"Broke Ass" Mendoza - malbec / syrah, 2010

Don't let this wine's stupid name fool you - it's actually a rather drinkable wine. My mother had picked this up a few months back when I visited her, and we had it over dinner. I'm back in Connecticut for Thanksgiving and we had it again tonight over a homemade chicken marsala.

The wine itself was pretty cheap but actually rather tasty. It's half malbec and half syrah from Argentina and has a nice garnet color right out of the bottle. The nose has a slightly caustic smell to it, indicative of cheap wine, but it has a surprisingly smooth and jammy taste. It tastes like berries and plums and grass and doesn't leave much of an aftertaste. You can definitely taste the malbec in this bottle. It doesn't burn or have any harsh notes, only berries, and one glass definitely invites another.

So I would seek this out if you're looking for a really cheap way to "get the job done." This doesn't stand up to some of the more refined bottles I own, but for the price it's a good deal. While I am generally not a fan of cheap wine, this bottle is rather good for the value. The varietal (malbec / syrah) is a nice mix and it pairs well with the chicken marsala we had. But this wine is also good for just drinking on its own, and it's definitely cheap enough to have as often as you like. I would not bring this out to impress your friends but if you want a good bottle for an everyday dinner, look no further.

2012 Chateau Moulin Favre - beaujolais nouveau

Last night I tried a fairly inexpensive bottle of Beaujolais along with dinner. A great part about this time of year is influx the relatively cheap Beaujolais Nouveau. Beaujolais is a type of red wine made (usually) from the Gamay grape in the French winemaking region of Beaujolais (but officially part of Burgundy.) Although some Beaujolais bottles are a cut above the rest (like the Cru Beaujolais - more on that later,) the Beaujolais Nouveaux are made by the millions of cases and are traditionally shipped and enjoyed in November.

The Gamay grape has a low amount of tannins, and as a result makes a lighter, fruity wine that I personally find very approachable. When opened and aerated, the wine foamed up a little bit and stayed that way throughout the short life of the bottle. It had a very fruity nose - as expected - and was rather sweet. It was unobtrusive, light, and airy. The color was a bright ruby red when held up to the light. I had this with a light pasta dish (pasta with peas, shallots, crumbled bacon, chives, cooked in a reduced chicken stock.) It would pair well with salads or lighter fare.

About four years ago I had a delicious bottle of 2005 Georges duBoeuf Cru Beaujolais from the village of Chenas, which is much different from the annual Beaujolais Nouveau deliveries. These types of Beaujolais - the Cru Beaujolais - are heavier in character and have a much longer cellar life than the Beaujolais Nouveaux. I let it cellar for five years and brought it to some friends' place and drank it with some delicious homemade pasta bolognese. As for a bottle of Nouveau, I would pretty much drink it immediately. The real attraction of this wine is that it is fruity and fresh and inexpensive enough to not feel guilty about having often. I would not cellar this wine for more than a year because in that time, it would lose the freshness that makes it interesting.