Re: The Under $20 A Bottle Wine Thread:
 

Please allow me to re-state that this is the under $20 a bottle wine thread, It's meant to make suggestions for good, very good and occasionally an excellent wine that can be had for $20 a bottle or less.

I fail to understand the bashing of many suggestions made on this thread, accompanied by volumes of rhetoric comparing a simple $20 or less bottle of wine, with world class and far more expensive wines.

To me the topic of this thread is important because there are many, many thousands of us who cannot afford to purchase $30 +, $50 +, $100 + and so on, bottles of wine on a regular basis than there are who can!

Re: The Under $20 A Bottle Wine Thread:
 

Same way everyone does, I reckon. I paid for it. It's a fantastic wine. For my money, it's the best Pinot around. But this is an under $20 thread, so that's neither here nor there.

Re: The Under $20 A Bottle Wine Thread:
 

Richard Cacciato, chief executive of New York importer Frederick Wildman & Sons, says $40 is the new resistance point, and demand is focused on $10 to $20 wines. Australia is down, while Spain and Argentina are up.
[http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...aaCF8_4ghYm8#]

:ss

Re: The Under $20 A Bottle Wine Thread:
 

No one is bashing your recommendations. I should emphasize, YOURS. But when you post someone else's, without ever tasting the wine, I think it is fair game to question them. If you think I am drinking a $100 bottle every night, you are mistaken. Hell, I am down with a flu since the middle of last week and haven't had any wine or cigars since (was tempted tonight, though, still congested and coughing).

Also, what I attempted to do was to show how to read a tasting note and decipher it. Only because something got a 91 score, from who knows who (Sam's employee? Wow, I should run out and buy a pallet!) when the wine description is obviously showing an overripe and overoaked wine from questionable provenance, I don't see why someone should not point it out.

Same as would happen with anyone posting a very positive, 91 score review on Cremosa or another questionable stick, I would expect at least one person to chime in with a contrarian view. No difference.

Nothing personal, as I already pointed out. Simply questioning some recommendations you posted (and others as well). They are not wines made by you, don't take it personally to begin with. I never recommend anything I haven't tried myself and although I may point out a particular winery if a particular style of wine is being discussed, I feel I am playing with someone else's money if I recommend something without having actual experience with it. Not fair to the other person, IMO. That's all and nothing sinister.

Re: The Under $20 A Bottle Wine Thread:
 

Thread jack, but what other Pinots are you drinking? As a reference point.

Re: The Under $20 A Bottle Wine Thread:
 

When I was in Finland for two weeks on business I sampled a lot of different European wines and though I don't remember any labels I do remember liking the Spanish and Portuguese ones the most. They even offered good California wines. I think I was the only person in Helsinki who smoked cigars, by the looks I got.:ss
Found the link:
http://spanishtable.com/BerkeleyWineList.htm
Lotsa stuff for under $20 there, including some Portos and Madeiras.

Re: The Under $20 A Bottle Wine Thread:
 

Kevin knows each and every wine. Try some whites as well, some are really good. Splurge (less than $30?) on a bottle of Toro Albala Pedro Ximenez and have some next time you light up, let me know what think.

Re: The Under $20 A Bottle Wine Thread:
 

To sum up four pages of disagreements, one should find a reviewer that best suites their style and palate and use them as a frame of referrence. Old bob, for example likes really overextracted glycerin driven wines right now, if that is what you like then listen to his ratings.

Seangar:
You should try oregon chards if you like more acid and fruit driven chards. I had some 91 arglye vineyards and 91 eyrie pinot noirs that drank beautifully this spring. Pretty darn exceptional for oregon fruit. Btw oregon is on the same 45th parallell as burgundy

Chile:
Marques de casa concha cabernet
Spain: Tinto pesquera
Oregon: Anne amie pinot gris or lacchini pinot gris, evolution by sokol blosser

Re: The Under $20 A Bottle Wine Thread:
 

I agree with you. Pretty easy to see about where this turn of events started, no?

Re: The Under $20 A Bottle Wine Thread:
 

Back on track, a Spanish that I have enjoyed many times in the past that should run $12-14 is

http://winelibrary.com/images/40151.jpg

Castell del Remei Gotim Bru. Mostly tempranillo, with some cabernet sauvignon, merlot and grenache thrown in. Price went up from 10-ish to 12-13-ish locally and I wasn't as impressed with the last available vintage as I had been in the past. Nonetheless, a fine wine for the nickel based on my 'sub 20 palate'.

Re: The Under $20 A Bottle Wine Thread:
 

I agree totally with sen gar +1 for the gotim Bru.
Also Vino Sin Ley G2 and G5 from spain are great buys hitting the 9.99 and 13.99 pricepoints

Re: The Under $20 A Bottle Wine Thread:
 

Good pick. This wine does vary some with the vintage. I had a case of the 2000 that was impressive, but a had (2003 I think) that was just a little better than average.

Spain is good for under $20 wines. The Marques de Caceres Reserva is better if you can find under $20.

Re: The Under $20 A Bottle Wine Thread:
 

You mentioned that one before, I'll have to look for it tonight.

Re: The Under $20 A Bottle Wine Thread:
 

Here is what sounds like an interesting red from Spain. I have not tried this, so this is not a recommendation, it is simply an awareness post. I would like to see more awareness post in this thread! It's not necessary to have tried a wine to post it as a awareness post. It's just letting others know of another possibly good, under $20 a bottle wine, that they may not have seen any advertising on!

2007 Celler El Masroig Sola Fred

The red wines begin with the 2007 Sola Fred, a non-oaked cuvee of 90% Carinena and 10% Garnacha. Dark ruby-colored, it has an excellent nose of violets, black cherry, and earth notes. Supple and forward on the palate, it has serious depth of flavor, excellent balance, and a long, fruity finish. This hedonistic effort is a great value for drinking over the next 2-3 years. There are up to 8000 cases available for the USA market."

90 points, Jay Miller
from Robert Parker, Jr.'s, Wine Advocate

$8.99 per 750ml bottle!

Re: The Under $20 A Bottle Wine Thread:
 

For cheap wine I like this- http://www.salutewinemarket.com/stor...rois-Red-2007/

It can be found at most grocery stores.

Re: The Under $20 A Bottle Wine Thread:
 

To me the topic of this thread is important because there are many, many thousands of us who cannot afford to purchase $30 +, $50 +, $100 + and so on, bottles of wine on a regular basis than there are who can![/quote]

:tpd: Although I do occasionally splurge ;)

Re: The Under $20 A Bottle Wine Thread:
 

I have never bought a bottle of wine for more than $55. That was for a limited release Pinot which was very good. I think a lot of wine is targeted at the 15 to 25 dollar range and there are so many good ones.
I like most of the wines I have tasted from Trinitas winery in Napa and they are mostly under $20. One of the few club shipments I get.

Re: The Under $20 A Bottle Wine Thread:
 

Check out the bin ends for the best values in the $20 range.

Re: The Under $20 A Bottle Wine Thread:
 

Could you explain in more detail what is meant by "Bin ends"? For some reason it's not clicking with me.

Thanks

Re: The Under $20 A Bottle Wine Thread:
 

Gott, both Zin and Cab. Zin should be $12 or so, Cab a few dollars more. Old timers in the wine game, although still not well known. Well made wines.

Franciscan Cab. Can be found for $20. A touch on the oaky side for my palate, but should be really fine for most.

Dancing Bull Zin, should be $12 or so. Great wine all around, maybe better than Gott Zin above, although I like smaller wineries and would still pick Gott for that reason alone.

La Crema Sonoma Coast Pinot, I see it for $20 all over the place in CA, by far the best Pinot in this price range and the only one I would spend my own money on. Drinks better than many Pinots at (up to) double the price.

Save for Dancing Bull Zin, I have no idea if these wines are available in other states, although Franciscan should be. Price wise, I've seen some wines sell at better prices in other states, FL and NJ, than they are here.

Re: The Under $20 A Bottle Wine Thread:
 

Usually a bottle or two here and there, when a shop is down to almost no wine (out of a case or more they had), they clear up shelf space to place another wine there and what's left of the wine that used to be there is placed in a "end bin" area, usually with a marked down price to make it move. "End bin" is named for an "end" of a particular wine on the shelf.

I would only make sure that storage was not an issue, I've seen some shops place poorly stored wine in end bins.

Re: The Under $20 A Bottle Wine Thread:
 

Wines like Riddick mentioned. It's best to go to a good wine store as they have better wine to start off with more likely better storage. Wines with stained labels, end of cases, close out's... There's several reasons wine can end up on the clearence rack.

The stores I frequent, the bin is the first place I look. :wo

I return "bad" bottles all the time.

Re: The Under $20 A Bottle Wine Thread:
 

Thanks guys, I understand about the "end bin" now. The only real liquor stores to go to in my area, are the Lee's Liquor Outlets, there are 10 of them in the Las Vegas Valley. Two of the biggest ones are in my area. They have all their close outs spread out over several tables in an area near the check out registers. I've look through them several times and I have picked up a few interesting wines at very reasonable prices a few times.

Re: The Under $20 A Bottle Wine Thread:
 

Martignetti's? Marty's and Blanchard's were also the places I looked, in fact I found a whole bunch of older Baumards (QdC) at crazy low prices on one occasion at Marty's.

Re: The Under $20 A Bottle Wine Thread:
 

The Holy Trinity... Go to all three regularly. Brookline Liquor Mart as well.

Re: The Under $20 A Bottle Wine Thread:
 

BLM went downhill I thought? Their storage conditions were sub-par, but they did bring in a lot of great wine.

Very few shops on this coast have end bins, sadly.

Re: The Under $20 A Bottle Wine Thread:
 

I was in a store that had a huge wine selection and instead of end bins they tagged the end lots with 50% off tags. The clerk explained it to me the same as TheRiddick's end bin explanation above. It was in SoCal and I can't even remember the store but I remember to look for these deals. Mostly I do my buying at wineries after tasting. I look for below 25$ and if below $20 I may buy a case. I experiment with wines at Costco too. Sometimes they get some good deals on good wine and sometimes they are selling undrinkable crap. They have a "Kirkland" brand wine I haven't tried and while I was in Napa I saw a Kirkland vineyard. Soon everything will be Kirkland! Bwahahahaha!

Re: The Under $20 A Bottle Wine Thread:
 

Costco Kirkland and (Napa) Kirkland are two separate companies and have nothing in common. Costco simply has a trade name and then contracts other wineries to make products for them, I see Kirkland Vodka now as well, IIRC its made in France.

In SoCal, you must have been to one of the big boys, either Hi Time, Wine House or some such, they do have great selections. Next time make a stop at 20/20 Wines, near here 405 and 10 cross, best wine shop I have ever seen, its a wine museum.

Re: The Under $20 A Bottle Wine Thread:
 

I thought that might be the case but I hadn't researched it.

Re: The Under $20 A Bottle Wine Thread:
 

Kirkland in Napa has been in insolvency for some time now and even a recent auction did not bring any buyers. Make them an offer, they may listen :-))

Re: The Under $20 A Bottle Wine Thread:
 

I can't say that is the case in my recent memory. The sell storage, and I know their higher end stuff is in walk-in's. They were the importer for Guigal for a while. BLM's regular prices are just... regular. The do offer 20% off on most stuff. Lower Falls Wine in on the Newton Wellesley has a good boutique offering of wine. Hard to find a bad wine in the store, but the selection of standards is not as huge.

Re: The Under $20 A Bottle Wine Thread:
 

I buy a lot of wine at Costco, and they actually have a well thought out selection of wines. Personally, I would prefer more French wines in the line up, but that is me... I have bought plenty of cases from them. The have an Italian Super Tuscan called Giordano (I think) that comes in OWC for like $12 a bottle that is fantastic.

Kirkland's Champagne, CdP are both great offerings. Missed out on their Margaux :(

Re: The Under $20 A Bottle Wine Thread:
 

Costco is opening a Wine and Liquor only store in Yonkers, NY.

Re: The Under $20 A Bottle Wine Thread:
 

I find World Market to have a good and changing selection of affordable wines. I love that store.

Re: The Under $20 A Bottle Wine Thread:
 

I have gotten a Chilean wine from Costco that tasted like it had dirt in it and an Argentinean wine that tasted like watered down old wine and a French wine that reminded me of what wine would taste like if it went flat, like beer. These were all real cheap, like $8-$14, so I just drank them up and never bought them again. But I don't know why Costco put these on the rack. Maybe these are tastes that appeal to some.

Re: The Under $20 A Bottle Wine Thread:
 

Lance,

Problem with Costco is that most of the wines they carry are selected and pushed onto the stores by the corporate buyers, local wine managers have little room to sneak in what they like (although some do). Costco is one of the largest, if not the largest, buyers of wine in USA and do a good job with some high end wine (price wise), but I also rarely buy anything in their low end selections save for white wine to cook with. I'd rather buy their white selections on the low end than reds, most reds lack in body and flavor. Just my opinion, YMMV.

Chilean wines were a decent deal 15-18 years ago when they slowly trickled into USA. As volumes increased, same thing as with Australian "animal" labels happened, quality went down to keep the prices low and inferior fruit was used to make the juice. Some Chile wines are now almost $100 per bottle, have no idea who pays that much for a generic wine, at this price you can have pretty much anything from CA and Europe with few exceptions, and from proven vineyards to boot. I am wiling to bet that in a blindsetup a bottle of 2BC will easily taste better than most Chilean wines up to $10-12 per bottle.

If anything, I'd go for a Argentina wines these days, it is difficult to screw up Malbec. Plus, to me it is a bit more adventurous than a generic Cab at the same price, more complexity, body and spice. And most likely less oak.

Re: The Under $20 A Bottle Wine Thread:
 

Here is another awareness post, however, this one comes to me with a recommendation from a friend back in Illinois.

2004 Spruce Goose "Willamette" Pinot Noir

"A scintillating, almost translucent red to the eye. Ripe and rich on the nose, with urgent notes of wild red cherries and cinnamon--all framed by a bouquet of red roses. Is this really a New World Pinot? My Lord, possess the texture that I find only in a 1er cru Burgundy!

92 points, Jason Palma
Wine Consultant, Sam's Wines and Spirits

$19.99 per 750ml bottle!

Re: The Under $20 A Bottle Wine Thread:
 

My wife is a Pinot Noir fan. She told me "the Little Penguin" Pinot Noir 2008 was awesome. It was under 20 closer to 10 but she loved it.

Re: The Under $20 A Bottle Wine Thread:
 

My wife and I shared a bottle this weekend. Very nice. Thanks for the tip! :chr

Re: The Under $20 A Bottle Wine Thread:
 

This one is amazing, right now! I bought a couple of bottles of Layer Cake 2008 Shiraz from Barossa Valley, Australia at Trader Joe's for $14.95 this past Saturday. Last night my wife and I drank a bottle. I have had this in the past several times, 2006 and I believe 2005. It was always very good to excellent. I decanted the bottle and let it rest for about 45 minutes. All I can say is that this is an amazing wine right now. The flavor is full bodied with lot's of up front fruit dark berry nuances, with an underlying spiciness that is just wonderful. The finish is fairly long with hints of dark chocolate & spice.

I highly recommend this wine. I plan to pick up at least a half dozen bottles of this. I'm no expert but I believe that this wine will hold up very well and may even improve over the next 3 to 5 years.

Re: The Under $20 A Bottle Wine Thread:
 

Layer Cake is quite good. :dr
And a good value, too.

Another Australian Shiraz that is affordable and quite tasty is called Boarding Pass. It is priced in the $15-$20 range. Check it out.

Re: The Under $20 A Bottle Wine Thread:
 

The best Austrailian Shiraz I have tried under $20 is Torbreck Woodcutter's Shiraz.

Re: The Under $20 A Bottle Wine Thread:
 

http://filebox.vt.edu/users/okeefes/bricco_1.jpg

Barbera del Monderrato Superiore, $16.49 in my local Kroger, this wine is 85% Barbera, 15% Freisa.

I like Italian reds these days in the value category and this definitely hits the spot, different enough from Chianti to make it interesting.

Re: The Under $20 A Bottle Wine Thread:
 

Sounds like a good buy. What year is on the shelf?

Re: The Under $20 A Bottle Wine Thread:
 

06

Re: The Under $20 A Bottle Wine Thread:
 

My girlfriend had some Foxhorn White Zin a little while ago that was pretty good. And its cheap as can be too.

Re: The Under $20 A Bottle Wine Thread:
 

One wine I jump on when I see if on special for under $20 is Santa Margherita Pinot Grigio:

http://tophatwines.com/Eric/wines/sa...margherita.jpg


Very smooth wine with great flavors. It's defintily one of the best I have tasted in terms of Pinot Grigio :tu

Re: The Under $20 A Bottle Wine Thread:
 

Btw, does anyone have any specific Sauvignon blanc's they would recommend that fit under this category (under $20)? Always on the lookout for some new ones to try :)

Re: The Under $20 A Bottle Wine Thread:
 

One of my best friends LOVES this wine. I really need to try it.

Re: The Under $20 A Bottle Wine Thread:
 

Should this always be under $20? I can't imagine a Pinot Grigio over $20