2007 Les Frères Couillaud, Chardonnay, Vin de Pays du Jardin de la France Domaine de Bernier

Terry post:

First in a series of posts regarding good or great wines to be found in restaurants for $30 or less.

I have mentioned several times in this blog the challenge of finding good wines which can be sold at less than $30 per bottle in a restaurant. This requires that the restaurant owner be able to find a good bottle of wine, which suits the menu and is available at less than $12 per bottle from the wine rep. It is harder than it sounds.

This is the first of several posts which I am planning which discuss these sort of high-value, economy wines which I selected and placed on the wine list for Restaurant 213. The first is my all time favorite.


Everyone likes the idea of French wines but almost no one likes the idea of paying $120 for a bottle of 2007 Chassagne-Montrachet 1er Cru, Les Macharelles, Bernard Morey. So, I went looking for a low-priced French chardonnay which came from a wine-growing region far less glamorous than Chassagne-Montrachet and at a significantly lower price. Enter 2007 Les Frères Couillaud, Chardonnay, Vin de Pays du Jardin de la France Domaine de Bernier.

Make no mistake: Vin de Pays du Jardin is no where as glamorous a grape-growing region as is Cassagne-Montrachet. Think California Central Valley versus California Napa Valley. It is that sort of difference. Think industrial versus boutique.

None the less, Domaine de Bernier has been on our wine list since 2004 providing an attractive low-priced alternative to those who desire a French pedigree with their wine and who don't want to break the bank in the process.

My impressions: Crisp apple and pear on the nose with moderate acidity. A direct and easy drinking wine characteristically dry as you'd expect from a Chardonnay with a moderate finish. We are able to buy this wine from our rep in single case lots of $6.33 per bottle (spring 2009) making it a great value for us as well as our customers.

This wine has been imported in not huge amounts: 2007 - 2000 cases, 2006 - 1000 cases, 2005 - 3000 cases and 2004 - 3000 cases. So, are you going to be able to fine this wine? I doubt it. But, the lesson is that France produces some wonderful, low-priced wines from decidedly minor-league grape growing appellations and are worth a try.

~ Terry

2005 Castelo do Papa Godello

Terry post:

I have only drank one Godello in my entire life and am currently on my third case of this low-cost, high-value gem from Spain.

I was introduced to this wine by accident a couple of summers ago when one of our
wine reps noted that he was down to his last several cases of Castelo Papa Godello and wanted to move them (e.g. sell at a discount). We bought three cases for the Restaurant and I took a couple bottles home to give them a try.

By background, Godello's are characteristically clean, light and crisp wines engineered to be served alongside of seafood. We Americans sometimes ignore how long our European cousins have been making wines and how their wine evolution differed from ours. Over the European centuries the wines have evolved alongside the local food each reinforcing the other until you reach a point where the local wine is finely tuned to complement the local cuisine. Such is the case of Godello.

My impressions: Lively golden color darker, I am told, than the majority of Godellos. Refreshing with a perfumed floral nose with citrus and pears at the finish. It is an acidic wine and that makes sense as it is intended to be served around hearty fish dishes, including those with heavy cream or butter bases. At retail this wine sells between $7.50 and $9.00 per 750 mL bottle making it a very good value. At the Restaurant this was a PERFECT match for a grilled Sea Bass which was served in a shallow saffron-infused shellfish consomme.

Godello's don't have much market penetration in America, and I expect that it will be nearly impossible to find this particular wine. That said, I'd recommend giving any Godello you come upon a try.

~ Terry

2007 Smoking Loon Pinot Noir California

Terry post:

I have enjoyed this mid-priced brand for several years and was somewhat taken aback last year when the logo for this brand changed. The formerly politically incorrect
logo featured a prominant loon with a big stoggie in it's mouth: as a cigar smoker, I found the logo irresistible. I note with some regret that the smoking loon seems to have been victimized by a new logo which renders the still present loon and its cigar to a very, very small image on a large yellow background. Enough marketing.

My impressions: Great color (deep, deep red), huge cherry nose with some bitter herbal notes on a long finish. It is pretty much what I expect to find in a low to mid-priced pinot - nothing special, but also no critical faults which would stop me from buying it again. At $9.99 for a 750 Ml bottle at my local grocery store is a good value, and not a great value.

I paired the wine this past Monday with a Salvadoran Cherizo and fresh cheese sandwich. I fried the cherizo and sliced it sidewise and topped it with fresh Mexican cheese on a small toasted baguette. The wine stood up very well to the spicy Salvadoran sausage.

Despite the move to an uber PC label (minus the stoggie), I still find Smoking Loon to be a solid mid-priced wine which is reliable and available across multiple varietals.

~ Terry

Purple Silo Apple Wine 2008

Terry Post,

First, lets get this out of the way: I had no idea what to expect when I opened up this bottle of Purple Silo Apple Wine (2008). I expected the worst. I am not a fan of fruit wine and could only imagine some god-awful concoction I'd drank as a teenager thirty years ago. I was already making up excuses in my mind as to why I didn't like the wine before I drank it: too sweet, too much apple, one-dimensional - you get the idea.

I could not have been more wrong. It is a very pleasant and off-dry with a thin nose that opened up very nicely to fresh apples and pears as the glass warmed. There was excellent acidity which is, in my opinion, essential with a off-dry wine to provide structure and hold the wine together. The finish was crisp and clean with apples (a lot), pears (some) and almonds (a hint).

If I were going to pair this wine with food, I'd treat it like a light-to-medium bodied Reisling. It would be great with grilled shrimp, baked or broiled chicken (but not with butter-based sauces) or with soft fresh cheeses.

All in all it was a very pleasant surprise and may have changed my outlook on properly handled fruit wine. In fact, I have a bottle of Purple Silo "Just A.S.K." chilling and will give it a taste tomorrow. No pressure, Brad. No pressure at all.

~ Terry

Battle Wine!

Brad Post:

It is county fair time and that can mean only one thing: competition!

In the Midwest, during fair season, you are sure to find deep fried foods whose odoriferous melodies tease us like the Sirens ancient mariners once wrote about. These vendors fight to rise to top of their greasy, pseudo-food world to claim high honors. Indeed, around every corner you'll find a competition: hog farmers strutting their little piggies in front of knowledgeable pig-judgers; while in the horticultural building you are likely to spy a local grower putting up his best green tomato silently wishing for a blue ribbon; and if you are lucky enough you are sure to observe a neighbor kid squawking out an olde-timey song confident of her skills and nervously holding her breath as the results come in.

Yes, we are competitive by nature and during this time of year everyone can get into the game, including amateur winemakers!

Unlike more organized competitions, such as baseball, with incremental contests to weed-out the lesser skilled teams, those of us who compete in amateur wine competitions can start off by entering a local, regional, state or international wine competition right from scratch. That means there are some very, very good wines and some very, very poor wines. Unlike more organized competitions, with highly skilled referees, many wine competitions judging process is...shall we say, less than rigorous.


Some of us compete in hopes of a little ego-boost, while others compete to support the local competition, some pray to win a ribbon or trophy, and others to improve their winemaking skills. The fact is, as with many competitions, its not the award that really matters, because you're as likely to win this competition and not even place in the other (with the same wine). What matters is we engage, have fun, and hopefully learn something new from the experience.

Of course at our Eastern Iowa Amateur Wine Competition, like my wine making friends, I hope to win a ribbon or two and maybe...just maybe win the battle for a Double Gold medal!

If you want to see a wine competition in action, visit us on Thursday, July 23 (1-5 pm) at the Benton County Fairgrounds in beautiful Vinton, Iowa. Better yet, stop by the same night at 6:30pm to taste and judge the wines for yourself!

Happy Tastings!
~Brad

Gallo Family Merlot (NV)

Terry Post:

Okay you may ask. What about that Gallo Family Merlot (NV) you wrote about a week ago to accompany the Beef Burgundy?

My thoughts: Medium-weight wine and not at all like the agressive heavy-weight Bordeaux's. Soft and supple with obvious cherry and chocolate notes typical of Merlot. If it was blended with Cabernet Sauvignon it is a very subtle low-percentage blending because the tannic nature of the Cab is not evident. If it is there, it is very subtle indeed. Great color.

Gallo suffers when it tries to make something other than jug wine because, well, it made jug wine for so many years.

If I were in charge of Gallo I would acknowledge the branding issue that haunts the company and stand up a series of artisan small-scale brands to complement the mother ship. Were the label on this wine bottle anything other than Gallo, they’d be able to double the price without any push-back from the wine drinking population.

Do I like it? Yes.

Would I buy it again? Yes.

~ Terry

Wine Etiquette?

Brad Post:

Here is something I've thought about occasionally over the years: what is the etiquette when you are the recipient of a dinner-party wine gift?


For example, what do you, as the "giftee," do when someone is invited for dinner and gives you a bottle of wine? Do you: Option 1: Say, "thank-you" and open it at dinner? Option 2: Say "thank-you" and take it to your cellar and Not Open it?

In my experience it seems to depend on geography and perhaps cultural influences. You see, where I was raised and maybe that's a give-away there, (lots of boozers, you see) when someone shows up with some hooch - it gets opened and drunk right there. When I was living in the west (read: Seattle and Moscow, ID) when I'd bring a bottle to a party (poof) it went directly to the hosts stash, never to be seen again.

Hmmmm...it could be that my wine gift was so wonderful they wanted to incorporate it into their cellar...or they deemed it so unpalatable they scoffed and hid it. Perhaps.

I do recall bringing a gift of Gewürztraminer (a wonderfully aromatic and spicy white) to a get together in Idaho and heard rumblings of how low-brow it was. Really?! I still love that fragrant wine (I even make its cousin, Traminette).

Anyway, I am still not sure about the proper etiquette when receiving a gift of wine at a party. To me, wine is meant to be shared and not hidden away as was so frequently the case in the west. Here in the Midwest, people have been quick to open their hearts and homes to us - and maybe even quicker to open the bottle of wine we bring to their party too! :)

I like that!

Happy Tastings
~Brad
Ready for a dinner invite...bottle in one hand and opener in the other!