Jenny and I maintain a small wine collection for drinking
purposes, i.e., not as an investment. We will drink most of the
wines within one year of purchase although a few are being held
for aging. While we attempt to have a good selection, we do not
try to have some of everything. Looking at our collection and
our tasting notes, you will see a strong emphasis on West Coast,
Australian, and Chilean wines. We like good red Bordeaux and
Rhones as well as German whites but they are rarely available
locally in our price range. We find that we are drinking more
and more shiraz/syrah wines, now if only the local selection were
better.
Most of the wines we buy are priced in the $10.00-$15.00
range. For most varietals, $20.00 is our upper limit. We will
go to $25.00 on Shiraz, Zinfandels, Cabernet Sauvignon and
Bordeaux reds, and yes, we are aware that limit puts a lot of
great wine out of our reach. Unfortunately local distributors
have very small selections in our price range and a lot of wines
we would love to try simply can not be found here. Lately we
have been experimenting with lower priced wines in an attempt to
find something we can afford to drink more often. We were lucky
with the red, the Walnut Crest Rapel Valley Merlot 1996 is an
extraordinary value! We are still trying for a similar quality
white.
Local wine advice is somewhat limited so we tend to rely
on reviews, especially from Wine Spectator and Wine & Spirits.
As a rule of thumb, we do not buy wines rated at less than 87.
But our palates are always the final judges. We have and
will continue to purchase wines we have tasted and liked
regardless of their ratings.
We are very interested in wines from less well known wine producing states. Many of
these are American/French Hybrids, a few are from native American
species and of course some are from vinifera grapes. We have
visited wineries in Michigan,
Colorado, Kansas, Indiana, and Missouri
with more extensive visits still planned for the latter two and
Ohio as well.
Our collection was to be around 24 bottles but has slowly
grown
and now hovers around the 70+ mark. Below are listed our current
holdings. The number preceding the wine is the number of bottles
we have, followed by the producer/vineyard, vintage, the WS= Wine
Spectator rating (or Wine & Spirits (W&S), Wine News (WN), Wine
Enthusiast (WE), or Smartwine (SW)
especially if Wine Spectator did not review it), and the price we
paid, rounded to the nearest dollar. Following the Virtual
Cellar are links to my suggestions for Wine Novices and to our
tasting notes. We drink 3 or 4 bottles a week so new tasting
notes are constantly being added. Please check back from time to
time.
Our Virtual Wine Cellar
9 Cabernet Sauvignon
Arrowfield Cabernet-Merlot Southeastern Australia 1994; NR,
$12.00
Columbia Crest Columbia Valley 1994; WS=90, $9.00
Estancia Alexander Valley Meritage Red 1994; WS=92, $20.00
Hardy's Coonawarra 1994; WS=88, $11.00
Hedges Columbia Valley Cabernet-Merlot 1995; WS=87, $13.00
Hess Select California 1995; WS=86, $11.00
Rosemount South Eastern Australia 1996; WS=87, $11.00
Send
comments to Brad Coon
