2006 Cambria Pinot Noir – $17

I heard about this 93 point California Pinot Noir from a wine.com newsletter and had high hopes. Unfortunately, it didn’t meet the high expectations I had from the Wine Enthusiast rating. It’s very rare that you find a highly-rated Pinot Noir under $20. Usually the high ratings on Pinot cause the price to go straight up.

I picked up some cherry and orange flavors. This Pinot out of Santa Maria Valley had decent texture to it but it also carried some sour and burnt flavors that I didn’t care for. The bottom line on this wine is to not be carried away by the rating. In my book it didn’t match up.

Shingleback Sparkling Shiraz Black Bubbles

Sparkling Shiraz is a new wine to me. They don’t usually sell for less than $20 a bottle. I think I paid $19.99 for this wine at my local shop but I did find it online for just under $19. Fortunately it makes the cut for this website.

Sparkling Shiraz isn’t your traditional sparkler but it sure is fun to drink. I had this bottle along with some of my favorite Virginia BBQ from Portlow Brothers. Great combination. You can drink this wine with BBQ or pizza or any other rich casual food.

Now on to the tasting notes. This is a solid wine. It has all the deep colors and flavors of a Australian Shiraz but also has the crisp freshness of a sparkling wine. I had this wine at a slightly chilled temperature and then at a colder temperature and liked it better when it was coldest. I picked up blackberry and deep red fruits on the mouth. It was very supple and smooth.

Price: $19
Vintage: 2005
Varietal: Sparkling Shiraz
Country: Australia
Cheap Wine Rating: 92

Buy it here: SandCreek Wine

Yellow Tail Sparkling Wine – 2007

I was walking around Safeway doing some grocery shopping and saw this Yellow Tail Sparkling Wine on sale. For $7 I figured I’d give it a shot. I’m hoping to get more into the bubbles so we might as well start with best known cheap wine label, Yellow Tail.

I was pleased with this purchase. I’ve read some reviews of this wine online where people stated that they tasted rotten fruit and that the wine was junk. Maybe they had a bad bottle. My opinion is much closer to Wine Spectator who scored this wine a 86.

The Yellow Tail sparkling wine is sweet, that’s the fist thing you will notice. There is a very little bit of spice and pear flavors as well. As you can see from the picture we did manage to finish the bottle. For $7 its a bottle I would buy again.

Price: $7
Vintage: 2007
Varietal: White Sparkling
Country: Australia
Cheap Wine Rating: 84

Buy it here: The Grape Tray

Artezin Dry Creek Zinfandel 2006

Nice dark ruby color, but on the nose I wasn’t happy.  I was smelling weeds, bug spray and peanuts.  I bravely went in for a taste and was rewarded!  I got a very different taste than smell which doesn’t happen very often.  In the mouth the wine had great texture and feel with some decent complexity.  I’d guess that a real wino would be able to identify more in this wine than I can.  I tasted sweet blackberry, black cherry,  jam and sage.  I don’t know when I’ve had such a bad reaction to a nose of a wine and then found the mouth to be that much better.  Since we really care how the wine tastes I have to say that this is a pretty good wine.  Wine.com has it selling for 40% off right now so jump on it while you can.

Price: $17
Vintage: 2006
Varietal: Zinfandel
Country: USA – CA
Cheap Wine Rating: 88

Buy it here: Wine.com

Cristalino Brut Cava

Such a good wine.  This Cava has proven to be my favorite of all the cheap bubbles out there.  I’ve had this wine more than 5 different times.  I think the reason I keep buying it is it’s above average quality in an $8 bottle.  You can’t go wrong with that. After doing a little research I Read more

Anakena Pinot Noir 2007

This is the kind of Pinot I like finding. It’s not rated by anyone but it’s a great value. Before you buy this wine make sure you don’t have it confused with Anakena’s premium version of Pinot Noir. Their other Pinot label is called Ona from the Casablanca Valley. I had to pour that wine out.

This is a good all around Pinot with a nicely shaped bottle. It was bottled in August of 2007 and has a 14% alcohol level. I picked up cherry, strawberry and some floral. Nicely balanced with good tannis. It’s not overly complex but it gets the job done.

Price: $13
Vintage: 2007
Varietal: Pinot Noir
Country: Chile
Cheap Wine Rating: 92

Buy it here: Mid Valley Wine