I look at it more as a wine I am happy drinking myself any day of the week but when I have what I feel are non real wine drinking people over, it is something that saves me from opening more expensive bottles
ahhhhh got it. defends the bigger guns in the cellar from opening in the wrong company, but lets your non-wino friends feel like you’re still opening something nice for them.
I think Gloria fits this bill pretty well. also some of Chaves St Joseph offerings. I also really enjoy some of the Village and Bourgogne offerings from Drouhin. I love Villaine offerings too for this exact purpose because you can tell them the winemaker’s other wine sells for orders of magnitude more, and then they’re REALLY impressed.
I’m not partial to the term “cellar defenders”. What does this mean? It sounds like prosecuting a legal claim. You have a cellar, there is nothing to ‘defend’. Since a bottle lasts 2-4 days, I drink with whatever I want when I want at the time, and this will include a mix of new and old, cheap and more dear. Certain wines I will want to drink with people that like wines, some wines need age, but really no defensive posture is needed.
I grabbed a case of the 1999 Lanessan that K&L brought in late last year for sub $25-it is drinking wonderfully right now. It won’t last as long as the 2000, I need to drink these in the next year or 2, but it is in a good place right now.
Unless you live in Texas, where it’s more like $44 (maybe $39 if you get lucky). This state sucks…Thus, the only wine I purchase in state is from Costco (where mark-ups seem to be consistently lower).
Nobody has mentioned the entry level pinots from Siduri, Loring, and Pali. These are basically blends that didn’t make the cut for the single vineyard bottlings. Pali has been getting some good scores on theirs. Brian has an offer currently on Sta. Rita and Santa Lucia blends that come in six packs and mixed six packs with quantity discounts.
Just FYI I think these really need some time in bottle to show their stuff. Even the entry level “Langhe” bottling improves significantly with a few years.