Argentine Beef

You know I forgot all about "Argentine Beef" because of my discovery of RED (see below) . It's a famous Publix find (we could blog just about the randomness of Publix's selection) for about the magic $10 and it's a real hearty super dry blend. I tried to research it before posting about it but there's not a lot of info. Just that A.V. Imports is responsible for this "brand" and despite the dangerously corny name, it's actually pretty darn good. Look for it in Publix in South Florida or let me know the rest of the world can find it somewhere.

Hi, my name is, my name is, my name is... Durif?

This might be more trivia than knowledge but I occasionally like to read Wikipedia articles and try to learn something. As I will often hint at, I have a passion for the Petite Sirah grape (please, please don't confuse that with the Syrah, an ugly relative with really no relation - the bucked tooth cousin or something) and it is helpful to know what that means. "Durif" is it's real name and the extremely short article even mentions the ATF! Unfortunately I haven't had any luck finding anything cheap that is very good in our low ranges - you can trust a $30 Petite Sirah but good luck with anything under $12. Bogle may be a sometimes exception. It's one that I liked the first time and didn't like so much the third time.

Don't worry though, I promise that we'll spend too much time on this grape...

The Search for Pozzi

Besides asking someone from Pennsylvania to mail me a few bottles, I would like to find Pozzi in Florida. Being in orange country has its affect on wine lovers. We can't always get what we want. And being a resourceful computer guy, I depend on the Internet to buy things. I've bought everything from the smallest cable to a car and had it easily shipped to my house. But those crazy Sicilians of the Pozzi family have me kinda stumped. Google searches end pretty shortly going only here and here. With a mention of "It was bitter, very bitter" on Mike's Wine Log back in 2004. (Nice blog, by the way Mike). So if anyone sees anything real or virtual on the Pozzi family, tell them another Sicilian is trying to track them down.

Running out of wine...

I know it happens to everyone, you have a few people over and you didn't plan on using more than one or two bottles and that fat guy keeps pouring himself more but you want to follow up with something that works. Or more truthfully, it's just you, you didn't feel like driving to the store because you had a little more than half a bottle left that you didn't plan on sharing with your wife and now you want something more to drink but making a Martini just sounds like messing your head up too much.

Switching to beer doesn't always have to suck. This will probably cause some arguments then not but some beers can follow good dry reds (and even more so good dry whites, especially if they are Italian and Pinot Grigio) really well. What do I stock for these moments? Peroni, of course. Wine country, beer after wine? There is some blood relation and somehow it works. Peroni, I think, is the Pinot Grigio of beers. Oh and a six pack is normally under $10.

Navarro Correas Cabernet Sauvignon 2004

I don't really know much about wine as, unfortunately, you will quickly discover but I want to try to talk about what I have found out. You'll learn that I am not big on South American wines nor Australian nor South African, so if we talk about them at all, it means something. Of course, there is one exception: Argentina. For me wines and Argentina are like rain and Portland, Oregon: there is a little lying going on to keep the people (maybe in both cases Californians) away from the good stuff. The secret? Malbec is not the good grape. Despite all the marketing and all the attention to Mendoza's trademark grape, it doesn't make the mark. Occasionally I'll refer to pouring out a bottle of wine and I haven't met a Malbec I didn't pour out. But when I was in Argentina someone told me the secret. They send the stuff they don't like to the U.S. and keep the good stuff. That would be the Cabernet Sauvignon. Now I can promise you it is, of course, better and cheaper there, but the one we do have and you can find pretty easily is the Navarro Correas' Cabernet Sauvignon 2004. This, to me, is the epitome of Menoza's finest. Sure they have expensive versions, that, yes, are better but normally you can nail this for about $10 so try it. Before RED, this was my everyday wine.

Hello World

Someone recently said to me that I "only like to do what I like" and not that it caused great retrospection, I realized more than he was right that I should blog about cheap wine. I put enough energy into thinking about it, I pay attention to wine related news and I haven't found much on the Internet that leads me to really good, cheap wines that I can enjoy, so here we are. I want to pay attention to the occasional wine related item, but really focus on what is being found to be good and inexpensive. Someone once told me that you can always buy good wine for under $10 so let's spend some time on that. Also a good, cheap sommelier likes a good, bitter beer, so don't be surprised if we touch on that from time to time. Cheapbooze.com wasn't available...

Uncrate: Wine Opener

Uncrate doesn't update nearly as much as I'd like them to but they nail the occasional wine related item and you'll probably see me repost their stuff from time to time.

This is a wine opener that is cordless and rechargeable from Oster and I guess they found it while shopping on Target's website. You need to shop Target from time to time even if they don't stock good wine in their stores. I would be hard pressed to admit how many things in my house came from there. Oh it does fit into our "cheap" theme at a modest $19.99.

St. Francis' RED is all I'm drinking...

There is a time when you look for the perfect $10-ish bottle of wine. There are times when you find it, you drink until you can't anymore or they don't have it anymore or it goes up in price (Liberty School) or as the year passes it gets, um, not as good (Liberty School).

Today we have RED. Interestingly enough, I went to Napa once and knew from tasting it (but unable to buy it on a regular basis) to go straight to St. Francis' winery. Of course it was amazing but sad too because you just can't have that everyday. So one day recently after seeing these funky bottles and I'm not into funky bottles, I noticed in print I hadn't seen before that this funky RED stuff was not another Bono item (or maybe it is) but actually from this amazing winery. So I bought it. And they delivered. It filled that void of the $10 wine I had been searching for since Pozzi Rossi and Pennsylvania.