… and more affordable bottles continues with a mixed batch bought from a favorite retailer in my area.
2012 Ridge Lytton Springs Zin - Am I the only one who isn’t absolutely charmed with Ridge products? This felt heavy and almost medicinal, not at all properties I want in a Zinfandel, and got worse the second day. Got some 2013 on the way, and I hope it’s a bit more lithe than the 2012.
2012 Faiveley Bourgogne Rouge - Tart red raspberry with dried cranberry and very acidic. Half decent with roast rack of lamb. Not bad, but not memorable either. I know not to expect much from a sub $20 bottle of blended Burgundy, but was hoping for a little more from this producer. In it’s defense, it was nearly as good as a $50+ bottle of 2011 Jadot Beaune Clos des Ursules so a value from that standpoint. Didn’t change much the second day.
2012 Latour Bourgogne Rouge - Immediately, the nose said this was a little different from most sub $20 bottles of Bourgogne. Strawberry and a pinch of spice blossomed out of the bottle as soon as the cork was popped. The tartness and acidity weren’t overpowering on the pop 'n pour. More to come tomorrow on how it develops.
I’ll add a couple more as they get opened. Feel free to post notes on some of your recent experiments or go-to reasonably priced bottles.
'12, '13 or '14 St Cosme, $12.99 Great CDR
'13 Biohof Pratsch Grüner Veltliner $10. Crisp green apples and white pepper.
'12 Odfjell Carménère Armador $10 Very Cab Franc like.
NV Flora Springs Gamut $17 Cheap BDX blend.
All great QPR’s for daily drinkers. All should be reasonably easy to find.
Most of my daily drinkers are from Italy and Spain. There is a lot of quality and quite a few varietals to choose from. I did recently pick up a few from Uruguay.
No worries Ed. At the prices of these bottles, you can load a box up and try quite a few. I expect more misses than hits at the sub-$30 price point anyway.
I’m going to revisit a house favorite soon: 2012 Sebastiani Alexander Valley Cab. At $25-ish, it’s a great purchase by the case. We drank 3 bottles on release well over a year ago, and want to try another to see if there’s any evolution so soon.
Dennis, have you tried the Hagen’s Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon from Gary’s? Check it out. Also, while your there check out the Go Figure line and the 2013 Fisch CS. All great values.
Dupeuble Bojo (been drinking 2014s lately), can satisfy both an ipob and purple drank fan, more enjoyable than any $15 pinot noir I can think of. See also the “your case” thread that’s running concurrently, lots of good ideas there.
Thanks Mike. I’ll look for them. Your endorsement of Hardin was excellent. So good, in fact, that it bumped out another Cab as one of our favorites in the $25 price point and is going to be 1 of the 4 bottles in our $25 Cab-Off November 15th.
Thanks, will check them out since I’m all over the map when it comes to taste. If there’s such a thing as a purple drank Pinot (as in sweeter with less acidity) my wife would swoon over it.
Yup, I’ve had a keen eye on that thread.
Love it that NYC can ship overnight to me via ground without paying through the nose!
Not necessarily. We did have a discussion on Riesling a few months back, and while we differ in favorite vintages, I don’t dislike years like '04… I just like other years more. Besides, my wife likes whites a little drier than I do and she enjoyed '04 Spatlese quite a bit. '07 is still our favorite year - her Kabinett and Spatlese, me Spatlese and Auslese. Always open to suggestions!
From Gary’s in North Jersey:
2009 Hagen’s Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon
2013 Fisch Cabernet Sauvignon
From K&L:
Marietta “Old Vine Red-Lot #62” Red Blend
2014 Domaine Dupeuble Beaujolais
Hopefully one or two pan out, especially the Cabs from Gary’s. I could use an excuse to get up to North Jersey one day on a buying binge. Good reason to stop and see Ian also.
Well, not much changed with the Latour. At $14.98 a bottle, it’s still the front runner in the sub $20 price point. Just sampled a 2013 Jean-Paul Brun Terres Dorees Cote de Brouilly and it was VERY similar in profile to the Latour, but at three or four more dollars per bottle, the Jean-Paul Brun falls by the wayside - especially since the fruit wasn’t quite as nice as the Latour. Both have a very light body and only a hint of spice and tannins.
Opened a bottle of 2013 Bedrock Old Vine Zin just now and was overwhelmed with the peppery profile. Their 2010 OV Zin is spectacular with a great balance of fruit and pepper so there’s some optimism that this will calm down with decanter time.
Update: the Bedrock settled down to a nice Zin-ish balance of fruit and pepper after 5 or 6 hours in the decanter. It has a nice light to middle weight body that I’ve just had my eyes opened to courtesy of the Bedrock thread. The 2013 obviously isn’t as nice as the 2010 yet, but probably will be in time. Think it calls for 3 or so more bottles of 'Rock for the rack.
![[rofl.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/a/a7452fcd8e675af869f8da01174474a545b03944.gif "rofl"){kind=small}
![[cheers.gif]](/uploads/db3686/original/2X/0/0ff9bfcdb0964982cd3240b6159868fbdf215b1a.gif "cheers"){kind=small}
So good, in fact, that it bumped out another Cab as one of our favorites in the $25 price point and is going to be 1 of the 4 bottles in our $25 Cab-Off November 15th.