Enjoyed a “Calcu Super Chilean” tonight with dinner. Drank it before, seemed even better this time.

Above is a photo taken at dessert at our favorite restaurant. Yes, I made a mess of the tablecloth!

Old Review: http://bit.ly/bXV0ZL

A nice little birthday dinner for the Mrs. Barbarian of the household and once again we visited her favorite haunt. She loves to explore the menu, trying new things. Me? I order the same thing every time: New York Strip, medium-rare. The chef here has that steak down pat, so why tempt fate? I limit my explorations to the wine list. The owner of this little small-town bistro always has great stuff on the list and to be honest, like the chef’s steak the wine list has never let me down. On this trip I noted another wine from that Walla Walla place up in Washington, specifically Basel Cellars. We’d really enjoyed their Claret which was a cheap thrill indeed. This other selection was called “Merriment“. What better choice for a celebration? While it was well over 2X the price of the Claret we’d tried before, it still wasn’t outrageously priced as so many reds can be.

Merriment is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Cabernet Franc. It is also awesome. Mrs. Barbarian loved it. I loved it. Wonderful stuff.

Horrible photograph of a very nice wine.

Sorry for the lack of posts lately… I came down with the flu a while ago and it utterly destroyed my senses of smell and taste for weeks. I’ve been recovering and along the way I’ve enjoyed a few good wines. This is a fine example, Basel Cellars 2006 Claret. Mrs. Barbarian, her sister, and I enjoyed this at our local favorite restaurant last weekend. “Claret” is a British term for “Bordeaux blend” and this indeed is a blend of mostly Bordeaux varietals, Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Cabernet Franc, and the a bit of the Rhone thrown in, in the form of Syrah. Basel Cellars is from that wonderful corner of Washington state that the natives call “Walla Walla”… funny name, great wines.

This bottle retails for right around $20 bucks. You really can’t go wrong at that price. Excellent value, and good enough to be a bit better than an everyday wine.

Mrs. Barbarian & I went out for dinner last night. It was Christmas Eve and we’d done nothing to prepare, so when the better half declared “let’s go out” I was already dialling our favorite small town bistro for a reservation. Our little foothills burg had been blanketed with an unusual snowfall. Not that we don’t get snow, it is just we rarely see more than a dusting. For the past nine days we’ve been getting dumped upon. Our home is buried under over 3 feet, and down in town things are Alaskan in appearance. Our favorite bistro was indeed open on this semi-holiday, and we secured a table for two.

Upon arrival we found a festive atmosphere and a likeness of the owner/chef, Chef Martin in snow out front:

We were seated in a comfy spot at the back, beyond a large party of revelers, but adjacent to the wine racks and small bar. We both ordered one of their “signature martinis”… neither of which are really martinis in the traditional sense. Mrs. Barbarian’s was more like a margarita, with a salted rim, and tequila as the main liquor. Mine was called a “Toasted L’Orange” and is a bourbon-based concoction. Both were awesome. Chef Martin had a special for the occasion, a slab of prime rib that looked too good to pass up, so I ordered that along with an onion soup. Mrs. Barbarian ordered a pair of appetizers as her main course, some potato latkes with smoked salmon, and an amazing glazed prawns thing which she prevented me from tasting in a fit of selfishness. Her soup was a squash/curry contrivance that was spec-effing-tacular. Midway through our soups I ordered some wine. Martin’s business partner Steve always has a great wine list and introduces me to all sorts of good stuff. Last time we visited we enjoyed a wonderful Cabernet Franc (review coming soon) so I was paying close attention to that varietal. I didn’t see anything that caught my eye until I ran down the list of blends and here was something at a reasonable price point that just had a promising ring to it: Fall Line Winery Horse Heaven Hills Red Wine 2005, 39% Merlot, 33% Cabernet Franc, and 28% Cabernet Sauvignon.

It proved a wonderful accompaniment to our meal. Smooth and flavorful. Very drinkable. Very deep and satisfying.

The wine retails for around $30, so it is just a bit outside my usual range but I always throw my cheap side under the bus when I go out to eat. Mind you, it still calls out to me when I order so I never do anything stupid like order anything in triple digits! This wine falls into that grey area between “cheap” and “expensive” so I’ll classify it as both. However, I will be pursuing this one on my own and perhaps more of the output from this small winery in Washington state. From what I read on their website they make very limited quantities, so if you want to get yours before I hoard it all for the apocalypse, get off the couch and buy some!

The hardships I endure for you, dear reader. All so that you can pick your cheap wines with confidence.

As you know, Chilean wines are special to me. Mostly because they are such great values. Chile produces some of the world’s finest red wines and, at least for now, they are amazingly inexpensive. Sure, you can find a bottle from Chile for big bucks, but it will be the exception rather than the rule. Most of the wine Chile sends to us Yanquis is right in my spending sweet spot: $5-$25 a bottle. So, I buy a lot of Chilean wines. Just about the only thing with the gravitational mass to pull me from the “South America” part of any wine store or section is a bottle of Petite Sirah, no matter where it is made. So beyond my PSychopathic desire to taste every Petite Sirah ever made, my habits are largely Chileno. So it was with great pleasure that I noted that “Wine Blogging Wednesday” has chosen “Value Reds from Chile as their theme in December.

The point seems to be picking a Chilean Red and writing about it on one particular Wednesday.

The only point a Barbarian recognizes is the one at the end of his sword (or corkscrew as the case may be.) The only rules a Barbarian follows are those he makes for himself! What is good? To crush your grapes, see them driven before you into wine, and to hear the lamentation of the hangover! So I refuse to limit my writing to a single Wednesday! I plan to blog about Value Reds from Chile from now until the appointed day. My cellar is stocked and my laptop is honed and stropped to a fine razor’s edge. Let the blogging begin!

First up is this fine red blend from Chile’s Valle Central by way of Cameron Hughes Wines, and called “Lot 95″.  I chose this one first as the description on the CHwine website uses the word “raid” to describe the creation of this product. Suitable, no? What could possibly be more barbaric than raiding your way across continents and bringing back booty in the form of wine?

I received it as part of a sampler, and CH haven’t even posted the price yet, so think of this as a preview.

This wine is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon (50%), Merlot (35%), and that most Chilean of varietals, Carmenère (15%). Mrs. Barbarian is out of town so I drank this one alone. Last night I cooked up some bratwurst, sauteed broccoli (one of my specialties), and a few lightly fried corn tortillas (sounds weird, but trust me, it was awesome) and opened Lot 95 to accompany it. The Brats and Broccoli are a pretty strong flavor combo so this wine will need a backbone of steel to stand up to them. It did not disappoint! Big and bold at the start, yet smooth and strong on the finish. I managed to polish off half the bottle on my own before I sat down to finish my last review with a glass of Lot 95 to keep me company.

This morning I awoke early and the glass and bottle remained at my work desk. Fearlessly I threw caution to the wind and resumed tasting. Sure, it might be seven in the morning but what the hell, I’m a Barbarian! It had gotten a bit earthier overnight, losing some of its alcohol edge. Still uniquely Chilean in that odd mixture of New World flavor and Old World feel. Great stuff!

The hardships I endure for you, dear reader. All so that you can pick your cheap wines with confidence.

Time to try something different here at The Wine Barbarian: Mortal Combat!

I ventured into The Cellar today to pick a wine for dinner. While that sounds pretentious let me dash your illusions as my “cellar” is just an unfinished room in the Barbarian basement where our house’s main electric panel and well equipment resides. It is also underground and at the north side of the house, so it maintains cellar temperature quite well. The workshop fluorescent lights and Costco baker’s racks don’t quite live up to the terminology though.

I’ve got a hankerin’ for something cheap & red, so I perused my selection of Chilean reds, and could not decide between these two, so I did what any good Barbarian would do, I grabbed them both! I plan on opening them shortly for an initial taste, the serving them with dinner. Afterwards, I’ll summarize my thoughts while still in a mildly inebriated state. Before that happens, here are the vital stats on the wines in question:

On the left, coming to the fight with Family history and Provenance in conflict with its low price is Los Vascos Cabernet Sauvignon. Originating in the Colchagua Valley of Chile, it bears the lofty title of Domaines Barons De Rothchild (Lafite), Mis en Bouteille au Domaine. As I picked up a smattering of French during an earlier phase of rapine & pillaging behaviors, I think that means This property is owned by the Rothchild (Lafite) family and this wine is produced and bottled on that estate. The vintage is 2006 and weighs in with a price tag of a mere $9.99.

On the right is the plucky challenger Sideral. It too boasts a French Connection, with some oversight by Château Dassault, Grand Cru Classé of St. Emilion together with Viña San Pedro of Chile. It is a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon (84%), Merlot (10%), and Syrah (6%) from the Rapel Valley. With a vintage of 2003 and a price tag of $23.99 it very well could pummel the opposition! The Vinagoth is always pulling for the underdog, but in this case both dogs seem to be purebred and poodley. Who knows which way it will go!

2:15 PM: Cut the foil and open both. The Los Vascos has an artificial cork, which removes with ease and a satisfying “pop!” The kitchen immediately is filled with an earthy wine aroma. A good start! The Sideral has a natural cork, which initially breaks along the top surface when pierced by the corkscrew. It gives up after a short struggle. Pour both into a glass. The Sideral is deeper in color and tone and is more pleasant on the nose than the Los Vascos, which seems to have weakened a bit in the glass.

2:30 PM: Upon initial tasting these are two very different Cabs. The Sideral is big and bold. The Los Vascos more subtle and smooth. The bottles go into hiding now to prevent Mrs. Barbarian from plundering her way through them before dinner. They need peace while they breathe.

3:30 PM Mrs. Barbarian discovers the half-drunk glasses in the kitchen. My lack of attention to detail is once again my undoing. I tell her to try both. She says “the one on the left is a bit flat, but otherwise they taste the same.”

4:30 PM, I’m about to start cooking dinner. Mrs. Barbarian has staretd rooting around the house trying to find open bottles of wine. Finally discovers my hidden cache. Steals some of the Sideral.

5:30 PM Dinner is served. It is a fine meal of chicken breasts, wrapped in a wonderful garlic/egg/herb/flour concoction and baked in a very hot oven. The sides are french fried sweet potatoes and corn on the cob.

Both wines have opened up as far as they’ll go. Both have mellowed and the Los Vascos has lost its weakness and is standing up as a moderately good Cabernet should, but the Cab/Merlot/Syrah blend from Sideral is pummeling it senseless. Much stronger nose and wonderful palate feel has the pricier wine winning the shootout in the end.

The Los Vascos is a fantastic buy at under $10 (by a penny) but the more sophisticated blend won out by a small margin. If paying less and getting more is your goal, you cannot go wrong with the Los Vascos. At$9.99, 40% the cost of the Sideral it almost stood up to the $23.99 wine. Some time spent breathing prior to serving really helped it as well.

Trying things head-to-head is often an enjoyable way to try wines. What made things interesting here was the price disparity between the contenders and how it played out in the end. What do you see as most important: Price or value? In this case the difference between the two was not indicated by the price.

This weekend I had a manly household task to attend to, and declare to Mrs. Barbarian that I have to go to the hardware store to acquire some manly hardware-like items to accomplish my manly task. She, being the most frugal woman on planet Earth, reply that we’ll go in together to save gas, as she has to run to the grocery store for a few things. The two stores are about 6 blocks apart, so she drops me off and I tell her I will walk to the grocery store and meet her when I am done. Being manly, my foray into the hardware store is brief: Walk in, grab what I need, pay, leave. So simple. I amble down to the other end of town to the grocer and note her car still in the lot, so I walk inside. My path to find her has me going past an aisle-end sale rack with a bottle of Merlot there tagged at $3.50. My head snaps. THREE DOLLARS AND FIFTY CENTS? OK, I HAVE to try this. I grab it in my hand just as Mrs. Barbarian rounds the corner pushing a shopping cart. She rolls her eyes as she sees me, bottle in hand. “I thought you were shopping for hardware?” “Already done. Look here a Merlot for $3.50!” I replies. “I bet it’s awful.” She says. “Yeah, but it is ONLY THREE FIFTY!’ I exclaim.

Fearlessly I place the bottle in the cart. She just rolls her eyes some more and continues shopping.

As dinner is being prepared I open the el cheapo Merlot, pour a small taste, and sniff-n-sip…

Not bad.

Mind you, not great. But certainly a great buy at under four bucks! I offer the glass to Mrs. Barbarian to try it. Her face has that look of someone about to be knowingly smacked in the head as she raises the glass. Instead of the 2×4 she was braced for, the flavor hits her like a soft breeze. “This is okay.” she says.

If this is called Merlot I imagine that it has the minimal amount of Merlot grapes allowed. The bottle declares no vintage, and no appellation other than ‘California.’ My guess is this really should have been called a “red wine” … but I’m no expert here. Very light, but nice fruity flavor. While it isn’t amazing (other than amazingly cheap) it is quite drinkable. I’m certain that this is the least expensive wine I have reviewed to date, and unlike a few others costing much more, we actually drank it all.

Not bad.

Doing a bit of business travel recently and the Vinagoth swilled down this bottle with a companion at a hotel restaurant. Originally a Cab was ordered, but they were out, so this one came in second. Apologies for the flash-washed image.

It is a Sterling Vintner’s Collection 2004 Central Coast Merlot. It was “OK”… not awesome. Not bad. Just sort of … there. Meh. Better than drinking Bud Light, but nothing compared to say Neuevomundo for example.

Expect to pay about $14.