2002 Domaine Huet Vouvray Petillant, Brut Reserve

I love the chenin blancs that are produced by this Loire Valley chateau. Most of the Huet wines that garner the highest accolades are their still chenins which range from bone dry to very sweet. But Domaine Huet's sparkling vouvrays are jewels in their own right. This one is their top-of-the-line sparkler from a great vintage (and alas the year the great Gaston Huet passed away). This wine would give many French Champagnes, costing twice as much, some strong competition. You will not regret tucking some of this wine into your cellar. I purchased this wine directly from Sonoma Rare Wine Company in Somoma, CA. They have a web site or they can be reached directly at (707) 996-4484. The cost per bottle was $40, a very reasonable price for wine of this quality.

2008 Breggo Cellars Pinot Noir, Savoy Vineyard, Anderson Valley

Breggo Cellars is a top notch producer of pinots and chardonnays. This relatively young winery is located in a remote valley north of Sonoma County. Like the Russian River Valley AVA, Anderson Valley receives a heavy morning dose of fog off the ocean during the summer, giving pinot noirs and chardonnays an ideal climate to produce excellent quality fruit.
This wine has beautiful aromatics with notes of black cherry and damp earth. Excellent overall balance makes for a wine that is delicious to drink now but should benefit from a couple of years in your cellar. I purchased this wine from a Costco store in Tucson - I was surprised to find it there since this is a relatively low-production wine. Breggo has a user-friendly web site (breggo.com) where you can purchase most of their wines. The Costco store price was $22, which made it a fine bargain.

2007 Henry's Drive Vignerons "Pillar Box Red" Padthaway, Australia

There are a lot of very inexpensive Aussie reds on the market, but I think this one is near the top of the heap. This shiraz (65%), cabernet sauvignon and merlot blend is an easy-drinking red. Medium-full in body with ripe flavors and soft tannins, this wine matches well with BBQ, stews and hamburgers. The price should be around $10 at your favorite store and the wine enjoys very wide distribution. By the way, according to the back label, a "pillar box" is an Australian mail posting box. Red became tne standard color in 1874.

2009 Yalumba viognier, South Australia

Although you may be up to your knees in snow right now, spring and summer surely will arrive someday, and this is the perfect pool-side sipper. Yalumba makes wines to meet all price points and the lowest priced ones (like this one) do not disappoint. Clean, fragrant, flowery aromas are followed by crisp flavors. Balanced acidity is something that is lacking in many inexpensive viogniers, but no problem here. The price ($9) makes this an easy case-purchase wine. This wine has wide distribution so you should be able to find it at any well-stocked store.

2008 Orin Swift Zinfandel, "Saldo"

Orin Swift is more well-known for his "The Prisoner" zinfandel, but this wine managed to rate #69 (scored 91) in the Wine Spectator "Top 100 wines of 2010." This wine is 88% zinfandel, with syrah and petite sirah in supporting roles. The grapes are reported to be sourced from Sonoma, Napa, Amador, Mendocino and Contra Costa counties.

This is a muscular and intriguing wine but to me it is most interesting as a complex, peppery "mystery" wine rather than a zinfandel. The wine's personality changed enormously as it warmed and aired in the glass. This is an engaging wine but don't buy it if you are expecting classic zin aromas and flavors. I bought this wine at the Total Wine store in Tucson for $25.

2007 Domaine Puig-Parahy, Cotes du Roussillon, "Georges"

OK, the devil made me do it. I just had do do one more review on an amazing wine from the 2007 vintage. This once-neglected part of southern France is now alive with dedicated vintners who are determined to get the most from vineyards containing a lot of old-vine grenache, syrah and mourvedre. And the prices for the best bottles have not gone through the roof, partly because of the global economic meltdown and partly because this area of France was once the plonk capital of Europe. It takes time to overcome a reputation like that.

This deep crimson/purple wine is all about complex fruit aromas and flavors with a touch of the underbrush that you find in wines from this region. The tannins are there but they are ripe and make only a background statement. A long finish completes the very satisfying picture. And the price blows me away - $10 at the Costco store in northern Tucson. Parker gave this wine a low-90 score. $10...amazing.

2007 Mayo Family Winery Viognier

This wine is the most expressive and flavorful dry white wine I have tasted in a very long time. The back label says the wine is "explosive and exotic" and that claim is not an exaggeration. The flavors are absolutely mouth-filling and the finish goes on and on. If the wine saw any oak it certainly is not detectable. Altogether this wine is a testimonial to what viognier can be if it is grown correctly in the right terroir and handled sensitively by the winemaker.

The grapes were sourced from Saralee's Vineyard located in the Russian River Valley AVA. Mayo wines are not distributed outside of California and most of them are sold directly from the winery. The retail cost of this wine is $35 but, if you are a member of the Mayo Cellar Club, the price drops 20% to $28. This is a lot of wine for that price. Their phone number is (707)938-9401.

2006 Irony Napa Valley Zinfandel

The label on this wine claims the grapes are sourced from a family vineyard planted by the owner's grandparents in 1924. The price for this wine was so modest I did not expect it to show much in the way of varietal precision. I was way off base on that expectation; this wine was nicely focused and extracted. Its 15% alcohol was completely hidden by the fruit and structure. Lovely aromatics and a long finish complete the picture. The cost? An amazing $10 at the BevMo store in Tucson. It has been a long time since I have stumbled on a wine of this price/quality ratio. I doubt that this wine has a wide distribution,but the winery does have a website (ironywine.com)that provides distribution information.

2008 d'Arenberg "The Hermit Crab"

This white wine from McLaren Vale and Adelaide Hills in Australia is a blend of 72% viognier and 28% marsanne. The intensity of the flavors and the length of the finish are what impressed me the most about this wine. I would not be surprised if it had a touch of residual sugar, but that works with this wine. It has a lush, smooth texture and it seems the perfect match with rich seafood and shellfish dishes.

I bought this wine at the Kansas City Lukas store (150 Highway and State Line Road) for $15 and I can't complain about that price. This wine should have wide distribution in this country. Parker gives it an 88.

2006 Domaine la Roquete, Chateauneuf du Pape

$20 for a Chateauneuf du Pape? When I saw this wine in the Kansas City World Market store (150 Highway and State Line Road), I bought a bottle to try with dinner, not expecting a lot in the way of quality for this price. Wrong! I went back the next day for several more bottles. The back label claims the vines are 45 years old. The wine itself is 70% grenache, 20% syrah and 10% mourvedre.

The wine is not a blockbuster CDP but neither is it lean or hollow. Soft, ripe tannins support the solid fruit which is already showing complexity. Lively and focused, it drinks very well now but could handle five or more years in your cellar. This wine appears to be another example of the world's tanked economies causing a huge wine "lake" that can only be drained by drastic reduction in prices.

2007 Martinelli Pinot Noir, Zio Tony

If I weren't careful, I would end up filling New Tastes with reviews of Martinelli's luscious pinot noirs. They are all estate bottled wines from their vineyards in Sonoma's Russian River Valley and the "true" Sonoma Coast.
This pinot says Russian River from start to finish. Seamless and precise, it is loaded with sweet, ripe cherry aromas and flavors, with touches of wet earth and soy. If higher alcohol and ripe fruit offend you, look elsewhere. This is a hedonistic wine that makes no excuses for what it is - delicious.
This is an allocated wine but it should not take you too long to get on their list. They might have some of this wine for sale at the winery (800-346-1627). The cost is $60. There are not many wines for which I will pay $60, but I have no problem doing so with Martinelli's pinots.

2007 Domaine Gauby, Cotes du Roussillon, Vieilles Vignes

OK, I promise this is my last posting on the Languedoc/Rhone Valley wines from the 2007 vintage, but this is such a superior vintage and the tanked economy makes these wines even better values.

This wine is a blend of syrah, grenache and carignan, with a bit of mourvedre thrown in. The intense fruit and spice aromas that leap from the glass tells you this is something special. Full-bodied with high extract, ripe tannins, mouth-filling flavors and a long finish, there is a lot going on here. You could drink this wine now with roasted T-Rex, but this one will definitely improve in the bottle for another five to ten years, maybe more.

I bought several bottles of this wine from the Wine Exchange in Orange, CA (1-800-76-WINEX). The price tag of $40 each may seem steep for a wine from the Roussillon appellation, but it really is a treat. Parker gave it 93-94 and I think it easily merits that.

If they are out of stock, see if they have any of the following exemplary 2007 Languedocs:
Leon Barral Faugeres; Chateau de la Negly (La Falaise) Coteaux du Languedoc; and Domaine de Fondreche (Persia) Cotes du Ventoux. They are not as knock-your-hat-in-the-creek as the Domaine Gauby, but they are about half the price.