Cellar Notes: Best buys for spring/summer
By Condé Cox
EVERYONE LOVES a list of low-cost, high-quality wines. The problem is, the picks are moving targets: a winery with a successful vintage won’t stick to its original price tag for long, the weather is never consistent from one vintage to the next, and winemakers are always experimenting. Granted, these are the variations that make the world of wine fun and unpredictable—but they also make identifying the “best buys” a perennially daunting task.
Here are a few options for this month’s best wine buys, based on each wine’s high score for varietal typicity, balance, length, intensity, and complexity. The best part? You can get them all for less than $15.
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Valdehermoso Ribera del Duero 2008 Roble (Tempranillo) $14 Exuding the typical tempranillo scent of fresh-brewed tea, with plenty of palate persistence and layers of flavor. This wine comes from a northern Spanish region (Ribera del Duero) known for making darkly colored, richly flavored wines that are long on tannin and low in acidity, and pair well with grilled meats. |
Château de L’Aiguillette 2009 Muscadet Sèvre et Maine Sur Lie (Melon) $10 This wine gives the simultaneous impression of citruslike tartness and the salt-air scent of the ocean. Nothing pairs better with shellfish, halibut, or grouper—it seems to cut to the very essence of the texture and flavor of great seafood. |
Domaine de la Guicharde 2009 Côtes du Rhône (Grenache) $14 A blend of warm-weather grapes from the Mediterranean Coast, Côtes du Rhône wines are grenache-based, with a dose of syrah and some other exotic, herbally scented red wine grapes. These mouth-warming wines are everyday versions of the far more pricey and famous Châteauneuf-du-Pape. |
Published: June 2011
Where can you find these wines??
Yes, a list of retailers would be very helpful!