Chibebräu Wine--A Homebrewer's Take On Cheap(ish) Wine

Kanga Reserve Merlot

2009-10-22T19:12:00.003-05:00

I have a dirty little secret: I buy cheap wine for my grandma. And when I say cheap wine, I'm talking even cheap by my standards. Like under $5 cheap. Now, in my defense, I have a very good reason for this. First of all, my grandma lost her sense of smell several years ago, so she's not very discriminating when it comes to wine these days. Second of all, when we have family parties, she's usually the only one, so we end up cracking a whole bottle of wine to pour maybe two glasses tops, and then we forget about it and end up throwing it out. So my decision to buy cheap wine for my grandma isn't a case of disrespecting my elders; it's a matter of being practical.

With that being said, we had the immediate family over for my dad's birthday last weekend, and I wasn't sure if my grandma would be there or not so I scoured my local grocery store for a cheap red on sale. I ended up settling on a bottle of Kanga Reserve Merlot. I want to say it was on sale for $4.99, though it may have been $5.99. Well, it turns out my grandma didn't come over, so the wine wasn't opened.

Fast forward to today. For reasons unbeknownst to me, Leah decided to pop open a bottle of wine with dinner (I say reasons unbeknownst to me because we had pork chops; usually we only bust out reds with pasta). I take a sip and instantly remarked, "This is good! Which wine is it?" Well, at this point you know damn well that it's the Kanga Reserve Merlot, but I didn't. As you can imagine, I was surprised to say the least. So let's get to the review...

The wine poured a thin, slightly rusty red color. The aroma is sweet and fruity; red grapes and cherry with just a hint of butteriness. No real acidity or tannins or oak.

The taste is slightly sweet up front but kind of dry so that it's not sugary. As it sits in your mouth, you get some of that buttery flavor again (in a good, full way) along with a hint of oak.
The finish is stone fruit and more butter, with a hint of pepper; there's a slight dryness that's either oak, alcohol, or a bit of the two, but whatever it is it's nice.

I'd love to do a blind tasting of this with some wine experts to see what their response would be. Even in my ignorance some cheap wines taste cheap, but this one really tasted good. Unfortunately, the lack of info on the winery on Google, combined with a rather perplexing webpage (to which I linked above), leads me to wonder what the deal is with this winery. Is it some sort of dumping ground for excess wine where you might get a good bottle one day and a bad one the next? I guess the only way to find out is to buy another bottle. And I will definitely do that, because on the patented Chibebräu Wine scale (skip it, only if it's on sale, or buy it again), this one's definitely a buy it again.

On a side note, I think I'm starting to realize I like Merlot. I know that many frown upon it these days (see my discussion in this old post), but I'm not one to care what others think. So vive le Merlot!

P.S. In case you're wondering what the deal is with the picture above, well, I couldn't find any pictures of the wine online and when I tried to rotate the picture I took of the wine myself, it gave me an error when I tried to save and then the picture disappeared and I was too laazy to take and import another one. So, since it's an Australian wine, you'll have to settle for a picture form one of the all-time classic Simpsons episodes, Bart vs. Australia.

Mirassou Pinot Noir (2008)

2009-10-12T20:20:00.002-05:00

So today Leah sends me a message before I leave work:

vodka/cream/tomato/shrimp sauce for linguini tonight

want to pick up a wine for it?

What the hell goes with vodka/cream/tomato/shrimp sauce? I thought whites go with cream and seafood, but reds go with tomato sauces and pasta, and orange juice goes with vodka. So should I get some red/white/OJ blend? That didn't sound like a good idea, so I asked my friend Puja (who teaches me about wine in exchange for me teaching her about beer) and she recommended a light Pinot Noir (specifically Mirassou Pinot Noir). I then decided to ask my Facebook friends (by which I mean my real-life friends who also happen to be on Facebook) for recommendations. I received some great suggestions (Pinot Noir Rose, Grüner, Chianti Classico, Amarone, anything Spanish) but given that my corner liquor store didn't have the first two suggestions and the other ones didn't come in until after I left the store, I ended up going with Puja's suggestion (and she's yet to steer me wrong, so I figured it was a safe bet).

So how did it turn out? Well, first of all, Leah's dinner was awesome. And the wine? Well, it poured a rather opaque cranberry color that looked thin (and I guess that's what I was going for). The aroma was likewise delicate... it was almost like smelling Koolade. No tannins, no oak, no acidity. Just the light, floral scent of berries.

I suppose it should come as no surprise that the flavor was--like the appearance and smell--light. But actually, it was just light up front. Once it hit the back of the palate, you got a rush of berries and stone fruit, along with a nice, dry tannic finish. There was some oakiness in the finish as well, but nothing thick like I get from a Merlot. Once again, Puja hit the nail on the head (and kept it one penny below the $10 mark... before the stupid Cook County taxes, that is).

So, on the patented Chibebräu Wine scale (skip it, only if it's on sale, or buy it again), I would rate this one a buy it again, though I would really pounce on it if it were on sale.

Smoking Loon Sauvignon Blanc

2009-09-08T21:01:00.003-05:00

Yeah, it's been a while since I posted a wine review. Ironically, we've probably been drinking more wine lately, since Leah's had over six months to get her drinking legs back under her. However, as the kids have become more of a handful, I find myself less motivated to review the wines after finishing off the bottle.

Excuses aside, tonight we busted out an old standby--Smoking Loon--to accompany our chicken and veggie kabobs. I'll admit I'm a sucker for Smoking Loon just for the corks (which read "“whooh whooh cough whooh”) and their wines are solid, if not spectacular, at a low price. This time we had the Cabernet Sauvignon.

It poured a pale honey color with a thin body. The aroma is what I would consider the standard white wine bouquet, sugary sweetness with hints of grape and green apple, and an acidic tang.

The taste is acidic up front, with a smooth honey-sweet fruitiness in the middle. There's also a hint of vanilla in it, with just enough alcohol and dryness in the finish to keep it from being too sweet. As I've experienced in the past, it's nothing amazing but solid for a cheap table wine. On the patented Chibebräu Wine scale (skip it, only if it's on sale, or buy it again), I would rate this one a buy it again, with the caveat that at its price point it also qualifies as "buy it if nothing else is on sale."

Cycles Gladiator Cabernet Sauvignon (2006)

2009-06-10T19:48:00.003-05:00

After a bit of a break, we're back with a new review! It's not that we haven't been drinking any wine lately; to the contrary, now that Leah's no longer pregnant, we've been drinking more wine. However, the flip-side to Leah not being pregnant is we have another child to keep an eye on, and I'll blame him for the lack of reviews lately.

Excuses aside, this evening I grabbed a bottle of Cycles Gladiator Cabernet Sauvignon to enjoy with our gorgonzola ravioli (courtesy of Trader Joe's) and meat sauce (courtesy of Leah's mom). I scored it for $8.99 (regularly $9.99) from our local liquor store. The shelf talker at the store mentioned oak and cedar and that was all I needed to hear.

The wine poured a pretty dark, almost blood-like color (I blame this description on recently starting to watch True Blood). The nose smelled rather oaky with hints of dark stone fruit; overall I would describe it as a "meaty" aroma, if that makes any sense.

The flavor was rather full, which I like. Up front you get a thick flavor of currants and cherries but this is quickly balanced by mouth-drying tannins and woody flavors (I can pick up the cedar since it was mentioned, but I'm not sure if I would've picked it out on my own). The finish is rather dry and peppery. It has an earthy quality that's a nice change of pace from the fruitier wines we've seemed to keep coming across lately.

I definitely like this wine as a nice red to go with heartier meals. It's full without being overbearing, and relatively complex without being crazy by any means. At $9 a bottle, it's definitely worth picking up. On the patented Chibebräu Wine scale (skip it, only if it's on sale, or buy it again), I would rate this one an only if it's on sale, though it's right on the cusp of buy it again.

Meridian Merlot (2005)

2009-03-30T20:35:00.004-05:00

So all I really know about Merlot is that some character in the movie Sideways (which I've never seen, incidentally) really hated it and loved Pinot noir (a varietal which, incidentally, is a favorite of my wine-loving co-workers). Wanting to learn more, I did a little googling and found this article which does a nice job of contrasting the two styles. Much to my surprise, I learned that Merlot is actually the bigger, heartier wine. I guess, coming from the world of beer where bigger is generally considered better, I was expecting the opposite. You learn something new every day, I suppose...

Anyway, on to the wine. Today we busted out a bottle of Meridian Merlot, which--if I recall correctly--was on sale for $4.99 (regularly $10.99). These are the kinds of deals I shoot for! It poured a murky, bloody deep burgundy color. It definitely had some legs (as I learned during a wine tasting a few years ago) and seemed rather thick and inky.

The aroma was one of muted sweetness, if that makes sense. I guess stone fruit dominated, but I wasn't picking up much spiciness otherwise. Not bad, though not terribly complex.

The taste was as thick as it appeared. I can't really explain it, but it felt heavy in my mouth. There was a nice sweetness up front--grape and cherry notes with a slight earthiness that was balanced by just enough mouth-drying tannins. It finished dry, which kept this from being sweet. No acidic notes I've noticed from other reds and most whites... in that sense I guess it's kind of simple. There was a slight oakiness to the finish.

Overall, I liked it. While the flavor wasn't terribly multi-dimensional, what was there was bold. It was strong enough to stand up to whatever you eat with it without becoming distracting. I guess in that sense it was kind of like the Ramones... Loud but still straightforward. Personally, I really enjoyed it, Sideways be damned. On the patented Chibebräu Wine scale (skip it, only if it's on sale, or buy it again), I would rate this one a buy it again.

Ravenswood Vitner's Blend Chardonnay (2007)

2009-02-14T19:29:00.005-06:00

This Valentine's Day evening, as we anxiously await the impending arrival of our second child, Leah decided to make some French onion soup. Apparently the recipe called for some white wine, so that meant the rest of the bottle for me! Since Leah cooks quite a bit with wine, she usually keeps some cheaper wine on hand for such occasions. Tonight she busted out a Ravenswood Vitner's Blend Chardonnay. She thinks it was around $5 at Trader Joe's.

As I've mentioned before, I tend to like my white wines dry, and usually cheaper whites are sweeter than ... um ... sugar-coated honey? Sorry, I know there's a clever joke to be made there but I'm drawing a blank. Anyway, this general observation caused me to be a bit concerned. The wine poured a pale straw color with a very thin appearance. The aroma suggested your typical sweet white; sweet grape and sugar aromas with some pear and a slight sour note.

The wine was definitely sweet up front. Cane sugar with white grape and apple sweetness greeted the tongue. The finish was likewise sweet; not dessert wine sweet but sweeter than I usually like. However, something strange happened. I finished the first sip and I wanted another one! I think the reason is that there's a nice tart, acidic finish that cuts the sweetness. The end result is a cheap, sweet white wine I actually like!

Is this an earth-shattering wine? Definitely not. But I think it'll be a great wine to keep on hand for nights just like this (by which I mean nights where we need white wine for cooking; not nights when Leah is due to give birth). Given the minuscule price tag*, on the patented Chibebräu Wine scale (skip it, only if it's on sale, or buy it again) this is definitely a buy it again .

*Just an FYI, various websites list this as between $10 and $11 a bottle, so it may have been on super sale.

HRM Rex Goliath Cabernet Sauvingnon

2009-01-08T20:12:00.003-06:00

Wow... It's not even January 10th and already two posts on the wine blog! Not too shabby for a beer guy with a pregnant wife, eh?

But enough chit-chat; let's get on to the wine! I have a good friend at work who's teaching me about wine as I teach her about beer. Yeah, it's a pretty good gig. Anyway, right before Christmas she brought in this bottle with a rooster on it. She told me it's an awesome table wine and it usually clocks in below ten bucks. Now that's my kind of wine! And best of all, she gave me the bottle. Like I said, it's a good gig.

So today Leah made some pasta and meat sauce (or "linguini bolognese" if we want to sound fancy) and decided to bust out this bottle of HRM Rex Goliath Cabernet Sauvingnon. It poured a very dark ruby color. It smelled meaty, by which I mean not overly floral or fruity. For whatever reason, the nose told me this was going to be a hearty wine.

Turns out my nose was right... This was a pretty complex wine, especially for the price. The initial sweetness that hits your tongue is muted by an oaky dryness mixed with some tannins. You get the taste of stone fruit in the middle, but it quickly dissolves into notes of black pepper and a finish dry from tannins and alcohol. Leah quickly noted that it's a good thing we had this with a hearty meat sauce, as it likely would've overpowered lighter fare. (And on a side note, yes, my pregnant wife had a half glass of wine with dinner; the baby will be just fine.)

Overall, this wine definitely stood out and I'll be sure to seek out the other offerings from this winery, especially when there's nothing on sale that grabs my eye. If this were a $15 wine, I'd probably wait to find it on sale, but at $8 a pop, this qualifies as a buy it again on the patented Chibebräu Wine scale (skip it, only if it's on sale, or buy it again). Thanks for the bottle, Puja!

Saint-Hilaire Blanquette de Limoux Extra Dry Sparkling White Wine (2004)

2009-01-03T20:37:00.005-06:00

(Those are strawberry bits in the glass on the left, in case you were wondering...)

I suppose it's only fitting that my first post of 2009 is a ~~champagne~~ sparkling white wine. Interestingly enough, though the Saint-Hilaire Blanquette de Limoux fails to qualify as a champagne because it comes from the wrong region of France, I found several sources that claim that monks were making this sparkling wine 150 years before the first "real" champagne. Sort of the Trappist ale of sparkling wines, I suppose... Snagged a bottle of the brut (extra dry) for $13 on my way home from work on New Year's Eve.

If you've read this blog before, you know I'm pretty ignorant when it comes to wine. That being said, I don't know if sparkling wines like this get a discount because they're not technically champagne, but I thought this drank way above its price tag. Like all New Year's beverages, it poured an effervescent light straw color with a rapidly-dissipating head. The nose was a wonderful combination of sweet grapes and honey with some subtle bready yeast notes.

Tasting the wine, I actually found it to be a bit sweet for a brut, though my wife disagreed (and she likes her wine quite dry) so maybe I'm just getting too used to dry wines. Regardless, it was a good, fruity sweet rather than a cheap, syrupy sweet. It's hard for me to pick out the specific sweet flavors (white grape juice would seem a bit redundant) but I would say there's some honey and cotton candy in the profile. As you swallow, the acidity keeps the sweetness from being cloying, along with a dryness of grape skins and apple peel. The finish is just dry enough to leave you coming back for another sip without becoming mouth-puckering.

Overall, a great wine to start off the New Year. I seriously wonder if this sparkling wine would be substantially more expensive if it were produced in the Champagne region of France. Either way, a great wine at a great price. On the patented Chibebräu Wine scale (skip it, only if it's on sale, or buy it again), this one is definitely a buy it again. Happy New Year!

2006 Ravenswood Vitners Blend California Zinfandel

2008-11-17T19:22:00.002-06:00

Okay, I have to leave for the airport in 45 minutes, so I'm going to make this short and sweet. Overall, I like this wine that I snagged for $8.99 (regularly $10.99). It's fruity up front (and not overly so), but has a nice oaky middle to it and a just-dry-enough finish. It seems full-bodied but not thick. The label says it's all things to all wine drinkers, and I'd have to agree. I could see this pairing with anything from steak to Italian to cheese and crackers. On the patented Chibebräu Wine scale (skip it, only if it's on sale, or buy it again), I'll have to rate this one: buy it again. Now it's time for me to pack!

Costalupe Illuminati Controguerra Bianco (2005)

2008-10-20T20:43:00.003-05:00

So, Leah sends me an email a half hour before I leave work. "Can you pick up a bottle of white wine on your way home for deglazing?" Now I'm still not exactly sure what deglazing is, but I say sure. As I walk into our local liquor store, I immediately head for the clearance rack and find a bottle labeled "Illuminati." I've always been fascinated by conspiracy theories, so of course it catches my eye. It's a white wine (per my wife's instructions), it's under $10 (marked down from $12.99 to $9.99) and the label says it's dry, so it meets my three criteria.

The funny thing is, I have no idea what the hell a "controguerra bianco" is (though I'm assuming the first word means "anti-war?"). A google search only found Italian pages and poorly-translated English pages, so I still wasn't entirely sure what it is. Further searching has revealed Controguerra is a region of the Teramo province of Italy. So all I had figured out is it's a white wine from the Controguerra region of Italy. Um, okay... Finally, I found this page which proved that Illuminati is the winery, and I guess Costalupo is the style?

Anyway, on to the review. The nose on this wine is rather tart. You pick up just a hint of a floral, almost herbal aroma, but it's dominated by what I could best describe as an acidic smell. Taking a sip, the wine feels a little heavy and isn't really sweet up front. In fact, it's hard to pinpoint exactly what the initial flavor is. It's very subdued, with hints of apple and pear but tart and alcoholic more than anything. As you swallow, it indeed finishes dry--and again an acidic tang--but it doesn't have that fruitiness up front that I expect from a white wine (even a dry one). It also doesn't have any oakiness or anything else to hang your hat on. It's just kind of there.

So, on the patented Chibebräu Wine scale (skip it, only if it's on sale, or buy it again), I'll have to rate this one: skip it. But on the plus side, it's made me realize one of the things I like from a good white wine: fruitiness. While I really like my white wines dry, dry and fruity can go together (insert your own joke here). Just as a good Pilsner has a strong malt profile up front before the crisp, dry finish, so can a good white wine have a nice fruity flavor profile before the dry finish. Now if only I knew how to apply this knowledge to other white wines (since I'm assuming there aren't a ton of costalupe controguerra biacos floating out there).

August Kesseler Kabinett Riesling - Trocken (2005)

2008-09-23T20:16:00.004-05:00

My love of beer started when I studied in Germany (Reutlingen, to be specific) in the spring of 1999. Yet while many associate Germany with beer, they also have a proud winemaking tradition. As such, I quickly became familiar with German wine, and particularly the ubiquitous Riesling. The funny thing is while Americans generally associate Rieslings with sweet wines, there are many excellent dry (Trocken) or semi-dry (Halbtrocken) Rieslings available at your local Getränkmarkt. I much prefer the crisp, dry varieties, which unfortunately means taking more time and spending more money here in the States.

Tonight Leah made some Hühner (chicken) Schnitzel mit Spätzle for dinner, and while I had a couple bottles of Left Hand Oktoberfest Märzen in the fridge I decided to finally bust open my bottle of August Kesseler Kabinett Riesling (Trocken) that I've been sitting on seemingly forever. See, here's the problem... White wines need to be refrigerated, and I generally don't think far enough ahead to throw the wine in the fridge ahead of time. Plus, we generally only drink wines with Italian food, and that generally dictates red wine. So the end result is we've had this bottle of Reisling for at least a year. And the problem with that is while we kept it down in the basement it still wasn't optimal conditions during the summer. Nonetheless I'll go ahead and review it with the caveat that it probably hasn't aged as well as it would have in a proper cellar.

The good news was when I poured it in my glass there wasn't anything noticeably offensive. It didn't have that nasty vinegar smell or that sickly sweet communion wine smell. Apparently it aged well considering the conditions. It had that tangy sweet, floral, cidery smell I associate with Rielslings. Upon taking a sip it was clean up front, with an acidic tartness giving way to your traditional Riesling sweetness of grape skins and green apple. Typical of a trocken Riesling, the sweetness was subdued. My one criticism of this wine would be that it didn't have that crisp finish I look for in a dry Riesling. It dried out a little with a slight alcohol burn but still left a tart sweetness on the back of my tongue. The problem is that I'm not sure if the residual sweetness is the result of improper storage. Overall, I found this to be a solid wine so I'll give it one more shot and try to drink it fresh next time. For now, however, on the patented Chibebräu Wine scale (skip it, only if it's on sale, or buy it again), I'll have to rate this one: only if it's on sale. Stay tuned for an updated review should I purchase this wine again.

Charles Shaw 2007 Shiraz

2008-08-22T19:52:00.001-05:00

For our second wine review, we offer the one, the only... Two Buck Chuck! Actually, at the Trader Joe's by us it's Three Buck Chuck these days, but hey, I can cough up an extra dollar.

FUN FACT: At the 2004 International Eastern Wine Competition, the 2002 Charles Shaw Shiraz beat out 2,300 wines to win a prestigious double gold medal.

Anyway, here's my take... For $3, you really can't beat this wine. That being said, I didn't like it as much as the Lindemans Bin 50 Shiraz. On the plus side, there wasn't anything disagreeable about the Two (Three) Buck Chuck. At the same time, it sort of lacked that pizazz that makes you come back for more. The wine started out sweet with a touch of tartness, and had a nice dry finish with ample tannins. My problem is that, unlike the Lindemans, the sweetness was just too one-dimensional. I wasn't picking up any stone fruit. I wasn't picking up any oak. It was just sort of a generic grape sweetness. As such, it's not a bad accompaniment with dinner where you're looking for the wine to play second fiddle to the food, but it's certainly not ready to be the headlining act. On the patented Chibebräu Wine scale (skip it, only if it's on sale, or buy it again), I'm rating this one: only if it's on sale. Of course, one could argue this is always on sale (I mean, it IS only $3), and one would have a point. This would be a good bottle to keep on hand as a table wine, but not particularly something I would enjoy having over and over and over again.

Lindemans Bin 50 Shiraz (2007)

2008-07-29T20:28:00.000-05:00

For the inaugural review, we have Lindemans Bin 50 Shiraz, an Australian offering that's regularly $11.49 but I scored for $5.99 at my local Jewel grocery store.

So I tend to like wines that are dry but fruity, and wines that have some body to them, and I've found that Shiraz/Syrah wines tend to fit the bill. What's interesting about this wine is that it's quite sweet but yet I still really enjoyed it. More specifically, it has a strong dark cherry/stone fruit flavor when it hits your tongue, but a tart, meaty (maybe oaky?) finish that seems to balance the sweetness. I'm bad with the whole tannin thing, so maybe it's the tannins that balance out the sweetness, but I don't think so. That being said, wikipedia says Syrah wines are known for their high tannic content, so I'm probably wrong. Whatever it is, I really like this one, and if you're fortunate to find one for the price I paid, I'd grab it in a heartbeat. On the patented Chibebräu Wine scale (skip it, only if it's on sale, or buy it again), I'm rating this one: buy it again.

So there you go, the first Chibebräu wine review. Here's to many more!

Welcome to Chibebräu Wine!

2008-07-29T20:01:00.000-05:00

Just a quick introduction... Leah and I are homebrewers who blog at chibebrau.blogspot.com. Despite our love of beer, we occasionally crave a good bottle of wine (usually red, usually dry, usually under $15, usually with Italian food). My method of purchasing wine can be described as follows:

1. Decide if I want a red or white.

2. If I want a white, skip to step 6.

3. If I want a red, go to local grocery store/drug store (or, if I'm feeling fancy, the local liquor store).

4. Find every wine that's regularly more than $10 but is on sale for less than $10.

5. Pick the wine with the largest difference between regular price and sale price (skipping Merlot unless it's a way expensive Merlot that's significantly on sale).

6. If in the mood for a white, decide if I want a Riesling or something else.

7. If I want a Riesling, pick the cheapest one that's Trocken (dry) or Halb Trocken (half-dry). [Note: this usually requires going to a halfway decent liquor store.]

8. If I don't want a Riesling, or if I can't go to a good liquor store, look for any white that's under $10 and described as dry and, preferably, oaky.

So there you have it. As you can tell, I'm not a very sophisticated wine consumer. However, I'm planning on using this blog to keep track of the wines I try so I can be a more informed consumer in the future. If you happen to stumble upon this blog, I hope you find it helpful (either for buying wine yourself or curing insomnia). If you're a wine expert and you can't believe I think a certain wine is good, take pity on me. And if you're a wine expert whose idea of a good beer is Heineken or Stella Artois, consider us even.