Dr Vino's wine blog

Value wine stories: they’re even hotter items with wine writers these days than grower champagne or skin fermented sauvignon blanc! So here’s another two cents–or two under $20–from me.

One of my neighbors with a cellar particularly strong in California wines that he bought when he lived there in the 1970s, has been convening a monthly wine tasting of enthusiasts for a few years now. Unfortunately I’m not often able to go because of a scheduling conflict with my teaching, but last week was an exception so I joined the convivial gathering with the theme of currently available Bordeaux under $20.

Despite the fact that some 500 growers a year in Bordeaux go out of business, which might make the situation competitive, I find the wines under $20 to be a mixed bag and not the first destination where I look for value vino. That said, I had found a great value at Chambers Street Wines earlier this year, the Chateau Peybonhomme Les Tours 2005 (find this wine). Hailing from the outer appellation of Premieres Cotes de Blaye, the wine is a typical blend of mostly Merlot. But atypical for the region, the producer is certified organic and biodynamic and uses natural yeasts. I’ve poured it previously at events to great praise and it was a complete steal a steal at $12 when I bought it in December (though now it is a still-reasonable $14).

So my Peybonhomme got decanted and thrown into the lineup of nine wines, served blind. Our organizer requests that each participant rate the wines from their favorite (1) to their least favorite (in this case, 9) and the wine with the lowest score is declared the winner. Some of the stuff was pretty bad–“varnish and violets” or “Brett and ripe blueberry”–but a couple stood out to me. One, had more depth than the others, with alluring dark fruits balanced with rewarding fruit tannins and no trace of new oak.

As our organizer started to reveal the wines, I was surprised to see that my wine had not yet been called out and there were only two remaining. Which wine was was going to take home the trophy? It was the Peybonhomme! And it was my fave of the evening too! The winning margin was surprisingly wide with 34 votes to 39 for the second place wine, which was the Chateau Parenchere 2005.

It’s probably too much reliance on on quantitative methods–what if a few of the tasters simply assigned the scores randomly?–but it was a a fun evening nonetheless. And introducing some competition into it hopefully encourages people to make an effort and get a good wine instead of just getting a bottle of Mouton Cadet or something.

Anyway, in this particular case, to the victor goes the toils: they asked the guy who brought the number two wine and me to coordinate the December Champagne tasting.