A fellow used to tell me that “every January, my wallet gets muscle cramps.” Year-end spending can best the best of us; to be frugal in the new year is an easy resolution.
But the table wants its wine in times both bull and bear. So, today, some tips on how to buy smart, as well as recommendations of the same. No wine named costs more than $15 a bottle, regular nondiscount price.
One path to take is the road less traveled — offbeat grapes and winemaking regions — but another way may be the common road, just more wisely watched.
Road-less-traveled wines
Well-crafted wines made from what Mr. Carson of “Downton Abbey” might call “the odd grape” or from winemaking regions less in demand — there are hundreds of both — stand to reason to be better value wines.
Sometimes much is hidden beneath the (grape) bushel basket. In 2008, a French nuclear power plant disaster at Tricastin, in the northernmost district of the southern Rhone winemaking region Coteaux du Tricastin, caused winemakers there to dissociate from that appellation.
In 2010, they successfully “re-baptized” their region Grignan-les-Adhemar. The insanely priced 2010 Les Truffieres Grignan-les-Adhemar France ($8-$10) is a delicious, juicy mix of 75 percent grenache and 25 percent syrah with a 100 percent gulpability quotient. Dark berry flavors; solid acidity, moderate tannin; reasonable length.
The “forbidden fruit” that makes up the 2010 Domaine Magellan Le Fruit Defendu Vin de Pays d’Oc France ($13-$15) is the grape cinsault, the runt of the Languedoc litter. But here it’s made into wine by Bruno Lafon of famed Comte Lafon of Meursault, from vines planted in the 1960s in the Chateauneuf-du-Pape region. Juicy black cherries and black raspberries; low tannin, bright acidity; like a southern Morgon or Moulin-a-Vent.
All roads lead to Rome, but few of us travel the back roads away from it, that is to the region behind Latium, where Rome is capital, to Abruzzi, along the Adriatic. The main red wine grape of Abruzzo often turns out deliciously. See if you can find either the 2011 Gala Montepulciano d’Abruzzo Italy ($10), with its smooth texture and tastes and savors of dried sour dark cherries and moist black earth, or the 2008 Citra Niro Montepulciano d’Abruzzo Italy ($15), rich in tannin and with the years-added scents and flavors of black olive and cigar box.
Farther north a bit, in the Le Marche region, lie many hidden wine gems, among them the 2010 Saladini Pilastri Rosso Piceno Marches Italy ($10-$12), aromatic of cherries because of its dominant sangiovese component, with hints of anise and vanilla.
Even farther north, from Austria, comes a grape I stumbled upon last year to great effect. You’ll find it in the 2010 Zantho Zweigelt Burgenland Austria ($11-$12) and its wide-open, appealing aromas and flavors of dark berries and cranberry, flecked with black pepper and brown spice, in a straightforward red meant to go with a wide range of foods.
No country’s wines are as overlooked by Americans as those from Portugal. We should follow the lead of the Portuguese themselves, for whom more than 70 percent of their own wines cost less than three euros (about $4) a bottle. They’d consider a $15 bottle of wine rather “expensive.” Two delish whites are the juicy, silky 2011 Herdade do Esporao Verdelho V Alentejo Portugal ($12) and the chardonnay-like 2010 Cabriz Branco Encruzado Dao Portugal ($10). To my mind (and tongue), the world’s great sweet-wine value remains muscatel, as in the 2004 Jose Maria da Fonseca Moscatel de Setubal Portugal ($11, 375ml).
Road-well-traveled wines
More and more, I see terrific value coming from careful selections of big-name or big-production winemakers or regions, especially those we’ve come to think of as traditionally “good value.” For example, the globe’s most exciting, well-priced sauvignon blanc comes from Chile, such as the gobsmacking 2012 Concha y Toro Serie Riberas Gran Reserva Sauvignon Blanc Colchagua Chile ($15). On the other hand, a traditionally “dear” sauvignon blanc producer, New Zealand, can also come up with the delicious 2012 Starborough Sauvignon Blanc Marlborough New Zealand ($13-$15) and its full-on citrus and grapefruit character.
Other plucked-from tasties made in well-known winemaking regions around the world: 2008 El Coto de Rioja Crianza Rioja Spain ($12-$13; cherry-berry; licorice note; juicy finish); 2011 Hugel et Fils Gentil Alsace France ($13-$15; just-ripe pear; soft acidity); 2011 Cline Zinfandel California ($10-$12; herbed dark fruit; soft and smooth); 2010 Paul Mas Merlot La Forge Languedoc France ($10-$12; as complex and delicious as a “Right Bank” chateau red from far less expensive a district); 2011 Navarro Lopez Garnacha GranRojo Castile Spain ($11; gorgeous aromas of red fruits and earth; great clipped finish); 2010 Calcu Cabernet France Colchagua Chile ($14; dark berry fruit hinting at cocoa and mocha; smooth and lengthy); and 2011 Alamos Cabernet Sauvignon Mendoza Argentina ($10-$13: dark currant, mineral, moderately tannic; 100 percent cabernet at this price?).
If your wine store does not carry these wines, ask for one similar in style and price.
Bill St John has been writing and teaching about wine for more than 30 years.
