Navigating the wine economy: Abstinence is not the answer!

In this depressing economy, where certain staples of existence such as food, fuel and shelter have all become more affordable, I have not yet seen a comparable drop in the price of wine. 

Oh, believe me, I am out searching the hinterlands each day for affordable sippers so you and I can continue to enjoy a glass of wine with our mac &cheese at the end of the work day.  But it’s not easy.

In ruminating about ways of economizing the wine budget, I’ve decided to suggest  several wine categories  for you to explore (according to price) in the hope  you’ll be able to find a wine to suit your palate and wallet too. So, here goes.

Vino Jigundo

First (and perhaps least appealing) would be to search the jugs, boxes and wine skins for the large volume products that are something more than colored water with the addition of grain alcohol.  I’m no snob, but most of this mass-produced plonk is,  at best, unappealing.

However, I am willing to work my way through the witch hazel to find that diamond in the rough.  If any of you out there in wine land have found any good, inexpensive, mass-produced wines, please let me hear from you (see comment section at the end of this post).

The Value Fifths

There are indeed some excellent wines in the $8 to $15 a bottle range and ,over the past couple of years, I have recommended dozens of them to you. The simple way of  finding these value wines is to go to your favorite wine shop and ask the folks there to direct you to those particular goodies.

Many of these bottles are unfamiliar to us and can hail from countries such as Spain, Austria and Portugal, but there are some lovely little ditties if you take the time to search for them. Albarino and rioja (Spain), gruner veltliner (Austria) and verdelho (Portugal) are just a few examples.

Saturday Night Second Fiddle Wines

I don’t know about you, but I consume  wine almost every night. However, I distinguish between weekday bottles  and “Saturday night” wines (which I sometimes have on Friday and/or even Sunday). Saturday night wines can be expensive – which means anything over $20 a bottle to this parsimonious wino.  Unfortunately, it is sometimes very difficult to find a reasonably priced Saturday night wine unless you go to the “second fiddle” stuff.

Simply put, second fiddle refers to those wines owned and produced by a more famous winery, and bottled under a second (different) label. These wines sell at a significantly more reasonable price and many times are made from the same grapes that produce the more famous label.  Other times, these second label wines can be made from grapes that are from a younger parcel of the same vineyard used to make the parent label.   

Here are some examples of some second label wines.  Alamos is the second label of  Catena (from
Argentina) and the chardonnay and cabernet produced is excellent and less than half the price of the more famous label.  Hawk’s Crest is Stag Leap’s second label, while Logan is Talbott’s and Gavilan is the second wine of Chalone – just to name a few.

If you really want to splurge on Saturday night, you might want to check out the second fiddle
Bordeaux from the following famous reds :

Ch. Gruaud-Larose - Sarget de Gruaud-Larose
Ch. Lafite Rotschild - Moulin des Carruades
Ch. Talbot-  Connetable Talbot
Ch. Pichon-Longueville-Lalande-  Reserve de la Comtesse
Ch. Haut-Brion -  Ch. Bahans-Haut-Brion
Ch. Lynch Bages- Haut-Bages-Averous
Ch. Latour -  Les Forts-de-Latour
Ch. Cos d'Estournel -  Marbuzet
Ch. Margaux - Pavillon Rouge de Chateau Margaux

The Red-Haired Step Child

Famous wines from equally famous wine regions are priced at stratospheric levels and so, in order to sample the region’s goodies, I often  invoke the red-haired step child rule. For example,  I really do love the wines of Piedmont in northern Italy, but I don’t want to pay $80 to $200 a bottle to drink the world class Barolo and Barberesco produced there. Instead, I’ll buy an $18 bottle of Barbera or a $15 Spanna (which is actually made from the same grape – nebbiolo -  that produces Barolo or Barbaresco) or even a Dolcetto in all its frothy glory.

Instead of Chateauneuf du Pape or Hermitage, I’ll opt for Gigondas or the wines of Vaucluse, both of which are made from the same blend of grapes that produce the more famous wines of the Rhone region. In California, where cabernet and chardonnay are king and queen  respectively,  I will sip zinfandel, pinot blanc or even  that scourge of the movie “Sideways” – merlot. 

So do not despair and don’t even contemplate abstinence. Times may be tough, but there are many reasonably priced and tasty wines to see us through.