Wednesday, January 1, 2014

Wine recommendation - Vinas Chilenas Sauvignon Blanc Reserva 2013

We like a lot of Sauvignon Blanc here at Camp Borepatch, and so I picked up a bottle at Trader Joe's absurdly low $4.49 list price.  This will be making an appearance in the wine cellar here.  This review doesn't do this justice, giving it only 85 points out of 100.  However, this is a crazy good price/performance ratio, and so while a New Zealand Marlborough Sauvignon will indeed be better, you will pay two and a half times as much.  This review is more in like with my thinking (although perhaps a little generous), but as with all reviews, your mileage may vary.

For daily white vin de table drinking, this has migrated pretty high up on my wine list.

4 comments:

Dave H said...

From the name I'm guessing it's Chilean? I've heard good things about their wines, but it doesn't seem to have gone to their heads yet. Hence the low price.

Borepatch said...

Dave H, that's exactly correct. There are some very good Chilean wines - also Argentinian, although my experience is that the Argentine ones are migrating towards higher price points.

20 years ago we got a crazy good Argentine wine (can't remember the label, unfortunately) which was every bit as good as Bordeaux deuxieme cru. It was a quarter the cost or less. Now it would be half the cost.

I'm at the point in my life where I love to get a great deal on a good wine. Any idiot can get a good bottle for $25. The question is whether you can for $5. This wine does it (assuming that you like Sauvignon Blanc).

But shopping the southern hemisphere (including Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa) will give you a bunch of decent wines at superior price points.

Actually, perhaps the best Sauvignon I ever had was in a restaurant in Jo'burg. I think it was $10 *restaurant* *price*, meaning it was $2 - $3. Don't think they exported to the US, and can't remember the label (more's the pity).

Dave H said...

We've got some pretty good wines up around this way, from the Finger Lakes and the Niagara Peninsula regions, but you're usually paying $8 to $15 a bottle. I'll take a closer look at the ones you suggested.

Jester said...

I will have to give that a bit of a look. I'm not much for drinking wine myself but I cook with it pretty frequently. (at least once a week.) I follow the line of thought that you don't add something to your food you would not drink or would not taste good on it's own so this sounds like it would be perfect for a glass now and again and some culinary use.