Cheap wine. Inexpensive wine. Good Value Wine. I like to file these under Drinkable Wine. It’s not good wine, but it’s not bad wine. It’s Drinkable. If someone asks me for the name of a good wine, it’s likely not going to be under $15. I’m not a wine snob – I buy and enjoy Drinkable wine. Finding a tasty wine in the lower price range is a sport for me. I do love good wine though. Wine, like any thing else, follows the universal rule of “You Get What You Pay For.” My real favorites start at around the $30 range and escalate from there. Though I do drink a lot of good wines that are between $20-$30. In future postings I’ll pass on a few of these to you.
I like to go to the liquor store with a list of wines I haven’t tried. Recommends from friend. Something Gismondi wrote about in the Vancouver Sun. Or a wine I’ve read about in my recent issue of “Wine Spectator.” The subscription was a gift from two beautiful ladies, Lisa and Melodie. They are my enablers. With both food and wine. They also have a crush on Makena (who Lisa refers to as Fur-Pants) so you know they are quality girls.
Okay, one last thing about Lisa. I showed her this picture of Makena:
And she said “Oh, she’s breezin’ the onion.” That saying has now become part of my daily vernacular.
BACK TO THE WINE: I get a list together of four or five wines from my different sources. Before I leave the house I get on the computer and go to the BC Liqour Store Website. You can do a search and find out what wine each store in BC has and how many bottles of that particular wine are in stock. I check my local store to see if they have all the wine I’m looking for and more often than not, they don’t. So I end up heading to the Happiest Place on Earth (no, not Disneyland), the massive liqour store at 40th and Cambie.
As I walk in and daydream, I imagine that the entire staff greets me with a resounding “JER” (a la NORM from Cheers). Back to reality, I continue my mission to get a full case of wine. Yes, a full case. This is my Disneyland. I grab two or three bottle of each of the wines on my list, saving room for at least one impulse buy.
At home, T and I put them on a rotation. If there is certain wine that hits us, it goes on the list. Sometimes we tape the receipt to the inside of a cupboard door and star the good ones and cross off the bad ones.
Here are a few wines we’ve tried over the last couple of months. All are Drinkable. Do yourself a favour and buy a decanter if you don’t have one. Most wine of this caliber fares better with a little bit of air. Good Luck.
ALMANSA MARQUES DE ROJAS – SPAIN
CALITERRA CAB/SAV - CHILI
TOMARESCA NEPRICA – ITALY
VERAMONTE CAB/SAV - CHILE
SICILIA NERO D’AVOLA CABERNET SAUVIGNON – ITALY
PASQUA SAGRAMOSO VALPOLICELLA SUPERIORE – ITALY
VIOGNIER – SERAME 2006 – FRANCE
ARROGANT FROG RIBET RED 05/06 – FRANCE
CABERNET SAUVIGNON – CONCHA Y TORO CASILLERO DEL DIABLO – CHILE
CABERNET MALBEC – TRIVENTO RESERVE 05/06 – ARGENTINA
MALBEC – PASCUAL TOSO – ARGENTINA
Of course some wines are more drinkable than others. The Arrogant Frog is one of them, which is why I bought a case to have on standby.
When hunting for Wine; Good, Great and Drinkable, here are a few websites you’ll want to check out:
Tags: BC Liquor Stores, Dogs, Drinkable Wine, Gismondi, Liberty Wine Merchants, Makena, Marquis Wines, Wine, Wine Spectator
