Dr Vino's wine blog

Spain
Spain once harbored the ambitions to become “the world’s wine cellar” in the late 19th century but the phylloxera aphid laid waste to those hopes as it had to the French vineyards slightly earlier. While never really emerging from the long French shadow, Spain does have the most acres under vine of any country and is the world’s third largest wine producer. A transition to quality has been underway over the past two decades and several dynamic new growing areas and winemakers have been emerging. Finding great price-to-quality wines from Spain is easy: here are but a few suggestions.

Castell del Remei, Gotim Bru, 1999, $9
This excellent red wine comes from Catalonia, specifically, the Costers del Segre region not far from Barcelona. A blend of Spain’s tempranillo (50%) with the international varietals of Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot (25% each) produces excellent flavors of berry and leather with a good finish. Light in tannins and very approachable, this unfiltered wine has even made some non-red wine drinkers reach for a second glass. The advance word on the 2000 vintage is that it is perhaps even better, without a price hike, so keep an eye on this one.

Tres Picos, 2000, $7.50
This wine demonstrates that cooperatives can focus on quality. Using old-vine Grenache, the winemaker at the Agricola de Borja (located in Campo de Borja) used strict selection criteria to make an elegant wine that resembles a fine Rhône, where the price would be easily over $30. This cooperative also makes an excellent, fruit-forward wine under the Borsao label that sells for $5. Wines like these beg the question of why California producers don’t make wines at this price-to-quality ratio?!

Dehesa Gago, g, 2000, $7
Well, that’s a typo: the name of this wine is actually Dehesa Gago, but on the label stands a prominent “g.” The wine comes from the little-known region called Toro, down the Duero River almost at the border of Portugal, where Telmo Rodriguez shows that it is possible to make a good wine. Rodriguez has teamed up with the savvy importer, Jorge Ordoñez, to design a sleek, eye-catching label. But it’s not only the bottle that is attractive as this red wine from typical local varietals puts Toro on the viticultural map—no bull!

France
France produces many of the world’s top wines so the challenge in French wines is to find a good price to quality ratio. I find the far-flung growing regions of Bordeaux to be quite alive with innovation and great winemaking, yet quite well priced.

Chartron la Fleur, AOC Bordeaux, 2000. $7
As with all appellation wines from France, this white Bordeaux does not state the grape varietals used on the bottle. One thing is for certain: it is not a Chardonnay as there is not one vine of Chardonnay planted in the appellation vineyards of Bordeaux. This well-made wine, 80% Sauvignon Blanc and 20% Semillon, sells at half the price of similar wines from Australasia.

The Languedoc is really an up-and-coming area in terms of quality wines. The largest vineyard in the world with more than 800,000 acres under vine, the emphasis has traditionally been on quantity over quality. But recently there has been a clear shift toward quality inspired by increased foreign investment, the emergence of some innovative winemakers to serve as “locomotives” for the region and the impact of the EU quality policy. See where Languedoc is on the map. Here are a few examples from this exciting region.

Mas de Guiot, Grenache-Syrah, Languedoc, 2001, $8
This blend of the Rhone-style red wine varietals Grenache and Syrah is a knockout! The American importer, Robert Kacher, has worked with the vineyard owners to construct a winner. Wonderful color and complexity means this one is worth buying by the case!

Château de la Négly, La Côte Côteaux du Languedoc-La Clape, 2000, $7.50.
The proprietor Jean Paux-Rosset and his consulting winemaker, Claude Gros, are turning out what are not only the best wines of the Languedoc but also some outstanding wines by any measure. Robert Parker, the international wine critic, gave their top wine (which sells for $92 a bottle) a score of 96 points. Their low-end wine is an ideal wine for everyday drinking with meals—enjoy the virtues of the Mediterranean diet with this wine grown in sight of the Mediterranean!

Other parts of the south of France are also putting a lot more emphasis on quality. Provence, the Costières de Nîmes (just south of the Rhône), and further west in Gascony all have pockets of quality. This map can help sort out the location of these places.

Mas de Gourgonnier, Provence, 2000, $9
Most people think of Provence for vacations or vacation reading thanks to Peter Mayle. When it comes to wine, the region is known for rosés often best enjoyed while on a deck in Provence. But this bold, earthy red puts Provence on the radar screen for quality red wine.

Mas des Bressades, vin de pays du Gard, 2000, $9
This wine, imported by the quality-oriented Robert Kacher, comes from the estate Robert Parker has called “a consistent winner.” This wine displays the varietal names on the label (in this case the blend is 50-50 Grenache-Syrah) because it is made as a vin de pays, a category that finds a great deal of innovation in low-priced wines and now accounts for 25% of French annual production. From the Gard region in the south, this wine is packed with fruit and a real value.

USA
California wines have had a rapid transition to quality over the past 30 years. Unfortunately, the prices have risen almost as quickly as the quality levels. So while there are plenty of good wines in California, the real challenge is to find some value that maintains artisanal production instead of the industrial style that pervades the low end. Bountiful harvests and ever-expanding acres under vine should translate into lower prices in the bottle for consumers. Clever wineries of the middle range will make qualitative adjustments to avoid lethal price competition.

Joseph Phelps, Pastiche, 1999. $9.90 (that was with a 10% discount so it just barely scrapes into the under $10 category)
The CEO of Joseph Phelps was one of my best interviewees so I am partial to his wines. This blended wine has a long list of varietals and growing areas but nonetheless is a powerful wine that punches well above its featherweight price. The CEO told me that they lose money on this line because they grow the fruit to meet the specifications of their higher labels. While you may have to take that statement with a grain of salt, this Rhône-style wine will undoubtedly impress the neighbors.

Silverado, Sauvignon Blanc, Napa Valley, 2000, $9.99
Do you ever wonder what makes Dopey dopey, Sleepy sleepy, Happy happy, and Doc so busy? Maybe they snuck into the Disney Vineyard. Silverado, owned by heirs of the Disney estate, has a reputation for making serious wines (hiho, hiho, it’s off to work we go!). This crisp, dry sauvignon blanc is their lowest cost wine and it offers an alternative to sauvignon blancs from New Zealand, which tend to be dominated by grapefruit and green apple. It is wonderful in the warm summer weather and an approachable wine for those who don’t like the tannins of red wine.
New Zealand

Cellars of Canterbury, Sauvignon Blanc, 2001. $9.99
I add this wine to the list in honor of my New Zealand relatives and the fine winemaking that is now prevalent in New Zealand. This white from Marlborough is packed with fresh fruits, notably grapefruit and other tropical fruits, and is very enjoyable on a warm summer evening. This wine is exemplary of racy Sauvignon Blancs from NZ that tend to exhibit better winemaking than most worldwide Chardonnays in the same price category.