Wine I'm paying for these days

I get to attend some nice tastings and even have people send a few samples my way.  Some of the wines are interesting and challenge my preconceptions.  And so on and so forth.

But what do I actually spend my own money on?  For many reasons, the by-word is cheap.  Cheap yet good.  In a market like New York, you can get some very good wines for $10 and under.

And where do the wines come from?  For obvious reasons, most of them come from the heart of the western Roman Empire, ie, Italy and France.  Italy has my heart and France was my school decades ago. 

What am I looking for when I order some cheap but good wine?  Wines that offer no surprises, that I can drink with an ordinary meal and offer to guests without apologies. 

So in a recent order from Astor Wines I ordered a couple of mixed cases.  Half the wines were from Italy, almost half from France.  And one bottle was from Long Island.  I ordered exclusively items that were on sale.

I went so far as to order several bottles each of 2 Italian and 2 French wines. 

From Italy the delicious Sandro Fay Rosso di Valtellina 2003, a simple, juicy little number made from Nebbiolo.  A terrific wine for $9.99.  And one of the charming whites from Sicily, Fondo Antico's "Grillo Parlante" 2006, 100% from the local Grillo grape, also $9.99 a bottle.  This one is more complex than the price would let on.

From France the vin de Savoie "Abymes" Domaine Labbe' 2006, a super crisp white that's a steal at only $7.99.  And red wine I've written about, the Freres Delas Cote du Ventoux, a simple and satisfying quasi-Rhone blend at just $6.99. 

I know plenty of people who would never advertise the fact that they drank such inexpensive stuff -- if they drank it at all.  Sometimes, though, you just want to kick back with a pleasant wine, have a glass before dinner, have some with dinner, use it in dinner -- without a lot of fuss and folderol.  These wines and the others I bought do the job beautifully.

Comments

[Lorenzo]

are you talking about enjoying wine according to your taste rather than how it's priced? are you mad?!?

heh.

it's heartening to see more awards coming out for wines of good value. i think many of us are on the lookout for bottles of best bang-for-buck.

then there are times it's just better to find something innocuous that you can kick-back and enjoy without too much effort. *thumbsup*

[Terry Hughes]

Grazie, Lorenzo. Glad you share some of these radical thoughts!

BTW, how did a Lorenzo end up in SA?

[Marco]

I'm very fond of Fondo Antico's Nero d'Avola. It's a little more money but worth every penny.

[alberto from Valpolicella]

Ciao Terry,
the wines of Fondo Antico would be even more interesting if you knew one of the winemaker who create them, a fascinating, pleasant and deeply prepared girl I've been lucky to have had in my class when I was teaching in Marsala.
Joking apart (but it's been not a joke!), I'm really proud to discover by myself inexpensive wines that taste good and match wonderfully with food or with my feelings.
Certainly, Radikon, Gravner, Mascarello, Soldera wines (to talk about the ones stress by Asimov in his blog) can offer wonderful moments of real pleasure, but no emotion can be compared with the subtle sensory and cerebral satisfaction of the right "simple" wine in the right moment at the right price...
They do their job wonderfully, as you do!
Waiting for your coming in Verona...
Alberto

[Terry Hughes]

D'accordo, cugino mio! ;)

Thanks for the kind words.

As to the right wine/moment/price, a lot of the pleasure of it comes from its being pretty much accidental or at least unpredictable.