Decatur Metro Readers’ Favorite Wines Under $15 List
Decatur Metro | October 5, 2011I decided to consolidate all of your wine recommendations from back in April into one list for your (and my) convenience. Enjoy!
- Altos malbec (rec: DEM)
- Castle Rock Pinot Noir (rec: Elizabeth)
- Smoking Loon (rec: Cleon)
- Cellar Number 8 Cabernet Sauvignon (rec: JB)
- Black Box Cab (rec: Bob H)
- Tilia Malbec (rec: Disgruntled)
- Mirrasou 2008 Pinot Noir (rec: ML)
- Hahn Estates 2009 Pinot Noir (rec: ML)
- Goats Do Roam (rec: Smcchic)
- J. Lohr Chardonnay (rec: Occi)
- Coastal Ridge Chardonnay (rec: Occi)
- Castle Rock Pinot Noir (rec: SAWGAW)
- Rock Rabbit Sauvignon blanc (rec: SAWGAW)
- Chatue st. jean (rec: SAWGAW)
- Woodbridge (rec: SAWGAW)
- Frontera Carmenere (rec: SAWGAW)
- Cline Zinfandel (rec: DM and Econuke)
- Seven Deadly Zins (rec: WillyC)
- Windmill Zin (rec: Cranky Old Timer)
- Hahn Chardonnay (rec: Cranky Old Timer)
- 2010 Cabernet Sav. “120″ (rec: treesrock)
- Rex Goliath Pinot Noir! (rec: evilsciencechick)
- Sebastiani Cab Sauv (rec: Swanny)
- Six Grapes Port (rec: Sage)
- McMannis Cabernet Sauvingon (rec: AT and Beth)
- Poppy Pinot Noir (rec: TomL)
- Tilia Chardonnay (rec: Demanda)
- Houchart (rec: David Hudson)
- Bogle Petit Syrah (rec: cubalibre)
- Perrin Cotes du Rhone (rec: cubalibre)
- Monasteriolo from Spain (rec: cubalibre)
- Spanish Albarinos, (rec: TF)
- NZ Sauvignon blancs (Drylands, Kim Crawford usually good) (rec: TF)
- Rosenblum zin cuvee (rec: TF)
- Red Diamond Cab (rec: Beth)
- Hogue (rec: EcoNuke)
- Cycles Gladiator Syrah (rec: brianc)
- Columbia Crest (rec: Juliesag)
- Sacred Rock (rec: backatfour)
- Layer Cake Malbec (rec: backafour)
- Crane Lake Pinot Noir (rec: Mt Vernon Mom)
- Poppy Pinot Noir (rec: Uncle Al)
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Many of these will be available for tasting at the upcoming Decatur Wine Festival–tickets available http://www.ticketalternative.com!
I’d like to suggest some Georgia wines, too! Recently did a tour of some of the wineries up in N.Ga, and was very pleasantly surprised by the quality of the wines. Overall, I liked more of the reds than the whites, but came home with a case of both. I am not able to find any locally, so it looks like I’m going to have to go back and spend some time in the mountains. And while going to the mountains – especially this time of year – isn’t exactly a hardship, it would be nice to be able to support Georgia’s wine industry w/o making special trips up there. Check out this month’s Georgia Trend, too. They did an article about the wineries. Apparently, there are way more than I was able to visit in a day!
I’ve had some decent GA wines myself recently. I was quite surprised at how drinkable some are.
Is the reason more GA wines aren’t available at our local restaurants devoted to “local” foods a distributor issue?
Hi – I have heard that small wineries actually prefer to sell their inventory at retail price themselves, instead of selling at wholesale to a distributor. But some wineries will ship to you directly.
Wow, really? What wineries? I think the only GA wine I’ve tried is Chateau Elan, which was just horrible, though that was years ago. I was once given a few North Carolina wines as a gift, also terrible.
Can’t agree with you more on the Chateau Elan winery – ugh! That was my only previous experience with Georgia wines, so I was not expecting much. Thankfully it wasn’t my last experience with Georgia wines! We visited Three Sisters, where I really liked their Big Boy Red and Big Boy White, both blends. We also went to Blackstock Winery, which I really enjoyed not just because of the wines, but the view from the tasting room is amazing! I was wined out by the time we got to Frog Town Winery, but the friends I was with said they had some of the best wines of the day.
Oops! My bad, it’s “Fat Boy Red” and “Fat Boy White.”
Frogtown does have good wine, but most of them are hybrids that include California grapes.
I think “most” might be an overstatement. Frogtown isn’t my favorite of the Georgia wineries but there are a number of them that are making very fine wines and those won’t usually be found in the under $15 range. We like Three Sisters and Frogtown, but really enjoy Monteluce and Wolf Mountain where we’re wine club members. Most of these place also are just plain beautiful to visit. If you haven’t been there, you’ll be very surprised at these hidden gems not only for their wines but for their facilities.
The first time we went, we hired a bus for a friend’s 40th and thought we would have a hoot while drinking some sweet Georgia wines. Well, we did have a hoot, but the quality of the wines was so much more than we expected.
The thing about these wineries and the reason you don’t see them sold all over the place is that they just don’t have that large of a production. The reason their productions are not huge is because most of them ARE actually using their own grapes almost exclusively. That’s also part of the reason they are expensive…that and that they’re damn good. Please know we’re NOT talking Chateau Elan here. There’s not really anything about that place I find attractive…except my wife enjoys their spa on occasion for a girl’s escape.
Next time you have out of town friends, consider these places for an outing and blow them away. Important Note: Have a designated driver since you’re driving on some pretty twisty roads on your visit. I’ve been the DD a couple times and still have a good time because the places are so beautiful.
So is the problem with Chateau Elan’s wine the grapes or the winemaking?
I think a couple of the Habersham Winery’s wines are pretty good. Some were unimpressive, but I’d label at least two of them as “drinkable”.
Creekstone Viognier and Scarlett were the ones we brought home after the free tasting.
Chateau Elan– gagworthy. But Tiger Mountain (Tiger, Georgia) makes a pretty darned good Cabernet Franc– very drinkable, especially with food. It’s not under $15, but it’s not much more than that (the bottle we had was about $22 bucks)…
My personal favorite = Tiger Mountain Vineyard’s Rabun Red!
Cook’s Warehouse sells some GA wine.
Thanks for a valuable public service announcement. I think I’ll bookmark this post and return to it often!
DM: I may have missed it but did you consolidate a list from the favorite beers post?
Thanks!
I must have missed this list first time round.
Just to add some more French wines to the list, a few that can be found around town:
Henry Fessy Morgon (Cru Beaujolais)
Henry Fessy Régnié Château des Reyssiers (Cru Beaujolais)
Louis Jadot Cote de Beaune Villages
Domaine des Terres Dorées Beaujolais Cuvée l’Ancien Vieilles Vignes (ok, this one is $18, but it’s well worth the splurge!)
Thanks — I was actually going to ask if anyone had French wines to recommend. Where do you typically find these, especially the Domaine des Terres?
DEM,
I got the Terres Doreees (JP Brun) at Tower on Piedmont. Still had a bunch as of a week ago.
They also had a couple additional JP Brun bottlings.
2009 was a very good vintage for Cru Beaujolais…albeit, a bit modern for the traditionalists.
Get some, you probably will not be disappointed.
Thanks again, I will git myself some of this. If I may, I’d like to quote the immortal Lionel Hutz: “I rarely use the the word hero, but you are the greatest hero in American history.”