$6.99 and Feelin' Fine

You might be thinking - $6.99? Gotta be crap jug wine or box wine (I'll save the rising quality of boxed wines for another day). But not so! I've had four different $6.99 wines in the last two days (hey, I had help drinking them, I swear!) and they were all better than expected.

Rising far above expectations were two of them - Osborne Solaz 2005 Tempranillo (Spain) and Fetzer's 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon (California). Fetzer first, any wine that draw's my best friend to the dark side of Cabernet is a winner in my eyes. My BFF started her reds journey with Chianti after our extensive stay in Florence, Italy. Granted, nothing competes for a good pairing with Pizza ai Funghi. But I gradually drew her to Pinot Noir and now, with the help of Fetzer, to the grand world of Cabernet Sauvignon! Dark cherry, hint of chocolate and vanilla, nice level of spice... it was the chocolate that sucked in my friend and spice that secured me. Stable, rich, and worth more than every penny.

Now Solaz was a wildcard. I am not nearly as familiar with Spanish wines. My cooking buddy, The Muttering Chef, chose this one. I got a hint of oak, but she contested. We both agreed that it was tart and fruity from the beginning. Her reaction was "oooh, dry!" which led to a discussion on what is dry and what are tannins? I'll get into that more later, but suffice to say her accusation of tannins supported my theory of oak, because oaking a wine increases the tannins! What are tannins? If you ever drink a wine and all the moisture leaves your tongue and it sticks to the roof of your mouth, that is due to tannins. It gives the wine body and fullness. It generally comes from the skins of the red grapes.

So the moral of the story is... if you ever try to get your car inspected and there is no hope of it passing and you find yourself carless and not wanting to spend excess money on wine... do not despair. There are lots of quality options within your price range. Wine first, cars second.