With a pick-up pasta last night — onion, garlic, country ham, diced tomatoes — I opened a bottle of Coto de Hayas Garnacha Syrah 2009, from the Campo de Borja region of Spain. The producer, Bodegas Aragonesas, is located in the foothills of the Sierra Moncayo in Zaragoza, where the dry, hot climate and the extreme temperature contrasts between day and night make the perfect site for the garnacha (grenache) grape, which has been cultivated there for eight centuries. This is one of those wines that you start by characterizing as “little” — “what a nice little wine” — as if it were nothing more than pleasing, undemanding and even perhaps a bit innocuous. Just so, Coto de Hayas Garnacha Syrah 2009 inspired me to jot down the words, “bright, vivid, fruity, tasty.” And that would have been fine as far as it goes, except that as the moments elapsed this little wine took on detail and dimension surpassing its supposed station in life. We get red and black currants. dusty plums and warm meadowy lavender; potpourri and baking spice; leather, wild berries, brambles. The texture is moderately dense, slightly chewy and swathed with plush tannins packed with slate-like minerals and rooty earthiness. Yeah, see what I mean? A great pasta and pizza wine to drink through 2012. The alcohol content is 13.5 percent. Very Good+. About $8, a Wonderful Bargain. Sadly, most of the red wines we try from California at this price feel manufactured and anonymous; this, on the other hand is lively and individual.

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

Last night we made one of our favorite warm — make that brutally hot — weather dishes, the pasta with cold tomato sauce from a book we have been using for years, Sally Schneider’s The Art of Low-Calorie Cooking (Stewart, Tabori & Chang, 1990, large-format paperback edition, 1993). Our well-used copy of the book is thoroughly stained and grimy, surely a testimony to our affection.

Nothing could be simpler. While the pasta is cooking — last night it was fuselli farfalle (see response in comments below) — you strip the skin from fresh tomatoes by holding them over a flame for 30 seconds (Schneider’s method) or just hold them, one by one, in a slotted spoon in the boiling water for a few seconds (LL’s technique) and slip that skin off. Squeeze some of the juice out and then chop the tomatoes and put them in a bowl. Add chopped fresh basil and two tablespoons of a mixture of fresh chopped herbs such as thyme, oregano and tarragon, our choice last night, some minced shallots, salt, pepper and splashes of balsamic vinegar and olive oil and mix together. When the pasta is ready, drain it, divide it among the bowls and spoon on the sauce. Schneider doesn’t call for cheese, but we usually add some shaved salada ricotta and maybe a little grated Parmesan and Pecorino. The hot pasta gently warms the sauce. That’s it, and it’s incredibly refreshing and delicious!

I opened a bottle of the Georges Duboeuf Beaujolais-Villages 2009, from an exceptional vintage for that region, as indeed it is for much of France. Beaujolais-Villages is a designation and geographical area that lies between the more generic Beaujolais appellation, in the lowlands to the south, and the upland cru Beaujolais further north, where 10 villages or communes (the crus) are entitled to have their names alone on labels. All wines from Beaujolais, whatever the category, are made from 100 percent gamay grapes.

Georges Duboeuf Beaujolais-Villages 2009 is rapturously pure and intense. The color is dark bluish ruby-purple with a black cherry-magenta rim. Penetrating aromas of spiced and macerated black cherries, mulberries and currants are touched with briers and brambles and a hint of shale. The segue to black cherry and currant flavors is seamless, and after a few minutes in the glass, the wine expands with elements of dusty leather, damp shale, violets and potpourri while vibrant acidity keeps the wine lively and attractive. In terms of structure and personality, this is clearly the best Beaujolais-Villages I have tasted from Georges Duboeuf. Now through 2011. Very Good+. About $10 to $12, a Raving Bargain.

Imported by W.J. Deutsch & Sons, Harrison, N.Y. A sample for review. Despite the date on the bottle in the image, the wine under review is the 2009. Why can’t companies keep their websites up-to-date? It’s so freaking annoying!

When I went back through BTYH looking for great wine bargains for 2009, I was surprised at how many candidates there were. I mean, I taste a lot of bland, generic cheap wine year in and year out, but it was encouraging to realize how many wines priced between about $9 and $19 I really liked. So many that I quickly tallied a list of 63, which I then, of course, had to cut back to 25. Ouch, major surgery! I think the result is a very strong roster of wines that reflect authenticity, integrity and pure enjoyment with considerable personality and character thrown into the mix. And speaking of mix, this is an eclectic, geographically-challenging group of wines. Perhaps some of your favorites are here.
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25 Great Bargains of 2009

<>Ad Lib “Tree Hugger” No Oak Chardonnay 2008, Pemberton, Western Australia. Excellent. About $17. (Vintage New World)

<>Ad Lib Wallflower Riesling 2008, Mount Barker, Western Australia. Excellent. About $17. (Vintage New World)

<>Andeluna Cabernet Sauvignon 2007, Tupungato, Mendoza. Excellent. About $10. (San Francisco Wine Exchange)

<>d’Arenberg The Stump Jump Verdelho 2008, McLaren Vale, South Australia. Very Good+. About $11. (Old Bridge Cellars)

<>Attems Pinot Grigio 2008, Collio, Friuli. Excellent. About $18-$20. (Folio Fine Wine Partners)

<>August Kesseler Riesling QbA 2007, Rheingau. Excellent. About $16. (August Kesseler Importing Co.)

<>Domaine Catherine Le Goeuil Cairanne “Cuvée Léa Felsh” 2006, Côtes-du-Rhône
Villages. Excellent. $15-$18. (Kermit Lynch)

<>Channing Daughters Cabernet Franc Rosato 2008, North Fork, Long Island. 369 cases. Excellent. About $17.

<>Clayhouse Sauvignon Blanc 2008, Paso Robles. Excellent. About $14.

<>Elsa Bianchi Torrontés 2008, Mendoza. Very Good+. About $9. (Quintessential)

<>Excelsior Chardonnay 2008, Robertson, South Africa. Very Good+. About $12. (Cape Classics Imports)

<>Folie à Deux Merlot 2007, Napa Valley. Excellent. $14-$16.

<>I Stefanini Monte de Toni 2006, Soave Classico. Excellent. $15-$17. (Domenico Selections)

<>Jim Barry Wines “The Cover Drive” Cabernet Sauvignon 2005, South Australia. Excellent. About $19. (Negociants USA)

<>Josh Amber Knolls Cabernet Sauvignon 2006, Red Hills, Lake County. Very Good+. About $15.

<>Justin Sauvignon Blanc 2008, Paso Robles. Excellent. About $15.

<>Louis M. Martini Cabernet Sauvignon 2007, Sonoma County. Excellent. About $17.

<>Morgan Winery R.& D. Franscioni Vineyard Pinot Gris 2008, Santa Lucia Highlands, Monterey County. Excellent. About $17.

<>Oak Ridge Winery OZV Zinfandel 2005, Lodi. Excellent. About $15.

<>Domaine Le Peu de la Moriette 2007, Vouvray, Loire Valley. Excellent. About $19. (Vineyards Brands)

<>Petraio Nero d’Avola 2007, Sicily. Very Good+. About $9.50. (Scoperta Importing Co.)

<>Ravenswood Cabernet Sauvignon 2006, Sonoma County. Excellent. About $15.

<>Le Rosé de Mouton Cadet 2008, Bordeaux. 65% merlot, 20% cabernet franc, 15% cabernet sauvignon. Very Good+. About $10. (Constellation Wines USA)

<>Rued Chardonnay 2007, Russian River Valley. Excellent. About $18.

<>!ZaZin Old Vines Zinfandel 2007, Lodi. Excellent. About $17.

As promised.
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No need to make a big deal about the Melini Chianti Borghi d’Elsa 2008, Toscana. It’s a quaffable little trattoria wine, bright, fresh and fruity and decently spicy with galloping acidity to jazz up the red and black cherry and plum flavors. The finish is packed with briers and brambles, leaving an impression of rusticity that doesn’t edge over to the roughneck. Made in stainless steel, the wine is a classic Chianti blend of sangiovese (85%), canaiolo nero (10%), malvasia (3%) and trebbiano (2%). Wines like this have an agreeable slot in the repertoire; slug it down with grilled cheese sandwiches and pizzas. Good+. About $8.
Imported by Frederick Wildman & Sons, New York.
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Let the Falset 2005, from Spain’s Montsant region, breathe for an hour before drinking to let some rollicking funkiness blow off, unless you’re into rain-drenched mushrooms and well-nurtured mulch, which when you think about it, sound pretty evocative. After that opening up, you’ll find a wine whose individuality gives $11 wines a good name. Made in stainless steel from 50 percent grenache and 30 percent carignan — both grape varieties from 100-year-old vineyards — and 20 percent cabernet sauvignon, Falset ’08 offers distinctly ripe and spicy black and red currant, blueberry and blackberry scents and flavors that grow more macerated and roasted in the glass. This is a wine that doesn’t hesitate to tip-toe onto the exotic side, as the spicy element expands and brings with it hints of potpourri, violets and lavender, a bit of fruitcake, a backwash of granite-like minerality. Very good, and a Bargain at about $11, which is what I paid for it.
Ole Imports, Manhasset, New York.
Montsant — “holy mountain” — became an official designated wine region in 2001. It surrounds, on three sides, the better-known Priorat region, southwest of Barcelona. The landscape is hilly and rugged, the climate generally Mediterranean.
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Badia a Coltibuono, the thousand-year-old producer of Chianti Classico and other wines in Tuscany, offers an easy-drinking yet nicely complicated red wine in its Cancelli Rosso 2008, Toscana, a blend of 70 percent sangiovese and 30 percent syrah made all in stainless steel (and with a spiffy new label). The color is a compelling deep purple with a tint of magenta at the rim; the bouquet combines red and black cherries and plums with smoke, black pekoe tea, cloves and dried orange rind. Flavors of red and black currants are highlighted by strains of dried meadow flowers, wild berries and moderately dusty tannins. It’s the sort of wine you could drink all night, as long as the pizza and pasta keep coming to the table. The alcohol level is a modest 12.5 percent. Drink through the end of 2010. Very Good. About $11, a Great Value.
Imported by Dalla Terra, Napa, Cal.
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For the day after Thanksgiving, with those turkey samosas and turkey burritos, open the Louis Jadot Beaujolais-Villages 2008, an emblematic Beaujolais-Villages — 100 percent gamay grapes — for its brightness and appealing nature. The lovely bouquet is a wreathing of black currants and black raspberries woven with lavender and violets and intriguing notes of slightly tarry earthiness. That hint of gravity, a pulling of the wine toward dark depths, lends some character, a combination of firmness and winsomeness, to the delicious attraction of spicy black currant and mulberry flavors. The wine is quite dry, lively with acidity — that’s part of its “brightness” — and even a bit foresty and brambly on the finish. Charming and versatile and far better than the Beaujolais Nouveau that’s stacked in all the retail stores now. Very Good+ and Great Value at about $12.
Imported by Kobrand Corp., Purchase, N.Y.
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Here’s a primitivo for those weary of having their tongues tromped on by farmers’ brogans. In other words, Castello Monaci Pilùna Primitivo 2007, Salento, from Italy’s Boot-heel, is robust without being rustic and a little rowdy without being roughshod. Ripe black currant, blueberry and plum scents and flavors are packed with dried flowers, baking spices and smoke; the chewy texture is composed of dense, briery tannins and dusty, granite-like minerals framed by exuberant acidity. After a few minutes in the glass, notes of black pepper and oolong tea sneak in. Aged in a combination of French barriques and stainless steel tanks, the Pilùna Primitivo 2007 is solid, well-made, tasty stuff, well-suited to the lamb shank pizza with which we drank it on a recent Pizza-and-Movie Night. Very Good+. About $13, Good Value.
Imported by Frederick Wildman & Sons, New York.
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Like a good-natured puppy looking for companionship and affection, the Wagtail Cabernet Sauvignon 2008, Coonawarra, South Australia, just can’t help being upfront about its virtues. Yep, if this wine could lick your face with its big, rich, jammy black currant, cherry and raspberry scents and flavors, it damned well would. The texture is dense and chewy, almost port-like, and the intense and concentrated fruit is permeated with smoke, potpourri, new leather and an iodine-like minerality. Then, as many canines do, it turns all canny and ambiguous, finishing with a dry bite of austerity fueled by briery-brambly tannins. Quite a package. Very Good. About $13, Good Value. O.K., O.K., the wagtail is a bird, not a dog, I know that.
Imported by The Country Vintner, Ashland, Va.
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Whoa, the Kamiak Rock Lake Red 2007, Columbia Valley, Washington, delivers one of the most audaciously fragrant bouquets ever to have crossed the portals of my nostrils. (Actually, nostrils are portals, n’est-ce pas?) An exhilarating zephyr of clove, cinnamon and licorice Necco Wafers, lavender, dust, cedar and juniper, black currants and plums wafts from the glass. After this heady panoply, the wine settles down to a proper (and not very exciting) sort of display of spicy oak — 16 months French and American oak barrels –equally spicy black fruit flavors; dusty, chewy tannins; and a fairly austere finish. The combination of grapes here is cabernet sauvignon (44%), merlot (26%), syrah (25%) and malbec (5%), a kind of but not exactly Bordeaux blend, because of the syrah. Attractive and drinkable, this is not quite the bargain, at its price, as its sister wine, the Kamiak Windust White 2008 is at $10. Very Good. About $15.
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It’s interesting and puzzling that the Three Loose Screws division of Don Sebastiani & Sons would offer pinot noir wines from two of its labels at the same price, $15. Isn’t that working against each other? Or is there some marketing kink here that I’m not comprehending? The wines are Flock by Smoking Loon Pinot Noir 2008, Monterey County, and Aquinas Pinot Noir 2007, Napa Valley. The alcohol level of each wine is 13.5 percent. Production of the Flock Pinot Noir ’08 is 5,400 cases; for the Aquinas Pinot Noir ’07 it’s 27,000 cases.

Flock by Smoking Loon Pinot Noir 2008, Monterey, offers beguiling aromas of black cherry, cranberry and rhubarb highlighted by lilac and rose petal, a mossy/leather element and a touch of sweet earthiness. The wine is quite dry, a little brambly and briery, yet the texture is sleekly satiny, and the black and red fruit flavors carry through to the spicy, woody finish. Very Good. About $15.
Do look for the Flock Old Vine Zinfandel 2007, Dry Creek Valley, which I made a Wine of the Week three months ago.

On the other hand, the Aquinas Pinot Noir 2007, Napa Valley, is a darker, spicier pinot, less floral, more dense and chewy; hints of new leather and underbrush underlie black currant and plum flavors that feel macerated and roasted. This pinot delivers more dimension and persistence than its stablemate, but it, too, earns a Very Good rating from me. I enjoyed several aspects of each of these pinot noirs, but altogether, they lack the few degrees of personality that would make them more compelling. About $15. This is the new, more dignified label for the Aquinas line.

Three Loose Screws also produces these labels: Pepperwood Grove, The Crusher, Mia’s Playground, Screw Kappa Nappa, B Side and Used Automobile Parts.
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You don’t expect the elegance and balance from a cabernet that’s the price of the Josh Amber Knolls Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon 2006, Red Hills, Lake County. (“Amber Knolls”? Isn’t that the name of the girl you met that night at the Donkey Island Club?) Anyway, this cab, made by Joseph Carr, offers ripe and smoky black currant and black cherry flavors that are dense with spice and minerals and enlivened with acidity that practically glitters. A firm foundation of polished oak and grainy tannins ensures a solid yet supple structure. Sounds just all right, so far, perhaps, like a hundred other inexpensive cabernets, but what is almost unaccountable is this cabernet’s sense of purpose and confidence, an expression of liveliness and engagement that is rare at the price. It made me happy to drink it. Very Good+. About $15, a Great Bargain.
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Rancho Zabaco is one of Gallo’s great success stories, though I am not as fond of the winery’s second and less expensive label, Dancing Bull; “less expensive” is a relative term, since the Rancho Zabaco wines usually represent good value. The Rancho Zabaco Sonoma Heritage Vines Zinfandel 2007, Sonoma County, teems with spicy, floral-inflected black currant and blueberry scents that carry threads of boysenberry and black cherry. That black fruit and its inherent spiciness sustain themselves in flavor too, nestled in a dense and chewy texture shot through with lively acidity. Notes of coffee and bitter chocolate, brambles and shale-like minerals round out the long, plump finish. A delicious, classically-proportioned zinfandel that would be terrific with Thanksgiving dinner. Very Good+. About $18, but found on the Internet as low as $14.
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Masi created the Campofiorin brand in 1964, capitalizing on the ripasso method of fermenting grapes on the skins or pomace of previously fermented wine, giving the resulting product a deep jolt of juiciness and luscious fruit. So, the Masi Campofiorin 2006, Rosso del Veronese, a blend of corvino (70%), rondinella (25%) and molinara (5%), is indeed deep and dark and flavorful, while being, also, notably clean and fresh. Spiced and macerated black and red cherries dominate the nose, adding touches of orange rind and smoky oolong tea as the moments pass. A dusty mineral-like character permeates flavors of black cherries, currants and plums that become spicier and more exotic, as moderate tannins shaded with mossy, foresty elements dominate the finish. Drink with roasts, game and hearty pasta dishes. Very Good+. About $18, but seen on the Internet as low as $15.
Imported by Folio Fine Wine Partners, Napa, Cal.
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My constant reader and responder-to-posts Thomas Pellechia, author of the blog vinofictions, had a reasonable point when he said to me, in an email, after I described, on Oct. 23, a $45 bottle of Elodian Pinot Noir that I sampled with a plate of cheese toast:

The post popped a thought into my head. I wondered first whether this was a bottle that you were sent or that you bought for at-home dining.

The reason I wondered: if wine writers are trying to reach the general audience and not the geek, your cheese toast with a $45 Pinot Noir might seem rather extravagant (to the audience). If that is the case, then I further wonder what exactly are we saying to the general audience that likely can’t afford a $45 wine just to have each night with dinner, let alone with toast!

Well, ahem, I suppose (I answered) that part of it has to do with the element of surprise, of extravagance, even of theater, in the sense that I don’t mind if people think, “That F.K., what a goof-ball, opened a $45 pinot noir with his cheese toast!” Yeah, I’ll do pretty much anything, verbally and conceptually, for a laugh, for a bit of attention, to keep — and this is the motivation — people coming back to BTYH.

Of course most of the wine I write about comes to me as samples, so, perhaps unfairly, I do have the ability to snatch a $45 wine from the rack to open with my cheese toast or roast chicken or whatever. Such wines exist, and I don’t think they should be ignored just because they’re expensive.

I also provide reviews of inexpensive wines, as in the Wine of the Week (rarely over $20) and in, for example, the post called “12 Under $20: White” that went up on Nov. 8. It’s probably not a good idea to try to be all things to all people, or the general all-purpose wine-writer and reviewer, but there it is.

Just to make amends, however, yesterday I made some cheese toast for my lunch, and before I reached for a wine to open, I thought, “Careful now, let’s be fair to The Readers.” So I opened a bottle of Redtree Pinot Noir 2008, California, which cost me — yes, my own hard-earned cash –the princely sum of $9. And you know what? Not only was it a pleasant and drinkable little wine, it actually displayed hints of real pinot noir character, in the form of smoky black cherry scents and flavors, plums with a hint of cola, subtle touches of spicy cranberry and rhubarb and a bit of clean earthiness; it even offers some pinot noir satiny sleekness for texture. The alcohol level — 12.5 percent — makes no demands. I rate the Redtree Pinot Noir ’08, a product of Cecchetti Wine Co., Very Good. At about $9, it represents Good Value, though you see it around the country as low as $6.50.

See, I’m not always “Mr. Forty-Five-Dollar Man.”

That’s the theme: 12 white wines priced under $20. I think that needs no elaboration. And we are trying to be diverse. Two rieslings at different prices, two sauvignon blancs at different prices, wines from Spain, Argentina, Western Australia, California, Washington. Soon, maybe not tomorrow but soon, comes “12 Under $20: Red.”
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I know, I know, call me crazy, but the [Down Under] by Crane Lake Chardonnay 2008, South Eastern Australia, “imported & bottled by Crane Lake Cellars, Napa & Sonoma, Cal.,” is more than just passable, or perhaps I should say, it’s not impossible. It’s fairly tasty and quaffable, sporting ripe pineapple and grapefruit flavors with a hint of tropical fruit, a modicum of spice and a pleasing texture. Pour it at parties where people aren’t actually thinking too much about the wine, and you won’t be embarrassed. And then you have to wonder: how cheap were these grapes that the juice could be purchased in Australia, shipped to California, bottled there and still sold so cheaply to make a profit? Good+. About $3 to $4, Sort of a Bargain If You Squint Your Eyes.
Crane Lake is one of the innumerable labels from Fred Franzia’s Bronco Wine Co.
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Well, you could have knocked me over with a lop-eared bunny when I tasted the Forest Glen Gewurztraminer 2008, California, and discovered how engaging and authentic it is for the price. No, it’s no Grand Cru from Alsace, but it would take nostrils of stone not to be beguiled by these aromas of peaches and Meyer lemons, lychees and rose petals and a hint of petrol (or rubber eraser) and Bazooka Bubble Gum. The wine is smooth and sleek in the mouth, almost viscous in texture, but shot through with zinging acidity for balance. Lemon and peach flavors, with a touch of pear and melon, offer a bit of sweetness initially, but halfway back the wine segues into crisp, limestone-like dryness and a pass at spiced grapefruit bitterness on the finish. Try as an aperitif or with sushi or ceviche. Very Good, and a Great Bargain at about $8.
Another Bronco wine.
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I like technical information that’s honest and factual. So, the tech sheet for the Elsa Bianchi Chardonnay 2008, San Rafael, Mendoza, tells us that is made “in stainless steel tanks with medium- toasted French oak innerstaves,” meaning that the wine is not fermented or aged in oak barrels but in stainless steel tanks with the staves of oak inside them. This is a controversial method, which usually lines producers on one side, shouting, “Hey, do you know how much those freakin’ French barrels cost?”, against wine-writers on the other side, grumbling, like Jean-Paul Sartre, “Bad faith! Inauthentic!” Well, we writers tend toward introspective existentialism, but however it was made — and let’s remember that we’re talking about a $9-chardonnay here, not a $90 Puligny-Montrachet Premier Cru — the Elsa Bianchi Chardonnay 2008 is a damned pleasing quaff.

There’s interesting contrast between the wine’s clean, breezy coolness and its warm, spicy, slightly toasty nature. Grapefruit-pineapple flavors are touched with mango, guava and fig (the latter from 10 percent semillon grapes), while a few minutes in the glass bring up hints of nutmeg and clove. The wine is quite dry, but vibrant with bright acidity in a dense, chewy texture. The wood comes out more in the end, blunting the finish a bit, though drinking the wine with fresh seafood or grilled fish would temper that aspect. On the whole, it’s easy to rate this chardonnay Very Good. About $9.
Imported by Quintessential, Napa, Cal.
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The Kamiak Windust White 2008, Columbia Valley, Washington, is produced by Gordon Brothers Family Vineyards. This is a very interesting blend of 90 percent sauvignon blanc and 10 percent chardonnay; part of the sauvignon blanc grapes, the harvesting of which went on until November 6, were late-harvest in style, and they lend intensity and vigor to the wine. Oak influence is so deft that it’s almost subliminal. The bouquet is jasmine and honeysuckle with touches of quince, ginger and pear; in the mouth, traces of Meyer lemon, spiced pear and damp limestone heightened by whiplash acidity combine for a scintillating experience, all of this culminating in a slightly bitter, slightly astringent finish. The texture offers gratifying balance between reticence and lushness. Loads of personality. Closed with a screw-cap. Very Good+. About $10, and a Great Bargain.
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Produced by Mason Cellars, the Pomelo Sauvignon Blanc 2008, California, practically leaps from the glass in a heady welter of green apple, grapefruit, kiwi, green pea and gooseberry. You have to like the aggressively grassy and meadowy style to appreciate this effort, but it’s well-made, crisp, snappy with tingling acidity and nicely married to a modestly talc-like texture. The finish, not surprisingly, is tart with lime peel and grapefruit and a little stony with gravel-like minerality. Very Good. About $10.
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Stonecap “Monson Family Estates” Riesling 2007, Columbia Valley, Washington. Stonecap is a label from Goose Ridge Vineyards. This is an amazing riesling for the price, bursting with notes of roasted lemon, spiced pear, roses and jasmine, all melded into an enchanting bouquet. The wine is vibrant and lively, blatantly spicy, delivering tasty citrus and lychee flavors with hints of orange rind and grapefruit. The mineral elements — limestone and damp shale — come up like a tide in the fleshed-out finish. Closed with a screw-cap. Very Good+. About $12, and a Terrific Bargain.
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The torrontès is an attractive grape as long as it is left alone and not made too much of. Nicely expressing the grape’s clean acidity and winsome floral elements is the Alamos Torrontès 2008, from the Catena winery in Cuyo, Mendoza, Argentina. There’s orange blossom and camillia is the bouquet, with pear and melon and a hint of peach. Granted that the nose is the most compelling aspect of the wine, as is often the case with torrontès, but a crisp, lively texture, balanced against a hint of lushness, does its part, as well as peach and citrus flavors infused with a burgeoning limestone character. A delightful aperitif. Very Good. About $13, and seen on the Internet as low as $8.50.
Imported by Alamos USA, Haywood, Cal., a Gallo company.
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Made from the grape that Americans are learning how to pronounce — “al-bar-EEN-yo” — the Martín Códax Albariño 2008, from the Rías Baixas appellation in Spain’s northwest region of Galicia, beguiles the nose with scents of lemon balm, almond and almond blossom and a hint of apple and pear. Made completely in stainless steel, 20 percent of the wine goes through the natural malolactic process to soften some of the rampant acidity from a clang to a chime. The wine, then, is crisp and brisk, quite dry, permeated by elements of austere chalk and limestone, and tasty with spicy pear and lime peel flavors. Altogether, the wine is spare and reticent and attractive as an aperitif or with grilled fish and seafood. Very Good. About $15.
Imported by Martín Códax USA, Haywood, Cal., a Gallo company.
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Two Angels consistently produces one of the most palatable sauvignon blanc wines at a reasonable price in California. Made all in stainless steel, the Two Angels Sauvignon Blanc 2008, High Valley, practically vibrates in the glass with clean, bright acidity and pungent scents of apple, lime peel, roasted lemon and tarragon. There’s a hint of spicy gooseberry that segues into keen citrus and lemon curd flavors emboldened by touches of dried herbs and fresh-mown grass, damp shale and limestone. A darkening of lavender, like eye-shadow on a pale face, brings in a smudge of soft, fragrant earthiness. Completely charming, with wholesome vigor. Very Good+. About $15, Great Value.
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I’m not fond of Terra d’Oro’s single-vineyard zinfandels from Amador County; I recently tasted the Terra d’Oro Deaver Vineyard Zinfandel 2006 and Terra d’Oro Home Vineyard ’06 (each 15.5. percent alcohol) and found them too old-fashioned in the hot, over-ripe, raisiny sense. Don’t miss, however, the Terra d’Oro Pinot Grigio 2008, Santa Barbara County. The color is an engaging pale straw with a faint tinge of pink; that notion of pink reminds me of pink grapefruit, the pith and tang of the fruit, and its juicy, tart acidity, all present in this lively wine. Despite that exhilaration, though, the wine is restrained, a little austere and slightly astringent, drawing on spare elements of roasted lemon, thyme and almond blossom for its primary characteristics. Lovely shape and balance. Very Good+. About $16, representing Good Value.
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“Lead, kindly light,” said the hymn we used to sing in the Methodist church my family went to when my brother and I were kids. And yes! every year I signed those cards pledging never to drink alcoholic beverages or smoke cigarettes. Dancing and kissing, on the other hand, were O.K. What did our parents think we were doing on Sunday night after M.Y.F.? Not that this memory has a damned thing to do with the Vinaceous Divine Light Verdelho 2009, from Pemberton, Western Australia; it just came to mind. The wine, to get back to that, offers heaps of personality for a grape that is often no more than pleasantly neutral. Charming scents of lime, pear and jasmine serve as prelude to the opening of a whole storehouse of spices bedded on layers of limestone and shale. Hints of dried grasses and herbs, like a slightly parched meadow in summer, lend the wine a dash of sunny Mediterranean-like warmth and appeal, while fleet acidity runs through the whole package like a live current. Very Good+. About $18.
Imported by The Country Vintner, Ashland, Va.
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The Craggy Range Fletcher Family Vineyard Riesling 2008, Marlborough, New Zealand, delivers crystalline presence and vibrancy. Scents of apples, pears and lychees are amazingly clean and fresh; a touch of petrol and a bounty of spice offer bass notes among the woven delicacies; 30 minutes in the glass bring in notes of jasmine and cookie dough. The wine is very dry, very crisp and lively, sinewy with acid; lime, peach and pear flavors are packed with gravelly minerality — like a gravel path damp with rain — while the intensity of fruit, acid and mineral elements builds to a finish that feels like liquid limestone. Drink now through 2012 or ’13. Excellent. About $19.
Imported by Kobrand Corp., Purchase, N.Y.
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We don’t buy catfish often. In fact, the last time we cooked catfish was probably 10 years ago for a dinner party, and that was a Charlie Trotter recipe for Wok-Smoked Catfish with Sweet-and-Sour Fennel and Kumquat Sauce, a terrific dish from The Kitchen Sessions (Ten Speed Press, 1999), one of the “easy” Charlie Trotter cookbooks, as opposed to the “really hard” original series of Trotter’s cookbooks. Anyway, the truth about catfish is that you can raise them in man-made ponds and nurture them on the most nutritious food, but the bewhiskered little fuckers still taste like bottom-feeders. Which, of course, is part of their unique charm. Which people north of the Mason-Dixon line and west of the Mississippi River probably don’t get.

Anyway, the fishmonger at the Memphis Farmers Market had catfish last week, and we thought, “Oh, what the hell.” So, LL dipped the catfish fillets in milk and then panko bread crumbs and seared them in a hot cast-iron skillet, and when they were nice and crusty and brown, she took them out and fried some slices of onion. I sliced a couple of ciabatta rolls, smeared them with remoulade sauce and put a slice of tomato on each. The catfish fillets went on top and then the fried onions. Definitely catfish and definitely delicious, though, yep, a little funky and earthy as only catfish can be. As LL said, as we were eagerly chowing down, “You wouldn’t mistake this for anything but catfish.”

I opened a bottle of the Clayhouse Sauvignon Blanc 2008, Paso Robles. Made almost all in stainless steel — a whisper of 2 percent is barrel-fermented — this wine is fresh, clean and lemony, through which qualities are woven hints of almond and almond blossom, quince and jasmine. Yeah, it’s pretty darned pretty. Totally dry, crisp as the click of a finger-snap, the Clayhouse Sauvignon Blanc 08 offers pear and melon flavors with a touch of leafy fig and lemon curd, whatever richness it shows off-set by the presence of some astringent floral aspect and the slight bracing bitterness of a finish infused with grapefruit and limestone, all of this wrapped is an appealing, close to talc-like texture, balanced, again, by that vibrant acidity, and could this sentence possibly be any longer? Real class and breeding for the price. Excellent. About $14, a Great Bargain.

The remoulade sauce on these catfish sandwiches was fairly spicy, and this wine handled that spiciness and the earthiness of the catfish handily.

The next morning, while LL was at work, I made a white bean and turnip greens soup, using a recipe from a book we have leaned upon for years, Chez Panisse Vegetables by Alice Waters (HarperCollins, 1996). The cannellini beans had already soaked overnight. It’s a fairly standard procedure, with garlic, onions and carrots, a piece of prosciutto, tomatoes, chicken stock and so on. You add the chopped greens about 20 minutes before serving and then garnish the soup with fried sage and shaved Parmesan cheese. It made a delicious lunch — we ate outside though it was a bit chilly — and finished the bottle of Clayhouse Sauvignon Blanc 08 from the previous night, which provided a satisfying accompaniment to the hearty, flavorful soup, particularly as a foil to the earthy, slightly bitter greens.

It’s neither Summer nor Autumn, but some messy, unbalancing, in-between seasonless season of abrupt temperature changes, occasional awe-inspiring blue skies, tentatively falling leaves and lots of rain. At this moment, rain is thundering down, and our poor lone remaining sycamore, a tall, slim beacon of silvery bark among the dun-clad oaks, looks a tad queasy in the gusting wind. At such a vacuous climatic juncture, one feels practically inert with quandrariness. And wine? Lord have mercy, what to choose? We don’t want the delicate, delectable wines of June, gossamer as some early aircraft fashioned from string and paper, blown by a breath and a breeze, nor do we yet require the full-blooded, two-fisted drayhorse-drawn wines of November.

My purpose, of course, is to lift you out of your stupor (or lift me out of mine) by offering six transitional wines that will ease you — or us — through this time of unease into the full panoply of Fall. The roster of brilliantly eclectic wines — Bordeaux, Washington, Oregon, Napa Valley, Tuscany, South Africa — includes three whites and three reds. None will furrow the brow of your credit card.
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The Chateau Haut-Rian 2008, Bordeaux Sec, a blend of 65 percent semillon and 35 percent sauvignon blanc from 50-year-old vines, offers terrific character for the price. It opens with whiffs of pear and roasted lemon with undertones of wet gravel. It’s very spicy in the mouth, and its slightly leafy citrus-grapefruit-ginger flavors are laced with vibrant acidity and vivid minerality, in the limestone-oyster shell range. The wine is quite dry, a little austere on the finish, and it possesses the supple heft and touch of earthiness required by such dishes as seafood risotto or seared halibut with lentils. Very Good+. About $12, often discounted to $9 or $10.
Imported by Worldwide Cellars, Minneapolis.
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The Sokol Blosser Pinot Gris 2008, Dundee Hills, Oregon, starts out spicy and keeps getting spicier. It’s as crisp as an apple right off the tree on a chilly day and even offers a touch of apple with its roasted pear and apricot scents and flavors infused with quince and yellow plum and a hint of fig. Made all in stainless steel, the wine is notably clean and fresh, and it deftly balances snappy acidity with a texture that’s close to lush. A few minutes in the glass bring up floral aspects, a white blossomy thing. (Notice how close “blossomy” is to “bosomy.” Karma or coincidence? You tell me.) The finish is long for a New World pinot gris, packed with spice and limestone. Delightful now, but the wine should develop depth and resonance through 2011 or ’12. Excellent. About $20.
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Speaking of apples, the Chateau Ste. Michelle Riesling 2008, Columbia Valley, Washington, teems with pert apple-like scents, combined with peach and pear, a note of lychee and a backnote of the authentic petrol or rubber eraser element. Zinging acidity keeps the peach and pear flavors lively and balances a hint of sweetness on the entry, though from mid-palate back, the wine is all ringing steel and damp shale. I haven’t had this dish in years, really decades, but tasting this wine recently put me in mind of acorn squash roasted with honey and cloves. Drink through Spring 2010. Very Good+. About $12.
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Bring on the pizza and pop the cork on a bottle of Frescobaldi’s Rèmole 2007, Toscana. This blend of 85 percent sangiovese and 15 percent cabernet sauvignon, made all in stainless steel, sports a medium ruby color with a slightly lighter rim. You get a blast of sangiovese in the smoky plum-black tea bouquet that unfolds hints of cedar and black olive and cabernet’s black cherry and currant. The wine is dry, spicy and lively, loaded with dusty tannins and black fruit flavors of moderate intensity in a slightly chewy texture. You’ll scarcely notice that it falls a little short in the finish. Drink through Summer 2010. Very Good. About $12 and often discounted to $10 or less.
Imported by Folio Wine Co., Napa, Cal.
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Here’s a merlot that actually tastes like merlot, not like faux cabernet or generic “red wine.” The Folie à Deux Merlot 2007, Napa Valley, delivers not only black currant, cedar and black olive, but red currant, tobacco and a trace of bell pepper. This range of elements is perfectly melded in a luscious package that allows for an expression of sinewy acidity and slightly muscular tannins borne by the presence of burnished oak from 10 months aging in American (49%), French (46%) and Hungarian (5%) barrels. There’s 11 percent cabernet sauvignon in the blend. The complete effect feels effortless, almost balletic, though grounded in granite-like minerality. I’m thinking roasted chicken with shallots and lemon, pork tenderloin, lamb chops grilled with rosemary. Excellent. The 2008 version of the Folie à Deux Merlot will be released soon, so many retailers are offering this wine at great prices. Look for $14 to $16.
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Excelsior Estate, in South Africa, has been owned by the de Wet family since 1870. While the property produces a wide range of wines, those most familiar in the United States are the inexpensive examples from the Robertson region. The Excelsior Cabernet Sauvignon 2007, Robertson, South Africa, is made 60 percent in stainless steel and 40 percent in oak, aging for 10 months. The wine is strikingly clean and fresh, a pure and intense expression of bright smelling and tasting black currants, black cherries and blueberries; the technical term, I believe, is “freakin’ delicious.” Given a few moments, the wine comes up with spice, a touch of plum pudding, a hint of cedar, an intimation of briery tannins, all wrapped up in a sleek package. Now through 2010. Very Good+. About $12, often discounted to $10.
Cape Classics Imports, New York.
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That’s two things, the wine — Duck Duck Goose 2006 — and a dish, pork porterhouse chops, sort of super pork chop.

As she was going out the door yesterday, LL said, “Do something with those pork porterhouse chops. You know, marinate them in something.”

Well, who am I not to obey?

So, about 4:30, I took these thick, beautiful pieces of meat — vegetarians read no further! — and slathered on them the minced garlic from two cloves, a squeeze of lime juice on each, a sprinkling of Urfa pepper from Turkey, some dried Mexican oregano, a dusting of dried chipotles and, finally, from the mountains of Chile, some “Merken” mapuche spice, which contains ground Cacho de Cabra chili peppers and coriander. Pretty damned international if you ask me! (Urfa and Merken are available from Zingerman’s.)

When it was time for dinner, LL cooked the pork the way we usually do with chops, seared on top of the stove in the cast-iron skillet on each side and then put into a 400 degree oven. Since these porterhouse chops were so thick, they cooked a total of probably 20 minutes, 10 on top of the stove and 10 in the oven. They came out perfectly, moist and tender and flavorful and mildly spicy. That’s a picture of them (at top) in the skillet, right out of the oven.

Meanwhile, LL made a succotash from fresh corn, Lima beans, sliced Serrano peppers and chopped Nicoise olives. We sliced a tomato to add color to the plate. The pork, the corn and lima beans and tomatoes came from the Memphis Farmers Market, open every Saturday downtown from May through October.

For the wine, I opened — by grasping the neck and cap and twisting my hand — a bottle of the Duck Duck Goose Fine Red Wine 2006, South Australia, from Rocland Estate. A blend of 55 percent shiraz and 45 percent cabernet sauvignon, this wine defines the color “inky-purple,” and if inky-purple had smells and flavors, it would probably define them too. The wine is deep, dark and spicy, awash with minerals and humus and loam, bursting with notes of ripe black currants and plums with a earthy, slate-like edge. There’s a hint of cloves, of cedar, of blueberry cobbler, and before you say, “Whoa, F.K., this does not sound at all like your kind of wine,” let me add that all of these elements, so typical of over-the-top Australian red wines, are firmly held in check and balanced by vibrant acid, by the aforementioned mineral quality and by dense, cushiony tannins. And then come the violets and rose hips. Pretty is as pretty does, my friends, but this wine manages to be pretty and serious simultaneously. It ages 18 months in French and American hogsheads — large casks — about 10 percent new, so there’s no influence of toasty new oak, just a sheen of slightly spicy wood. Great with the pork chops, as it would be with other hearty (or hardy) fare. Very Good+ and a Real Bargain at about $13.

Rocland Wine Imports, Calistoga, Cal.

All the instruments agreed that yesterday afternoon in Memphis was hot as blazes and ridden with shirt-soaking humidity. Nonetheless, we sat out on the screened porch about 5:30 with a bottle of white wine, invitingly sheathed in beaded condensation, and a bowl of our favorite little Tuscan crackers, LL to finish that morning’s Times, and me to continue reading a biography of Frank O’Hara, and saying to LL about every three minutes, “Whoa, it must have been so much fun to live in New York in the ’50s!”

Now unless you are the sort of person endowed with the fiduciary prowess to say something like, “Let’s sit outside this afternoon. I’ll grab a bottle of Lynch Bages Blanc” — a wine I will admit not tasting for a decade or so — then you, like I, would bring something more modest to the table, in this case a bottle of El Coto Rioja Blanco 2008. This is not a great wine, and I think that anyone sipping from a glass of it would feel the same. It’s made from viura grapes, and not meaning to cast aspersions, this is a grape simply incapable of greatness. You could throw a lot of French oak at it, as some misguided producers are doing with the unsuspecting grüner veltliner grape in Austria, and the result would not be a great wine but merely an over-oaked, ponderous wine.

El Coto Rioja Blanco 2008 is, however, thoroughly enjoyable. Made completely in stainless steel, it’s taut and stony, moderately spicy in its general citrus-like nature, dry and crisp and with an almost haunting floral aspect. Fulfilling its purpose as a screened porch, late Summer afternoon, aperitif quaffer, it rates Good+, and there’s not a damned thing wrong with that. About $10, and appropriate for poolside, picnics, patios and such. Imported by Frederick Wildman & Sons, New York.

Later for dinner, though, needing more character and presence, I opened the Sequoia Grove Chardonnay 2007, Carneros, Napa Valley. Here’s a chardonnay perfectly suited to our palates. Given a cool fermentation in stainless steel, the wine is transferred to French oak barrels, of which only 35 percent are new; the wine does not go through the malolactic process — in which sharp apple-like (“malic”) acid is transformed to smooth milk-like (“lactic”) acid — the result being a chardonnay that tastes like the grape, is lively and vibrant, and receives subtle and supple support from wood. The Sequoia Grove Chardonnay 2007 is bright and bold, with a lovely shape and texture, a sort of lushness permeated by crispness thing, as if you were biting into a peach and an apple at the same time. Classic flavors of pineapple and grapefruit reveal nuances of cloves and roasted hazelnuts, while the finish is sleek, resonant and slightly floral. Drink now through 2011 or ’12 (well-stored). Excellent. About $28.

My point, lecteurs, semblables et freres, is not that one wine is better or worse than another wine but that a wine makes its place with a sense of purpose as well as accommodation. There’s room for compromise between the positions that (A.) you can drink any wine any time with any food you want to and that (B.) each wine created on God’s Green Earth matches with one exact and Platonic food or dish and no other. What’s important is a sense of proportion. When we look at a Dutch still-life painting — this is Breakfast Still Life with Blackberry Pie (1631) by Willem Claesz Heda — the glasses of wine depicted therein embody an astounding sense of authority and deliberation. This ideal, we think, this bride of quietness, is the only possible wine that could have found a place in this setting, among these glowing foods and burnished plates and utensils and glittering fabrics, and I defy you not to wish that you were there, in that painting, so you could try that wine, which would surely offer a form of transcendence.

We do not, however, as much as we might wish, live inside a Dutch still life painting, and in this imperfect world all we can hope for is a modicum of poise, the reasonableness to make choices based on our preferences and experiences, two qualities that feed from and strengthen each other. Are there truly no wrongs choices in choosing wine? Of course there are, but even wrong choices broaden our experience and help lead us to the right ones. Just don’t expect too much of wine — it’s only a beverage — but let it speak to you itself of its own virtues and let it find its own place.

“Breakfast Still Life with Blackberry Pie” hangs in the Gemäldegalerie, Dresden.