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Wines to Pick as Your (Affordable) House Wines
Since the start of the Lockdown I have taken some solace with drinking good wine with dinner. In these chaotic economic conditions it’s good to have excellent wine available at good prices.
Below is a list of high quality but affordable wines that I am sharing on Ricochet. Maybe it will be useful for some and maybe come comments will include other favorite wines. I limited it nine wines so people can nominate a wine for the #10 spot.
If, as I do, you buy wine by the case, you can factor in a 10% discount available from most wine merchants. The range for the “street price” is $8-10 in my local wine store. I am not putting down the official “list price” because different state regulations and taxes will affect pricing. In alphabetical order:
1. 1924 Double Black Limited Edition Red Blend by Gnarly Head (California)
2. Bogle Essential Red Blend (California)
3. Chateau Ste. Michelle Dry Riesling (Columbia Valley, Washington)
4. Columbia Crest Grand Estates Cabernet Sauvignon (Columbia Valley, Washington)
5. Columbia Crest Grand Estates Chardonnay (Columbia Valley, Washington)
6. Gnarly Head Old Vine Zinfandel (Lodi California)
7. Murphy-Goode Sauvignon Blanc (North Coast, California)
8. Noble Vines Marquis Red (California)
9. Pine Ridge Chenin Blanc – Viognier (Napa Valley, California)
Published in Culture
Tasting rooms have begun to open up!
Costco is outstanding for inexpensive good wine:
Kirkland Signature Carneros Pinot Noir
Kirkland Signature Cotes de Provence Rose
Kirkland Signature Ti Point Sauvignon Blanc
Kirkland Signature Sonoma Old Vine Zinfandel
Kirkland Signature Rioja Reserva
Kirkland Signature Cotes du Rhone Villages
Those are just some of the low priced good wines. The Sauvignon Blanc and the Pinot Noir are my favorites, and I like their Prosecco also.
The two wine review sites recommended by The Cynthonian above are very entertaining. Unfortunately, because of different Costco districts, the selection at my Costco doesn’t usually line up with http://Https://costcowineblog.com
Most Costco wines have some kind of cork, but I prefer a screw cap for ease of recapping — I like to store unfinished bottles in the fridge.
In Blues, Jazz and Race music of the 20th century, Tea was a euphemism for Marijuana. “Being in my Tea” was to be comfortably high. I notice that many of the earlier comments on this post mentioned a Stash of Tea.
Thanks for the tip. I’ll ask my guys to pick out something. Since my taste runs more to almost “chewy” reds, I do sometimes long for something lighter in the summer. (And yes, come to think of it, I believe there have been some roses or zins that I’ve liked over the years.)
Thumbs up for the Gnarly Head picks, the Central Valley region gets no respect, so you can get some good values there.
I have a liking for the Cline Old Vines Zinfandel most years.
We like visiting wineries. Right now Tri-Cities in Washington is our favorite area. But truthfully, most of our bottles do come from Trader Joe’s. Whoever does TJ’s buying knows their stuff. I’ve occasionally tried something that wasn’t to my taste, but everything is fairly priced, or better, for the quality. Currently we’re enamored of the Picton Bay label sourced from New Zealand.
We got our start in serious wine
bibbingtasting in the mid to late 80s when ‘monster’ zins were a thing, and just as chewy as a full bodied Cab. That style seems to have disappeared and current zins are mostly slight things. If the monsters ever come back we’ll have to lay down enough to keep us ten years or so…What is this “unfinished bottles”?????????
The monsters are still there. You just have to search – and pay – for them. Example: Ridge. But, generally, zins aren’t known for their longevity.
As I get older I drink less wine but I have been collecting for years so I have a lot of pretty good wine at price points above what we have been talking about here. As a consequence I only drink the good stuff.
Here is good news for drinkers of less expensive wine: for the last few years there have been large harvests from very high quality vineyards coupled with stagnating demand. This means that after meeting the requirements of the high end winemakers there is fruit left over. It is often made into wine and sold off into the bulk wine market. This means that folks like Costco and Trader Joe’s who try to make the best wine they can at their price point are making very good wine indeed and delivering great value to their customers.
What! No spatburgunder/Pinot noir?
Allendorf Spatburgunder Trocken Pinot Noir
Dr. Heyden Estate Pinot Noir
Are both great. More expensive than Costco Pinot Noir, however.
Yup, we used to live less than ten miles from Ridge. Now it’s a much longer trip. And they are spendy. Re longevity, just so, and why I specified a ten year supply. I’ve taken a few of the monsters that long with good results, but you are rolling the dice.
We usually spread consumption of a bottle over two nights. Keeping the wine fresh is important. I’ve found the VacuVin pump with rubber “stoppers” works for as long as 3-5 days for most wines. The previous authors of the wine column in the Saturday Wall Street Journal once did a tasting test to see if such products prevented deterioration of the wine and concluded that even the less expensive systems (i.e. those not using nitrogen and costing about $250) were effective. The VacuVin “pumps” are around $12-14 on Amazon. Better than screw caps.
I shop at Sam’s Club (vs. Costco) and the wines selected by the Sam’s Club buyer and the pricing are excellent but only a few of the wines I listed in the original post are sold there.There is no case discount, which makes my local wine/liquor store more appealing. The Kirkland brand wines do have an excellent reputation.
I find the Vivino (free) app for my mobile phone to be indispensable. The crowd sourcing (by users) of the reviews gives you a way to decide that (1) the wine is worth the extra money when it’s marked at $15-20; and (2) the street price is discounted from the “list price.” The latter can happen when there’s enough competition in your area that a high volume wine/liquor store will mark a $12 bottle down to $10.
Anyone ever tried scuppernong wine?
The Pine Ridge I listed in the original post is a Chenin Blanc/Viognier blend. I would have listed the Hogue Chenin Blanc (Columbia Valley, WA) but it’s out of the price range I set, with an average price of $16. MAN is a Chenin Blanc from South Africa that is around $10, but a lot of the Chenin Blanc on the market is going to be Vouvray from France. I deliberately confined the list to wines made in the US.
I am a huge fan of the wines made in Washington State. For value, Columbia Crest is amazing because its volume is huge with tens of thousands of cases of a particular wine, and yet they get (and deserve) a score of 88-90 from Wine Enthusiast or Wine Spectator — year in and year out. Chateau Ste. Michelle is in the same class. People living up there get to buy great wine from the smaller producers who don’t go for national distribution.
I once ate dinner at a swanky French restaurant in England. The couple at the next table ordered the tasting menu, each course came with a wine pairing, and the sommelier would come out and give a little spiel explaining where the wine was from etc. Well at one point I looked over and there he was holding a bottle of Gnarly Head Old Vine Zinfandel!
It’s an excellent wine that I drink regularly, but I did wonder if the couple would have been dismayed to learn just how cheaply I could buy it at my local supermarket.
When one of the primary flavors is referred to as “rubber cement” you’re gonna have to go some to persuade me to try it.
Turley is still making big bold zins using some strain of wild yeast that doesn’t die till the alcohol hit 17% or so. Their lowest tier starts at around $30 so they aren’t cheap, but if you get the urge for an occasional “monster” zin, that’s where I’d start. They used to have, and probably still do but I haven’t seen it lately, a petit syrah that was so brutally heavy and dark that it sucked the light from the room.
Not sure your price point but I like :
Sivas Sonoma Cab-sav
Barboursville Cab-sav (esp the reserve)
Barboursville Sangiovese (esp the reserve)
if we add foreign wines, a lesser known but good one is
Zenato Valpocicella Superiore Ripassa
as for whites- whatever the better half is having……
( not exactly house wine price range but the Barboursville non reserves would qualify)
In 2008 when gas prices went through the roof, and thus the price of everything else rose as delivery costs increased, I was working as a sommelier. Our average price per bottle sold dropped by almost half. I had to seek out high quality, loww cost wines and was very successful at it.My suggestion: look to Spain. Even the cheapest albarino will make shellfish sing.
I have a thing for Argentinian Malbecs, particularly those made by the Catena family. Their wines are worth the price but the price is high. Fortunately they have a second label called Tilia that they use to sell what we called when I worked as a distributor “Tuesday night wines.” Solid wines that won’t break the bank. You can usually find them for under $10.
If you are after a cheap crisp white, Sardinia puts out reasonably priced high quality bottles. A favorite is Argiolas Costamolino.
TJ’s carries La Ferme Julian. If you can find a better rose for under $6, let me know.
Finally, I know box wines have a stigma, but there are some really serviceable options, and they typically cost around $16 for a box that is the equivalent of four bottles. Our house wines are Bota Box Shiraz and Pinot Grigio. I don’t really care for their other varietals, but those two are quite nice.
@kelsurprise – I’ve heard that whites have more tannins and sulfites than red? How can that be? I am not wine expert so I can’t even say – I just look to see what is on sale at Publix. They have quite a selection and offer very good discounts which allows me to try more expensive kinds that I might overlook. Yet I find myself grabbing the same ones. The whites from New Zealand or Australia all seem to have a light lemon lime taste that is nice in summer. The Josh wines are pretty good. I’ve found the wines from Oregon are good too.
Love the teas too – Bigelow, Celestial and Tazo are my favorites. Tazo makes a nice peach green tea and one called Glazed Lemon Loaf. There’s also a tea called Butter Mint – what’s not to like! I also love I stocked up on boxes of Prince of Peace Oolong which comes from China before the virus – love it as an unsweetened iced tea – and sometimes plain ol Lipton!
It is not hard to create a list of wines that are almost always consistently good. A few are surprisingly inexpensive and most are in the under 20$ reasonable category. I have found that it is impossible to create a list of consistently exquisite wines because there is a magic in wine that tracks with the magic of life. That wine you had at an unexpected moment that, at that moment, was the best wine you ever drank will never taste the same even if you buy the same brand, vintage and year.
Life is like that.
Yes. My uncle made it. Review: slightly better on the tongue than his uncle’s moonshine, but not as good for cleaning paintbrushes or seeing unbidden visions.
I see that it’s available commercially. That might be better. I have my doubts.
Thanx for the recommendation. It appears to be about $25. Which is in line with other Valpocicella Ripassa I’ve seen. I’ll try it the next time I make Pot Roast Braised in Amarone, the budget version. (And apply the savings to the Bottle of DOMAINE HUET VOUVRAY LE HAUT LIEU MOELLEUX 1947 Fund.)
I’ll try anything at least once based purely on the label. As a result, I drank a bit of Chalkboard during the lockdown while trying to figure out how to still be a teacher online. Perhaps that’s not the best way to pick wine, but it proved to be a serviceable Sauvignon Blanc. Very affordable.
Only the best.
No New York wines? Hater.
My favorite is Paso Tiempo from Six Mile Creek Vineyard in Ithaca.
Yakima Valley, where I live, has some fantastic wineries.
A local favorite of mine is Owen Rowe. If you get a chance to pick up any of their wines, you won’t regret it.
Try http://www.caskers.com