Help: Seeking inexpensive Merlot and/or Grenache choices

Salut/Hi ,

le/on Wed, 7 Jan 2004 00:13:21 -0500, tu disais/you said:-

In which country?

I live in France, so it is possible that any suggestions I might make would be unhelpful. But we have English (with the best choice of wines in the world), Australians, South Africans, Canadians Americans & New Zealanders, here - to name but a few.

Help us to help you.

Many Australian Shiraz are quite like that.

I'm not a big Merlot drinker, but I have enjoyed Falesco Merlot from Italy. May be over your price range in your market.

For Grenache, I always look to Cote du Rhones. They are mostly Grenache based. Jaboulet, Autard, Bernard, Perrin, St. Cosme are some of the names I look for. All of these are

I agree for the most part, but as a quibble I'm pretty sure the St. Cosme CdR is mostly (if not all) Syrah. While some of the St Cosme line is pretty far down the oaky/intl tendency, this is a very nice wine most vintages. Dale

Dale Williams Drop "damnspam" to reply

Yes. Sorry. In MY mind, I didn't really relate the two thoughts of mostly Grenache and the producers. My bad.

Andy

For a while some time ago I was looking for that kind of wine as well, mainly trying find one among Oz Shirazes. No one quite got up to the mark, however.

Then I pulled a bottle of 1998 Mas Igneus FA 206 (Spain, Priorat) from storage and bingo! That was it, for me at least. Lots of fruit up front, with quite a lot of acids and relatively strong, but not mouth-puckering tannins to finish it off. Made mainly of Garnatxa (Catalan for Grenache, I think), it should even fit the budget, if it's available at your location.

Cheers,

-Topi Kuusinen, Finland

The others have offered some fairly sound advice. For the most part, it's pretty tough to get a full-bodied merlot in this price range, but you and others have offered some examples of the better ones in that range. I would also offer up Bogle as a quality merlot for around $10.

If you step up to around $20 in price, Chateau St Jean, Fransiscan or Stonestreet usually have pretty good quality, though not outstanding. Once you really open up the pocketbooks some more, you open the door to all kinds of merlot or grenache based wines.

Based on this description, I would steer you to Red Zinfandel. Not the "wine-cooler-like" White Zinfandel, but the fairly often heavily concentrated, higher alcohol, strong fruit and spice Red Zinfandel. In the $15 range, you will find some very nice examples. A few of the many would be Alderbrook OVC, St Francis Old Vine, Ridge 3 Valleys, Cline Ancient Vines, Ravenswood Sonoma, etc.

I would also say that you might find many other types of wines that you will like from all over the world. The only way to know is to experiment. Usually the best way is to find a knowledgeable and truthful wine staffer in a local shop and get recommendations from him/her.

They're absoluely right! I think wine is the best example of "you don't always get what you pay for", particularly due to the fact that wine is so multi-dimensional, it tastes different to everyone.

Dark Helmet

wrote in news:F snipped-for-privacy@comcast.com:

Vacqeyras wines from Southern Rhone are availabe at under 20USD as are many Gigondas. IIRC the Vacqueyras has more Grenache but both are Grenache based. (try if you can find it Domaine la Garrigue, my sentimental favorite for the region)

Sawyer Cellars Merlot, which is relatively "reasonably-priced" for mid-Valley juice at $34, is simply superb stuff.

Louis M. Martini's California Merlot was a consistent bargain at under $7 for the longest time, but it's no longer available. Some of the '98 and '99 is still in the supply chain so it's worth looking for. It used to be one of my favorite BBQ/quaffing reds and was always a kick to pour blind for wine-geek friends. Take a look at your local Costco for some (you *are* a Costco wine-shopper, right?)

Dana

My impression was that while (as you said) both are Grenache-based, it's the Vacqueyras that tends to have more Syrah. But I'm not sure if I'm basing that on real evidence. Dale

Dale Williams Drop "damnspam" to reply

snipped-for-privacy@aol.comdamnspam (Dale Williams) wrote in news: snipped-for-privacy@mb-m12.aol.com:

Never wanting to trust my memory I checked this one with Hugh Johnson Pocket Wine Book 2003 Vacqueyras-full peppery Grenache based neighbor of Gigondas Gigondas - . . .largely Grenache

so I guess you may be right or it may be one of those too close to calls. But you do give me a chance to correct the vinyard it is Les Garrigues, thank you.

] snipped-for-privacy@aol.comdamnspam (Dale Williams) wrote in ] news: snipped-for-privacy@mb-m12.aol.com: ] ] > In article , ] > jcoulter writes: ] > ] >>Vacqeyras wines from Southern Rhone are availabe at under 20USD as are ] >>many Gigondas. IIRC the Vacqueyras has more Grenache but both are ] >>Grenache bas ] > ] > My impression was that while (as you said) both are Grenache-based, ] > it's the Vacqueyras that tends to have more Syrah. But I'm not sure if ] > I'm basing that on real evidence. ] > Dale ] > ] > Dale Williams ] > Drop "damnspam" to reply ] > ] ] Never wanting to trust my memory I checked this one with Hugh Johnson ] Pocket Wine Book 2003 ] Vacqueyras-full peppery Grenache based neighbor of Gigondas ] Gigondas - . . .largely Grenache ] Dale and Josh:

In Vacqueyras

red: at least 50% grenache, plus syrah mourvedre and cinsault. rose: max 60% grenache, at least 15% cinsault, and mourvedre white: clairette, grenache blanc and bourboulenc, not more that 50% of rousanne, marsanne and viognier [!]

The rose and white can be quite nice, but production is small.

In Gigondas:

red: max 80% grenache, min 15% syrah and mourvedre (one assumes in combination!). All the other Cotes du Rhone cepages except carignan are authorized at 10% max.

rose: max 80% grenache, all other cotes du rhone authorized at 25% max.

So in effect one could make vacqueyras with more grenache than gigondas.

But in practice I think that Dale's palate is right. For example the Clos des Cazaux cuvee des Tempiers is usually 50-50 grenache-syrah. No doubt there are 100% grenache vacqueyras' to be found, if you looked hard enough, though.

Thank goodness these tests are open book! :)

-E