Top 5 Wines So Far

(I do not own the rights to this picture)

So I began thinking about this particular list quite some time ago, but I had the hardest time deciding on only 5 wines. I could come up with 5 wines from each store that I frequent on a regular basis. And with that thought I decided to change my criteria. The following lists, yes lists plural, will list my top 5 wines by location of purchase. That gives my readers more options when purchasing wines. The locations I have chosen are as follows: Total Wine & More, Costco, Trader Joe’s, Fry’s/Kroger’s, and Other. Some of these wines are available at multiple locations; however I am going to compile these lists based on where I would purchase them most often. One more note, these lists are not compiled in a 1 through 5 manner rather they are the 5 wines from each location that are my favorites from those locations at this time; also price point did not go into the construction of any of these lists. Okay, on to the lists!


Total Wine & More
2005 Condado Di Oriza Crianza, Tempranillo, Spain
2008 Anakena Ona, (55% Cabernet Sauvignon/25% Carmenere/20 %Syrah), Chile
2008 Courtney Benham Cabernet Sauvignon, California
2009 Maipe Cabernet Sauvignon, Argentina
2009 Castle Rock by Cramele Recas Cabernet Sauvignon, Romania


Costco
2006 Clos Pegase Cabernet Sauvignon, California
2007 Bodega Flechas de los Andes Gran Malbec, Argentina
2008 Concha y Toro Trio Reserva (70 % Cabernet Sauvignon/15% Syrah/15% Cabernet Franc), Chile
2009 Kirkland Signature Rutherford Meritage (70% Cabernet Sauvignon/15% Merlot/12% Petit Verdot/3% Cabernet Franc), California
2009 Crios de Susana Balbo Cabernet Sauvignon, Argentina


Trader Joe’s
2007 Trentatre Rosso, Italy
2007 Viriato Tinta de Toro, Spain
2008 Santa Rita 120 Cabernet Sauvignon, Chile
2009 Alexander & Fitch Cabernet Sauvignon, California
2009 Tres Pinos Three Pines Cuvee Red Wine, California


Fry’s/Kroger’s
2007 Waterbrook Merlot-Cabernet (56% Merlot/44% Cabernet Sauvignon), Washington
2008 Mouton Cadet Bordeaux (65% Merlot, 20% Cabernet Sauvignon, 15% Cabernet Franc), France
2009 Alamos Malbec, Argentina
2009 Georges Dubeouf Beaujolais-Villages Flower Label, France
2009 Louis Jadot Beaujolais-Villages, France


Other
2007 Munoz de Toro Argie Bonarda, Argentina (Purchased at the Queen Creek Olive Mill)
2007 Calcu Red Wine, (50% Cabernet Sauvignon/30% Carmenere/15% Cabernet Franc/5% Petit Verdot), Chile (Purchased at Cost Plus World Market)
2008 Santa Alicia Carmenere Reserve, Chile (Purchased at Cost Plus World Market)
2008 Notro Sangiovese/Bonarda, Argentina (Purchased at Cost Plus World Market)
2009 Trumpeter by Rutini Wines Malbec, Argentina (Purchased at BevMo)


Overall these lists do a pretty good job of outlining quite a few of my favorite wines at this moment. I know I should probably pair this list down to 5 or 10 really good wines and rate them appropriately; however I’ve never been a person that chose favorites. Rather I wanted to always have a lot of options available to me. There are definitely a lot of options in the lists above. In the future I am going to have to branch out and start drinking white wines because I think I have limited myself and my palate. We’ll see how long that takes.

Head to Head: One Wine, Two Vintages

I've reviewed more than one wine before, but I've never reviewed the same wine just different vintages. I've only had the opportunity to conduct this experiment once before and I didn't take any tasting notes on the second vintage I sampled. So I went ahead and made sure to take notes on both vintages this time. Without further ado, on to the reviews.





2007 Trentatre Rosso (33.3% Cabernet Sauvignon, 33.3% Merlot, 33.4% Montepulciano), Italy

Color – Dark red (nearly purple) with a black core

Nose – Plum, molasses, smoke

Taste – Be in for a shock on the first sip of this decadent red. This wine makes the grade in every single category. Color, yep it’s got beautiful dark red characteristics that look amazing in the glass. Aroma, that’s here too in spades with bountiful scents of plum, molasses, smoke that fade to lighter notes of oak, leather, chocolate, and spice. Flavor, this wine has flavor for days; intense plum, dark fruit, bittersweet chocolate, leather, coffee and oak mingle together with perfect acidity and tannins, all topped off with a long, dry finish. This wine can take you on a journey all its own; it’s nearly a masterpiece compared to anything else out there under 15 dollars. Don’t delude yourself, this wine is a heavy hitter. While it might not be a fruit bomb, it comes pretty darn close. It’s complex and full bodied red wine with a nice silky mouthfeel. This one tastes perfect when served right at room temperature. Make sure to let it breathe in the glass for about 10 minutes, but I wouldn’t say you need to decant it any more than that. I took four days to finish my bottle off and the wine tasted just as amazing on glass number one as it did on glass number five.
Overall, this is probably the best QPR I have come across in a 6 dollar bottle of wine. It has the depth, complexity, flavor, and texture of a 15-20 dollar wine. It has layer upon layer of flavor and texture and brings intense pleasure with every sip. It is so well balanced that it holds up nicely with food, but tastes absolutely superb on its own. I sincerely can’t say enough about this wine. You have to go buy it now if you enjoy big red wines. This is a “buy by the case” wine!


2009 Trentatre Rosso (33.3% Cabernet Sauvignon, 33.3% Merlot, 33.4% Montepulciano), Italy

Color – Ruby red

Nose – Dusty blackberry, chocolate, damp soil

Taste – I will preface this merely by saying I would have loved this wine had I drank it before trying the 2007 vintage. That being said, this wine is not bad. In fact it’s pretty good, just not on the same level as the 2007. It has a decent enough nose even though it is lighter in the glass than its previous variation. The flavor in the initial sip are light and acidic, with more raspberry, cherry and smoke than blackberry or chocolate. The mid-palate consists largely of tannins, red berry flavors and some alcohol. The finish is medium in length; contains raspberry, sour cherry and wet leaves; and is quite dry. This wine is young and while not very complex, is still a pretty good effort. The texture is smooth in the mid-palate and finish but the wine starts a little confused and somewhat harsh. I can’t honestly say this is great wine nor can I say it’s a bad wine; it falls firmly in the good wine category. The wine has minor complexity, mostly smooth mouthfeel, and decent flavors mainly of red fruit with some chocolate and earth mixed in.
Overall, if you were to randomly purchase 10 wines with a price tag of 5.99 each, this wine would beat 8 of those wines and fall just short of the 9th. It’s not a bad wine at all, it’s just not a great wine. It is a good wine and not much more. What is best about this wine is that its only 6 dollars at Trader Joe’s and that makes it a really good QPR. I would say that if you can’t find the 2007 vintage then pick up a bottle or two of this. It’s not a wine to buy by the case unless you are going to cellar it for a few years, but it’s a wine you can keep around and still enjoy.

To recap, if you are able to pick up these vintages, set the 2007 aside and open the 2009 first. Enjoy its flavors, how it only cost you 6 dollars but still tastes good enough to get pretty good marks. It's not off-putting or pretentious, there aren't any surprises, its a little complex and tastes quite nice. Then a few nights later pop open the 2007 and be prepared for an amazing experience with a glass of wine. It's a wine that you can pick up for the price of the change you can find in your couch, but it tastes absolutely fantastic. Big flavors that rival a 15 or 20 dollar wine. You can enjoy both of these wines in their own time and place. The 2007 is a truly superb QPR, the 2009 is a good QPR. But for 6 bucks, I would advice buying the 2007 by the case and the 2009 by the half case.

2009 Blason de Bourgogne Pinot Noir, France

Color – Translucent, brownish red

Nose – Cherry, cranberry, pepper, earth, celery?

Taste – Pinot is not one of my favorite red wines. To be honest, it’s down at the bottom of my red wine list only beat out by Valpoilicella and Zinfandel. It’s not that I don’t like Pinot, I just don’t know that much about it and according to those “in-the-know” it can be hard to find a decent Pinot for under 25 dollars. But I have been slowly sampling Pinot at the sub-10 dollar mark for a few weeks now. What I can say about this wine is that it is very light, both in color and in weight. It has a strange nose (to me) with the earth, cranberry and what I can only describe as celery. And the flavor is quite mild as well. The first thing I notice when I take a sip is that this wine tastes much better served slightly chilled. As it warms the tart fruit flavors can feel overbearing and there seems to be a little too much pucker for me. When it’s chilled the flavors play well together going from sour cherry/cranberry to earth and raspberry and finally some pepper on the finish. I am hard pressed to find any tannins, though there is some nice acidity here that keeps the mid-palate interesting and follows through to the finish. The finish is medium in length and has more cranberry and this is where I can also taste what to me resembles celery (you know that clean, slightly bitter taste that celery has?). The texture and mouthfeel are pleasant but there isn’t a lot of depth or character in either the flavor or texture department.

Overall, I would call this an OK wine given my limited knowledge and experience with the varietal. It is inoffensive and subdued but that is what you want some times. It has a pretty darn good price coming in at 6 bucks at Trader Joe’s. I would advise to use this as an aperitif or maybe chilled with salad or hors d'oeuvres. It’s not going to amaze you, but it won’t let you down either. Simply put this is a pretty decent light red wine with a very humble price tag. All-in-all something that’s right up my alley.

Blason de Bourgogne Wines

2009 Tait Wines “The Ball Buster”, 73% Shiraz/15% Merlot/12% Cabernet Sauvignon, Australia

Color – Dark purple with a violet rim

Nose – Blueberry, blackberry, vanilla

Taste – This is one of those monster reds that I tend to like quite a bit, unfortunately this one isn’t as good as most. I taste dark cherry, blackberry, black currant, and oak right from the initial sip. These flavors completely disappear in the mid-palate being replaced with quite a lot of heat from alcohol and just as much astringency from the tannins. The finish is long, holds onto the heat and astringency from the mid-palate and adds flavors of blackberry, oak and leather. The wine is full-bodied with both “weight” and “warmth” to it. It would be quite nice if the alcohol and astringency weren’t so overpowering, as it is this wine is just a middle-of-the-road red blend. Sure it’s bigger and bolder than a lot of red blends, but it’s not necessarily a good thing as this wine is just a little too much for my taste.

Overall, this wine is drinkable and has an OK QPR. In my opinion it’s just a little too much for me, I can’t get past the heat and astringency, and two things I actually like in red wine but here they are just too abundant. I would say you can find better red blends for the same price or just a little more money, the Anakena Ona or Finca Flichman Tupangato are two that come to mind. I wouldn’t say you have to steer clear of this one, it has its good points, but I can’t be honest and say it’s one of my favorites rather this is right in the middle of the pack.

Tait Wines