The A-list (+ one!)

I love wine (DUH) and you know I love a good deal (also DUH). Today I offer three wines that start with the letter "A" (oh great, now I hear the voice of Grover in my head...). In an earlier blog posting I talked about finding a great deal on a yummy wine called Aconga. The blend is 80% Malbec and 20% Cabernet Sauvignon and the 2009 evidently scored 85 points from Wine Enthusiast magazine. The best thing? With your Kroger Plus card, the price is only $3.99 (though it's only $3.88 at the Mcfarland/Hwy.9 Kroger in Alpharetta)! One thing to note, however, there seems to be a limited supply of this wine so you better stock up quickly!

My second A-wine is actually called A by Acacia. Like many other producers, Acacia has several different product lines. Their single-vineyard products are their finest (and most expensive), but you can find the more reasonably priced "A" line in stores and restaurants. Their Pinot is great (around $20) but I love the A by Acacia "Red Blend" (much lower-priced, at around $10 to 12) as it is a Syrah based wine. You won't find it everywhere but it is worth looking for (or trying at restaurants).

My 3rd (and favorite of the 3!) A-list wine is called Apothic Red. I also blogged about this one previously (as did Gil Kulers with the AJC) and I can't get enough of it! Excellent fruit, but not a full-on, in-your-face 'fruit bomb'. Apothic LOVES spicy foods and is widely available ($8.73 at Sam's, around $8.50 at Tower and even Kroger had it for under $9 a few weeks ago!). Syrah and Zin? YUM!


Bonus wine--a week or two ago I was in the Alpharetta Costco, wandering through the wine aisle. A nice blend caught my eye--a bordeaux blend with 34% Cabernet Sauvignon, 33% Cabernet Franc and the final 33% Merlot. As the price was $15, I thought what the heck, I'll buy it (really, you had me at 33% cab franc). You may have read this old blog post about friends in the wine biz (and my 'heroes'), so you know how happy I was when I saw the names on the back of the bottle--Highway 12 Vineyards was co-founded by the guy who gave me my first job in the wine industry, Paul Giusto. Check out their website and try the wine--the winemaker is Michael Sebastiani (bet you've heard that last name before?) who I also worked with at Viansa ages ago. Kudos to them; the wine was awesome as well! Cheers!

A new inexpensive fave-Apothic Red

As you know, I am always a fan of a fun blend at a good price--especially if it has something to do with Zin or Syrah! How about one that has zin, syrah AND merlot? It's funny, I had read about this wine AFTER buying it, but BEFORE drinking it. Well, finally had it the night before last and it ROCKS! Gil Kulers is totally on the money-two thumbs up--way up! Check it out online using this link. Cheers, Bo

(by the way--Gil's article said $14; I found it at Sam's Club for $8.73!)

More on HR 5034

Read this article NOW and contact your local congressman NOW... The article makes it clear WHY this bill is a bad idea for YOUR Freedom of Choice!

Glorious Grenache!

Read this article to learn more about another one of my favorite wines. As you know I LOVE zinfandel, but GSM's or any other Grenache/Syrah blend is also a typical choice. Why? The ones I find tend to be less than $10 and you can also find pretty decent quality for that price. Cotes du Rhone may be a bit higher (around $15) but many Australian examples run less. "Garnacha" from Spain are also around $10 (give "Garnacha de Fuego" (Garnacha of Fire, baby!) a chance--complete with flames on the label)--great 'food' wines as well. Read the article for a more educated explanation (but higher priced examples) and run to your local wine shop (or even your grocery, believe it of not) to find some fun stuff! Cheers, Bo

More on CARE

This law should NOT pass! Write your Congressman today! See this article to understand what I'm talking about. Another article hits the same issue from a different angle. Contact your Congressional representative TODAY and say NO to this act!

Great offer at Total Wine & More through Sept. 11

While I love Total Wine & More I am always annoyed that they don't offer discounts on mixed cases (i.e. you do get a discount on a case of a single wine, but not on a 'mix' of wines). Well, I just got an email today that you can mix a 6-pack of wines and get 10% off! They have many fun wines for you to try (recent faves include the "Kitchen Sink" red blend for around $9 and Grand Pacific Red "Heritage Blend" (petite verdot, sangiovese and cabernet franc) for around $8). SO get out there and get shopping! I am betting this is a test for them to see if it will bump sales; let's show them that it's time to do this more often! Mix away!

It's all in the GLASS

Most of my emails focus on what is IN your glass, but this one will focus on the not so obvious--the glass itself. I have long been a Riedel wine glass fan and have glassware to match many of our favorite wine varietals. If you go to Riedel's website, you will see they have hundreds of choices at many different price points. The 4 types we have are the "Wine" series (glass, machine made, avg. retail would be around $10) the "Vinum" series (lead crystal, machine made, average retail of around $20) the "O" series (stemless, glass, probably $20 or so for 2?) and finally the "Sommelier" series, which are hand-blown lead crystal and can cost over $80 each! What's the big deal? PLENTY!
As noted in the past, we have only 5 primary taste 'senses' (salty, bitter, sweet, sour and "umami", which can loosely be translated as 'protein'). While we're not as proficient as Spike the wonderdog at smelling, we humans can pick up over 10,000 nuances of smell. Again you ask, what does that matter? To truly enjoy the wine (and specific attributes of a particular varietal) a wine glass can 'make or break' a wine. Take your favorite red wine (or a white wine that's not too cold) and put it in a drinking glass, a cheap wine glass, one of those silly Waterford crystal wine glasses you got for a wedding gift (pretty, but useless) and take a sip from each. If your last glass happened to be a nice stem (Riedel is nice, but try Cost Plus World Market for some inexpensive clones) you will be blown away at the difference! If you have different shaped wine glasses, take it a step forward-a cabernet glass is usually upright and tapered, a pinot noir glass is more rounded with a big bowl. If you tried the cabernet in both glasses you may be surprised how much better it is in the true cabernet glass versus the big bowled pinot. All I can say is TRY IT and you will be amazed! Go for the proper shape and no heavy 'rim' around the glass (think of that rim as a 'speed bump' messing up the flavors).
Final shot-what is the achilles heel of this entire exercise? How clean is that glass? If you store glasses in a cabinet, top down or over a stove, you will not get the full effect of the wine. Make sure to rinse the glasses prior to drinking them as you will smell less of the wine but more of where it was stored, such as the 'wood' of the cabinet (or grease if over the stove). Try smelling the empty glass 1st or put a bit of wine in the glass--you may see what I mean. Then rinse it out and try again and you will smell the wine, not the cabinet! Too much soap residue can ruin your wine experience as well. Cheers!