That’s probably the most obvious and the lamest title anyone could come up with for this post, but so be it. The point is that these blended wines from X Winery will, um, hit the spot for your many wine needs this weekend, and in many states and cities, where wine and liquor stores stay open until 10 or 11 p.m., you have half a day in which to shop. X Winery released its first wines in 2001, beginning with 1600 cases. The result of Reed Renaudin’s thesis at Cal Poly-San Obispo, where he obtained an MBA, X Winery draws on highly-sought vineyards, such as Truchard and Sangiacomo in Carneros, Spring Mountain in Napa Valley and Roach Vineyards in St. Helena, for its reasonably priced wines. Its flagship wines, the Amicus Cabernet Sauvignon and Amicus Special Blend, at $55 and $45 respectively, are still reasonably priced for the quality and the competition. Today though, we’re looking at the bargain-priced White X and Red X wines. Winemakers are Reed Renaudin and Gina Richmond. These were samples for review.
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The X Winery White X 2010, North Coast, is a blend of 55 percent sauvignon blanc, 18 percent chardonnay, 16 percent riesling and 11 percent malvasia bianca. This is indeed a North Coast wine, deriving from Lake (43%), Mendocino (25%), Napa (18%) and Sonoma (14%) counties. White X is made in stainless steel. This is a fresh, crisp and perky wine that offers a bouquet of melon and pear, touches of quince, ginger, orange zest and roasted lemon, and beguiling notes of honeysuckle and jasmine. What’s interesting about this wine, besides the fact that it’s downright delicious, is the way in which you identify its components as you drink: “Ah, there a bit of sauvignon blanc herbaceousness and leafy fig. And there’s a hint of chardonnay’s body and grapefruit-pineapple character; riesling’s lime, peach and limestone; malvasia bianca’s spice and flowers,” and it all rolls seamlessly over your grateful taste buds to a dry, tart, slightly austere finish. We drank this one night with Jamie Oliver’s Fennel Risotto with Ricotta and Dried Chili; the wine was charming, but the risotto was not as good as the first time I made it, something about the barometric pressure and my bad mood, I guess, risotto is so damned sensitive. 13.9 percent alcohol. Drink through 2012. Very Good+. About $15.
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The X Winery Red X 2009, North Coast, is a robust, wild and woolly blend of 52 percent syrah, 19 percent mourvèdre, 17 percent zinfandel and 12 percent grenache, drawn from Los Carneros (48%) and Mendocino (21%), Napa (16%) and Lake (15%) counties. Red X 09, as did its predecessors — the brand debuted in 2003 — delivers exuberant elements of black currants and cherries, blueberry and a touch of tart cranberry woven with briers and brambles, cloves and allspice and deep notes of black olive and dried thyme; think of it as a Côtes-du-Rhône with the addition of some bold and spicy California zinfandel. Though juicy black and blue fruit flavors dominate in the mouth, touches of leather, underbrush, graphite-like minerals and slightly toasty oak bolster the depths. The texture is supple and smooth, with a bit of litheness and sinew in structure and finish. The wine aged 21 months in oak, 20 percent new French and 10 percent new American barrels, the rest of the barrels being neutral, that is well-used. We drank this quite successfully with a charcuterie spread for dinner last night. 14.5 percent alcohol. Drink through 2012 or ’13. Very Good+. About $15.
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All right, I know that this is the list My Readers most want to see, a roster of terrific and affordable wines. No hierarchy; the order is chronological as the wines appeared on the blog. Prices range from $8 to $20, and notice that most of these inexpensive wines were rated Excellent. The value quotient on this list is unimpeachable.
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<>Chateau des Vaults Brut Sauvage, Crémant de Loire, Savennières, Loire Valley, France. A sparkling wine composed of 85 percent chenin blanc and 25 percent cabernet franc. Excellent. About $18. (LDM Wine Imports)

<>Morgan Winery Sauvignon Blanc 2008, Monterey County. Excellent. About $15.

<>Morgan Winery Cotes du Crow’s 2008, Monterey County. Syrah 55 percent, grenache 45 percent. Excellent. About $16.

<>Dry Creek Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc 2008, Dry Creek Valley, Sonoma County. Excellent. About $16.

<>Clos de los Siete 2008, Mendoza, Argentina. Malbec (56%), merlot (21%), syrah (11%), cabernet sauvignon (10%), petit verdot (2%). Excellent. About $19. (Dourthe USA, Manhasset, N.Y.)

<>Plantagenet Riesling 2008, Great Southern, Australia. Excellent. About $20. (Old Bridge Cellars, Napa, Cal.)

<>Gainey Vineyard Sauvignon Blanc 2008, Santa Ynez Valley, Santa Barbara County. 1,450 cases. Excellent. About $15. (Also the Gainey Sauvignon Blanc 2009 rates Excellent and sells for $14; production was 2,300 cases.)

<>Girard Sauvignon Blanc 2009, Napa Valley. Excellent. About $16.

<>Oveja Negra Reserve Sauvignon Blanc Carmenère 2009, Maule Valley, Chile. Very Good+. About $12. (Vini Wine & Spirits, Coral Sp[rings, Fla.)

<>Georges Duboeuf Beaujolais-Villages 2009, Beaujolais, France. Very Good+. $10-$12. (W.J. Deutsch & Sons, Harrison, N.Y.)

<>Graham Beck Gamekeeper’s Reserve Chenin Blanc 2008, Coastal Region, South Africa. Excellent. About $16. (Graham Beck Wines, San Francisco)

<>La TrinQuée Juliènas 2009, Les Vins de Georges Duboeuf, Beaujolais, France. Excellent. About $16. (W.J. Deutsch & Sons, New York)

<>Llai Llai Pinot Noir 2008, Bio Bio Valley, Chile. Very Good+. About $13. (W.J. Deutsch & Sons, New York)

<>Prieler Johanneshöle Blaufränkisch 2007, Burgenland, Austria. Excellent. About $19-$20. (Terry Theise Selections for Michael Skurnik Wines, Syossett, N.Y.)

<>Bodegas Aragonesas Coto de Hayas Garnacha Syrah 2009, Campo de Borja, Spain. Very Good+. About $8. (Scoperta Importing Co., Cleveland Heights, Ohio)

<>Bodegas Agustin Cabero Unus Old Vine Macabeo 2009, Calatayud, Spain. Very Good+. About $9. Scoperta Importing Co., Cleveland Heights, Ohio)

<>X Winery Red X 2008, North Coast. A provocative blend of 55 percent syrah, 23 percent tempranillo, 14 percent grenache and 8 percent zinfandel. Very Good+. About $15.

<>Ventisquero Reserva Sauvignon Blanc 2010, Casablanca, Chile. Excellent. About $13. (Austral Wines, Atlanta)

<>Bastianich Adriatico Friulano 2009, Colli Orientali del Friuli, Italy. Excellent. About $15. (Dark Star Imports, Neww York)

<>Frisk Prickly 2009, Alpine Valley, Victoria, Australia. 83 percent riesling, 17 percent muscat of Alexandria. Very Good+. About $10. (Old Bridge Cellars, Napa Cal.)

<>Calcu Red Wine 2008, Colchagua, Chile. 45 percent cabernet sauvignon, 25 percent carmenère, 15 percent each cabernet franc and petit verdot. Very Good+. About $12. (Global Vineyard Importers, Berkeley, Cal.)

<>Alma Negra Bonarda 2007, Mendoza, Argentina. Excellent. About $20. (Winebow, New York)

<>Carrefour Sauvignon Blanc 2007, Napa Valley. Excellent. About $18.

<>Joel Gott Riesling 2009, Columbia Valley, Washington. Very Good+. About $12.

<>Niner Estate Syrah 2006, Paso Robles, Santa Barbara County. Excellent. About $20.
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We’ve been tasting and drinking quite a few vigorous and rigorous cabernet sauvignon wines from California, even if they didn’t necessarily make a good match with what we were eating, so for Saturday night’s pizza — pepper-cured bacon, roasted tomatoes, shiitake mushrooms. goat cheese — I went in the direction of something more simple, more direct and more appropriate. That turned out to be The Climber Red Wine 2009, a blend of zinfandel (63%), cabernet sauvignon (21%), syrah (12%), petite sirah (2%) and merlot (2%), the sort of fruitful melange you’re likely to see nowhere but in California. The Climber label comes from the people that started the Clif Bar company in 1992. While the winery and farm are in Napa Valley, the grapes for the Climber 2009 came from Mendocino and Lodi; the wine carries a California designation. So, what’s here? A robust, ripe and vibrant red wine that’s packed with fleshy, meaty blackberry, black currant and plum flavors deeply permeated by spice, black pepper, briers and brambles and soft, cushiony tannins that float over the palate like a dusty cloud. This is a terrific pizza wine, though it would serve equally well with burgers, fajitas, pulled pork and other such hearty carnivore-targeted items. Winemakers are Sarah Gott and Bruce Regalia. 14.1 percent alcohol. Production was 3,500 cases. Closed with a screw-cap. Very Good+. About $12, a Great Bargain.

A sample for review.

I haven’t made cheese toast in a long time. We saw a program by a diet/lifestyle guru on PBS, and I thought, “Whoa, I hafta change the way I eat.” Cheese toast, of course, does not fall into the category of Food That’s Really Good for You. I mean, cheese toast is not brown rice and tofu and seaweed, but it tastes better than brown rice, tofu and seaweed. So yesterday, rewarding myself for work well-done (I know, you’re not supposed to reward yourself with food), I sliced some white bread, which we usually don’t have around the house but is essential for cheese toast, slathered on some Dijon mustard, shaved some parmesan, pecorino and piave cheeses and layered them on the bread and sprinkled on Urfa pepper and Mapuche chili spice. Under the broiler! Zip! Zap! A few minutes later, nice and brown and crusty.

I opened a bottle of the Calcu Red Wine 2008, from Chile’s Colchagua region. This little darlin’ is a blend of 45 percent cabernet sauvignon, 25 percent carmenère and 15 percent each cabernet franc and petit verdot. You could say that Calcu is a true Bordeaux-style blend, since the carmenère grape was widely planted in Bordeaux in the 19th Century but was eliminated in the early 20th century because of the unreliability of its yield. For a hundred years or so what were thought to be merlot vines in Chile turned out to be about 90 percent carmenère. DNA-testing pretty much straightened out that problem in the 1990s.

Anyway, Calcu Red Wine 2008 delivers a ravishing snootful of intense and concentrated black currant and black cherry scents deeply imbued with leather and dusty minerals in the limestone and granite range threaded with bitter chocolate and smacked with a fistful of smoky potpourri. That dust-laden mineral element increases in the mouth, providing the backdrop for cozy, chewy tannins and luscious black fruit flavors flecked with lavender and violets rubbed between two hands. Pert and lithe acidity keeps the wine dynamic and quaffable. The whole package asserts more personality than you would think from the price. I enjoyed the wine with my cheese toast, but after sipping a glass I wished that I had saved it for tonight’s pizza. Bringing up the topic: What Wine Shall I Serve with the Pizza in about an Hour? Very Good+. About $12, a Great Bargain.

Global Vineyard Importers, Berkeley, Cal. A sample for review.

We dined with friends at Bari in Memphis Friday night, and I took along a bottle of the Lucente 2007, a cabernet sauvignon-sangiovese-merlot blend from Tuscany. Bari is primarily a seafood restaurant — we also drank, from the wine list, the white Vietti Roero Arneis 2009 — but the kitchen turns out a fine steak too. A special that evening was a boneless rib-eye steak marinated in olive oil, garlic, various herbs and spices and moderately hot chilies, the effect of which I could feel slowly building toward the back of my palate.

The wine is a product of Luce delle Vite, a collaboration, launched in 1995, between the late Robert Mondavi and Vittorio Frescobaldi, of the prominent and ancient Tuscan wine family. The main wine is Luce, with Lucente as a less expensive second label. The blend in Lucente 2007 is 50 percent merlot, 35 percent sangiovese and 15 percent cabernet sauvignon. The wine ages 12 months in almost all French oak, 55 percent new barrels, and a bare 5 percent American oak. The first impression is of classic merlot and cabernet elements: cedar, tobacco and dried thyme; black currants and black cherry; dusty tannins and glittering graphite-like minerality. The wine is meaty and fleshy, inky and a little tarry, and at this point one feels a sense of sangiovese character, a bit of plum, a wash of dried spice and flowers, a touch of smoky black tea. Give the wine a few minutes and you perceive echoes of moss on granite, dried mushrooms, iodine; then the dense tannins really start to emerge. In others words, Lucente 2007 resembles a really well-made Napa Valley blend that possesses several degrees and shades of Tuscany. The alcohol content is 14.5 percent; just like Napa! Best from 2011 or ’12 through 2016 to ’18, but boy it squared off damned prettily and essentially with that medium-rare boneless ribeye. Excellent. About $30.
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The next night was Pizza-and-Movie Night at our house (Tilda Swinton in the Italian film “I Am Love”), and desiring something simple, tasty and authentic to accompany my pizza — topped with roasted tomatoes, green pepper, roasted sweet chilies, shiitake mushrooms, green onions, pepper-cured bacon, mozzarella and Parmesan — I opened a bottle of Li Veli Orion 2008, a 100 percent primitivo wine from Salento, the heel of the Italian boot that forms the Apulian peninsula. This was precisely what the doctor — I have an honorary doctorate, thank you very much — ordered, a drinkable red wine, very spicy, quite succulent with black currant and blackberry flavors encompassed by smoke, a hint of tar-tinged violets, black pepper and shale-infused tannins. Depending to what you’re reading, this wine was made all in stainless steel (the press release) or spent six months in oak barrels (the winery’s web-site), but I don’t mind saying that in any case, this is a very enjoyable expression of the usually rustic primitivo grape that just happens to share DNA with zinfandel. Nothing deep here; just direct and tasty appeal. Very Good+. About $11, a Real Bargain.
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Lucente 2007 is imported by Folio Fine Wines, Napa, Cal.; Li Veli Orion 2009 is imported by Dalla Terra Winery Direct, Napa, Cal. These were samples for review.
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I was going to write that the last region from which I expected to receive wine-in-a-box would be Bierzo, but of course there are much more exotic places, Upper Volta being one, I will probably never get wine-in-a-box from Upper Volta, which, I’m humble enough to admit, I used to think was in Russia, until it occurred to me that what all those folk were singing about in those deep lugubrious voices were the Volga boatmen, not the Volta boatmen. Experience is a dear teacher, but fools will learn no other way, as Miss Simpson, my seventh grade teacher, told our class every single goddamn day.

Anyway, here it is, a three-liter box — the equivalent of four standard 750-milliliter bottles — of red wine made from the mencía grape, which grows nowhere but Bierzo, a rugged vineyard region sandwiched between Castilla y León and Galicia in Spain’s far northwest corner, right above the short border with Portugal. A decade ago, hardly anyone outside the area knew about it, but Bierzo has emerged as an interesting and actually desirable source of dark, spicy red wines, mainly centered on the mencía grape, which accounts for two-thirds of the vineyard area.

Now I was a constant disappointment to Miss Bridger, my solid geometry teacher in the 11th grade, and I’ll confess that the notion of four bottles of wine fitting into this three-dimensional, um, box-like thing boggles my mind. Fortunately a few glasses of the attractive wine mitigate the sense of bafflement. Who cares? The wine comes under the Val Montium label of Bodegas Adriá, and it’s made all in stainless steel. The design of the box is striking and quite graphically appealing.

The color of the Val Montium Mencía 2008 is dark ruby-purple; the bouquet is fresh and clean, warm and spicy, bursting with notes of black currants and dusty plums with hints of black pepper, wild berry and lavender. The warm, spicy quality continues in the mouth, accompanying tannins that are dense, chewy and rather velvety and that encompass juicy black fruit flavors in a dry setting that turns a bit austere and tarry on the finish. This wine is loads better than box wine I have tried from California; an idea of character asserts itself, an expression of a grape. Terrific with burgers, steaks, red-sauce pasta, braised meat dishes. Very Good+. About $30 for a three-liter box, which comes out to $7.50 a bottle. We kept the box on the kitchen counter for a week, and the wine stayed eminently fresh and drinkable. On the other hand, the plastic carrying handle broke under the slightest pressure; back to research and development on that factor! Worth a Search.

Scoperta Importing Co., Cleveland Heights, Ohio. A sample for review.

Location matters in retail, real estate and winemaking, and perhaps in wine-tasting too. My group visited Veramonte in the cool Casablanca Valley, northwest of Santiago, yesterday afternoon — and it was pretty damned cool, I’ll say; I was glad that I brought gloves and a scarf –and we rode out and up into the vineyards, stopping at mid-rim of a wide shallow valley to taste the Veramonte Reserva Merlot 2009; “Reserva” is the winery’s basic level of wines, widely available in the United States. Yesterday was not only cool but cloudy and intermittently foggy; the wine was served at what seemed like true “cellar” temperature, bringing out the merlot’s minerality and clean acidity. In fact, I was impressed by the wine, which felt lively, intense and pure. It ages about eight months in French and American oak barrels, 20 percent new. Though previous vintage have contained smidgeons of cabernet, the ’09 is 100 percent merlot. Classic notes of black olive, cedar, bell pepper and tomato skin are permeated by intense and concentrated scents and flavors of black currants and black raspberries, the whole package inundated by a pert and penetrating graphite element edged with smoke and bitter chocolate. Drink with burgers, hearty pizzas and pasta dishes, steak and roast pork. Expert winemaking here to produce an inexpensive wine that feels a bit above its station. Very Good+. About $10 to $12, a Great Bargain.

The restless, seething mind of Jeff Bundschu must keep him awake at night. The man who created Wine Brats some 20 years ago (!) has now come up with Blue Nomad Wine Company, and while this venture includes winemaker Keith Emerson — no, not that Keith Emerson — who makes the wine for Gundlach Bundschu Winery, of which sixth generation Jeff Bundschu is president, the family winery is not connected with Blue Nomad.

Blue Nomad, at this moment, produces two wines that debuted (actually in Memphis) in mid-August: a white, the Bright Light 2009, with a California designation, and a red, the Rockus Bockus 2007, from Sonoma County. Both are multi-varietal blends.

Bright Light 2009 is an unusual combination of chardonnay with gewurztraminer and albariño. The wine is incredibly clean and fresh; peach and pear, lychee and melon are seamlessly woven with a wafting of jasmine and honeysuckle, and then, after a few moments, with notes of tangerine and dried grass. Flavors of roasted lemon and spiced pear (with a hint of dried thyme) are bolstered by tongue-grabbing acidity and a long finish jazzed by the slight bitterness of lemon pith and lime peel. Drink through Summer 2011. Very attractive as an aperitif or with grilled seafood like shrimp and mussels. Alcohol content is 14.1 percent. 1,000 cases were produced. Very Good+. About $10 to $13, a Good Value.

The Bright Light label, designed by artist Andrea von Bujdoss of Brooklyn, screams retro-Hindu-psychedelic with pink and yellow hearts, stars and curlicues. And it glows in the dark, always a handy feature when you’re drinking in a closet.

Rockus Bockus Red Wine 2007 is a kitchen-sink blend of cabernet sauvignon, zinfandel, syrah, malbec, merlot and petit verdot; what, no alicante bouschet? This is a juicy, succulent red wine with sufficient acidity and tannin to lend a moderately serious backbone. Scents and flavors of ripe black currants, black cherries and super-dark plums are permeated by traces of bitter chocolate, lavender and ancho chili. A velvety texture is slightly roughened by chewy, grainy tannins, while the finish opens a vein of polished graphite-like minerality. A little suave, a little earthy; a little intense, a little shameless. Drink with burgers, steaks and assorted usual suspects through 2012. Alcohol content is 14.4 percent. Production was 1,800 cases. Very Good+. About $13 to $16, not a bad price.

The bizarre but admittedly striking label art by British illustrator Ben Newman represents a contemporary country mouse/city mouse depiction of Bacchus, god of wine. Yes, now you get it, Rockus Bockus!

Tasted with Jeff Bundschu in Memphis.

Not much Chianti Superiore is made in Tuscany; production is under two percent of total Chianti output, which encompasses, generally, Chianti, Chianti Superiore, Chianti Classico and Chianti Classico Riserva. The “Superiore” designation doesn’t necessarily mean that a wine is “superior” to those made in a “lesser” category but that its production requires greater density of planting and lower grape yields in the vineyard and a slightly higher alcohol content than “regular” Chianti. Chianti Superiore is officially categorized as a D.O.C.G., or Denominazione di Origine Controllata e Garantita, the highest classification of Italian wine, though in the past 20 years this distinction has been passed out like candy at a children’s birthday party.

Anyway, a few nights ago I made a sauce for penne pasta in this manner: I minced about a quarter of an onion, a small carrot, a stalk of celery and I guess three cloves of garlic and sauted them in some olive oil and a little grease from some chopped Italian sausages I had previously cooked. When the vegetables were just beginning to brown, I poured in about half a cup of red wine, turned the heat up and let that bubble until the wine had evaporated. Meanwhile, as recipes say, I had taken about 15 small and very ripe Roma tomatoes (from the Memphis Farmers Market), halved them, sprinkled them with olive oil, salt, pepper and dried thyme, marjoram and oregano and put them under the broiler until they began to blacken and blister. The skins, what was left of them, slipped off easily. I scraped the tomatoes and any liquid into the pot with the vegetables, stirred all this together and then took a pair of kitchen shears and went in there and scissored everything into the smallest possible pieces. Before serving, I took two very ripe, dark red tomatoes, dipped them into the boiling pasta water for a minute each, stripped off the skins, chopped them and added them to the sauce to heighten the freshness factor. A couple of dippers of the hot pasta water stirred in gave the sauce just the right consistency. Prego!

All of which brings us to Banfi’s Chianti Superiore 2008, one of the wines in the Banfi Toscana portfolio. This is the first release of the wine; it’s available only in the United States. The wine is made from 75 percent sangiovese and 25 percent canaiolo nero and cabernet sauvignon and aged four to five months in French oak barrels. This is an accessible, direct and authentic expression of the sangiovese grape and of the Chianti style that makes up in delicious appeal what it may lack in depth and dimension. Scents and flavors of black cherries, red currants and plums are bolstered by spicy elements that increase as the moments pass, manifesting themselves in hints of cloves and allspice, orange rind and black tea. The structure is just dense and chewy enough to remind you that, yes, the wine indeed has some structure, with slightly dusty tannins unfolding in the background. The Banfi Chianti Superiore 2008 was exactly what was needed with our pasta, its vibrant acidity and dark fruit flavors matching nicely with the rich sauce. Alcohol content is 13.3 percent. Drink through 2011. Very Good. About $11, A Real Bargain.

Nothing on the bottle tells consumers that the image on the label is the painting Lady with an Ermine by Leonardo da Vinci. The girl — for she was only 16 — is Cecilia Gallerani, the mistress of Lodovico Sforza, who was Duke of Milan and Leonardo’s patron. The piece was executed in 1489-1490 in oil paint — then a new medium — on panel. It hangs in the Czartoryski Museum in Krakow.

Imported by Banfi Vintners, Old Brookville, N.Y. A sample for review.

This time the region is Calatayud, just south of the region of Campo de Borja in northern central Spain. Produced by Bodegas Agustin Cubero, the Unus Old Vine Garnacha 2007 draws on vines planted between 1934 and 1960; the wine is 100 percent garnacha (grenache) and ages eight months in a combination of French, American and Hungarian oak barrels. The color is a radiant medium ruby; aromas of ripe black raspberries and red currants, with many forms of plums and a touch of slightly astringent mulberry are bolstered by dry scents of briers and brambles. The wine is quite dry but bursting with lipsmacking, almost plush ripeness of black fruit flavors as well as savory tannins that become more foresty and austere as the moments pass. Layers of slate-like and granite-infused minerality form the wine’s stalwart foundations, but after an hour it mellows out nicely. An appealing yet fairly serious wine with heaps of personality to drink with hearty red meat dishes or hard, dry cheeses like an aged Piave, which, as a matter of fact, I was nibbling as I tasted. Alcohol content is 13.5 percent. Drink through 2012 or ’14. Very Good+. About — ready for this? — $10, a Raving Good Value.

Scoperta Importing, Cleveland heights, Ohio. A sample for review.