my longtime favorite Michigan dry Rieslings comes from Chateau Grand Traverse, up on Michigan’s Old Mission Peninsula. We first tried the CGT Whole Cluster back in 2007, and we’ve been buying successive vintages ever since. I filed a report on the 2020 model almost a year ago, and if anything, this one might even be better. Like the 2020, it still sells for $13.99 at Westborn Market on Woodward, in Berkley.
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Another Big Bertrand Red

“If I were to taste this blind, I might even guess that it’s a good Gigondas.”

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Greetings, salutations and a very happy new year to all!

The holidays have come and gone, and like many of you, we indulged in our share of good food and fine wine. One red in particular was new to us, and fits the parameters of this blog perfectly, as it offers very good quality and affordability.

As previously mentioned, we’ve been fans of Gerard Bertrand’s wines for almost 20 years now, so whenever I find one for 20 bucks or less, I’m going to jump on that puppy to see what it has to offer. I’m happy to report that this one is a great buy, and there is a whole bin-full of the stuff at our friendly neighborhood Costco.
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