YARD DOG, BLEND - $10.99

YARD DOG, 2009 - Red Heads Studio - South Australia.

I bought this bottle for $10.00 and was completely surprised by the blend.

The nose on this wine is purple. That's the best way I can explain it. It's violet and purple smelling - the way that lavender or grape soda smells - with a deep dark color that veers towards almost being brownish. I know, odd.

The first sip is soft and delicate with nice fruit that's strong in the currant and blackberry world; ripe black plum and dark chocolate tastes are in there too, but the real surprise is the mouth feel. It's silky and creamy, and then out of nowhere there's this amazing spice that lingers all over your tongue and inside your cheeks.

This elegant, spicy mouth feel is almost like eating Red Hots when you were a kid; and the hot of the distant cinnamon blends so well with the berries, and violet, and notes of dark-dark chocolate that you'll want to keep recreating this experience. Hold the wine in your mouth for a moment and really taste it and let your senses feel the spice; swallow, then take a deep breath and taste the way the chocolate clings to your exhale. It's a wine that's easy to understand and appreciate.

You don't often see a blending of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Petit Verdot that isn't a bordeaux (those being three of the five main blending grapes used to make a red bordeaux). What's interesting about this bottle is that it's 60% Petit Verdot, and that's where this delicate purple sensation is coming from, along with part of the delicacy of that amazing spice. The rest of the spice is coming from the generous 25% portion of Cabernet Sauvignon, which is also adding a bit of backbone. And the remaining 15% being Merlot, well, that's the softness - that silky, velvety feel holding it all together.

This is one amazing bottle of wine - especially for $10 bucks.  Since finishing my bottle I've been thinking about it more and more and considering my next meal.

PAIRING:

For this one: BBQ! Ribs, chicken or duck, something rich and flavorful with a sweetness.  Or pizza even. It has enough acid to stand up to tomato sauce without a problem, and any toppings, too. And if you're planning a night of cheese and a baguette, then try out some stronger cheeses, like an aged cheddar, or a washed rind brie.

BARISTA, PINOTAGE - $16.99

BARISTA, 2009 Pintoage - Val de Vie - West Cape, South Africa.

For all of you coffee lovers out there, this is a must try.  Notes of ripe berry, dark chocolate and, that's right, coffee. And not a little bit either. This isn't one of those distant flavors that make you think oh yeah, I get that, after someone points it out. You'll find it all by yourself.

Now, $16.99 is a little more than I like to spend on a bottle. I don't make a good living, but I enjoy wine immensely, thus I must budget. Time and time again I've been forced to offer my pickled soul to the mercy of Three-Buck-Chuck, but every once and a while even we poverty stricken peasants must allow ourselves to eat cake - and when we do, we might as well make it coffee cake.

Color: This is a rich dark one. A deep purple monster that coats the inside of your glass with a sheet of ink, as if filled with melted blackberries.

On the nose: at first you get mostly berry - current maybe - with faint mineral and hints of that coffee, but that's when you first crack this sucker open. Give it a while. As the wine opens, breathes and relaxes, the fruit notes start to fall away into a supporting roll, and the true hero shows up.

The first sip: The current shines through, in my opinion. Along with soft, ripe berries and some dark cherry is there too. As the tannins start to do their thing you begin to taste a bitter sweet chocolate dryness, but hold the wine there for a moment or two and pull some air over it. By pulling the air over the wine while it's in your mouth you're going to get a preview of the full expression this grape has to offer.  When you're done aerating you'll taste that coffee in the murky, moist breath hovering over the pool of wine in your mouth, and lingering in your sinus.

The finish: A soft and silky mouth feel ends in a creamy coating as this wine goes down, releasing bits of chocolate and coffee onto your breath, along with the memory of the jam you might have been expecting, but never fully met.

Keep in mind that these tasting notes are all from when you first open this bottle. Take your time with this one, don't rush a wonderful thing and savor this wine. Talk about it. Forget about it. Drink it and enjoy, but give it that time it needs to get use to you.

Mid bottle: Like any shy thing, it needs to let its guard down. When it does, what you'll have is a nose that is every bit a shot of espresso with steamed milk and a spoon full of raw sugar; and you'll taste an espresso bean coated in dark chocolate then drizzled with blackberry syrup.

Pinotage is a South African grape that naturally has mild acid, coffee, chocolate and fruit notes. Not quite like this bottle, but their there if you really try to find them. The pronounced coffee in BARISTA (which is 100% pinotage) comes from a special yeast used in the fermentation process that enhances the coffee notes, so don't expect all pinotages to taste quite like this. This is a truly unique and wonderful wine.

PAIRING:

This wine is going to go great with something as simple as a burger. However, if you're looking for some ideas slightly more specific, try either a pork tenderloin or filet mignon wrapped with bacon, sauteed mushrooms and / or fried leeks. Or, try orange duck, or even better: Peking Duck.  Soft cheeses will be nice as well. And for dessert: lemon sorbet sprinkled with zest. Dark chocolate; fresh mango; even a simple scoop of vanilla ice cream will go nicely. For me, personally, I'm reaching for Ben & Jerry's Chubby Hubby.

CHARLES & CHARLES, Cab. / Syrah blend - $10.99

CHARLES & CHARLES, 2009 - Charles Smith Wines - Walla Walla, Washington.

Let's face it, not many people go out to buy a bottle of wine so they can store it away in a cellar and let it age. If you're anything like me, you buy a bottle of wine with the intention of drinking it inside of a few days. Actually, a bottle usually doesn't last that long with me. I'll have the cork wrestled out, or the cap wrenched off, within a few hours of leaving the store - but that's me.

Personally, I believe that  a good wine doesn't have to be expensive to be good.  In my opinion, a good wine is the wine you like; and while there's usually a huge difference between a $4 bottle and a $10 bottle, there often isn't as much difference as you might think between a $10 bottle and a $20 bottle - if you choose the right one, that is. And Charles & Charles ($9.99) is one of the right ones. This is a big red - deep and bold - one that lets you sit back and think about it.

Color: Rich and dark, deep, deep purple with a thick and dense quality that, when considering the legs, could be called syrupy.

On the nose: You'll quickly be able to pick out dark cherry, current and black pepper. Really get in there and let that jammy vapor linger inside your senses. Depending on the person, somewhere between 75 and 90 percent of what we taste is actually coming from our sense of smell. Don't try to smell it the way you would smell milk to see if it's sour, imagine the bouquet is its own thing and you're trying to see something completely invisible, until you close your eyes. Get your nose in there and draw the bouquet gently and slowly - don't be greedy - it's as if you're trying to coax something otherwise shy into revealing its true self. Then, and only then, will you be able to pick up these amazing subtle notes of brown sugar, and dark chocolate, mild tobacco and baking spices.

The first sip: Take a big one and don't be delicate here, because the moment the wine enters your mouth you'll be overwhelmed with blackberry preserves, ripe black plum, and you'll have to fight the urge to chew and really sink your teeth in. Hold the wine for a moment and feel it surrounding your tongue and layering the inside of your mouth.

This wine is 51% Cabernet Sauvignon and 49% Syrah. All that jammy, ripe fruit is coming from the Syrah, but those darker flavors are coming from the Cabernet. Right in the middle of your tongue you're going to start tasting the Cabernet pushing its way through. It'll show its self in the form of a dusty, earthy faint mushroom quality that will quickly be enhanced by a hint of coffee. You'll start to feel the tannic acid coming in as it coats the inside of your cheeks with a wonderful, bitter tackiness that will wash itself away when you swallow.

The Finish: On the back of your tongue as you swallow the wine you'll pick up the flavor of dark chocolate, along with that soft sting that's always anticipated after eating a dark piece of chocolate, but it doesn't really go away. The sensation lingers with the delicate simmer of a mild chili pepper as the wine goes down. Instantly, you exhale a plume of ripe cherry and chocolate that will drive you towards a moment of silence, and then another obsessive sip.

PAIRING:

Barbecued anything for this wine. Also, think about a rich burger. This is a wine that's made for ground beef and a fun, casual setting. Roasted chicken, grilled pork tenderloin, or even ... pizza. (Any wine that goes with pizza is okay by me.)  While this is an easy-going wine, I wouldn't try to pair it to anything mild, so fish would be out, unless you're talking something like blackened salmon. As for CHEESE: Cypress Grove Truffle Tremor goat cheese would be a natural match. Also, a mild blue cheese topped with a fruit preserve.

TRES OJOS, Old Vine Granacha, $8.95

Tres Ojos, 2007 Old Vine Garnacha - Bodega San Gregorio - Calatayud, Spain.

The other day I walked into a wine store, one that I have walked past several times but never entered. From the outside it looks pretentious and intimidating; the sort of place where snobs gather for expensive tasting classes to learn how to discuss the abstract details of one of those bottles of  Chateau du Blah-Blah.

I wandered the bottles until the clerk eventually offered me a recommendation, prompting me to explain that I was only looking. I had already spent my weekly wine allowance on a rather uninspiring bottle of bordeaux, for which I had had high hopes.

Finding a great bottle - a hidden gem - for under $10 (including tax) is sometimes like panning for gold, especially in a small independent wine shop that isn't going to get great deals because buying in huge quantities isn't always possible. Sometimes you need a prospector who knows the lay of the land to aim you in the right direction, so I asked the clerk what he would buy if he only had a ten dollar bill in his pocket, and he took me right to the Tres Ojos old vine garnacha, for $8.95

Now, an old vine anything for under $20 in my book is usually a waste of time and money, but he told me that while he himself hadn't tried it, the owner of the store instructed him to take anyone on a budget to this bottle, saying that it was the best bottle he had ever had for the buck.

No truer words have ever been spoken.

Color: A rich, dark garnet color coats the inside of the glass, allowing through little glints of distant light refracting up the glasses stem, releasing a mysterious glimmer, the way a gem only hints at its own sparkle.

A quick swirl to release the bouquet leaves a high tide mark where the syrupy juice holds for a moment before forming into tightly defined, sticky drips.  As the legs very slowly make their decent, they offer an idea as to the wine's concentration, the same way that a simple wink allows another person to infer an unsaid truth.

On the nose: I think of milk chocolate cherry cordials, the kind that dribble into an anticipated sticky mess the moment you bite.  The cherry notes are only muted by the spice - nutmeg I think - and bringing up the rear is a soft layer of mineral.  This is a big, jammy nose, with lots to find if you're so incline to keep the glass to your face like an oxygen mask.

The first sip: Red, hard candy, like the flavor of a cherry Jolly Rancher, but without the sugary sweet.  As the wine falls across your palate and warms, it releases all of these flavors - layering one after the next - from cassis to clove, to tobacco, then cinnamon and pepper.

The spices come alive as the tannins kick in. A walnut bitter coats your tongue like an electric blanket and warms all your senses. The mouth feel of the juice itself is quite silky, and as you're realizing this your cheeks become coated with the bitter tackiness of the tannins - and then your gums.

Don't be afraid of this creeping tannic sensation. For a moment you think it's going to be a bit too much, but like dripping candle wax onto your hand, you quickly begin to enjoy defying the sting.

The finish: As the wine reaches the back of your throat and starts to fall, there's the feeling of a cartoon fuse sizzling towards a skyrocket. Just out of sight the fuse catches up with the wine and there's an explosion of heat that falls with a warming sensation down the back of your throat, complete with the sting of  juicy firework flares cascading into darkness.

The lingering tannins cling to your gums and your cheeks, and make your tongue feel like sandpaper, but it all licks away clean and you instantly want another sip of the bold, jammy beast.

Tres Ojos is 100% Garnacha from 40 - 50 year old non-irrigated vines.

The older the vine, the less fruit it produces, but the fruit it does produce is more concentrated. Another factor in the concentration of the juice is lack of water. When the vine has to work to nourish the fruit, you taste more of the surrounding soil and less of the water.

Pairing:

You might think I'm crazy: eggs. An egg salad sandwich for lunch with a glass of Tres Ojos would be decadent. I'll also suggest the obvious: a rich, hearty beef stew; mushroom risotto; a grilled steak burrito with lots of guacamole and salsa. For something lighter, consider a salad with tomatoes, feta and mandarin orange slices dressed with olive oil and sea salt.  Cheeses: Maytag blue cheese - an Iowa blue that you can probably find at any Whole Foods. Dessert: Black forrest cake; freshly sliced mango; butter pecan ice cream.