It is one thing to have a thirst for fine wine, quite another to support the habit.
If money were no object, a top-notch Barolo, or perhaps a grand cru Burgundy, would do nicely as my house wine. That’s not very realistic, however, because I, like most everyone else, have a limited budget for wine. Thus my never-ending search for value wines that deliver outstanding quality at a modest price.
Value is relative, of course. I was recently impressed with the 2010 Chateau St. Jean Sonoma County Cabernet Sauvignon, which took a platinum award at the 2014 Winemaker Challenge International Wine Competition. At $27 retail, it compares favorably with Cabs that cost twice as much. That’s value in one sense, but even at a modest $27 it would be difficult to open a bottle every night.
For most of us, a great everyday wine shouldn’t cost more than $15 a bottle. With that in mind, I was pleasantly surprised at a recent tasting of Souverain, which you may remember as Chateau Souverain.
“Chateau” was dropped from the name after the parent company sold the winery’s beautiful digs in the Alexander Valley to Francis Ford Coppola. The wines are now produced at a production facility in Asti, not too far from the old chateau.
Souverain has been off the radar for several years, but is once again asserting itself with a new label and an effort to regain some of the visibility that was lost with the sale of the chateau and its attractive tasting room.
The old Chateau Souverain was renowned for value. The new Souverain is maintaining that legacy, largely due to the skill and dedication of winemaker Ed Killian, whose career spans both iterations of the winery.
I tasted six wines with Killian, four of them priced at $15 retail or less.
The Winemaker’s Reserve Chardonnay ($35) and Cabernet Sauvignon ($45) are superior Alexander Valley and Russian River Valley appellation wines that are competitive in their price range, but the four that carried the “North Coast” appellation – Merlot, Cabernet Sauvignon, Chardonnay and Sauvignon Blanc – were very solid wines that displayed exceptional quality for the price points.
Given that the suggested retail prices – $15 for the reds and $13 for the whites – are just that, suggestions, it stands to reason that clever wine consumers will find all four wines for even less if they shop around.
And remember this: The more you save, the more you will have left over in the budget to spring for that occasional Barolo or Burgundy.
Other Robert Whitley columns at Creators.com.
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