Maison Louis Jadot - Beaujolais Villages @@@ (3 corks)

Retails: $8.97



Il n'y-a rien comme un bon Beaujolais! C'est vrai, n'est pas? Maison Louis Jadot makes primarily Burgundy wines in France, the Beaujolais Villages is one of the more affordable wines under this brand. Hey, it's Maison Louis Jadot ("House of Louis Jadot") so it must be good. The Gallo is just a pair of bros, this guy's got a whole HOUSE. This is also a wine company that's been around for a while. Started in 1859 by THE Louis Henry Denis Jadot in Burgundy, France, though, it is said, that the Jadot family started making wine around 1826 with the purchase of their first vineyard.

The Beaujolais-Villages wines are made in Beaujolais, near Lyon in the Rhone River Valley. On their website (http://www.louisjadot.com/) you can actually pull up exactly where the grapes come from with fancy flash-maps.

It's a smooth wine with very little offensive dry aftertaste so I consider this a good introductory red wine for non-drinkers. This is definitely a varietal that needs to breathe before consumed otherwise the flavors can run a little flat. According to their website, this is a wine to be consumed young, no need to let it age forever.

Carlo Rossi - Burgandy @@@ (3 corks)

Retails - $9.99 / gallon (Total Wine)

I used to be a part of a traveling video crew who ventured to San Antonio, Texas on a week-long trip. During our exploration of the famous River Walk, we followed our ears one evening to a tiny Italian Restaurant called Delores del Rio that featured live jazz music nightly. We were thrilled, for one, to find a restaurant serving something other than Tex-Mex, and second, this place had a certain off-kilter charm that drew us back night after night. Delores del Rio was the kind of hangout where all of the furniture was mismatched and dimly lit by 70's style lamps found at a garage sale. (Photo: My fellow blogger Amon Focus )The clientelle looked more like New Yorkers than Texans. Tiny circular tables had candles protruding from empty wine bottles, they drizzled candle wax all over the bottle and table. The food was incredible and the restaurant was about the size of your living room. My co-workers and I had found our "hang" in San Antonio. Plus, the house red was delicious. So, delicious, that it prompted us to ask, after three glasses a piece, what the wine was.

The waiter stammered and said "oh, it's some bulk wine we buy." We persisted until finally he admitted that the "bulk wine" was in fact none other than JUG wine---Carlo Rossi to be exact. The funny part was, they were passing off the Carlo Rossi Burgundy as a "Chianti" and pricing it at $7 per glass! We were completely fooled.

This Burgundy/Chianti is undefined, undoubtedly a mix of a few grapes, hence why this restaurant was able to pass it off for something other than true Burgundy. Having none of the signature brusqueness that Burgundy possesses, this wine was extremely drinkable. Very light, fruity, with a touch of acidity, the wine went down easily with our Italian fare. The moral of the story is, although we may turn up our noses at jug wine from time to time, there are in fact some good varieties out there that are worth a shot. And for under $10 per GALLON, throw a party and fool your friends with your bulk "Chianti."

Final Word: Totally drinkable especially if you're pinching pennies @@@ (3 corks)