The Value Wine: 2004 Les Caves Joseph Bordeaux

Sometimes you just gotta buckle down and go cheap. Especially when you are kickin down 4 bottles with your fellow wine snob on a given night. Until recently, I always considered Liberty School to be the only value wine for me. But even at 11-13 bucks a pop, it can get a little pricey.

I was turned onto a 5 dollar value Bordeaux from Trader Joe's. Normally, Bordeaux are your very expensive French wine. When I say very expensive, I mean VERY expensive. An average bottle of decent Bordeaux (think something like a St Supery or Provenance) would set you back about 50 bucks, at the least. The 2004 Les Caves Joseph is an excellent alternative to these.

The wine itself is a very different wine to what I normally drink. It is a blend of 60% Merlot and 40% Cab grapes. Typically, I stay away from the Merlot scene, but this wine hides it very well. While nothing spectacular, it is extremely smooth and decently flavorful. I definitely recommend trying it. I recommend opening up the bottle about 30 minutes before you drink it. Decanter it if possible (see other blog about decanters), and pour a little into your glass. Be sure to swirl the shit out of the wine. This wine loves oxygen, and definitely needs it. For 5 bucks you can't go wrong!

Storage Solutions

So you got yourself a 2001 Silver Oak, a 2001 Joseph Phelps, maybe even a 2001 Jordan Cabernet... if you're smart you'll hold onto those and let them age. Now the question comes to mind, where to store them? Wine isn't something you leave out, being sensitive to sunlight and temperature changes, you really shouldn't be letting it sit on your kitchen countertop next to the oven.

One way to store them and this is how I do it is use a cooler. A simple igloo ice cooler is all you need. granted it is a pretty pedestrian remedy, it works fairly well, at least I hope. Just make sure to store bottles sideways and tuck the cooler away in a closet someplace cool.

Another way to do it is converting that old mini fridge you had in college into an inexpensive wine cooler. This is what Neel ended up doing and it seems to work well. Just remember to turn it down so it isn't so cold, you don't want to end up with frosty cabernets.

Wine coolers range from your affordable 8-bottle holders to massive industrial sized ones, from $100 to the thousands. Why spend it on that when you can spend it on more wine? Happy ghetto-rigging.

yellow tail cab 2004

not bad for $5.50. pretty strong vanilla flavor. Laurie likes it. now u go give it a spin.