$10 wines toast of the town
Not on a champagne budget? Local experts suggest best reds and whites with good
taste
By Rebecca Goodman
Enquirer staff writer
Sarah Boat became interested in wine in her early 20s, primarily because she was
into cooking.
"If you're bothering to make dinner," the Glendale woman says, "wine completes
the meal. It's another flavor."
That said, "I started with some pretty horrible stuff - that awful pink stuff,
white zinfandel," recalls Boat, 41, a student at the Chase College of Law at
Northern Kentucky University. "I quickly moved out of that."
These days, her taste is more refined - she prefers sauvignon blanc and
riesling. She typically spends $12 to $17 a bottle but would prefer to spend
less.
"I don't have a lot of money to spend on wine," she says.
It was with people such as Boat in mind that The Enquirer set out to discover
the best wines available locally for $10 or less.
Experts at five local wine shops were asked to recommend two reds and two
whites. In blind tastings, I sampled all 20 wines. My goal was to narrow the
choices into a "Top 10 List of the Best Wines for $10 or Less."
I didn't expect any of the wines in this price range to prove extraordinary.
The best-tasting wines tend to take more time or effort to produce - which means
wineries incur greater expenses in making them. That cost is passed on to the
consumer.
Still, this taste test demonstrates that there are some very good wines
available in the $10 range.
Each of the local experts nominated at least one wine that I judged to be among
the Top 10. Sometimes the quality of the wines was so similar I had to split
hairs to rank them. That was especially true of the whites, which I consider the
best values. Some of the reds were too fruity - not as well structured as more
expensive ones.
Guy Discepoli, owner and manager of the Piazza Discepoli wine shop in College
Hill, nominated both the white wine and the red wine that I judged the best of
each category.
"I tried to choose wines that had a nice balance," Discepoli says. "I don't like
wines that are real oaky. I don't like wines that are real fruity. I try to pick
wines that I think the average consumer will enjoy with a meal."
The most intriguing of the whites was his 2004 Blue Fish Riesling from Germany.
It was the only riesling nominated.
"I think riesling is extremely under-appreciated," Discepoli says. "They can be
absolutely wonderful wines. The Blue Fish is a little bit of a different style
of riesling. The wine is a little dryer and not as crisp or acidic. I think it's
a beautiful wine."
He also had high hopes for the red wine I judged best, a 2003 Santa Ema
Carmenère from Chile. This red is made from another varietal that tends to be
overlooked.
"Carmenère is a grape that's only planted in Chile," Discepoli says. "It was
originally a Bordeaux grape" from France. "Right now, it's a great bargain."
Such "bargain wines don't always come from the same place year after year,"
Discepoli says. "Wines get discovered, and the prices go up. Or the economics of
the country change, and the wines are no longer good values."
While Discepoli thinks a lot of good wines are priced around $10, he
acknowledges that it's getting harder to find them.
But "that's the most exciting part," he says. "Discovering those great wines
that are under-priced."
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WINNERS
The following wines were each judged "very good" by Rebecca Goodman. To avoid
bias, the wines were opened and poured out of her sight.
Whites
1. Blue Fish Riesling 2004 ($9.99)
2. Basa Blanco 2004 ($9.99)
3. Las Brisas Blanco 2004 ($9.99)
4. J&F Lurton Pinot Gris 2004 ($7.99)
5. Veramonte Sauvignon Blanc 2004 ($8.99)
Reds
1. Santa Ema Carmenère 2003 ($8.99)
2. Pelican by Laurence Feraud 2003 ($8.99)
3. Leasingham Magnus Shiraz-Cabernet 2001 ($9.99)
4. Equis Viñas Viejas 2003 ($7.99)
5. Calina Carmenère 2002 ($8.99)
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WINE POURS IT ON
A recent Gallup Poll found that 39 percent of the 63 percent of American adults
who drink alcohol prefer wine. Beer drinkers account for 36 percent. (The poll's
margin of error was 4 percent, so statistically it was a dead heat.)
The preference for wine has increased dramatically, the poll indicates,
increasing by 6 percentage points over the prior year.
Wine is especially popular with women: Nearly 50 percent of those polled said
they prefer it. But wine is also increasingly popular among men, with 25 percent
saying it's their beverage of choice - up from 16 percent in 1992.
While women buy an estimated 77 percent of wine sold in America, several wine
shops in Greater Cincinnati and Northern Kentucky report about half their
clients are men - and they spend more.
STEMWARE USED
Each wine was sampled in a separate crystal glass. For the reds, Spiegleau
"Connoisseur Balloon" stemware was used; for the whites, Spiegleau "Connoisseur
White Wine" stemware was used. Purchased at Cost Plus World Market ($6.99
apiece), these were made in the village of Spiegleau, which is in Germany's
Bavarian Forest
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