With the arrival of cooler fall weather our tastes our definitely shifting towards reds.  And with the holidays around the core now is a great time to flesh out the wine collection before all the guests arrive.  We’ve reviewed three cabernets over the last few weeks and found two that definitely deserve your attention and one you should avoid.  They’re all available at your local grocery store (ours came from Vons aka Safeway) and all are under $15. Read the rest of this entry »

“A perfect summer day is when the sun is shining, the breeze is blowing, the birds are singing, and the lawn mower is broken.”  -James Dent

We’ve got a couple of requirements for wine on a summer afternoon: cold, refreshing, unfussy and in our glass.  As the day winds down We’re not interested in seeing how a wine’s “bouquet matures”.  We’re more concerned with seeing how it helps a great afternoon mature into a great evening. Read the rest of this entry »

In our house the 4th of July means burgers will be hitting the grill.  With that decided we can devote all of our energy to determining what wines to have with dinner.  Usually, I’d stay up late for months trying to come up with the perfect pairing for our burgers (not really), tasting thousands of wines (I wish), eating hundreds of burgers (no comment).  This year though my fine friends over at Wine Spectator agreed to my request to write a couple of articles on the subject (I actually never spoke with them but I was thinking about it and then the articles were there so I still say it was my idea).  Included on their list of wines for the 4th are a few grocery store staples which you should have no trouble finding at the local Safeway, Kroger, Vons, Ralphs, etc.  Best of all there are a number of relatively cheap wines on the list with reds ranging in price from $11-$16 and whites from $9-$12.  Listed below are our picks from the Wine Spectator articles.  Enjoy and happy 4th! Read the rest of this entry »

Do you usually drink Cristal Champagne but darn it the grocery store doesn’t carry it?  Never fear!  Both Costco and Vons currently have the excellent Roederer Estate Brut Champagne (technically, a sparkling wine) which is made by the same family that makes Cristal.  And although the price Read the rest of this entry »

The La Crema Chardonnay is part of the problem.  Here’s the funny thing, if you asked us if we prefer reds or whites we’d say “reds” without hesitation.  But as I look at which wines we’re reviewing the white’s section is definitely filling out much more quickly than the reds.  Awesome California Chardonnay like La Crema take a good chunk of the blame.  With a price just under Read the rest of this entry »

It’s Friday and what better way to celebrate than by swinging by the grocery store on your way home and picking up a bottle or five of wine.  Listed below are our picks for the week.

1. Champagne – Gloria Ferrer (on sale $15.98 at Safeway / Vons until 6/10)
2. Chardonnay – Bogle (on sale $8.98 at Safeway / Vons until 6/24)
3. Sauvignon Blanc – Dry Creek Vineyard (available at Safeway / Vons)
4. Cabernet Sauvignon – BV (on sale $7.76 at Safeway / Vons until 6/10)
5. Zinfandel – Edmeades (Costco)

Warning this wine could cause relationship issues!  Read on for details, but first a quick tangent:  A couple of years ago we were out to dinner with some friends and our waitress recommended a wine to us.  Very excited about the wine, the waitress came back seconds after pouring it asking how we liked it.  Someone mumbled something about it and the waitress said Read the rest of this entry »

Summer is here (even if the calendar still shows it being a month away).  And with summer comes warm weather, and with warm weather comes a desire to put off running the air conditioner for as long as possible, and with no a/c comes a house which is broiling by evening, and with broiling comes a need for a cool refreshing drink.  Some might say water is a logical choice but those people have clearly never had a tall cool glass of Kim Crawford. Read the rest of this entry »

Mmmm, my taste buds are watering just thinking about Gloria Ferrer champagne.  It’s one of our all time favorite grocery store finds (and occasionally makes an appearance at Costco).  Always under $20 and we’ve snagged it on sale at Vons for under $15.   It’s a delicious sparkling wine which is such a good deal we have no qualms breaking it out for even the most minor celebrations.  Listed below are four of the reasons we’ve used to break out the bubbly Read the rest of this entry »