A Wine Lover's Weekly Guide To $10 Wines - A Pinot Grigio From Hungary By: Levi Reiss | - Today's wine is an interesting combination, a Hungarian Pinot Grigio. It's named for Baron Lazare de Schwendi who according to legend brought Tokay vines from Hungary into Alsace back in 1565. Just so you don't make a mistake, these are not the vines that produce Hungary's sometimes world-class sweet Tokaji wine. I don't recall ever tasting a Hungarian Pinot Grigio. I do recall tasting a Hungarian Tokaji that I preferred to a French Sauternes, but that's another story. This wine was produced in ... Tags:wine, bargain wine, food pairing, tasting, red wine, white wine, buy wine, cheap wine, review, wineries
A Wine Lovers Near Weekly Guide To $15 Wines - An Organic Marselan From Southern France By: Levi Reiss | - Today's wine comes from Languedoc in the heart of Provence, France. It is organic and suitable for vegetarians. It comes from a grape that most people have never tasted, Marselan, which is a cross between Cabernet Sauvignon and Grenache. Maybe because the vines weren't heavy croppers, this grape essentially went nowhere for decades. The first non-blended Marselan was released in 2002. But now it has started to become popular, both in Languedoc and in California; Sunridge Nurseries of Bakersfield ... Tags:wine, bargain wine, food pairing, tasting, red wine, white wine, buy wine, moderate-priced wine, review, wineries
A Wine Lovers Weekly Guide To $10 Wines - A White Viura From Northern Spain By: Levi Reiss | - Today's wine comes from Carinena in the Aragon region of northeastern Spain. Carrying the DO appellation; it is the first wine to be so honored in Aragon. The region's wine history dates back some 2300 years. In those days people often mixed their wine with honey. Unlike most of our reviewed wines, this one comes from a wine cooperative. The coop, Bodegas San Valero, was founded in 1945 uniting 60 growers. They are now up to about 700. The Viura grape, called Macabeo in France, is the most popul ... Tags:wine, bargain wine, food pairing, tasting, red wine, white wine, buy wine, cheap wine, review, wineries
A Wine Lover's Weekly Review Of $10 Wines - An Italian Vino Novello Dated 2011 By: Levi Reiss | - It is new wine time. This Italian Vino Novello was grapes on the vine only a few short weeks ago. You may remember when new wines, especially Beaujolais Nouveau, were a hot, hot marketing phenomenon. Times have changed. This year I had to keep my eyes really open to find the display in my wine store. Have consumers finally caught on? Cantina Tollo was founded in 1960. They do about a dozen reds, about a dozen whites, several rosés, and a dessert wine. In 2010 The German international wine ... Tags:wine, bargain wine, food pairing, tasting, red wine, white wine, buy wine, cheap wine, review, wineries
A Wine Lover's Weekly Review Of $10 Wines - A Low-alcohol Rosefrom South Austalia By: Levi Reiss | - Once again we are in Australia this time tasting a wine whose alcohol content is less than half the "normal" level. Low alcohol wines meet many people's needs. Interestingly enough the label says "Wine Product of Australia" rather than the more usual "Wine of Australia." Can we say it's a wine product similar to a cheese product, in other words winey or cheesy? Something else to consider, its distributor Constellation Wines is largest wine group in the world. Constellation has been associated wi ... Tags:wine, bargain wine, food pairing, tasting, red wine, white wine, buy wine, cheap wine, review, wineries
A Wine Lover's Weekly Guide To $10 Wines - A Penfold's Chardonnay From Australia By: Levi Reiss | - We have been doing a lot of Australian wines recently. Today's offering comes from yet another huge Australian wine company founded by a young British doctor over 150 years ago. Dr. Penfold's started by planting vine cuttings from the south of France at a modest stone cottage on the outskirts of Adelaide in South Australia. The cottage was called The Grange. Penfolds Grange wine is anything but modest; it is considered Australia's finest wine. At well over $500 a bottle I won't be reviewing it h ... Tags:wine, bargain wine, food pairing, tasting, red wine, white wine, buy wine, cheap wine, review, wineries
A Wine Lover's Near Weekly Review Of $15 Wines - A South Australia Verdelho By: Levi Reiss | - Our stock of Australian wine is slowly but surely getting lower. Along the way there have been both positive and negative surprises. Today's wine comes from a major Australian winery that was founded by a medical doctor well over 150 years ago. As you will read below, the (white) Verdelho grape was originally Portuguese. You might want to visit the producer's website for lots of detailed information on their wines. However, because I bought this wine about three years ago the site does not provi ... Tags:wine, bargain wine, food pairing, tasting, red wine, white wine, buy wine, moderate-priced wine, review, wineries
A Wine Lover's Weekly Review Of $10 Wines - A South African Chenin Blanc By: Levi Reiss | - We have had a lot of luck with South African wines in both our bargain reviews and our other reviews. I cannot remember the last time I tried a Chenin Blanc, so maybe that in itself is a comment on this often far from remarkable grape. Don't get me wrong; there are some great Chenin Blanc wines on the market, but few, if any, will be found in this price range. My supplier presently stocks 6 bottles of a Loire Valley (France) Clos de la Coulee de Serrant Savennieres 1995 produced by arguably the ... Tags:wine, bargain wine, food pairing, tasting, red wine, white wine, buy wine, cheap wine, review, wineries
A Wine Lover's Near Weekly Guide To $15 Wines - A Southern Italian Primitivo By: Levi Reiss | - Apulia, also called Puglia, situated on the Adriatic coast of southern Italy produces a huge quantity of wine. Along with Sicily and Veneto it contends for the dubious title of Italy's top wine producer, volume wise. This is an up and coming region, quality wise. While the region is flat, its soil tends to be good for winemaking. This particular wine comes from the region's center, not far south from Bari, the regional capital. It is named for a lovely small town whose name translates to Jewels ... Tags:wine, bargain wine, food pairing, tasting, red wine, white wine, buy wine, moderate-priced wine, review, wineries
A Wine Lover's Weekly Guide To $10 Wines - An Old Vines Zinfandel From California By: Levi Reiss | - Of course, we have been reviewing a lot of California wine, and a lot of Zinfandels, even white Zinfandels. Today's wine is as red as can be. It comes from the Lodi area, home to over 40% of California Zinfandel. This is Northern California, south of Sacremento and east of San Francisco, in the heart of Gold Rush country. John Kautz started with 12 acres (less than 5 hectares) and now has over 5 thousand acres (over 2 thousand hectares) in the Lodi area and the Sierra foothills. Ironstone is hom ... Tags:wine, bargain wine, food pairing, tasting, red wine, white wine, buy wine, cheap wine, review, wineries
A Wine Lover's Weekly Review Of $15 Wines - A Canadian Gewurztraminer By: Levi Reiss | - We haven't been reviewing too many Canadian wines. Maybe we should. Over three decades ago the Pennachetti family helped to pioneer noble grape varietal wines in the Niagara Peninsula with Riesling and Chardonnay. The hillside of the Niagara Escarpment overlooking Lake Ontario is known as Beamsville Bench. In this fine location a single bloc of 25-year old vines grew the Gewurztraminer grapes that were fermented in stainless steel. This is a popular tourist area; the winery also offers an inn, a ... Tags:wine, bargain wine, food pairing, tasting, red wine, white wine, buy wine, moderate-priced wine, review, wineries
A Wine Lover's Weekly Guide To $10 Wines - A Classical White From Georgia By: Levi Reiss | - If memory serves me correctly, this is our first Georgian wine. Teliani Valley winemakers was established in 1997. At least one of the buildings dates back an additional century and was built for a prince by decree of a Romanov. Talking about history, archeologists have found clay vessels dating back some five thousand years that contain Rkatsiteli grapes, the ones that form this wine. Even if you or I have never heard of these grapes, in the days of the Soviet Union they may have been the most ... Tags:wine, bargain wine, food pairing, tasting, red wine, white wine, buy wine, cheap wine, review, wineries
A Wine Lover's Weekly Guide To $10 Wine - A Kosher Semi-sweet Cabernet Sauvignon By: Levi Reiss | - We've already reviewed several wines from the Baron Herzog (kosher) winery. And it goes without saying that we have reviewed lots and lots of Cabernet Sauvignons, both kosher and non-kosher. But this is our first semi-dry or should we say semi-sweet Cabernet Sauvignon that we have ever reviewed, or as far as I can remember, even tasted.
Backsberg Cellars was chosen as one of the Top 100 Wineries of the Year by Wine and Spirits Magazine (New York). C. L. Back was a refugee from Lithuania who came to South Africa early in the 20th Century. He and his family have been making win ... Tags:wine, bargain wine, food pairing, tasting, red wine, white wine, buy wine, moderate-priced wine, review, wineries
A Wine Lovers Weekly Guide To $10 Wines - A Chilean Chardonnay By: Levi Reiss | - We've reviewed a lot of Chardonnay reviews recently whose prices run from about $7 to the mid-fifties. Today's wine is yet another Chilean Chardonnay that comes well within the $10 price range. The companion wine is a kosher South African Chardonnay well within the $15 price range.
The Santa Carolina Chilean winery was established with the help of French wine professionals in the Central Valley using French grapes. The winery owns vineyards in several different valleys. Today's win ... Tags:wine, bargain wine, food pairing, tasting, red wine, white wine, buy wine, cheap wine, review, wineries
A Wine Lover's Weekly Guide To $10 Wine - A Chardonnay From Abruzzi, Italy By: Levi Reiss | - I wasn't able to get much information about Cantine Spinelli, the producer of today's wine because their website is in Italian only. Frankly, I'd rather be tasting wine than painfully translating from Italian, a language that I don't know. This family-run business has been active for some thirty years in Abruzzi, a hopefully up and coming (as has been promised for years if not decades) region of east-central Italy on the Adriatic coast. In theory this region has it all, rolling foothills that de ... Tags:wine, bargain wine, food pairing, tasting, red wine, white wine, buy wine, cheap wine, review, wineries
A Wine Lover's Near Weekly Review Of $15 Wines - A Red Blend From Southern Australia By: Levi Reiss | - Way back in 1912 Joseph Osborn, a teetotaler, purchased land in the internationally known South Australia wine region McLaren Vale located some 22 miles (35 kilometers) south of Adelaide. This area has long warm days and short cool nights. Wine fanciers will enjoy sampling wines from the area's many subregions. As in many other regions of Australia Shiraz is most popular grape here. McLaren Vale grows many grape varieties including Sangionvese and Chardonnay. The D'Arry in this wine's name refer ... Tags:wine, bargain wine, food pairing, tasting, red wine, white wine, buy wine, moderate-priced wine, review, wineries
A Wine Lover's Weekly Review Of $10 Wines - An Australian Pinot Grigio By: Levi Reiss | - We have often reviewed Pinot Grigio wines, although most of them were not in the $10 range. We recently reviewed many Australian wines, although most of them were not in the $10 range. And now they come together. Filippo and Maria Casella immigrated to Australia from Sicily in 1957. These third generation Italian winemakers bought a farm in the Riverina region of New South Wales in 1965. By 1969 they opened a winery that has become the largest family-owned winery in Australia. Fully 15% of Aust ... Tags:wine, bargain wine, food pairing, tasting, red wine, white wine, buy wine, cheap wine, review, wineries
A Wine Lover's Near Weekly Review Of $15 Wines - A Swiss Chasselas By: Levi Reiss | - Almost all the wines that we have reviewed have come from commercial wineries. Today's wine is produced by a Swiss cooperative, Cave de la Côte-Uvavins, that was founded in 1929. It now represents more than 400 producers with 1800 plots. They produce some sixty wines with an annual volume of almost 900 thousands gallons (4 million liters). Chasselas is Switzerland's signature (white) grape. It is also found in France where it is usually considered a table grape. Swiss wines tend to be some ... Tags:wine, bargain wine, food pairing, tasting, red wine, white wine, buy wine, moderate-priced wine, review, wineries
A Wine Lover's Weekly Guide Tof $10 Wines - A South Australia Pinot Noir By: Levi Reiss | - Over the years we have reviewed many Pinot Noir wines, although most of them were not in the $10 range. We have recently reviewed many Australian wines, although most of them were not in the $10 range. And now they come together. Dr. Henry John Lindeman became a member of the (British) Royal College of Surgeons at the age of 23. A few years later he was producing wine in New South Wales, Australia where he planted his first vines in 1840. Lindemans is now a huge winery, their bin series composed ... Tags:wine, bargain wine, food pairing, tasting, red wine, white wine, buy wine, cheap wine, review, wineries
A Wine Lover's Weekly Guide To $10 Wines - A Chardonnay From Argentina By: Levi Reiss | - This column's first wine was an Argentine red. While Argentina does mostly red wines, it does produce some whites including Chardonnay. Argentina is the fifth largest wine producer in the world, and the Mendoza area in which this wine originated is one of the world's largest wine producing regions. Would you believe that it's home to 30 thousand grape growers? These Chardonnay grapes come from the La Pinta vineyards at an elevation of some 2000 feet (620 meters) above sea level. This is a much h ... Tags:wine, bargain wine, food pairing, tasting, red wine, white wine, buy wine, cheap wine, review, wineries
A Wine Lover's Guide To $15 Wines - A Better Italian Soave By: Levi Reiss | - I recently reviewed a Soave wine, a high volume wine from the northeastern Veneto region of Italy. This week's wine is another, more costly and presumably higher quality Soave made from organically grown grapes. The La Cappucina winery has been in the same family since 1890. The highlight of their estate is a restored Fifteenth Century chapel featured on their label. This particular wine is made from 100% Garganega grapes, instead of using, as is often done, Trebbiano grapes which might reduce i ... Tags:wine, bargain wine, food pairing, tasting, red wine, white wine, buy wine, cheap wine, review, wineries
A Wine Lover's Weekly Review Of $10 Wines - A Potentially Heart-healthy Madiran By: Levi Reiss | - South-western France is an up and coming wine region. There are about 10 million bottles of Madiran AOC produced in an area of about 3200 acres (1300 hectares) facing the Pyrenees mountains. This particular wine comes from the southernmost part of the region and is made from 50% Tannat and 50% Cabernet Franc grapes. You may guess from its name that the Tannat grape variety is highly tannic. Roger Corder in his well-known book, "The Wine Diet" published in 2007 devotes 3 pages to one wine and tha ... Tags:wine, bargain wine, food pairing, tasting, red wine, white wine, buy wine, cheap wine, review, wineries
A Wine Lover's Weekly Review Of $10 Wines - A Sicilian Grillo By: Levi Reiss | - From time to time we get to review Italian whites in this column. Some, such as the recently reviewed Chardonnay, come from international grape varieties. Others come from Italian grapes such as Gargenega in Soave wine. This is the first time that I have tasted the Grillo grape which comes from Sicily. Grillo is a favored component for the famous Sicilian dessert wine, Marsala, that is sort of making a comeback. It's been around for a long time; it was used in the sweet Mamertino wine of Messina ... Tags:wine, bargain wine, food pairing, tasting, red wine, white wine, buy wine, cheap wine, review, wineries
A Wine Lover's Weekly Review Of $10 Wines - A Petite Syrah From Mexico By: Levi Reiss | - This is the first Mexican wine that I have reviewed. In fact, this is the first Mexican wine that I have tasted in years, or perhaps in decades. Mexico is the oldest wine producer in the Americas. In 1520 the Conquistadors arrived. The following year they started planting vines. By 1524 they passed a law about planting vines. But by the end of the Sixteenth Century Spain passed a law against planting additional vineyards in Mexico; winemakers in the mother country were unhappy about the competit ... Tags:wine, bargain wine, food pairing, tasting, red wine, white wine, buy wine, cheap wine, review, wineries
I Love Organic Wine - A Northern California Syrah By: Levi Reiss | - The Jeriko estate vineyard is in southern Mendocino County, about 100 miles (160 kilometers) northwest of San Franciso. This area near the Russian River is home to some great champagne-style wines. The producer plants 1210 vines per acre (about 3 vines per 10 square meters). This high-density spacing is meant to force the roots deeper into the gravelly loam soil. When the roots have it easy the wine usually suffers. By the way, Jeriko is the Latin spelling in contrast to the more familiar Greek ... Tags:wine, bargain wine, food pairing, tasting, red wine, organic wine, buy wine, cheap wine, review, wineries
A Wine Lover's Weekly Review Of $10 Wines - A White Blend From Calalonia By: Levi Reiss | - This is one of our very first Spanish wines, and if memory serves me correctly, our first wine from Catalonia, a region of northeastern Spain known for fine wine and lots more. But you say, Rene Barbier sounds French. Yes, it's true; Monsieur Barbier left France for Spain in 1880. His winery specializes in Cabernet Sauvignon and Chardonnay. It now belongs to Freixenet, a very high volume Spanish company, that does a lot of sparkling wine such as the well-known Codorniu. This particular wine is m ... Tags:wine, bargain wine, food pairing, tasting, red wine, white wine, buy wine, cheap wine, review, wineries
A Wine Lover's Weekly Review Of $10 Wines - A Montepulciano D'abruzzo By: Levi Reiss | - Montepulciano d'Abruzzo DOC is a quite popular Italian wine. In fact it is actually the most exported Italian wine and is widely consumed within Italy as well. We're talking about half a million hectoliters per year, or to put it in simpler terms, more than 65 million bottles a year. This particular bottle was made by a family winery founded back in 1957 in The Marches region, neighbor to the north of Abruzzi. These organic grapes were grown close to the medieval village of Montipagano, in the T ... Tags:wine, bargain wine, food pairing, tasting, red wine, white wine, buy wine, cheap wine, review, wineries
A Wine Lover's Weekly Guide To $10 Wines - A Central Italy Sangiovese By: Levi Reiss | - At the most recent meeting of our wine tasting club the host heartily recommended this wine. As often the case, there's quite a history to this Italian vineyard. In the late Sixteenth Century Princess Margherita of Austria, the wife of Ottavio Farnese, bought the town of Ortona for 52,000 ducats. She had built a palace that remains uncompleted and "worked" in the vineyards. These vineyards are the source of today's wine. Talk about microclimate. The Farnese vineyards lie in the valley of the Mor ... Tags:wine, bargain wine, food pairing, tasting, red wine, white wine, buy wine, cheap wine, review, wineries
A Wine Lover's Weekly Guide To $10 Wines - A Kosher Cabernet Sauvignon From Chile By: Levi Reiss | - Chile can be an excellent country for Cabernet Sauvignon. This one comes from the Central Valley viticultural region, which is Chile's oldest and most traditional wine producing area. That region is divided into four areas, including the Maule Valley, which is not particularly distinguished, perhaps not surprising given this wine's modest price tag. In a way it is less expensive than at first glance because it's kosher, and kosher wine production and distribution inevitably involves additional c ... Tags:wine, bargain wine, food pairing, tasting, red wine, white wine, buy wine, cheap wine, review, wineries
A Wine Lover's Weekly Guide To $10 Wines - A Vino Novello Dated 2010 By: Levi Reiss | - It's that time of year. Many businesses are finally going into the black. If you live in the wrong part of the world, winter is almost knocking at the door. And the new wines are here. This extraordinarily successful marketing campaign started with the French back in the 1930s. Italy does a lot of Vino Novello, also the result of a special process called carbonic maceration that ferments whole grapes. About half of the 9 million VN bottles comes from the northeastern region of Veneto that makes ... Tags:wine, bargain wine, food pairing, tasting, red wine, white wine, buy wine, cheap wine, review, wineries
A Wine Lover's Nearly Weekly Review Of $15 Wine - A 2010 Beaujolais Villages Nouveau By: Levi Reiss | - This article treats the famous French red wine that arrives just in time for Thanksgiving, Beaujolais Nouveau. This wine is released for sale right after the stroke of midnight on the third Thursday in November. Believe it or not they make and sell millions of bottles of this stuff, yes about 5 million 12-case bottles. As all red Beaujolais, today's wine is made from the Gamay grape, a variety that neighboring Burgundy banned in 1395. It comes from specially designated areas (villages) in the Be ... Tags:wine, bargain wine, food pairing, tasting, red wine, white wine, buy wine, moderate-priced wine, review, wineries
A Wine Lover's Nearly Weekly Review Of $15 Wine - A Falanghina From Southern Italian By: Levi Reiss | - One of my very first Italian wine reviews was a really impressed Falanghina white from the region of Molise in central Italy. Now a few years later I'll be tasting this same grape from the neighboring region of Campania in southern Italy. The producer has been in the wine business for just under 100 years. The grapes were grown on the slopes of the Taburno mountains. So we have two good signs but of course can't be sure until we taste the actual wine. The producer's website has an English langua ... Tags:wine, bargain wine, food pairing, tasting, red wine, white wine, buy wine, moderate-priced wine, review, wineries
A Wine Lover's Weekly Guide To $10 Wines - A White Peloponnesian Greek Wine By: Levi Reiss | - This will be our third review of Greek wine. The first was a sweet wine originating on the island of Samos. Then came a red from the island of Crete also made by today's producer. Now we continue with a white from the Peloponnesian peninsula. This particular wine comes from pink Rhoditis grapes in the foothills near Patras at an elevation of about 650 to 1500 feet (200 to 450 meters). The producer Kourtaki has the largest wine production facility in all Greece, which is not surprising when you c ... Tags:wine, bargain wine, food pairing, tasting, red wine, white wine, buy wine, cheap wine, review, wineries
A Wine Lover's Weekly Guide To $10 Wines - Yet Another Cabernet Sauvignon From Israel By: Levi Reiss | - Here we review one more kosher Israel Cabernet Sauvigno; one that is available (sometimes) under the magic $10. The grapes for this wine come from the northern regions Upper Galilee and Golan. The geography is hilly and rocky, and the soil is thin all good signs for winemakers if not for ranchers. Barkan traces its history back to 1899 and now owns over 1200 acres (500 hectares, or to use the local measure 500,000 dunams) making them the second largest winemaker in the country. They process more ... Tags:wine, bargain wine, food pairing, tasting, red wine, white wine, buy wine, cheap wine, review, wineries
A Wine Lover's Weekly Guide To $10 Wines - A Chardonnay From Lazio, Italy By: Levi Reiss | - This kosher Chardonnay comes from the Lazio region of central Italy. Lazio, which is also called Latium, is home to Rome. Many people feel that Latium's wines tend to be mediocre because Rome is a huge market and Romans, or perhaps the millions of tourists, will drink anything. Such sweeping statements may be dead wrong. I'm not necessarily a fan of Chardonnay, but I tend to prefer it to Latium's native white varieties, Malvasia and Trebbiano. Unless I'm forgetting something, this is my first It ... Tags:wine, bargain wine, food pairing, tasting, red wine, white wine, buy wine, cheap wine, review, wineries
A Wine Lover's Weekly Guide To $10 Wines - A Red Crete (greece) Blend By: Levi Reiss | - This is one of our first Greek wine reviews and the first review devoted to a wine from the island of Crete which produces about one fifth of all Greek wine. Kourtaki, the producer, was founded way back in 1895 by Vassili Kourtakis; perhaps the first Greek to obtain a diploma in oenology, the study of wine. This company started with retsina, but happily moved on to better wines. Kourtaki is now the largest producer of Greek wine, bottling an estimated thirty million bottles a year, half of which ... Tags:wine, bargain wine, food pairing, tasting, red wine, white wine, buy wine, cheap wine, review, wineries
I Love Organic Wine - A Barbera From Piedmont, Italy By: Levi Reiss | - Barbera is one of the most widely planted red grapes in all Italy. There are several varieties, and to be frank Barbera del Monferrato is not at the top of this list. Nuova Cappelletta is dedicated to organic food and wine production. They are located in Vignale Monferrato of the Piedmont region of northern Italy, where they breed cattle and grow cereal on hundreds of acres of which some 74 acres are vineyards. I can only imagine how their wine pairs with their beef. Let me quote the company web ... Tags:wine, bargain wine, food pairing, tasting, red wine, white wine, buy wine, organic wine, review, wineries
A Wine Lover's Weekly Guide To $10 Wines - A Portuguese Red From Port Grapes By: Levi Reiss | - The Douro Valley of northwest Portugal is quite famous for its Port wine. Today's wine is not a Port, but it is made from typical Port grapes such as Tinta Roriz, Tinta Barroca, Touriga Franca and Touriga Nacional. While this wine isn't organic, the producer has developed an Environment Management System, which it sees as a contribution for sustainable development and the preservation of natural resources. By the way, Charamba is a Nineteenth Century Portuguese dance.
A Wine Lover's Weekly Guide To $10 Wines - A Serbian Muscat Ottonel By: Levi Reiss | - You may recall that several months ago we reviewed our first Serbian wine, a Riesling from this very producer. Today's wine is also white, based on the Muscat Ottonel grape, one of the many members of the Muscat family. Muscat Ottonel is often used in dessert wines. The producer, Navip, is the largest wine exporter in ex-Yugoslavia. According to their website, Navip exports two million tons of wine a year. That's a lot of bottles. They have made a major commitment to organic wine, but at the tim ... Tags:wine, bargain wine, food pairing, tasting, red wine, white wine, buy wine, cheap wine, review, wineries
A Wine Lover's Weekly Review Of $10 Wines - A Sweet Low- Alcohol Italian Wine By: Levi Reiss | - Are you ever in the mood for a wine with a very low alcohol level? Here's your chance. Today's wine is kosher, marketed by the largest kosher wine distributor in the world. It comes from the Asti province of the Piedmont region of northern Italy home to some fabulous wines that, at least usually, aren't low-alcohol or bargain priced. This wine is made from the Moscato Blanco grape, the most widely planted Muscat in Italy. Moscato Blanco is the oldest known grape variety in Piedmont, and perhaps ... Tags:wine, bargain wine, food pairing, tasting, red wine, white wine, buy wine, cheap wine, review, wineries
A Wine Lover's Weekly Guide To $10 Wines - A French Pinot Noir By Rothschild By: Levi Reiss | - Last week's wine came from the innovative California winemaker, Robert Mondavi. This review is devoted to a wine made by a famous French winemaker, Baron Philippe de Rothschild. Prior to their death, these two wine-making giants collaborated; their most famous joint effort is the very pricey and probably overpriced Opus One, a Cabernet Sauvignon. Today's wine is a Pinot Noir from the up and coming Languedoc region of southwestern France. While Pinot Noir is a common and often prized red grape va ... Tags:wine, bargain wine, food pairing, tasting, red wine, white wine, buy wine, cheap wine, review, wineries
A Wine Lover's Weekly Guide To $10 Wines - A Mondavi California Sauvignon Blanc By: Levi Reiss | - We have already done a review of a red wine by the groundbreaking California winemaker, Robert Mondavi. Today's review is devoted to an inexpensive white Sauvignon Blanc from this great, but admittedly controversial winemaker. More than thirty years ago Mondavi got people to drink the then unfashionable Sauvingnon Blanc wines in part by giving them a new, charming name, Fume Blanc. He was really the one who put Napa Valley on the world wine map. One day I plan to try the very pricey and probably ... Tags:wine, bargain wine, food pairing, tasting, red wine, white wine, buy wine, cheap wine, review, wineries
A Wine Lover's Weekly Guide To $10 Wines - A Kosher Israeli Sauvignon Blanc By: Levi Reiss | - This wine comes from a major white grape, by the major wine producer of an up and coming wine country. Carmel was founded back in 1882 by Baron Edmond de Rothschild, the owner of the great Bordeaux red, Chateau Lafite, which starts at around $900 in my neck of the woods, although I did see it on the Internet for a lot less. Carmel is the oldest Israeli exporter of wine, brandy, and grape juice and produces nearly half of all Israeli wine. Interestingly enough in the 1920s they had to deal with a ... Tags:wine, bargain wine, food pairing, tasting, red wine, white wine, buy wine, cheap wine, review, wineries
A Wine Lover's Weekly Guide To $10 Wines - A Kosher California White Zinfandel By: Levi Reiss | - You may remember that I previously reviewed a white Zinfandel made by Beringer in Napa Valley, California. This article looks at another California white Zinfandel, a kosher one made by Baron Herzog. Zinfandel is perhaps America's only indigenous European-style grape variety. It is the source of fruity, powerful red wines. But it is also transformed into White Zinfandel, an extremely popular rose wine accounting for about one wine bottle in ten sold in the United States. Approximately six out of ... Tags:wine, bargain wine, food pairing, tasting, red wine, white wine, buy wine, cheap wine, review, wineries
A Wine Lover's Weekly Guide To $10 Wines - A Southern French Kosher Merlot By: Levi Reiss | - Several generations ago the Skalli family was making wine in Algeria, at that time a major wine-producing nation, one supplying France with much of its table wine. Conditions changed and they left for France after Algerian independence. In the late 1970s Robert Skalli studied winemaking in California. He returned to France with the idea of making varietal wines, those based on a single grape rather than a blend. Skalli was among those who revolutionized the wine industry in the Languedoc-Roussil ... Tags:wine, bargain wine, food pairing, tasting, red wine, white wine, buy wine, cheap wine, review, wineries
A Wine Lover's Weekly Guide To $10 Wines - A Distinctively Bottled Verdicchio By: Levi Reiss | - The wine reviewed below comes from The Marches region of central Italy. That is the region whose residents consume the most wine per capita in all Italy. Furthermore, this is, in fact, The Marches best known wine. But don't jump to any conclusions, read our review.
The bottle is distinctive; I'm talking about its design that dates back to 1954. That was the year the Cleveland Indians winner of a record 111 games lost the World Series to the New York Giants in four straight thanks in ... Tags:wine, bargain wine, food pairing, tasting, red wine, white wine, buy wine, cheap wine, review, wineries
A Wine Lover's Weekly Guide To $10 Wines - A Cabernet Sauvignon From Bulgaria By: Levi Reiss | - This is our first bargain wine from Bulgaria, a country that produces many low cost wines. In fact, Bulgaria was once the world's fourth largest wine exporter. In the past it had been the most reliable wine producer in Eastern Europe. Bulgarians have been cultivating vines for over three thousand years and producing wine for most of those years. After Bulgaria was ruled by Turkey, its wine industry came to a halt and only restarted after World War I. The producer Domaine Boyer was the nation's f ... Tags:wine, bargain wine, food pairing, tasting, red wine, white wine, buy wine, cheap wine, review, wineries
A Wine Lover's Weekly Guide To $10 Wines - A Cabernet Sauvignon From South Africa By: Levi Reiss | - This is our first bargain wine from South Africa, one very major wine country. The Nederburg winery was founded in 1791 near Paarl not far from the Cape of Good Hope. This wine belongs to their series, the Winemaker's Reserve. It is marketed by Stellenbosch Farmers Winery which is not your little farmer's winery. Stellenbosch markets about one third of all South African wines with a value of over one third of a billion dollars. I probably don't have to tell you about the Cabernet Sauvignon grape ... Tags:wine, bargain wine, food pairing, tasting, red wine, white wine, buy wine, cheap wine, review, wineries
A Wine Lover's Weekly Guide To $10 Wines - An Organic Canadian Riesling By: Levi Reiss | - I am starting to taste a lot of organic wines. But you won't see many of them in this column for one very good (actually very bad) reason. Organic wines tend to cost more than other wines. So when I saw this bottle I snapped it up. Actually, I'm sort of cheating. The bottle cost under $10 but it's only 500 milliliters, 2/3 the size of a regular wine bottle. So I took smaller sips.
