First Varietals

[Rebel Rose]

The eGullet Culinary Institute course on wine will begin February 28, and run for two weeks. Topics will cover

* Ten basics of wine evaluation

* Pairing wine and food

* Cooking with wine

* Evaluating white wine varietals

* Evaluating red wine varietals

* Separating art and technique from nature

* Creating your own sensory aroma kit

Before and during the class, students will be asked to find and purchase wines that are good, but inexpensive, models of common red and white wines.

Suggested varietals will include

* chardonnay

* sauvignon blanc

* pinot gris or pinot grigio

* riesling

* pinot noir

* merlot

* cabernet sauvignon

* zinfandel

Can you help us out by recommending a selection of wines that are in the $10 to $20 range, and generally available (productions of 10,000 cases or more)?

[KatieLoeb]

The eGullet Culinary Institute course on wine will begin February 28, and run for two weeks.  Topics will cover

* Ten basics of wine evaluation

* Pairing wine and food

* Cooking with wine

* Evaluating white wine varietals

* Evaluating red wine varietals

* Separating art and technique from nature

* Creating your own sensory aroma kit

Before and during the class, students will be asked to find and purchase wines that are good, but inexpensive, models of common red and white wines.

Suggested varietals will include

* chardonnay

* sauvignon blanc

* pinot gris or pinot grigio

* riesling

* pinot noir

* merlot

* cabernet sauvignon

* zinfandel

Can you help us out by recommending a selection of wines that are in the $10 to $20 range, and generally available (productions of 10,000 cases or more)?

←

The Bonny Doon wines are readily available everywhere and are varietally true. Their Pacific Rim Riesling is a great example of riesling, if not a German one. Ravenwood Vintner's Blend wines are all good "entry level" example of their sort, Chehalem Vineyards or Erath Vineyards both produce nice Rieslings and Pinot Gris in Oregon that are excellent examples of their type and Saintsbury Garnet Pinot Noir is great wine. All are within the price parameters you mentioned.

[jackal10]

Please try some none-US wines for comparison.

* chardonnay: White burgundy or Australian

* sauvignon blanc; NewZealand

* pinot gris or pinot grigio: Alsace

* riesling: German

* pinot noir: Burgundy, Rhone

* merlot: Hungary, Argentina

* cabernet sauvignon: Claret

* zinfandel: Only in the US

[KatieLoeb]

Valdivieso from Chile makes excellent and value priced Cabernet and Merlot. In fact they're my house pours of those types at the moment.

From Alsace, Hugel or Trimbach are readily available and make fine Rieslings and Pinot Gris.

For Burgundy, Louis Jadot is a large negociant, widely available and value priced.

I'd also like to suggest Syrah/Shiraz as a varietal that ought to be included. There's too many examples from too many places to ignore it as a varietal. Rhone or Australia, but it ought to be covered.

I'd suggest Jean-Luc Colombo's wines for fine examples of Rhone syrah. The Syrah "La Violette" is incredibly reasonably priced for the quality and has all the lovely aromatics one would expect from good Rhone syrah. For Shiraz I'd try to find Wolf Blass or Hardy's Stamp. Lindemann's and Jacob's Creek are easy to find but a bit over produced for my tastes.

[Miguelito]

Three of my "house" wines seem to fit the profile

Chard: Catena

SB: Mulderbosch

Riesling: Trimbach

Course sounds like it will usefunand fun, btw.

[sadistick]

Where do I sign up for this class?!?!

I am starting to collect wines, and would love to learn more!

[Brad Ballinger]

Suggested varietals will include

* chardonnay

* sauvignon blanc

* pinot gris or pinot grigio

* riesling

* pinot noir

* merlot

* cabernet sauvignon

* zinfandel

Can you help us out by recommending a selection of wines that are in the $10 to $20 range, and generally available (productions of 10,000 cases or more)?

←

Chardonnay -- Many Louis Latour or Verget wines from the Macon

Sauvignon Blanc -- Geyser Peak, Jolivet Sancerre, Galzebrook (NZ)

Pinot Gris/Grigio -- Alois Lageder, Trimbach

Riesling -- Pierre Sparr, Hugel, Trimbach, Boony Doon Pacific Rim, Pike's (Oz)

Pinot Noir -- 10,000 cases??? Saintsbury Garnet?

Merlot -- Columbia Crest, Blackstone

Cabernet -- Sebastiani, Rodney Strong

Zinfandel -- Cline Old Vines, Ravenswood (of course), Dry Creek

No Syrah?

[Dave the Cook]

No Syrah?

Suggest one, if you please.

[sadistick]

Bad suggestion - Didnt see requirements! OOPS

Edited February 25, 2005 by sadistick (log)

[MaxH]

For Burgundy, Louis Jadot is a large negociant, widely available and value priced.

I second this, I recently recommended these elsewhere for a similar purpose.

The widely distributed Louis Jadot Mâcon-Villages (Chardonnay) and Pinot Noir (or Bourgogne Rouge) have been entry-level Burgundian varietals for many people around the world (for at least the 30 years that I've seen them).

But this brings up another issue not addressed in the request: Wines that are "good," and varietally typical, in this price range may well be made for drinking after some age. (That has been true of the Jadot Pinot Noir in some strong years, for example.)

What is "good": Well made, for consuming at its peak, whenever that is; or most appealing right now?

(The ambiguity is one of the traditional complaints about simplistic wine ratings, by the way.)

[Rebel Rose]

What is "good":  Well made, for consuming at its peak, whenever that is; or most appealing right now?

Sorry, I should have been more clear. We will be tasting and evaluating the wines during the 2 week course. So we'll be shopping for classic yet affordable examples of each variety that are drinking well now. Syrahs, too. Thanks for your input!

[amyz]

Some suggestions if you still need them:

Cousino Macul Antigua Reserve cabernet sauvignon -- the 2001 was great, if you can find it.

Trefethen riesling

Argyle pinot noir

Edited February 25, 2005 by amyz (log)

[Rebel Rose]

Here's a link to another thread with good recommendations:

Eminently Drinkable Plonk!

All $10 or less and pretty decent

[Boris_A]

More non-US counterparts:

chardonnay: Macon and Saint-Veran village wines by Verget ($11-16)

zinfandel: Italian primitivo (Amano ($7), maybe others)

[jbonne]

chardonnay: if you're really sticking to the $10 thing, i'll toss in Drouhin's La Foret.

riesling: Loosen's Saint M from the Pfalz is about 10 bucks. his entry-level "Dr. L" was just a few bucks more. in addition to those mentioned.

syrah: Barnard Griffin from the Tri-Cities is a good varietal option on this side of the pond. i'm blanking on a good French option that's pure syrah and under $10 (and good).

and as a public service ... viognier: Columbo's La Violette VDP is both affordable and a great example of varietal typicity. everyone who's ever made a big, oaky viognier should be forced to drink a case of this.

[Jason Perlow]

In terms of Pinot Noir, I would suggest some of the Willemete Valley wines in addition to the Burgundian and Californian ones, such as Argyle, simply because of their good value.

In addition to the Hugel/Trimbach stuff from Alsace, and the fine suggestion of Bonny Doon by Katie, in terms of Riesling I would go with Dr. Loosen from Germany (ah yes, I see Mr. Bonne is in agreement), which is also a good value and also avaliable. At the higher end you could also look at Prum but its hard finding one for less than $25 these days. Leonard Kreusch also has some decent Reisling at the < $15 level, some less than $10. Selbach Oster also has some nice Kabinett and Spatslesen < $15 but I think they are predominantly sold on the East Coast because it is a Terry Theise import. Most of or all the ones listed above are Mosel/Saar/Ruwer, but If you want a Rheingau one you're gonna pay a bit more to get the unique chalky terroir of that region, and real Riesling freaks are Rheingau drinkers when given the opportunity. Actually, most of the country's best Germanic imports are Terry Theise and are sold on the East Coast, but I think we all knew that.

[KatieLoeb]

chardonnay: if you're really sticking to the $10 thing, i'll toss in Drouhin's La Foret.

riesling: Loosen's Saint M from the Pfalz is about 10 bucks. his entry-level "Dr. L" was just a few bucks more. in addition to those mentioned.

syrah: Barnard Griffin from the Tri-Cities is a good varietal option on this side of the pond.  i'm blanking on a good French option that's pure syrah and under $10 (and good).

and as a public service ... viognier: Columbo's La Violette VDP is both affordable and a great example of varietal typicity. everyone who's ever made a big, oaky viognier should be forced to drink a case of this.

←

I haven't tried the "La Violette" Viognier, but if it's anywhere near as good as Colombo's other wines I shall make an effort to seek it out. I love me some Viognier!

[MaxH]

Here is something I posted publicly in 2003 in praise of good German Rieslings.

[At US retail as low as $15 and even $10] I have had excellent luck in the last five years with the growers Reichsgraf von Kesselstatt, Dr. Loosen, Egon Müller, von Othegraven, J. J. Prüm, Josef Rosch, and St. Urbanshof in the Mosel-Saar-Ruwer appelations; Hermann Dönnhoff in the Nahe; Peter Jakob Kühn, Prinz, and Robert Weil in the Rheingau. Good Mosels etc. often show an enticing delicate aroma of lime, or other citrus, where Rheingaus, on the palate, may show peaches or honey. [These wines are amazingly versatile with all sorts of foods. 48 hours ago I pulled a Loosen Riesling Kabinett 2000, for some eGulleteers at a restaurant gathering with several seafoods, and I think they concurred.]

... real Riesling freaks are Rheingau drinkers when given the opportunity. Actually, most of the country's best Germanic imports are Terry Theise and are sold on the East Coast, but I think we all knew that.

I am dismayed to learn that I'm unreal, as a Riesling freak. Also, taking nothing away from Theise and the other dominant US importer, gringos in the know benefit from the remarkable, smaller, intense importer-retailer Dee Vine Wines, located on a pier in San Francisco (Dade Theriot and his associates), 877-389-9463, www.dvw.com . As Kermit Lynch did 25 years ago with Rhônes and Burgs, Theriot (who handles all those above and many more) busily introduces US customers to premium and small German sources; this includes winemaker visits and tastings.

[Hopleaf]

The eGullet Culinary Institute course on wine will begin February 28, and run for two weeks. 

Am I missing something or has this class just been delayed? I still don't exactly get how the courses work at the eGCI, so maybe I am just not getting it.

And if I attend the class, will I have to change my handle to Grapevine? or do you allow reformed beer drinkers?

[Dave the Cook]

We've had some unexpected delays. The class will officially start on March 7th, but there's a long list of supplies, and a two-day task that needs to be completed before the start, so you're going to need some time to prepare. We'll post details about both shortly.

Thanks for your patience.

[Hopleaf]

sorry, didn't mean to pester. just geeked for the class.

Anyway, I'm busy buying bottles for the er...lab materials.

Funny that some of the bottles mentioned were echoed by my friendly neighborhood wine dudes. The Columbia Crest Merlot and the (can't remember the exact name) M'bosch Sauv.Blanc, both at very reasonable prices.

And if I can make a recommendation of my own, Castle Rock has decent (to this novice) Pinot Noirs at a fair price point (around ten bucks in my neck of the woods (Chicago area).

[KatieLoeb]

And if I can make a recommendation of my own, Castle Rock has decent (to this novice) Pinot Noirs at a fair price point (around ten bucks in my neck of the woods (Chicago area).

I'm a big fan of all the Castle Rock wines. They're excellent values. The Castle Rock Zinfandel is my current by-the-glass zin pour and I've sold the Pinot Noir extensively in the past.

[Hopleaf]

I'm a big fan of all the Castle Rock wines.  They're excellent values.  The Castle Rock Zinfandel is my current by-the-glass zin pour and I've sold the Pinot Noir extensively in the past.

←

That's good news. I'll try their Zin. I'm currently conducting an experiment (well, not this minute). I found two of their Pinot Noirs, Monterey and Carneros, and am trying to notice the difference between the two. Just attempting to refine the old tastebuds a bit. Not even sure if I'll notice a difference, but I'm hoping there's something. nothing like the wow factor of picking up on stuff like that.