Our guide to red wine bargains
Wall Street is in shambles and unemployment is at its highest in five years. So if you had your eye on that Bordeaux future, perhaps you should take it down a few thousand dollars. A few more. There you go. $12. Actually, I've long considered $12 to be the sweet spot for quality wine, especially as we make the transition, in this flailing economy, from summer whites to fall reds.
Historically, the majority of wines produced in Europe have always sold for $10 to $15, according to Robin Goldstein, author of "The Wine Trials" (Fearless Critic Media, $14.95), a bible for bargain hunters. It's only in the past decade or two that prestige-brand markups have soared as high as 500 percent, a result of extreme luxury marketing and a 100-point magazine scoring system that smells fishier every day.
So today, I'm providing what I hope will become an annual tradition: The Fall Reds: 12 under $12. The list is culled from me, oenophiles whose palates I trust and admire, and Goldstein's book, where, in blind tastings, 100 wines under $15 outscored $50- to $150-bottles.
Don't be fooled. These wines, one as low as $2, are not second-rate swill you drink when you're too poor to replenish the good stuff. Vintage after vintage, they are consistently well-sourced and well-made. Some are sustainable, which also makes them more economically viable. Others are made from estate fruit, like Tamas Estates' $12 bright berry and black pepper
Zinfandel.
The reason Tamas Estates can make and sell such an inexpensive red is that it is part of the larger Wente Family Estates, explains Amy Hoopes, vice president of marketing for Wente Family Estates. So, while the Zin is a relatively small-production wine made from sustainably farmed estate fruit, it is produced in the same facility where dozens of other wines are made. Glass bottle costs are also lower, since Wente can buy in bulk.
On the quality side, the Wentes have been farming the vineyards where the grapes are sourced for more than 100 years. They own the land, so not only are they debt-free vines, but the family has gained insights about their efficiency over generations.
"If you are able to control the grape from vine to bottle, you have complete control on maintaining quality," Hoopes says.
If a winery doesn't own its vineyards, it can take advantage of a surplus of quality bulk wine available on the market from prestigious appellations, such as Napa Valley. A winery can also keep costs down by contracting out the use of vineyards up to a decade in advance. That's what Paso Robles' Peachy Canyon Winery does to ensure the consistency of its uber-juicy $8 Incredible Red. "Same source. Same style. Same confidence and low cost," owner Doug Beckett says.
For this winery-establishing entry-level red, Peachy Canyon looks to the east side of Paso Robles, where there is less rainfall, yields tend to be higher and consequently, the price of fruit is a bit lower. In 15 years, the production at Peachy Canyon has gradually climbed from a few cases to 50,000 annually.
"Instead of producing a whole lot of wine and then saying 'Buy me, buy me,' we've put a fair price on it and watched it grow," Beckett says.
That said, large production is the obvious reason for many bargain wines, including the king of them all, Two Buck Chuck. The Bronco Wine Company makes 5 million cases a year of Charles Shaw and sells it all to one buyer, Trader Joe's, as a way to keep the retail cost low — $2 low. The Shiraz, with its dark plum flavors and earthy edge, made our Top 12, and the Cabernet Sauvignon made "The Wine Trials" Top 100.
The No. 1 light New World red wine for "The Wine Trials" panel was the $11 Mark West Pinot Noir, chosen for its elegant softness and focused cherry and spice flavors. Blind tasters called it "Pinot for the people," and I feel the same way about the McManis Family Vineyards Pinot Noir, a soft wine with rich notes of cherry and Nutella. It tastes about three times pricier than its $12 tag, and despite being a new wine in the McManis portfolio — 2006 was the first vintage — local retailers such as Farmstead Cheeses & Wines in Alameda can barely keep it in stock.
And there you have it. Not unlike the Wentes, the McManis family has been making wine for four generations. They've established relationships with grape growers in their corner of San Joaquin County, and all over the state. So even when they have three strikes against them — making a new wine from a fickle grape for sale in the value category — they win. And so do we.