A couple of weeks ago Cresta shared with us that Aldi Grocery stores sell wines. I thought I would check it out, and what I found was a pretty great deal. I purchased 4 different bottles of wines from Aldi all priced under $7; none of the other wines were over $9. Here’s my reviews of the 4 wines I purchased.

• Landshut Riesling $5.99 – Had a wonderful floral bouquet with tastes of honey and sweet melon. I would have to agree with Cresta that this is a very sweet Riesling but this would be perfect if your having asian spicy foods. This wine would pair with spicy Thai foods, hearty seafood stew, or served as a great desert wine.
• Villa Malizia Pinot Grigio $5.99 – A very light and crisp Pinot Grigio that had tastes of citrus and pear. It actually tasted better after it warmed up a little. (I decided stop chilling and drink it at room temperature.) This is a great summer wine that you can pair with salads, fish dishes, and light pasta dishes. I really enjoyed this Pinot Grigio.
• Gonfalone Chianti $6.79 – This is not your typical Chianti, it was very light but with some tannins and had tastes of smoke and leather. It was light like a Pinot Noir but had some characteristics of a Syrah. I personally didn’t enjoy it BUT if you are into a light Pinot Noir then this is your bottle to buy.
• Toca Diamonte Malbec $5.99 – This by far was my favorite one. The bouquet was black cherry and a hint of floral and tastes of clove, oak, berry, and black cherry. I really enjoyed this wine, I wanted to grill a steak after having a few sips of the wine. This would definitely compliment a great steak, hearty pasta dishes, or just drank alone with friends. If you’re into big hearty wines this is a great one for the price.

I can’t wait to go back and try other wines that Aldi has to offer. If you have an Aldi Grocery store in your neighborhood just remember you can pick up some wine for dinner while you’re grocery shopping.

Beni di Batasiolo 2006 Barbera d'Alba


We started out with a Barbera, a very common grape in Piedmont. The Beni di Batasiolo is a 100% Barbera wine from the Alba area in Piedmont. I think I paid $8.99 (on sale from $9.99) for this bottle at Liqour Direct. For an $8.99 bottle, it's our Recession Wine of the week.

The color is a nice dark ruby. On the nose, we got a lot of blackberry. Kevin also got cedar, and I agree. I also got some cinnamon on there. These scents carried through on the tongue too. There was a lot of wood – but not really oak: more cedar and hickory. Those woody flavors were intermingled with dark berries, including a bit of sour blackberry on the finish. (That tastes better than it sounds.) I also found a lot of fun spices, first some cinnamon, but then a bit of oriental-style spices as well. Finally, there were nice, gentle tannins and as the wine opened up a bit, I even got a bit of chocolate in there.

For less than $10, this is a nice full red – I'd call it a steal.

Our rating:

Thanks to McDuff's Food & Wine Trail for hosting this edition of Wine Blogging Wednesday!

Part 2: Once Upon a Time (Principessa Gavia Gavi)

I love a great rosé. I love one more when it's just an everyday, affordable table wine. La Vieille Ferme (translates to "the old farm") 2007 Rosé is just that. I paid $7.59 at Liqour Direct for this one. I always call it the "chicken wine" because of the chicken and rooster on the label. This isn't the first time I've tried this rosé, and liked it, but it is the first time for this vintage. 

This rosé is has a nice color that reminds me of a watermelon. It's a combination of 40% grenache, 10% syrah, and 50% cinsault. Cinsault? It's a hardy, and popular red grape in France. It's often used in blends, as it is here. This particular wine is from the Côtes du Ventoux region of the Rhône Valley.

The nose is full of fun berries and flowers. In particular, I smelled roses. I hate when I smell roses in rosé, as it seems like a cliche. But they're in there, I swear.

I really liked this wine. It's well balanced and well structured. It actually takes up space in your mouth and announces it's arrival with an explosion of berries. Which ones? Well, it's like someone took a bunch of fun red berries – strawberries, definitely cranberries, cherries, and maybe a few raspberries – and then blended them all together in a food processor. But there's also a nice tartness and good acidity to cut through all that berry goodness. In fact, it's a rather crisp wine. I even got a bit of spice on the midpalate – I think it might have been black licorice. Finally, this wine has a nice, relaxing finish of melon.

If you're tentative about rosé, or you're convinced it's all sickeningly sweet or, heaven forbid, white zinfandel, then try this one. You'll be out less than $10 and you might just enjoy it. It's dry without the tannins and fruity without the sugar. You might be surprised that you, too, can think pink.

At less than $8, this is our recession wine of the week.

Rating:

–

Think Pink Rosé Series

• 2007 Wölffer Estate
• 2005 Chateau Bonnet Bordeaux
• 2006 Tin Roof Cellars
• 2007 La Vieille Ferme
• 2007 Montes Cherub

So far, we’ve got heavy
hitters from Jorge Ordonez, Torbreck, Orin Swift and Hendry.  The staff’s
limitations are the best wine they can find under $50, already in our store,
and in good supply.  We invite everyone to come check these out – after all,
it’s free.

Staff Favorite tastings are always a great way to try some higher-end wines that you might not always get to taste. Hey!  That makes these tastings Recession Tips! Go try expensive wines for free! 

]]> http://www.wine-girl.net/2009/01/recession-tip-staff-favorites-tasting-liquor-direct.html/feed 0 http://www.wine-girl.net/2009/01/2006-petite-petit-lodi.html http://www.wine-girl.net/2009/01/2006-petite-petit-lodi.html#comments Wed, 28 Jan 2009 14:49:00 +0000 Michelle http://michellelentz.net/wine/2009/01/recession-wine-2006-michael-david-petite-petit-lodi.html We picked this up on sale at Liquor Direct right before Christmas on a recommendation from Ass't Wine Buyer Shannon. She was right!

Image courtesy Michael-David Winery

2006 Michael-David Petite Petit, Lodi, $11.99

Petit Petite, from Michael-David out of Lodi, is a blend of 15% Petit Verdot and 85% Petite Sirah. The label shows us two friendly but gigantic circus elephants – a perfect illustration of the wine.

It's a dark wine, both in color and in flavor. I was a little worried,
for once, as I sat on my white couch with this glass. I recently heard
that Petite Sirah is as dark as it gets, although I'd say Norton is
darker and inkier. But this is certainly in the running.

This wine is, as Kevin would say, a berry explosion in the mouth. Jammy jammy jammy. It's full of blackberries, blueberries, raspberries – all those dark berries are just everywhere. But there's more complexity than just berries. On the finish, I get a little bit of coffee (but not too much) or maybe mocha is more accurate. It coats your whole mouth, and makes it feel like your teeth are turning red. They're not, but the wine is that full and structured.

Last week I learned that 100% Petit Sirah is too heavy and big for me, but the small added amount of Petit Verdot seems to make all the difference. This is a bit too high in alcohol for me, at 14.5%, but I've grown accustomed to what seems to be the new norm.

I've seen this wine online for as much as $23, although $15-$19 seems to be the norm. Liquor Direct still has this wine on sale for $11.99, making this another recession wine.

Our review:

Usually when we host a party, we shell out at least $500 in food and alcohol. Then we kill ourselves trying to make everything from appetizers through to dessert. Kevin often spends about half of the party in the kitchen and sometimes the food goes awry. This time we tossed that entire model out the window.

I did two things differently. First, I asked everyone to bring an appetizer or a bottle of Spanish wine. This worked beautifully, as we ended up with a gorgeous cheese plate and several dips. Kevin also prepared some mini quiches, baked cheese sticks, and mini herbed goat cheese balls. Good Spanish wine can be found for under $15 – in many cases under $10 – so we weren't asking our guests for too great of an expense.

Everyone brought a bottle or two of wine, which was fantastic. In fact, we emptied 10 bottles plus a magnum. I kept the wine out on our bar and just let everyone serve themselves.

Wine and appetizers. So far, an easy party with very little expense to us. But what about dinner? Well, for dinner we brought in Hector Esteve of Paella at Your Place. Hector arrives with his burner, a giant paella pan, all the ingredients and a great personality, and then he whips up some paella. I was worried about the small size of our kitchen, but Hector requires only a stovetop and a small countertop. Alternatively he can use a garage, or in the warmer months, your deck or patio.

We had a sausage and chicken paella, but he made a portion of it meat
free for our two vegetarian diners. He offers other paella combinations
of various meats and seafoods as well. Hector also arrives with a great salad and bread that starts off your meal. Once the paella is ready, he brings it to the table and sprinkles it with sherry. Alcohol makes everything better, yes?  Then he serves the paella to your guests.

Hector left our kitchen even cleaner than it was when we arrived. Outside of the appetizers, Kevin and I had no need to even be in the kitchen. It was the easiest party I've ever put together and because of that, one of the most fun. I could actually enjoy my guests instead of worrying about feeding them. In fact, we wouldn't have been in the kitchen at all except that everyone was fascinated with the paella process. Hector will tell you about it, step by step, if you wish, with all the patience in the world.

Hector requires a minimum of 10 people (those pans are big you see) and starts at $10 per person. We fed 15 people, although he can feed a party of up to 150. At those prices, feeding 15 people paella is a cheaper option for us than what we would normally shell out to host a dinner party. Kevin just mentioned that by using Hector, we saved about $200 in party
hosting and more than that in time and stress, therefore this is a
Recession Tip! Host a party with your own chef and save money – who
knew?

I know I'll be bringing Hector back for future parties at this house and once we move in about a year. I recommend Hector and his paella (and apparently his tailgating options as well). In fact, I'm trying to figure out how to get him to the pre-Jimmy Buffett parties out at Riverbend. How perfect would that be?

Not sure how you feel about paella? That's okay. Hector will be dishing up his excellent paella at several local stores in the next few months. You can find him at The Party Source on Jan 31 and March 26. I think, although I'm not positive on this one, that he'll also be grilling up some paella at each Liquor Direct for a Jorge Ordonez tasting on February 27 and 28.

I'm embedding a slideshow or you can view our photos on Flickr.

Contact Hector at PaellaAtYourPlace.com or via email (hfesteve [at] fuse [dot] net) or phone: 513.528.5241.

Barefoot Bubbly Brut Cuvée Chardonnay Champagne, NV, $6.99:
This is the perfect sparkling wine for a lot of things. In the past,
I've purchased this wine in bulk for wedding showers. At $7/bottle,
well, you can't beat it. And as far as cheap sparklers, it has a lot
more flavor than your average cheapie. It's not the best, mind you. And
on its own, it satisfies that sparkler craving, but it's missing those
wonderful pear aromas and that bread-y taste I like so much in the real
stuff. But, it's not too sweet and not bone-dry either. It's actually
well-balanced.

What does this wine excel at? Mimosas. If I'm making a bourbon and
coke, I might use Old Crow or Dowling as my bourbon, because they're
decent but cheap. I won't be pouring Four Roses into my Coke. What a
waste!  The same theory applies to a Mimosa. I'm not going to pour more
expensive Champagne into my orange juice. I'll lose all the flavor!
But I do want a decent sparkler. My rule of thumb with mixers: I need to be able to drink the mixer on its own, without the urge to dump it immediately. 

Image credit

Barefoot is the perfect, absolutely perfect, Mimosa sparkler. On holidays,
Kevin & I like to have Mimosa Days. All Mimosas, all day. That
takes at least 3 bottles of sparkling wine and 2 cartons of orange
juice. We found a deal on Barefoot last week at Party Town (Turfway).
As we were wandering through the sparkling aisle, we spied a coupon
hanging over the Barefoot section. The coupon gave us $18 off of 6
bottles – making each bottle around $4. I couldn't have been happier.
We plowed through 3 bottles on New Year's Day, mixed with some nice
pulp-free, low-fat Tropicana.

Alone:

Mimosa:

Sofia Minis, "California Carbonated White Wine" , 4-187ml cans, $12.99 – $15.99 for four:

Sofia is canned sparkling wine. The target market? Me (not my Mom). It's a hot pink can
with a pretty floral design and a pink bendy straw. In fact, Sofia was
one of my earliest blog posts, back in June 2004. Here's the thing about Sofia-in-a-can: Sometimes a girl just wants to kick back with some bubbly.
I
know I don't need to open an entire bottle, but the can is the
perfect serving on those nights when I want to relax with a sparkler.
No, it's not the best sparkling wine in the world, and the bottled
version does taste a bit better, but this isn't bad either. There's a
bit of green apple, with some pear finish. I prefer to pour it in a
glass, as I can taste (or imagine I taste) the tinniness from the can. I won't drink beer from a can either (I'm such a snob). It
gets a pretty decent rating from me, more for convenience than taste.
Oh, and for the bendy straw.

My rating:

Fear not, Wine-Girl is coming to the rescue. While I'll do my best not to intrude on Tim's CheapWineRatings.com territory, I'm going to dip my toe into the pool about once a week. At the beginning of 2009, we'll be launching a new series called Recession Wines.

Each week or so, we'll review a low-cost wine – preferably under $10, but definitely under $15. Remember my $10 and Under post from October? You had some great suggestions for us in those comments. I would love it if you'd add even more to this post. (Or email me. I know, you all are tentative about comments but you love the email.)

In the meantime, I want to offer out two different tips for drinking wine when the money is tight:

• Enjoy those wine tastings. As I often say, wine tastings in Kentucky are free. In Ohio, they are generally less than $5, usually around $1. Heck, Bigg's Skytop offers a gourmet meal of samples as well as full pours of 5-6 wines each week for only $10. And you can split a tasting with someone else. Tastings are a great way to get to know what wines you like. In many cases, they will be low-cost wines anyway. In other cases, you'll be getting to try wines you might never afford in other circumstances. So go out there and enjoy the tastings!  Don't forget to take notes so that you can buy those wines later, when a paycheck is just burning a hole in your purse.
• Closeouts. Oh, what a spectacular deal are closeouts! At Liquor Direct, they have an entire wall of closeouts – 2 for $10, 3 for $20. At Party Source, just ask someone. They will show you excitedly what is on closeout. You see, closeouts aren't necessarily bad wine or old wine. In many cases, closeouts are when a winery is redesigning a label or when a distributor is dropping a wine. Jump on these. Don't be afraid to ask at your local wine shop. In my experience, the retailers are just as excited about the closeouts as you are, and eager to share.