$8 vs. $108

Our Scoop the Spectator 2012 contest runs for another week so you still have time to get your guesses. We're playing for a $200 gift card. $200! Check it out and if nothing else you'll find some great wine picks.

I've updated each of the entries (hit the comments and look at the replies for each wine) with wine-searcher.com links to make it easy to check retail availability of each of the wines. I'm sensing some panic buying occurring for wines like Donjon with folks sensing they want to buy their favorites before they might win and prices shoot up. Combined with Parker releasing his 2010 Rhone ratings yesterday these 2010 CdPs are hot.

If you're like me, you buy wines at all price points. Sometimes you might feel like you need to spend more than $30 to get a memorable bottle of wine. Other times you find a tasty value wine and you wonder why you'd ever consider spending $50 on a bottle of wine.

I thought it would be fun to compare two seemingly incomparable wines. A $100+ Tuscan red and a well regarded sub-$10 value play from California.

2006 Setti Ponte Oreno
96WS/$110 Release Price/3,250 Cases Produced
Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Sangiovese

This shows shades of brilliance but at its core it's still a Tuscan red: Brooding and relatively reserved aromatically, especially in its youth. Layers of aromas -- inviting dark fruit, tar, bay leaf -- reveal themselves bits at a time, but this may need more time to come out of its shell. Rating it for now.

91 WWP: Oustanding

CellarTracker
Wine-Searcher


2011 Apothic Red
Zinfandel, Merlot, Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon
Around $8

Sweet fruit, brambly berries, and a hint of briar patch dustiness on the nose. This continues on the palate but are joined by a touch of appealing earthiness, hard candy, and caramel apple. The skeptic might sense some artificial influence here. But if it's manipulated, it's well manipulated.

88 WWP: Very Good

CellarTracker
Wine-Searcher
Purchased At


You know what? I may have enjoyed the $8 a bit more at times. Lots of delicious flavor. No fuss. No guilt. I'm not saying the Apothic Red is better than the Oreno. I'm just saying that sometimes $10 is all you need to spend for a perfectly enjoyable bottle of wine. And if you don't find yourself in a situation to truly enjoy a wine like the Oreno it may be a waste of money.

Footnote: What's up with the price of Oreno in Massachusetts? It sells for over $100 here and I regularly see it offered in other states for around $50. Even as low as $40. And often in California - further from Italy. I know it's different distributors offering it at different prices in different states so retailers aren't to blame. But c'mon - how can consumers be expected to buy from local retailers with price disparaties like this?

What do you think?

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WBW 74: Value Sparkling Wine

Sparkling wine is thought of by most American’s as a luxury to be consumed on special occasions like weddings, graduations and New Year’s eve parties. And that’s a shame since sparkling wine is so versatile at the table, pairing with a wide variety of food, made all over the world and available at every price point. Perhaps [...]

WBW 74: Value Sparkling Wine originally appeared on Winecast. Licensed under Creative Commons.

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Bordeaux chateau demolished ?by mistake?

A Russian businessman bought a fixer-upper chateau dating from the 18th Century among the vines of Bordeaux. He ordered some renovations, went out of town, and returned to find the entire chateau a pile of rubble. Reports vary on the size of the fixer-upper, but the rental site for the chateau said you could have [...]

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Starts Now! Scoop the Spectator 2012

Update: This contest has closed and we're waiting to see who Spectator names Wine of the Year!

This post serves as the official beginning of Scoop the Spectator 2012. This is the third year we've run this contest. The idea? To guess Wine Spectator's Wine of the Year before they announce it and prices for that wine shoot through the roof.

Demand for Wine Spectator's Wine of the Year often skyrockets, perhaps irrationally. Last year's winner -- the 2009 Kosta Browne Sonoma Coast Pinot Noir (95WS/$52 Release Price) -- now sells for upwards of $200.

This year we're playing for a $200 Amazon.com gift card - sponsored by New York wine retailer Grapes the Wine Company (mystery shopper store review).

The Spectator unveiling begins Monday, November 12th 2012. Our contest runs from right now - Monday, October 29th 2012 at 9:00 am Eastern to Friday, November 9th 2012 at 11:59 pm Eastern.

Here are the rules we're playing by:

  1. Guesses are submitted as comments to this blog post. Select a specific bottling and include the vintage. For example, one of the past winners was the 2005 Columbia Crest Columbia Valley Reserve Cabernet Sauvignon. Another was the 2007 Saxum James Berry Vineyard Paso Robles. Here is a link to previous years as a reference. And here's what some of the guesses were last year.
  2. One guess per person.
  3. The first person to guess a specific wine "owns" that wine as their entry.  Subsequent guesses of the same wine aren't useful so look at the previous comments before submitting your entry.
  4. If nobody guesses the Wine of Year, the guess with the highest position on the list will win the prize.
  5. Not that they'd try, but Wine Spectator editors aren't allowed to enter.  And if you have inside information please don't spoil the fun for others by entering.  But if you do know please E-mail me and let me know. ;)
  6. The winner will receive a $200 Amazon.com gift card.
This contest is sponsored by Grapes the Wine Company - a fantastic New York wine retailer. Sign up for their newsletter. If you like wine deals like I do you won't be disappointed. My thanks to owner Daniel Posner for this sponsorship.

Subscribe to The Wellesley Wine Press to receive email notifications as the contest unfolds over the next few weeks

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WBW 76: Barossa Boomerang

Not too long ago I drank quite a bit of Australian wine, particularly Shiraz. Given that this grape, also known as Syrah, expresses greatness in the Barossa Valley I could not pass an opportunity to revisit this region for this months’ Wine Blogging Wednesday. Our host, Adam from Wine Zag, proposed we look for any [...]

WBW 76: Barossa Boomerang originally appeared on Winecast. Licensed under Creative Commons.

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