Gluttony Boys (beta)

Out there, somewhere is a bottle of wine that will complete a great meal. To eat, perchance to drink, ay there’s the rub; the gluttonous means are constrained to “around” $15 a bottle or less in my household.

Consequently the premise is now questionable. Can a great meal be attained at this price point for wine? I would wager a “yes”, considering that the word “great” is somewhat subjective.

I begin my quest armed with information obtained from various sources like articles from acclaimed publications, such as Wine Spectator or the Wine Advocate. Results from wine competitions held annually in San Francisco or the California State Fair have been noted. The expertise of renowned wine critics such as Robert Parker and the ubiquitous ratings in the upper 80s to low 90s guide my selections.

However, reality is more like information gleaned from ad flyers for Total Wine, Bevmo, World Market and Safeway. Signs that hangs over a pallet of wine at Costco can display claims of a 90-point Wine Advocate rating and a price of $7.97 per bottle. I am drawn to these wines like a moth to a porch light. Such bottles are placed tenderly in the shopping basket with a smile. Fairs that have been attended in the past, like the Southern New Mexico Harvest Wine Festival and Taco fiesta, tend to recall memories of a reddish wine-like drink and booths of food-on-a-stick (something yet to be achieved when it comes to tacos, I might add).

The weekend has arrived. Kabobs are sizzling on the grill. A rice or pasta dish, salad and some good bread complete the dinner. I reach for the handle on the wine fridge and grab that bottle. The wine I selected that will turn this good meal into a great one. I extract the cork with a pop and pour it into a decanter to let it “breathe” for 40 minutes or so.

With the meal served and glasses poured, we dig in and taste the wine. My wife is usually the first to ask me where this bottle of vinegar comes from and how much did I pay for it? “But what do you mean? It’s an 88 point Cab from an appellation in Chile, and only $6.59 at World Market!” I state emphatically. She remarks about the clean and crisp taste of her chilled and filtered Arizona tap water, as she slides her wine glass toward me. With a sigh, I realize that she is right. This wine is not good. Where did I go wrong?

I would be remiss if I did not mention that my wife’s favorite wine is 35 bucks a bottle. But she has had an acceptable response to a few others in the $15 to $20 range. Had I known that there was a less renowned wine critic in my own home…

We had a very good Pinot Noir by Patz and Hall a few weekends ago. That bottle was remarkably good in fact. It was given to me as a gift. Sometimes the best bottles are free! All of us at dinner agreed that it was very good. I saw it on sale at AJ’s Fine Foods for $30. My wife stated that she’s a $30 per bottle girl, in a rather matter-of-fact tone.

The Pinot Noir was poured as we ate take-out from Postino Winecafe in Phoenix. We had salads, bruschetta and some other goodies that together with this wine made the meal great and memorable!

I agree that your chances of getting a good wine improve as you go up in price, but all in all, there have only been a handful of vinegar bottles and a handful of really good “value” wines in the last few years. Most were good and a few were great. Those great wines were at least $20 a bottle, I recall. Perhaps my premise should be updated with an increase in my dollar per bottle threshold and a decrease in my purchasing frequency (to appease the less renowned live-in wine critic/accountant).

So what’s on sale this week?

Patz & Hall 2007 Pinot Noir    Postino Winecafe

It was a dark and chili autumn night.  Okay, it wasn’t that dark but we were having chili for dinner and it was the end of October.  That time of the year when those of us that reside in the Phoenix metro area know it is autumn by the colorful displays in the grocery store.  It reached the mid-80s that afternoon, but dipped into the 70s after sundown.  Not quite sweater weather, but it would do.

Earlier in the week, I had selected a Pinot Noir at Costco with the intent of enjoying it while I filled bags at the door with assorted candy on Halloween.  I thought of dressing up to answer the door this year: unshaven, hair unkempt, wife beater BSG t-shirt, paisley boxers, navy dress socks, sandals and a Bud Light in hand.  I would simultaneously burp while scratching my under arm before doling out miniature candy bars. While this sounded like fun, it really wouldn’t be much different from any other weekend and it might jeopardize my attempt to sit down and enjoy a good meal and wine with friends and family, so I reconsidered.

Trying to pair the Pinot with an appropriate meal was effortless as a good friend of ours, Abbey Normal, offered to bring over a pot of chili.  When someone else is cooking, the wine will go with it, trust me.  My wife decided to bake some biscuits to go with the chili and the result was jalepeño-cheddar scones from a recipe she found at the smittenkitchen.com.

With a “Young Frankenstein” DVD playing on the TV in the background, we sat down to bowls of “American Girl Chili” (evidently this was an old staple back home in Colorado according to Abbey – and “American Girl” was a magazine or cookbook or something, I had already started drinking the Pinot).  However, the recipe had been altered slightly with the addition of ground Buffalo meat (now “Native American Girl” chili?).  The meal was great.  I confessed to having a pair of scones when they were inventoried later that evening.

Abbey and I swapped spoons for pencils, revision 1.0 of our tasting sheet and poured a second glass to score the wine.   Yes, our tastings and review will not be based on the first glass with a swirl-sniff-sample-and-spit, as we stare at a mostly full bottle discussing its merits.   We intend to “drink” the wine with a meal and evaluate while the bottle is being emptied, so there.

The Angeline Pinot Noir 2007 ($12.69 @ Costco) was good.  The wine was a light plum color, smelled good with mostly medium attributes, semi-sweet with a cherry, plum, oak taste that finished well (I realized there are too many “medium” attribute selections on the tasting sheet, so I made a mental note to pick better characteristic descriptions for the next revision).

During dinner, the following scene from “Young Frankenstein” got our attention:

Dr. Frankenstein (Gene Wilder) reading from his grandfather’s book “How I Did It”:
‘As the minuteness of the parts formed a great hinderance to my speed, I resolved therefore, to make the creature of a gigantic stature.’   Of course!  That would simplify everything.

Inga, the doctor’s assistant (Terri Garr):
In other words, his veins, his feet, his hands, his organs would all have to be increased in size.

Dr. Frankenstein:
Exactly.

Inga:
He would have an enormous vanschtooker!

Dr. Frankenstein:
(pausing to consider this)  That goes without saying.

Inga:
Woof!

Igor (Marty Feldman):
He’s going to be very popular.

We had a good evening! I almost forgot; we had homemade out-of-the-oven-fresh apple pie (à la mode) with Colorado apples courtesy of Abbey’s kitchen and recent trip back home.  The wine was very drinkable but it would probably have gone better with chicken.