Consumer Reports Choices

Every year or so Consumer Reports rates wines that are not high priced. I bought two of their suggestions in the past, and did not like them. One was merlot. To me they tasted like "dust." That is the only way to describe them. I like the wine in the boxes better. Are there better guides to lower priced wines. Reading a description of a wine leaves me confused. The statements seem so subjective.

Thanks

Tom

Reply to
mary
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I don't put too much stock in Consumer Reports for rating wines. They seem to pick the fruity obvious wines. The tasters do not have experienced palates, so they seem to like wines a beginner would like.

I think you would be better to look at any edition of the Wine Spectator or similar publications (even though I often disagree with them). They taste wines all the time. There is also the Wine Enthusiast and several other publications whose names escape me. They do rate inexpensive (under $10) wines, some of them highly.

You might try Vitiano by Falesco. Consumer Reports does not rate this, but the wine writers seem to like it. It's in a fruit forward with toasty oak style, which not everyone likes. But I bet it's more interesting than Consumer Reports wines. And it costs $10 (approx).

Tom Schellberg

Reply to
Xyzsch

Strange, isn't it, that good wines taste like asphault whereas bad wines taste like fruit? I happen to agree, however. Mary, there are LOTS of people here better qualified to answer this, but it has been my experience as a once-beginner (I now qualify as an experienced novice ;-) ) that trial and error is best.

For my taste, very generally I enjoy most wines in the $10-$12 range, and do not enjoy lower priced wines, although I have found a few cheaper wines that I like, and some higher priced wines that I hated. I have never had a $20 wine that I did not like, and the best wine I ever tasted was pretty expensive. It seems you get what you pay for, generally speaking. I would say this price point works 90% of the time.

I have also come to discover what *types* of wine I like. I prefer old world to new world philosophy, for example. Most $10 Rhone wines are decent for me, but I dislike most $10 Calif Cabernets and new European (etc.) merlots. I tend to like most Chardonnay-based wines from any region, and so forth. My advice, then, is to sample some wines--consider it a research project--and at least make mental notes, then re-try those that strike you.

If that's not good enough, someone recently posted the following link. Time will tell if I agree, or if this is helpful:

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It's all about affordable wines. Personally, I prefer trial and error--it's a calling, I think. Best of luck.

John

Reply to
J Derby

A $10 California cabernet is quite an adventure indeed. Without knowing anything about the wine I would shy away from any California cab less than $30.

Dimitri

Reply to
D. Gerasimatos

Totally correct. I would not consider drinking any wine that is not a First Growth Paulliac costing at least US$125. I admire your egalitarianism.

pavane

Reply to
pavane

I think Dimitri's contention is that $10 CA Cab ia quite a gamble unless you know what you're doing, not that there is no such thing as a good one. It has been my experience that $10 Cabs can be a harsh as $15 Bordeauxs can be weak. If any of you have recommendations for inexpensive ($9-$13USD) CA wines of *any* varietal, I have a notepad right in front of me, and (as a school teacher) gobs of cash!

John

Reply to
J Derby

As someone else said, the point here is that most California cab under about $30 just isn't any good. It's an expensive varietal with a high demand. If you don't want to spend that sort of money then there are other varietals. A $30 zinfandel is usually a helluva wine. You can occasionally find a value in California cabs, but that's not a good place to go looking for one.

Dimitri

Reply to
D. Gerasimatos

Of course, almost any wine is a gamble of sorts. In the ten dollar Cab range I would look at the Gallo of Sonoma, Frei Vineyards and the new Louis Martini releases, all by Gallo; Bogle, Hess Select, BV Napa, Rodney Strong, Niebaum-Coppola Claret and Guenoc North Coast, all of which can be found at or under $15 in Florida. Be careful of years as this is the least of the fruit (ie, avoid 1998 and 2000 except for the Guenoc) and see what you think. Probably the N-C and Hess are the best of the lot, with the Frei and other Gallo wines awfully close (they made an amazing 1997 Indigo Hills Cab which sold everywhere for about $8.00) and as opposed to Dimitri's snarky comment on inexpensive wines I believe that you will find some good drinkability at school teacher prices. Just do yourself two favors: 1. Do not expect Great Wine, look for easy enjoyment, and 2. Remember that there are some really disappointingly dreadful $30. CalCabs.

pavane

Reply to
pavane

This discussion relates to what I call value wine.

Obviously, each to their own, however, from my experience there are certain large scale California wineries that over the years have produced decent wines at a decent price. However, I am not a chard devotee. Two come to mind:

Meridian, especially their santa baraba pinot noir.

J Lohr, carbs

Have a great holiday season.

Reply to
b zajac

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