May

13

These days, cheap Pinot Noir tends to be an anomaly, so anything that’s actually decent is truly a treat.  The La Forge Estate Pinot Noir Reserve 2006 is far better than just decent, and with a price tag of only $11, we felt more than justified in selecting it as this week’s Weekday Wine.

We found the style of the La Forge to be more typically European than, say, a big extracted Californian version – at 13% alcohol, the La Forge was, in our view, perfect in body size.  On first sniff, we encountered a nose full of raspberry that, alone, would have been a little much for us.  Fortunately, a sniff or two later we detected a certain woodsy quality that we felt tempered the initially bold fruitiness and, also, gave the wine unique character all the way through to sip and swallow.  Excellent balance and good structure sealed the deal in our minds.

If you like Pinot Noir, you could conceivably enjoy La Forge’s version every day of the week, and twice on Tuesday, and still not feel a pinch.  Now that’s bang for the buck!  

Where to get it: We bought our bottle at Plumpjack Wines in Noe Valley.  They ship.  You can also find it using the Snooth search function under “Wine Locator” in the right hand column of this page, or by visiting wine-searcher.com or winezap.com.

Mar

25

This is not the thick, syrupy Syrah that many wine drinkers out there may be accustomed to.   Nope, we’re talking about the more elegant French version, which usually — but not this time – costs a lot more.   

domainelabastide.jpg The Domaine la Bastide Syrah 2005 has a beautifully attractive ruby color, and flavors and aromas of plum, earth, licorice, smoke, and black pepper.  The body is in the medium range — almost reminiscent of the last couple of Bordeauxs we reviewed – and there’s plenty of acidity to make it food friendly. 

As Weekday Wines go, this one ranks up there.  Here are two strong reasons:

  1. It’s $9.  That makes it almost competitive with a six-pack of Heineken. 
  2. It’s of a high quality in terms of both balance and taste, relative to its cost.  To illustrate, let us refer you back, once more, to the wine tasting that we administered two Sundays ago and wrote about last week.  We weren’t keeping score, but it was pretty clear that this Syrah was a favorite of all wines tasted, judging by peoples’ positive reactions and by the fact that it was the first bottle to go empty.  There was certainly no bias for Syrah in this crowd, either: the Shiraz (a.k.a., Australian Syrah) against which we tasted the Domaine la Bastide, lasted the longest of any wine included in the tasting, and we eventually ended up dumping it due to lack of interest.

The Domaine la Bastide is yet another unusually excellent value in wine — a true jewel in the rough.

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