Wolf Blass Shiraz 2006

You will see this wine in most of your local grocery stores. Just visit the aisle labeled “Australia” and you are like to find it. I found this wine to be very average and drinkable.

On the nose I got pepper and spice, green vegetables and some herb.   I tasted plum and sweet dark berry.

I wouldn’t rush out and buy it but if you are at the store and need to pick up a wine you know you won’t hate this will work.  If you aren’t in a rush and can plan your purchase I’d pick something else.

Price: $10
Vintage: 2006
Varietal: Shiraz
Country: Australia
Cheap Wine Rating: 84

Buy it here: Premium Wines

Moselland ArsVitis Riesling 2007

I bought Riesling wine at my local Costco for just under $10. My family had this wine at Thanksgiving and everyone that tried it enjoyed. To bad for me at the time I didn’t get to it before it was all gone. When I saw it at Costco I figured it was worth a shot for all my blog readers out there.

The nose was very clean and had some citrus, not much. The mouth has a little bit of sweet orange peel. In the mouth its very clean and soft. The finish comes through sweet and tart.

Not the perfect wine but its very drinkable. I think most people that like this wine will like it because of its sweet characteristics. Its very drinkable on its own which might make it a hit at your next party.

Price: $9.99
Vintage: 2007
Varietal: Riesling
Country: Germany
Cheap Wine Rating: 84

Buy it here: Shop Rite Wines

2007 Voga Pinot Grigio – $9

Have you ever seen this bottle of wine before and wondered, what the HELL is that? I passed it by for the last couple Read more

Kenwood Cabernet Sauvignon 2005

The Kenwood wines are a great value. The 2005 Vintage was a great year for their vineyard and their wines show it. I like the 05 Zinfandel more than the Cabernet, but the Cab still passes the test.

On the nose I picked up aromas of raspberry, cherry and some herbs. The wine was pretty dry but also very light and resembled simple red fruit. The finish of the wine was pretty closed off and I didn’t really pick anything up.

This is just a nice everyday wine to keep around the house. Not the best cab and not worthy of my favorite red wines for the cheap wine list, but still a nice value.

Price: $13
Vintage: 2005
Varietal: Cabernet Sauvignon
Country: USA – CA
Cheap Wine Rating: 86

Buy it here: Wine Library

La Crema Pinot Noir 2006

Looking for the perfect every day Pinot? This is it. Read more

Yellow Tail Cabernet Sauvignon 2008

I bought this wine from Safeway this weekend for $4.40. And if I knew what it tasted like before I bought it I wouldn’t have paid $1 for it. This wine stinks and I plan on pouring out the rest of the bottle later tonight. A couple of us tasted this wine on two different days and we though the same thing – no way. I’m only writing a post about it to hopefully steer people away from it.

I picked up aromas of cheap cherry candy, green pepper and red syrup. The taste of this wine was very closed and there wasn’t much to it, just more light cherry candy. Then the finish revealed everything that I was experiencing before… it was cherry cough syrup. If I want to drink cherry cough syrup I’d just go buy the real thing.

Cheap Sparkling Wine

Its all about the bubbles. Sparkling Wine is becoming more popular everyday so I put together a short list of highly rated cheap sparkling wine you can buy online. Every bottle listed here can be bought for less than $20. Enjoy!

 Cristalino Brut Cava – Champagne & Sparkling
 Cava, Spain
 Rating: W&S 91, WE 88
 Price: $7.99

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Read more

Sebastiani Cabernet Sauvignon 2005

The Sebastiani vineyard and winery is located in Sonoma, CA. Samuele Sabastiani bought the vineyard in 1904 and it has been in the family ever since. This is one of the few winerys in Sonoma that has a blog so you can keep up with them throughout the year. You can find their wines online and at your local grocery stores.

I recently got to try their 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon. It had a very nice inky plum color to it. On the nose I got plum and cherry with some pepper. In the mouth the taste was much more subtle but I was very surprised by the balance and structure of the wine. The only thing missing from making this a great wine is complexity. The cherry and plum flavors were light but the finish lasted and lasted. I really liked the tannins on this wine.

Price: $15
Vintage: 2005
Varietal: Cabernet Sauvignon
Country: USA – CA
Cheap Wine Rating: 90

Buy it here: Central Avenue Wines

2007 Castle Rock Pinot Noir – $9

Cheap Pinot Noir is hard to come by.  Its rare that you will find a Pinot from California for under $10.  When you do you just cross your fingers, close your eyes and hope it’s not junk.  This cheap Pinot will put a smile on your face.

Castle Rock Winery was started in 1994 and is located on the Sonoma Coast in California.  They focus on producing high quality wines at cheap prices.  Their 2007 Pinot Noir fits the mold perfectly.

This wine has a nice nose mostly dominated by black cherry.  You will also find a little spice and smoke.  In the mouth I found black cherry that was rounded off by juicy plum.  It was very well balanced with nice tannins.  Its not very complex but the fruit is very solid making this a great value wine.

Columbia Crest Merlot 2005

Do you miss Christmas? Doesn’t this bottle look like a Christmas tree wine bottle? I’m trying to do better about taking pictures before all the wine is gone but I obviously failed to do so this time.

I’m not usually a big fan of Merlot but this wine was very enjoyable. For those Merlot fans out there, maybe I just need to spend more time looking for good Merlot, who knows. This one makes me have hope. The Columbia Crest Merlot was very well balanced with cherry and herbal notes. The fruit flavors were very ripe. I also picked up a little bit of spice on the nose and the taste.

Price: $12
Vintage: 2005
Varietal: Merlot
Country: USA – WA
Cheap Wine Rating: 90

Buy it here: Wine.com

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