You won’t see much marketing for Crane Lake wines out there, but you will find them in many supermarkets. Crane Lake is another label from cheap wine mogul Fred Franzia and his Bronco Wine Company. These are the same folks behind the legendary Charles Shaw (aka Two Buck Chuck) that you’ll find in Trader Joe’s stores. The Charles Shaw label is exclusive to Trader Joe’s, and so Bronco Wine Company produced Crane Lake wines as a label to sell at similar rock-bottom prices at other stores.
I’ve seen Crane Lake around for a few years, but this is the first I’ve seen of the “Down Under by Crane Lake” label. As you could probably guess, this wine comes from Australia (while most Crane Lake wines are Californian).
My general rule of thumb on this site is to only review wines priced between $5-20. While I’m a fan of paying as little as possible for my wine, I’ve found that I’m generally dissatisfied with those under $5. So, I usually avoid them. But I received this $3 bottle of Down Under as a sample, so I threw it in the mix during my blind Chardonnay tasting to see how it would fare.
My first impression of this wine was that it was just an oak-heavy chardonnay. I was put off by the oak, but as I dug into it I found some interesting elements. The nose is filled with oak layered over buttered popcorn, honey and lime aromas. The palate has quite a strong, crisp apple flavor, along with peach and lime. But I do get punched in the mouth with the oak in the mid-palate and into the finish. It’s not very elegant in that way.
While it didn’t wow me, it also didn’t turn me off as much as I would expect for a $3 bottle of wine. If you like a lot of oak in your Chardonnay and aren’t as much of a snob as I am you might be OK with this wine. In fact, my wife liked this one. And for $2.99 it’s definitely cheap.
Wine: Down Under by Crane Lake
Variety: Chardonnay
Vintage: 2008
Alcohol: 12.5%
Rating: 80
Price: $2.99
Find Down Under Chardonnay by Crane Lake with Snooth
Continuing with the Chardonnay series, today we’re checking out an Argentine Chardonnay from Alamos, a value wine label produced by Bodega Catena Zapata in Argentina.
Catena Zapata has its roots in Argentine winemaking going back to 1902, when Nicola Catena planted his first Malbec vines. The winery faced many challenges and changes over the years, and its current era really started to take shape in the 1980’s under the direction of Nicolás Catena. Catena sold off the bulk wine part of the company to begin a new focus on fine wine. The company experimented with viticulture over the years to optimize locations for growing certain vines. Today, Catena Zapata is known for producing exceptional wines and they are particularly known for their Malbec.
To be honest, I’m not sure exactly when Catena Zapata added the Alamos brand to their family. But I do know that it gives me the opportunity to try a few wines from them that are within my price range.
The 2008 Alamos Chardonnay was part of a blind tasting I recently did, and it was OK. I would say not as good as the 2007, but still OK.
Hay and grapefruit are the primary aromas on the nose. There’s a bit of a vanilla in there too. The palate is fairly tropical, with pineapple, apple and melon flavors, along with the grapefruit on the finish. The acidity is pretty crisp, just how I like it. But the finish is a little quick.
Wine: Alamos
Variety: Chardonnay
Vintage: 2008
Alcohol: 13.5%
Rating: 84
Price: $13.00
Find Alamos Chardonnay with Snooth
A couple weeks ago I did a review of a wine from a relatively new wine brand, Motos Liberty Pinot Gigio. And today I’m checking out another wine from them, their Chardonnay. The Pinot Grigio I was not able to taste in a blind lineup, but this one was tasted blind — and qualitatively the two wines are similar. Of both wines I’d say they aren’t exceptional, but they are good value wines. There’s not a whole lot more background that I have to share (other than what’s in the previous review) so I’ll get right to the tasting notes.
This has a very light color for a Chardonnay. The nose is crisp and fresh smelling with apple, pear, lemon and a slight mineral. The palate starts with a crisp apple flavor and moves into a melon and citrus thing. It’s a little bit sweet on the finish. It could use a little more intensity in the aromas and concentration in the flavors, but overall this is a very fresh and refreshing Chardonnay.
Wine: Motos Liberty
Variety: Chardonnay
Vintage: 2008
Alcohol: 13.5%
Rating: 85
Price: $8.99
It’s been a while since we’ve done a series on Chardonnay, and given its popularity I thought I should revisit it. So, I pulled the a few bottles of it I had gathered in my tasting queue to do a blind tasting. There were no absolute rock stars in the lot, but there were a couple decent Chardonnays. But I’ll give you the lowdown on all of them.
First up is the Coastal Ridge 2007. This is a California Chardonnay and one of the labels produced by bulk wine producer Bronco Wine Company — a company you’re sure to buy a few wines from if you’re shopping on the cheap. Coastal Ridge is a brand that you’ll see in a lot of grocery stores and one that for me is fairly representative of bulk wine. That doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s bad though, I’ve seen Coastal Ridge on a few “best buy” lists in various wine publications. So they can be OK for bargain shoppers.
This particular Chardonnay, to be honest, didn’t knock my socks off. But it wasn’t all bad either. It has a simple, unsophisticated bouquet — fairly tight and lacks complexity. It’s pretty much just citrus and oak on the nose. The palate brings apple, melon and citrus flavors with decent acidity. Not bad. The finish is citrus and melon and lasts quite a bit longer than I expected. There’s nothing objectionable about the flavors in the wine, but it lacks depth.
It’s definitely made for consumers who like a lot of oak in their Chardonnay (which I admittedly am not one of those consumers), but it’s not as oaky as some others I’ve had.
Wine: Coastal Ridge
Variety: Chardonnay
Vintage: 2007
Alcohol: 12.5%
Rating: 81
Price: $7.50
Let me actually start this review with a disclaimer. There’s a lot of discussion among wine reviewers/wine bloggers about potential “conflict of interest” related to their reviews. The conflict scenario is typically an instance when a review is done for a wine and the reviewer has received something of value from the producer of the wine (i.e. advertising dollars, expense-paid trips, etc.)
It certainly makes sense that someone would be skeptical if a reviewer is getting paid by a producer to publish a review, of course the perceived conflicts are often more subtle than that. While reviewers try to avoid conflicts, they also often like to get paid for their work. I’m not talking about payola, but advertising and such. Some reviewers have policies against accepting advertising from wine producers, or won’t do reviews for any wine producers that purchase ads from them. Others accept ads and proclaim that their editorial integrity is free of influence from ad dollars.
My policy is one of transparency and disclosure, and hence this disclaimer. Every prior wine review I have ever done has been such that I was not paid to do the review, nor was there any financial gain for me if you purchased the wine. That is slightly different with this review. I’ve partnered with the folks at Barclay’s Wine for this review. They didn’t produce this wine, but they sell it. They also didn’t pay me to do this review, but if you click the link at the end of this review and buy the wine, I will get a commission for that.
Some may scream, “conflict of interest” but I think that the conflict would exist if I reviewed it, posted a link and didn’t tell you about the business relationship. When Barclay’s approached me about this I made it clear that 1) my reviews need to have integrity and I would approach the review like any other wine and publish my true opinions (good & bad) about the wines; and 2) I would be transparent about my relationship. I think you, the consumer, can make your own decision about whether to trust this review or dismiss it because of the business relationship.
My commitment to my readers is that I will always disclose if I have a relationship like this one related to a review and I will follow the same process to review these wines that I do with any others.
OK, enough disclaimer… let’s talk about this wine.
Randall Harris is a Washington wine label that’s been around for about 14 years, but Randall Harris isn’t a vineyard or a winery. The label is produced by Randy Leitman as a negociant. That means that Leitman doesn’t grow the grapes or even manage the fermentation of the wine, but rather he purchases the wine from another producer and sells it under his own label. Knowing that, I wouldn’t expect a lot of consistency from one vintage to another, but would choose vintages of this label carefully. Fortunately, this vintage is an enjoyable Merlot.
This is not a big, fruity Merlot as much as a floral, spicy one. If your preference is big and fruity, then this isn’t the Merlot for you. When you first open the bottle it’s a touch on the vegetal side, but opens up to be more floral. The nose has a really nice rose and black pepper aroma layered over blackberries, vanilla and a subtle apple pie with allspice. The palate is mostly cherry and blackberry flavors, and it’s velvety-smooth. The finish lingers a bit, but it’s not exceptionally long. This wine goes fantastically well with rich cheeses (I enjoyed a little cheddar with it). It’s a nice, elegant Merlot.
Wine: Randall Harris
Variety: Merlot
Vintage: 2007
Alcohol: 13.5%
Rating: 87
Price: $11.50
OK, now for the shill part…
Buy Randall Harris Merlot at Barclay’s Wine. You can also purchase Randall Harris Merlot as a part of a Washington State Wines Pack.
Here’s a roundup of the 7 Pinot Grigios/Pinot Gris that we recently reviewed. This gives you a quick reference of how they all stacked up.
To be honest, I wasn’t that excited about doing a Pinot Grigio series. Let’s face it, cheap Pinot Grigio can often leave something to be desired. But I was pleasantly surprised with the results. In the blind tasting there was only one clunker, which I didn’t post a review of because it appeared to be a flawed bottle. So, all of these were acceptable… or even better, downright good wine!
Top Picks
There were actually four different wines that scored an 88, but of those my personal favorite was the Lucien Albrecht Cuvee Romanus. All of the 88 wines were stylistically a little different, but all good. The Lucien Albrecht had an intense apple flavor and crisp acidity. It really shows why Alsatian wine has the good reputation that it does.
Although the Lucien Albrecht was my favorite, it also costs $19.99, making it an expensive pick for many cheap wine seekers. And so, the best bargain wine goes to Carmenet, also scoring an 88 but only costing $11.00. The Carmenet Pinot Grigio has everything I expect of a California Pinot Grigio. It has nice perfumey aromas along with crisp lime and pear flavors. It’s refreshing and clean.
Here’s the full lineup of the wines reviewed and how they scored.
I have one more wine to review for my Pinot Grigio series, this one from Motos Liberty. Now to be clear, the past six Pinot Grigio/Gris reviews were all from a blind tasting, but this one was not. I received this bottle as a sample a couple days after I did the blind tasting. Rather than leave it sitting on the shelf until I had enough PG for another blind tasting, I decided to go ahead and taste it so it could be part of this series, even if not tasted blind.
Motos Liberty is a new wine brand from a brand spanking new wine company, Panther Rock Wine Company. But the owners of the company aren’t a new name to wine, they are the fourth generation of descendants of the Franzia family that first produced wine in the US in 1896. Ironically, while that name probably sounds very familiar to you, the Franzia family has no relationship to the Franzia brand of boxed wines. There are thirteen descendants of the Franzia family who share ownership of Motos Liberty, three of whom are managing partners: Joey, Damon and Brian Franzia.
So, how does this new wine stack up? Good question.
I had a little fun smelling this wine. It wasn’t so much a “wow” moment as much as a “there’s something interesting there, but I can’t put my finger on it” moment. There is definitely a strong pear aroma, like a fresh cut Bartlett, but there’s a cooling aroma underneath that like a combination of cucumber and wet iron. I also get a hint of honeysuckle. There’s definitely a lot more going on here than I expected. With all of that said, it doesn’t scream “Pinot Grigio” to me.
The palate was good, but not as interesting as the nose. My first taste actually disappointed me as it seemed slightly flabby (i.e. lacking acidity), the acid came through a little better on subsequent tastes, but I still think it’s a touch shy. Similar to the aromas, pear is the dominate flavor on the palate, where I also get a bit of apple, but not much more.
For the price, it’s a decent wine, although I wish the acidity were slightly more crisp. But if you love pears, you’ll probably dig this wine.
Wine: Motos Liberty
Variety: Pinot Grigio
Vintage: 2008
Alcohol: 13.5%
Rating: 84
Price: $8.99
This is the second wine from Carmenet that I’ve reviewed, both reviews have been done since they were acquired by the Bronco Wine Company. Bronco is the company behind the infamous Two Buck Chuck and dozens of other cheap wine brands. I personally have a love/hate thing with Bronco… obviously, by the name of this website, I’m a fan of bargain wines and look for great deals. But even if a wine costs $5 or less, if it makes me want to dump it out, it’s no bargain. Some of the wines I’ve had from Bronco brands have been palateable, while others haven’t done the trick for me.
This is one of the good ones. In fact, I was pleasantly surprised by this wine. I tasted it in part of a blind tasting, so I had no idea who produced the wine, and it was good. The other wine I reviewed from Carmenet, their Merlot, also got a good review. So, this may be one of the better brands in the Bronco family.
The Pinot Grigio has a light straw color with a slightly green hue. The nose is very perfumey, with floral aromas, pear, and a mineral backbone. And it has good intensity in the aromas overall. The acidity is near perfect. Good firm mineral characteristics on the palate layer nicely with pear, lime and subtle peach. A hint of honey comes in on the finish, which also has a lingering citrus. This is a nice Pinot Grigio.
Wine: Carmenet Pinot Grigio
Variety: Pinot Grigio
Vintage: 2008
Alcohol: 12.5%
Rating: 88
Price: $11.00
Find Carmenet Pinot Grigio with Snooth
Maison Lucien Albrecht has roots in Alsatian winemaking going all the what back to 1425, when Romanu Albrecht established the family in the Alsatian town of Thann, near the Swiss border. The Albrecht family has been involved in winemaking ever since, although the family moved to Orschwir in 1698. Needless to say, there are generations of history and experience that go into every bottle of their wine.
Alsace is known for producing exceptional white wines, and in fact about 90% of the wines produced in Alsace are white. This is one of my personal favorite regions for white wines, and I think there are a few reasons for that. First and foremost, the growing conditions are ideal for the varieties produced there. But also the winemaking techniques used there tend to avoid malolactic fermentation and oak is generally avoided in favor of inert containers for fermentation. These techniques produce wines that emphasize the flavors from the grapes versus flavors produced by over-manipulation. The end result is often dry wines with a crisp steely acidity and floral aromatics.
Another thing you may notice about Alsatian wine is that it always comes in a tall, fluted bottle. This isn’t just because of tradition, it’s actually by law.
The color is a light straw. At first the nose was a little tight, but it eventually opened up. Red delicious apple is the first aroma I notice from this wine. There’s also a bit of apricot and a light floral aroma. The palate has much greater intensity than the nose. Intense apple flavor and crisp acidity make this a really interesting wine. It is like biting into a crisp, fresh red delicious apple. I also find a bit of lemon flavor up front and soft peach on the finish.
I’ve said in the past that I’m not a big fan of Pinot Grigio/Gris, but if they all tasted like this I’d be drinking Pinot Gris more often. This is a very nice wine. I gave it an 88 and would have scored it higher with a little more intensity on the nose and a slightly longer finish.
Wine: Lucien Albrecht Pinot Gris Cuvée Romanus
Variety: Pinot Gris
Vintage: 2008
Alcohol: 13%
Rating: 88
Price: $19.99
Find Lucien Albrecht Pinot Gris Cuvée Romanus with Snooth
I’ve reviewed some other Barefoot wines before and I’ve shared my basic perspective on them, but for some this may be the first time visiting the site… and so, I’ll give you the quick version of my position on Barefoot. I think Barefoot does a great job of using technology and quality control to produce adequate wines. I have yet to have a Barefoot wine that makes me say, “wow, this is outstanding!” But I also have yet to try one that makes me say, “yuck!” They make some palatable wines at very affordable prices. As a blog focused on affordable wines, I would be remiss not to review them.
I do take issue with the fact that Barefoot does not put vintages on their wines. If you want my full rant on that, just search “Barefoot” on this site and you’ll find it. And this Pinot Grigio is no exception to the “no vintage” issue. In fact, you’ll notice on the label of this wine that they have a very prominent sticker boasting a Gold Medal at the 2007 Monterey International Wine Competition. Well, I have some news for you… If you’re buying a bottle of Barefoot wine in 2009 with a sticker touting a wine competition award from 2007, it’s highly unlikely that the grapes in the bottle you’re purchasing are from the same vintage as the wine that was awarded. And if it is from that vintage, it’s past it’s prime!
All that said, I tasted this wine in part of a blind tasting lineup. So, my bias wasn’t able to influence the notes and rating.
The nose is soft, but has a little spiciness and a very slight mineral characteristic. Violets, lime and very soft flint make the bouquet. The palate is full of citrus flavors and has sufficient acidity to give make it refreshing. Lemon, lime and apple on the palate make for a non-elegant, but enjoyable wine. A little bit of the classic Pinot Grigio perfume comes to life on the finish. Not a bad wine.
Wine: Barefoot
Variety: Pinot Grigio
Vintage: n/a
Alcohol: 13%
Rating: 86
Price: $6.99
Prev