Weekend wine list — experts’ picks: From Vinho Verde to dry Riesling

Comparing the picks: A survey of recent selections from popular wine experts. Whenever there’s an option, I highlight the more-affordable wines, focusing on possible choices for weekend purchases. Check their websites for full descriptions and other picks:

2006 Aveleda Follies Vinho Verde 2006 Portugal:
Natalie MacLean — marked by "enticing aromas of grapefruit and citrus" — made from the Alvarinho grape, considered the best for Vinho Verde. Her best value white. $15.95

2006 Forest Glen Pinot Noir, Calif.:
Jerry Shriver — nice "ripe black berry and cherry flavors" but too much oak and one-dimensional. Yet you come "away satisfied and that’s what counts in the end, right?" $11

2004 “Portal Roble” from Bodegas Vinos Pinol (in the Terra Alta region of northeastern Spain):
Edward Deitch — "unusually complex and interesting for the price and reminded me that Spain still offers some of the best wine values." $20

2007 Penfold’s Thomas Hyland Riesling South Australia:
Jay McInerney — "a terrific price-to-quality ratio" for this very dry Riesling "with lime and green apple fruit." $20

Churchill’s Tawny Porto 10 Years Old:
Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg — "aged tawny ports trumpet their maturity on their labels as badges of honor," but here’s one for "those of us looking for the biggest bang for our bucks." $29

Tip: Print out this list and bring it to you local wine shop — even if a specific favorite isn’t available, ask the salesperson to recommend something similar. Or try browsing the latest wine reports from this custom collection of hundreds of news websites — filtered for bargains, continuously updated, and quick and easy to scan:

  • Reds (from Beaujolais to Zinfandel)
  • Whites (from Chablis to Sauvignon Blanc).

To hit closer to home, try WNR’s Advanced Wine Search tool and see what wine finds local columnists and wine experts may be writing about in your area. Once there, just type in your city and state (within quotation marks, as in, "Napa, California"), to get results ranked by relevance.

Or dig into some perennial standbys at SFGate.com’s Top 100 Wines of 2006, the Top 100 of 2006 list (PDF download) from Wine Spectator and the list of 50 Wines You Can Always Trust from Food & Wine.

Attracted to a bottle that’s advertised in the local paper or sitting on the local wine store shelf?

Do a little background research with Wine Enthusiast’s free, searchable Wine Buying Guide — either with a specific name or by types and price. For a little extra info, try Robert Parker’s handy Vintage Chart. Or see what the online wine community says about it with the search tools at cork’d, snooth or Wine Log.

Once you’ve selected the wine, you naturally want to decide what to eat with it. For some savvy guidance, try Natalie MacLean’s Wine & Food Matcher, which boasts a database of 360,000 wine-food pairings.

The Web is about community. So take a moment to comment about your experience with a particular wine — to help steer others to or away from it. And of course, have a great weekend!

Web sips: Wine headlines, 10/09/07

Handpicked stories from across the Web…

Dreams of wine country: The grape debate
A detailed look at Washington State wine communities tussling over some allegedly “un-green” wine practices.

Sommelier Talk: Ted Conklin
A chummy insider’s account of the makings of a truly fine wine cellar, which started with Bordeaux “to go first class.”

Sweet wines aren’t just for dessert
They are “delicious, versatile” — and here are 10 favorites from this British paper to prove it. 

Has the Americanization of Europe Led to the Decline in French Wine Consumption?
Nicely done dissection of a new book exploring a “micro-trend” called “French Teetolers.” Sacré bleu!

Thirsty for more news? Follow up this serving of new and notable headlines by digging into continuously updated feeds from national and international news outlets: The focus is on red and white wine bargains.

Weekend wine list — experts’ picks: From Orvieto to Central Coast Syrah

Comparing the picks: A survey of recent selections from top wine experts. Whenever there’s an option, I highlight the more-affordable wines, focusing on possible choices for weekend purchases. Check their websites for full descriptions and other picks:

2006 Viña Maipo Carménère Reserve Rapel Valley, Chile:
Natalie MacLean — displays a “rich red with leather, black fruit, mint and earth notes.” She calls this a “fantastic value” in a full-bodied wine.” Her best value red. $13.95

2004 Paul Jaboulet Aine “Les Jalets” Crozes-Hermitage, Rhone Valley, France:
Jerry Shriver — “easy-going sipper from one of the Rhone Valley’s best-known and reliable producers.” About $18

Domaine de Saint Siffrein (Claude Chastan) 2003:
Dorothy J. Gaiter and John Brecher — a Châteauneuf-du-Pape that is “nicely restrained, with surprising structure (and) clean, crisp tastes.” $29

Orovela Saperavi 2004 Kakheti, Georgia (Black Sea, not the southern American state):
Jancis Robinson — “the best Georgian wine I have ever tasted … worth a whirl by any truly curious wine drinker.” Apparently available only in the UK, at a low of £14.99

2006 Ruffino Orvieto Classico:
Karen Page and Andrew Dornenburg — “dry yet fruity wine with the flavor of green apples and an almondy finish … an exceptional bargain.” $8

2005 Qupé Central Coast Syrah:
Lynne Char Bennett — “sweet fruit, licorice, pepper and bright acidity in this nicely balanced Syrah.” She calls it money well spent. $17

Tip: Print out this list and bring it to you local wine shop — even if a specific favorite isn’t available, ask the salesperson to recommend something similar. Or try browsing the latest wine reports from this custom collection of hundreds of news websites — filtered for bargains, continuously updated, and quick and easy to scan:

  • Reds (from Beaujolais to Zinfandel)
  • Whites (from Chablis to Sauvignon Blanc).

To hit closer to home, try WNR’s Advanced Wine Search tool and see what wine finds local columnists and wine experts may be writing about in your area. Once there, just type in your city and state (within quotation marks, as in, “Napa, California”), to get results ranked by relevance.

Or dig into some perennial standbys at SFGate.com’s Top 100 Wines of 2006, the Top 100 of 2006 list (PDF download) from Wine Spectator and the list of 50 Wines You Can Always Trust from Food & Wine.

Attracted to a bottle that’s advertised in the local paper or sitting on the local wine store shelf?

Do a little background research with Wine Enthusiast’s free, searchable Wine Buying Guide—either with a specific name or by types and price. For a little extra info, try Robert Parker’s handy Vintage Chart. Or see what the online wine community says about it with the search tools at cork’d, snooth or Wine Log.

Once you’ve selected the wine, you naturally want to decide what to eat with it. For some savvy guidance, try Natalie MacLean’s Wine & Food Matcher, which boasts a database of 360,000 wine-food pairings.

The Web is about community. So take a moment to comment about your experience with a particular wine — to help steer others to or away from it. And of course, have a great weekend!

Web sips: Wine headlines, 10/05/07

Handpicked stories from across the Web…

15 excellent bargain wines bound to please palates
A writer who seems to get the point of writing: “Without further prattle on my part, here are 15 bargain wines sure to please the palate.”

Five reasons why wine is a great hobby
“As if anyone actually needs to be convinced …” Actually, these are really good reasons.

Exotic Grapes, From Aglianico to Zweigelt, Now Make Trendy Wine
“Tapping into today’s vogue for wines made from obscure grapes that are grown in unfamiliar regions.”

Czech wine seeks a place at top tables
These may not be the other Bordeaux, but “leading Czech winemakers are shaking off their modest past and targeting top range taste buds.”

Thirsty for more news? Follow up this serving of new and notable headlines by digging into continuously updated feeds from national and international news outlets: The focus is on red and white wine bargains.

The Web’s latest wine buzz, 9/24/07

Tune in to what top wine bloggers and experts are decanting into cyberspace with handpicked highlights of their latest and greatest.


“The great wines of the world are expensive and often hard to find,” says Food & Wine. Okay, your first reaction may be, tell us something we didn’t know. This article, however, is well worth a read for what it goes on to say — namely, that it’s possible to find affordable wines that “echo the characteristics of the truly extraordinary.” If, of course, you look hard enough, which is what Ray Isle did for us in his piece aptly entitled Superstars & Super Steals. Nine different pairings are offered — with prices as low as $13 for the affordable-steals class and and as high as $114 for the extraordinaries — for types ranging from Alsace Riesling and white Burgundy to red Bordeaux and Oregon Pinot Noir.

Another penny-pinching reason to drop by Food & Wine is an additional Isle report, this one focusing on an assortment of top Italian wines under $20. Isle wise-crackingly demands our pity for having to taste his way through 187 under-$20 Italian wines. An “exhausting” job, he declares, but eventually admits the assignment was “entirely enjoyable.” Most intriguing of his picks, perhaps, is the 2004 Librandi Cirò Rosso ($10) from the southern Italian region of Calabria. It’s made from the Gaglioppo grape variety, which is obscure virtually everywhere else in the world, Isle observes.

Speaking of penny-pinching, Eric Asimov at The New York Times spotlights a variety of wines that the headline touts as Happiness for $10 or Less. In addition to providing a “Tasting Report: Structure and Personality, With a Small Price Tag” for 10 national and international picks, Asimov serves up some worthwhile insider factoids, such as this interesting peek into restaurant mentality: “The restaurant industry has a longstanding belief that the lowest-priced wine on the list will never sell. Nobody wants to be seen as cheap. But the second-lowest-priced wine, that’s the one people will gobble up.”

There is absolutely nothing cheap about wines produced in the California vineyard sketched by Jay McInerney in House & Garden. This is the story about how the former CEO of Northrop Corporation decided to start a vineyard in what “may qualify as the most unlikely patch of vines in the world.” Or at least the ritziest — the Los Angeles suburb of Bel Air. But make no mistake, Moraga Vineyards is not a rich man’s plaything. We learn that the former sommelier at Alain Ducasse’s three-star restaurant in Paris, Stephane Colling, now the wine director at the Modern in New York, calls Moraga his favorite California winery.

A different winemaker altogether is profiled by Jerry Shriver at USA TODAY: Randall Grahm, who officially calls himself “President for Life” of Bonny Doon Vineyard in Santa Cruz, Calif. “But a more apt title would be ‘Supreme Seeker/Philosopher/Gadfly/Court Jester,’ ” Shriver observes. Now Grahm says he is rethinking his direction, heading into the realm of biodynamics. Grahm’s metamorphosis-in-progress, aka “existential crisis,” is a clicker.