Silvaner is a grape variety that we haven’t reviewed on Cheap Wine Ratings, until now. It’s a variety that is grown primarily in Germany and the Alsatian region in France, which is one of my favorite regions for dry white wines. This particular Silvaner is from Germany, which surprisingly is also a first on this site. Yes indeed, of the hundreds of reviews posted here, this is the first from Germany.
This probably isn’t a grape variety for everyone, but then what one is? Silvaner generally produces rather simple white wines, some may even call them bland. But others think of Silvaner as a blank canvas for the expression of terroir. In my opinion, while they can be simple, they are clean and acidic wines that I find pleasant and refreshing. And some of them are actually downright interesting.
Castell has a long history with Silvaner. In fact, they planted the first Silvaner vines in Germany way back in 1659. They now produce a few different labels of Silvaner, and the Trocken is their entry-level with a price point of about $14.
As I went to taste this I reflected on the fact that it’s not uncommon for people to serve white wine too cold and won’t get the best of their wines as a result. I was guilty of that when I first poured this one and it didn’t have much going on aroma-wise until I let it warm slightly. Then It opened up to show butterscotch, apple & wet stones on the nose. The palate is mostly lime, apple and pear without a lot of concentration, but it’s good. The finish is fairly short and shows some apple and some mineral. This is a light, dry white that’s not terribly exciting, but a simple, pleasant sipper. You’re best off enjoying this one with lighter foods.
Wine: Castell Trocken
Variety: Silvaner
Vintage: 2008
Alcohol: 12%
Rating: 85
Price: $13.99
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Disclosure: This wine was received as a sample.
It’s funny how often I hear people proclaim that they are not wine snobs, yet as I sat down to write this post I thought to myself that there are going to be some haters out there who post comments about how I must be out of my mind for finding this to be good. So I guess they are wine snobs… and so am I.
Yep, I admit that I had a prejudice against this wine—because I’m a wine snob. I had this bottle sitting in the wine rack for a couple months and I was not looking forward to tasting it. Because of that prejudice, I waited to taste this until I had collected a number of different brands of Brut bubbly so that I could taste it blind. And I was surprised to find out that it is better than I expected.
Crane Lake is made by the Bronco Wine Company, the same folks that make Charles Shaw (aka “Two Buck Chuck”). Since Charles Shaw is exclusive to Trader Joe’s, Bronco came up with the Crane Lake brand to sell through other retail stores.
My review is a bit of mixed bag though. While the bottle I tasted was pleasant, I worry about consistency with the Crane Lake brand. I’ve mentioned this about Charles Shaw in the past too. The best premium wines come from very specific plots of land, which are taken care of by a consistent team of viticulturists. Part of the reason people will pay more for those brands is due to the fact that there is a high likelihood of consistent quality. Crane Lake, on the other hand, I assume is a bulk wine, which means they would buy grapes from several different locations and of varying quality. So while you may pick up a bottle of Crane Lake and get a great deal on a good wine, I’m not confident that the bottle you get in Connecticut is going to be consistent with the one I find in Ohio.
All that said, here’s what I wrote about this wine in my blind tasting. There’s just the right amount of yeast on the nose of this bubbly, as well as a touch of apple. It’s relatively simple, but nice. The palate brings crisp apple, honeydew melon and a twist of lemon. The acidity is nearly perfect. It’s a little quick on the finish, but the flavors are enjoyable.
For only $8.00 this might work out great for you. But, buy a bottle to taste it before you go for a full case.
Wine: Crane Lake Brut
Variety: Sparkling White
Vintage: N/V
Alcohol: 12%
Rating: 85
Price: $8.00
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Disclosure: This wine was received as a sample.
As a reviewer of cheap wines, value wines, budget wines, or whatever you want to call them, I taste a lot of inexpensive wines. Not all can be great. Fortunately, thanks to technology, most cheap wine is much better than it was 20 years ago. Unfortunately, that didn’t help this one.
I tasted this wine in a blind tasting and it wasn’t my favorite. After the blind tasting I shared it with a few other folks, who seemed to share my opinion on this wine.
The nose smells like freshly cut grass, and not in a way that I like. That same aroma comes through as the flavor on the palate, where it becomes evident that it is coming from the yeast, which is waaayyyy too heavy on the palate. There is a little fruit underneath it all, but it’s clear that the yeast is not doing this wine any favors. In short, I just don’t dig this wine.
Wine: Domaine Laurier Brut
Variety: Sparkling White
Vintage: N/V
Alcohol: 11.5%
Rating: 75
Price: $12.00
Disclosure: This wine was received as a sample. The FTC insists that I add these disclosures because they think that I’ll give a bad wine a good review just because it was sent to me as a sample. They are wrong.
A couple weeks ago we reviewed the Vigna Dogarina Extra Dry, which I thought was outstanding, and tonight it’s another Prosecco from Vigna Dogarina, this time it’s the Brut.
If you’re not a bubbly wine buff you might not guess this, but the Brut is slightly more dry than the Extra Dry. So, I guess you can think of Brut as Extra Extra Dry. Now, I’m gonna totally throw you off… Extra Extra Dry is actually sweet! No, I’m just kidding about that. But this is what might throw you off, some bubbly is “Extra Brut”, which would be more dry than Brut and I guess that makes it Extra Extra Extra Dry. Do you feel like I’m playing a shell game with you yet? Rest easy, this Prosecco is Brut and Brut is dry and that’s all you need to know for now.
Like the Extra Dry Prosecco from Vigna Dogarina, the Brut is from Valdobbiadene, which as you may recall from that review is one of the most prestigious appellations for Prosecco.
I found this to be a very enjoyable Prosecco. “Bubbles galore” is the best way to describe the appearance in the glass. The nose is slightly floral with a touch of yeast. It’s really well balanced. The yeast in a bubbly can be a touchy thing, sometimes it’s nice, but sometimes it can be overpowering and ruin the wine. In this one it’s nearly perfect. The palate is very dry and full of green apple and lime, with really crisp and refreshing acidity. It finishes clean with a touch of green apple lingering for some time.
This is a great Prosecco. And in addition to being awesome, the bottle is sleek and elegant. While that isn’t reason enough to buy a bottle, it’s a nice additional benefit to a great Prosecco.
Wine: Vigna Dogarina Brut
Variety: Prosecco
Vintage: N/V
Alcohol: 11%
Rating: 89
Price: $16.00
Disclosure: This wine was received as a sample.
I’ve reviewed a number of different Barefoot wines on this site and it’s one bargain brand that seems to do OK. I’ve never been totally blown away by any of their wines, but they’ve all been quite drinkable and great values. That continues to be the case with their line-up of sparkling wine… none of it was exceptional, but it was all good.
So, what does that mean? Should you buy it? I would say that depends on how you’re serving it and who you’re serving it to. If you’re buying for a party or wedding and your guests won’t know the difference between this and a $50 bottle of French champagne, then by all means buy this stuff. If you’re making champagne cocktails and will be mixing it with other stuff then this is a good choice — there’s no sense in buying an expensive champagne just to bury the flavor in mixers. Or if you just want to try something different, there are a couple unique sparklers in the Barefoot line-up that are worth a try.
You may notice that Barefoot Bubbly is labeled as “Champagne,” and you may wonder, “Can they do that, I thought Champagne could only come from France?” Yes, it’s true that the term “Champagne” is legally reserved for wines from the Champagne region of France. But, many US-made sparkling wines were using the term before the decision was made to no longer use it on US-made wines. Those wines labeled as “Champagne” before 2006 were “grandfathered” in to allow them to continue using that descriptor as long as the region of production is also on the label (e.g. California).
Here are my thoughts on the Barefoot Bubbly collection.
Barefoot Bubbly Brut Cuvée
The Brut Cuvée is what most people expect when they have champagne or sparkling wine. In fact, most sparkling wine that’s produced is in the Brut style. Technically, Brut refers to the amount of sugar added after secondary fermentation and is an indicator of sweetness. Brut is relatively dry.
The nose is rather lifeless on this one, aside from a slight mineral aroma. The palate is better, where good apple and pear flavors come out to play. The acidity is good and the finish is tangy. The bubbles are lacking, it’s almost frizzante (and I don’t think it’s supposed to be that way). This one is OK, but nothing special.
Wine: Barefoot Bubbly Brut Cuvée
Variety: Sparkling Chardonnay
Vintage: N/V
Alcohol: 11.5%
Rating: 83
Price: $9.99
Barefoot Bubbly Extra Dry
Extra Dry Champagne isn’t dramatically different from Brut in terms of sweetness. Technically, Extra Dry can be slightly sweeter, but the difference is small and if you’re not a major Champagne aficionado I doubt you would notice. However, in terns of Barefoot Bubbly, I found this one more enjoyable than the Brut.
It shows floral and mineral notes on the nose. There are not many bubbles in the glass, but it bubbles up in your mouth quite a bit. The palate doesn’t offer much complexity, but it’s still enjoyable with tasty apple flavors and decent acidity. It’s slightly yeasty on the finish.
Wine: Barefoot Bubbly Extra Dry
Variety: Sparkling Chardonnay
Vintage: N/V
Alcohol: 11.5%
Rating: 86
Price: $9.99
Barefoot Bubbly Pinot Grigio Champagne
This is where we start to get into the unique stuff from Barefoot Bubbly. It’s not every day that I come across a bubbly Pinot Grigio, so I was really curious to taste this one.
It’s slightly yeasty, with some floral, citrus and pear notes. Yellow delicious apple flavors on the palate, along with a little bit of lime make this a tasty wine. The lime flavor carries into the finish where I also picked up a touch of mineral. The acidity is great in this one too. Overall, it’s a nice sparkler.
Wine: Barefoot Bubbly Pinot Grigio Champagne
Variety: Sparkling Pinot Grigio
Vintage: N/V
Alcohol: 13%
Rating: 85
Price: $10.99
Barefoot Bubbly Rosé Cuvée
I tried and tried to pull something out of this, but the nose is virtually non-existent in this wine, except for a very, very slight peach aroma. The palate is also light. It’s mildly sweet, with soft peach and strawberry flavors. The finish is crisp, tangy and enjoyable, although rather short. If you like sweet, light sparklers, it’s an enjoyable wine, but as I said, the intensity is subtle. There’s nothing extraordinary about it, but it’s good.
Wine: Barefoot Bubbly Rosé Cuvée
Variety: Sparkling Blend
Vintage: N/V
Alcohol: 11.5%
Rating: 84
Price: $10.99
Barefoot Bubbly Moscato Spumante
This is another one that had me really curious… what would Barefoot do with a Sparkling Moscato, I wondered. And then, when I saw that the alcohol level is only 8.5%, I was scared that it was going to be overwhelmingly sweet. But I was pleasantly surprised.
Yes, it is a sweet sparkler, but only moderately so. And it has the acidity needed to keep the sweetness from becoming overpowering. The nose is slight, but shows a touch of honeysuckle and and a slice of pear. The palate is full of ripe pear and ripe red delicious apple. The sweetness lingers into the finish, where it becomes a touch syrupy. It’s a fun wine, if you like sweet sparklers.
Wine: Barefoot Bubbly Moscato Spumante
Variety: Sparkling Moscato
Vintage: N/V
Alcohol: 8.5%
Rating: 85
Price: $10.99
Disclosure: These wines were received as samples.
We’re checking out another sparkling wine today, but this one is a sweet, dessert sparkler: Rosa Regale
To be honest, I was a little reluctant to review this wine just based on price. In my opinion, Banfi wines are overpriced. For a while I was seeing this wine sell for $25+, but recently I’ve seen it for $20 (I guess one of the benefits of the sluggish economy). Not that I’ve never spent $20 for a bottle of wine, but for what it is, I’d like to see this one for about $15-16. However, this is an interesting wine and I don’t see much Brachetto from any other producers, so I thought it deserved a mention. And for something unique at a party, I might drop $20 to bring this.
The first time I tasted this was at the Cincinnati International Wine Festival, where there where several women “ohhing” and “ahhing” about it. So guys take note, if you want to make women “ohhh” and “ahhh” but your personality isn’t enough to do the trick, this wine might help you out.
To be honest, the aromas from this wine don’t do much for me. It’s slightly floral with strawberry and raspberry aromatics. But the palate is where this wine shines. As I said, this is a dessert sparkler, so it’s on the sweet side. It has loads of strawberry and raspberry flavors, which is typical of this variety.
It goes great with chocolate. Try pairing this one with some chocolate mousse, with which I think it would be divine.
Wine: Banfi Rosa Regale
Variety: Brachetto d’Acqui
Vintage: 2007
Alcohol: 7.0%
Rating: 86
Price: $19.99
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Time and time again, Gloria Ferrer is a brand of sparkling wine that you’ll see get accolades as a good, affordable sparkling wine. And for good reason, it’s good stuff.
I often tell people to toss aside the Champagne flutes and drink bubbly from a bigger glass. The reason is that I think aroma is an important part of the wine drinking experience with any wine, including sparkling wines, and you don’t get those aromas when you use a flute. A colleague of mine, who is another wine geek like me, disagrees with me because as he says, “why do you need to smell yeast?” In many cases there is a lot more complexity in the bouquet of bubbly wines than just yeast, but this one, I will agree, has quite a bit of yeast.
Indeed, of all the sparkling wines I’ve tasted, this one has the strongest yeast aroma I’ve ever come across. It’s like smelling uncooked bread dough. There’s also a touch of mineral and a slice of apple in the nose. The yeastiness is also very prevalent on the palate, where you’ll also find loads of citrus and green apple. The yeast flavor rests on the back of your tongue in the finish along with a touch of mineral and a pinch of sea salt. Try this wine with a triple crème cheese on a cracker… I think you’ll like it.
Wine: Gloria Ferrer Sonoma Brut
Variety: Sparkling White Blend
Vintage: N/V
Alcohol: 12.9%
Rating: 88
Price: $15.99
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Tonight we’re tasting another Prosecco, and it happens to be another outstanding value for sparkling wine.
Like most Prosecco, Vigna Dogarina comes from the Veneto region in Italy. But that’s just the broader region. This particular Prosecco comes from Valdobbiadene, one of the most prestigious places for Prosecco.
Pay close attention to the “Extra Dry” part of the name too, if that’s what you want, as Vigna Dogarina offers a few different styles of Prosecco.
The nose of this one is delicate, with pear, apple and soft floral aromas. There’s a touch of mineral as well. The palate is crisp and refreshing with plenty of apple flavor, but being extra dry it’s not sweet. The finish brings in a bit of pear flavor and it’s clean and refreshing.
This is a very nice Prosecco.
Wine: Vigna Dogarina Extra Dry
Variety: Prosecco
Vintage: N/V
Alcohol: 11%
Rating: 88
Price: $18.00
Find Vigna Dogarina Prosecco Extra Dry with Snooth
Disclosure: This wine was received as a sample.
When it comes to finding bubbly wine at bargain prices, Prosecco can’t be beat. Actually, Prosecco is a grape variety from the Veneto region of Italy and there is some of it produced as still wine, but the vast majority of it is bubbly. Here’s one that is simply awesome and it’s about $10 to boot.
Why spend $40+ on fancy Champagne when this Prosecco is sooooo good, and it’s readily available? And why buy crappy sparkling wine, when you can get this stuff for just over ten bucks? So many people get crappy, cheap sparkling wine for weddings or New Year’s parties, but I say “no more!” Seek out the Prosecco section and wow your friends with this stuff.
What I really like about this Prosecco is the slight mineral quality on the nose. You’ll also find citrus and melon aromas. On the palate it’s only lightly sparkling — “frizzante.” Crisp apple and light citrus flavors with near perfect acidity make this a pleasant sipper. And at only 10.5% abv, it’s one you can sip a little more of before you’ve had too much. This wine goes well with rich salty foods, like olives, or could be served with fresh fruit.
Wine: Riondo Prosecco Spago Nero
Variety: Prosecco
Vintage: N/V
Alcohol: 10.5%
Rating: 89
Price: $11.49
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Here’s another sparkling wine that I think is just awesome, and I found it for about $17. This one comes from Mumm Napa, and as you might guess by the name it’s from Napa Valley.
One thing you might notice about sparking wine in the lower price range is that non-vintage is commonplace. You won’t see a year on this bottle, so you can only hope that the bottle you buy is from the same vintage as the bottle I bought… because mine was good!
This is also a wine you should consider for your Thanksgiving Day table. Sparkling wine is always a nice addition to any holiday meal, in my opinion.
Powerful vanilla and melon aromas make this a fun and interesting bubbly brut. It’s a bit yeasty too. Although less prominent, I also found a some pear and hazelnut on the nose. Lemon, pear and melon flavors make this a tasty one too. And the fruit lingers into a lengthy finish. There’s loads of fizz and a creamy mouth feel. My only knock on it, is it’s a touch more acidic than I would like it to be. But the up side of that is that it would go great with shellfish. Oysters anyone?
Wine: Mumm Napa Brut Prestige
Variety: Sparkling White Blend
Vintage: N/V
Alcohol: 12.5%
Rating: 89
Price: $16.96
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