2007 Ring Bolt Margaret River Cabernet Sauvignon – $15

Beautiful and treacherous Western Australia’s rugged southwest coastline is littered with shipwrecks, one of them being the Ringbolt, sunk in the late 1800s in the vessel’s namesake Ringbolt Bay, at the Southern end of the Margaret River wine region.

Hailing from there, this Aussie Cabernet Sauvignon is just as rugged! The nose is typical of Cabernet Sauvignon grown in this type of cool and rugged climate  – beautifully complex aromas of Swiss dark chocolate, a Starbuck’s Venti no-whip mocha, violets, cassis, cedar, black and green peppers and dried Autumn leaves  . In the mouth it begins with dark fruit before teasing with ripe berries and creamy oak on a looong finish.

A good wine at twice the price! This wine is bold and can handle lamb, chili or spicy Mexican food no problem!

2007 Yangarra Shiraz

Man I love Australian wines! I have a hard time remembering the last time I had one I didn’t like. This one’s no exception. It has a real Goth feel to it – dark garnet – the color you wouldn’t want your daughter to wear when she goes out. Smells like you built a bonfire in a meadow – toasted wood and violets tease you into your first sip.

Then you take a taste – POW! It smacks you in the face with its intense, hearty dark fruits. Then as if you said the safe word, it backs off and finishes with a smooth mellow velvety texture.

The girl next to me took my advice and tried some too. She said, “The finish on this wine feels like silk lingerie slipping over my thighs”. You bet I gave her my card. Someone who enjoys wine as much as I do? And owns lingerie? And has thighs?

Get it HERE for $19.99.

2008 Cooralook Pinot Gris – $13

This Pinot Gris is produced by Kirby Family Vineyards from the Victoria region of Australia. This is a food friendly wine, it’s just the thing to take to your favorite Asian BYOB Restaurant. The nose is floral and the taste is light citrus. Very crisp and clean, the acidity is well balanced, just right to refresh the palate.  I like the taste of this wine, not overly fruit forward, but somehow very enticing. At 14% alcohol, it is a little heavier than most white wines (no wonder I like it).  At $12.99, this is a very well priced wine, it packs a lot of punch.

Wine glut in Australia and the USA

The worldwide economic downturn is turning out to be a boon for frugal wine drinkers. There is a surplus of quality wine juice available, since they are bottling less wine due to a softened demand. The last time there was a glut in the wine market, 2 Buck Chuck emerged. Remember when that stuff was actually good? Well a wine surplus was responsible for that.

In the following years the wine market tightened and what went into 2 Buck Chuck was not nearly as good. Well the glut conditions have returned and someone is going to buy all that fruit for an extremely low price. Bargains are coming, but just when and where are yet to be seen. Keep your eyes open and check back with cheapwinefinder, because the 2009 under $20 wines should be very, very good!

2008 Woop Woop Shiraz

One of my favorite entry-level (read: cheap, as in under $10 in some places) red wines that hits you up front with intense dark fruit, mellows mid-sip into a nice black licorice, then finishes with a black peppery and spicy bang. Think Pam Grier in Foxy Brown. And just like Foxy, this wine’s almost too hot to mess with – coming in at 15% alcohol content! Take that beer drinkers who think drinking wine is wimpy.

Woop Woop is Outback slang for “the middle of nowhere”. So next time you’re looking for some bang for your buck out in the middle of BFE, I mean Woop Woop, stick with this and you won’t mind so much.

Get it HERE.