Wines to pick you up when your stocks go down

These days the stock market could drive one to drink. Even my wine psychiatrist, the eminent Dr. Sigmund Weinblutt, is seeing his analyst, and I don’t mean his financial analyst. That guy just cut his phone line.

This month’s column is devoted to wonderful wines with prices starting around $10 dollars a bottle — and I am talking about delicious but not famous wines. And not those suspect close-outs with something amiss in the taste or over the hill.
Wait! First, let’s set this up by talking about expensive wines and why they are stratospheric. Shall we pick Château Petrus as an example? The 2005 Château Petrus (Peter, to you) will set you back the far side of $2,500 a bottle. Robert Parker gave this a score of 100. There were 2,500 cases made. It’s very hard to find, and there’s a huge demand for this name. A little over 40 years ago, the first Petrus I ever purchased cost me $6. That’s an increase of over 4,000 percent! Supply and demand work against you.

Now, at the other end of the price scale, let’s take one of my all-time favorite white wines, Geyser Peak Sauvignon Blanc. Over the years, this wine has won so many top awards one could get a hernia lifting them. The wine is crisp, complex, delicious and incredibly dependable, vintage to vintage. Generally it scores about 88, and is readily available. It is sauvignon blanc, not chardonnay. And it is $10 at most wine merchants. Put it in a blind tasting of world-class whites and this would make out.
Generally speaking, this is a glorious time to be seeking out delicious bargains.The world is awash in value wines. Increased competition worldwide and fresh money being poured in to upgrade so many wine regions, one can hardly keep up.

 Italian wines, especially those from the southern areas and Sicily, have absolutely soared in quality. Spain’s ascension has been amazing. Argentine wines have become international hits virtually overnight. Add South Africa, Australia, Greece and Portugal to the list. And, don’t forget the United States. California has many fine value wines and Washington state is a grand example. Sure, it’s dizzying, but look at it as fun to discover.
Then you have something else going for you. The Bay Area is full of great wine shops. All of the top local wine merchants can only stock, in reality, a very small percentage of the wines that are out there. So, their staffs take a lot of trouble to taste each wine before it goes on the shelf. That means, simply, that there are no dogs in the bunch. And, if you find a wine you love at a tasting, for example, and want to order a case of that, a store can get that wine for you faster than you can say trokenbeerenauslese. Now, let’s get down to cases from just three countries. More to follow — stay tuned to your value station.

France

The French wine industry is in trouble with excess production and the superb 2005 vintage is wonderful in Bordeaux. Three examples: Château Haut Canteloup Medoc ($13); Château Petit Bocq Saint-Estèphe ($20) — with a 91 rating from Wine Spectator — and Château Croix Mouton Bordeaux Superieur ($19).

Wines from the Loire Valley are always good value as are the wines from Languedoc. One of the steals of the year is the 2005 E.Guigal Côtes du Rhône ($12). I’m very enthusiastic about a white wine from the Loire, the 2007 André Vatan Sancerre (roughly $20), and the lovely André Vatan Sancerre Les Charmes ($13). These are two wines I have in my cellar all the time, and I keep coming back to them constantly. Friends who taste them cannot believe the price-to-quality ratio.

Spain

Hola, amigos! Here we find wine-value gold. On the high side, Spain boasts one of the greatest cult wines in the world: Vega Sicilia. But we are seeking values, and Spain’s dynamic, quality-driven industry provides us with the goods. Here are four of them, with the first three receiving a score of 91 from Robert Parker: 2006 Los Rocas di San Alejandro Garnacha ($10!); 2005 Celler de Capçanes, Montsant, Mas Donis Baricca ($11); and 2007 Burgans Albarino Rias Baixas ($12). The great red grape of Spain is tempranillo, so another suggestion is Ramon Bilbao Crianza Rioja ($12).Sure, the names are unfamiliar, but at these prices, do what I do: Buy a mixed case and have the delight of picking your favorites, and then go for those by the case.

Argentina

Two years ago, I went to my first all-Argentine wine tasting, with 25 offerings produced from the malbec grape, a not-so-well-known Bordeaux variety. I was completely knocked out by the quality of these unknown gems. There wasn’t one mediocre one in the bunch. The wines, in general, were intensely fruity and pure, with soft tannins — luscious, indeed. The wines come from the Mendoza district at the foot of the Andes, and the vineyards are at a very high elevation. You must discover these wines.

A sterling example — the 2006 Altocredo Malbec Reserva ($18). This wine was rated a 92 by Wine Spectator. How can you beat that? How about the 2007 Alamos Malbec ($9), 2007 Budini Malbec ($15), and the 2007 Trapiche Malbec ($10). A couple of years hence, these wines will be even more popular, so lay some in now and enjoy them while doing on-the-job taste training.

If you’re a white-wine lover, then treat your nose to the great indigenous white grape of Argentina, torrontes. It has a unique quality — the best of them have an exotic, romantic, floral nose, somewhat muscat-y in style, but a crispness of taste, somewhat like a good pinot grigio. Absolutely worth trying.

This is just the tip of the value iceberg. While some wine stocks are cutting their dividends, these will give you unexpected ones.