I’ve decided that the best way to buy good wine for under $20 is to aim for an average price of under $20. That way I can enjoy the odd bottle of something special. I did this the other day when popping in to my local bottle shop, Castlecrag Cellars, which must be one of the best places to buy wine in Australia. The owner’s breadth of knowledge is matched by a vast range of wines, both local and imported, and while it’s not cheap, they do give you a discount for quantity, which is another incentive for averaging.
Most of my mixed dozen was under 20, a couple in the 20s, but what I was really pleased with was the $57 bottle of Curly Flat 2014 Chardonnay I managed to squeeze in. It’s a fabulous wine. We had it with oysters and friends; the perfect accompaniment. I think I’ve mentioned my love of Curly Flat in previous blogs (their Pinot Noir is also a cracker and they do a cheaper chardonnay which I really must try) so I wasn’t surprised by its brilliance, but I have been surprised by a couple of the under 20 wines I bought on recommendation.
First, another Chardonnay, unusually an NZ one called Left Field, by Teawa from Hawkes Bay. It was a 2013, cost $18. They said, ‘try this, it’s a $30 wine’ and it certainly tastes like one. The website says they use a mix of oak and stainless steel and some of the wine gets a malolactic fermentation. I guess that means they can blend accordingly. It certainly isn’t over oaked – minerally peach with some toastiness is how I’d describe it. I’m drinking some now and it’s getting better as it warms up a bit – fridges are too cold for good wine.
The other notable wine was a 2011 Cotes du Rhone, by Domaine Lafond called ‘Roc Epine’ which means thorny rocks, according to Google translate. There are no thorns or rocks in this wine. Cote du Rhone is a bit of a coward’s wine. You won’t embarrass yourself taking a bottle to someone’s place for dinner, but no one will remember your wine. They might comment on this one; the bottle age really helps. There’s plenty of fruit, but it’s tempered by the years, grown up as it were. It was great with cheese and even managed to contend with a massaman curry.
If you are off to a dinner party you may find this bit of research interesting as it’s about sociability and alcohol.
A paper just published in Experimental Biology, researchers at the University of Maryland have shown that a sociable upbringing increases sensitivity to alcohol – if you are a crayfish. The ones kept together before exposure to alcohol got drunk faster than the ones kept in solitary confinement.
Crayfish were the guinea pigs as they have big nerve cells so are easy to study. And while Curly Flat would go very well with these crustaceans the researchers used ethanol.
Featured image from Teawa wine site: https://teawacollection.com/
Wine under 20, life over 50 