“…a great choice for an everyday dry rosé.”
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A few days ago, I played my first music gig in almost two years, blowing harp in a small ensemble backing the very fine Detroit singer-songwriter Emily Rose in her tribute to Townes van Zandt. It was a marvelous night of music, and when I got home, it was too late to open any bubbly or a big red, so I celebrated with a couple of glasses of dry rosé, and that was just fine by me. Continue reading
“If you like red Rhônes, these are both good choices for everyday drinking.”
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It’s getting harder all the time to find a good bottle of red wine for 10 bucks. It seems like something that used to give pleasure for that price now goes for anywhere between $12-15, so whenever I can find a likely selection for a sawbuck, I jump on it. I’ve been able to double my pleasure in the last few weeks when I came across not one, but two of these little bargains, and both are worthy of consideration. Even better, they’re both Rhônes.
We quite enjoyed the 2021 Réserve del Puech Vieilles Vignes Côtes-du-Rhône we tried last October, so when I discovered that the next vintage is now available, I didn’t hesitate to pick one up and give it a taste.
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“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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“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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“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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“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
“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
“…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
“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
“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