Dead Presidents and Set Presidence

Spending solid amounts of money on fine wine is perfectly acceptable. There, I said it. Fine Wine is no more alien or less valuable than any other vice that we as a society can acquire. It tastes great, in moderation it's good for you, and it's a great social tool for creating positive intercultural bonds. I know that times are hard, it's a fact that I would be foolish to skirt around, but the fact remains that by avoiding the things that please us would be to destroy what inherently built us up to who we are.
Most of my musings have been on 'affordable' wines, and will continue to hover over wines that you can consume on a daily basis with little or no 'guilt factor', however I would be doing my fellow wine advocates no justice if I didn't talk about a few crowd pleasers that cost a little extra coin. These wines aren't expensive by any global standard, and placing them against the high end French catalogue these wines will look like what your grandfather told you McDonald hamburgers used to cost.
Cabernet Sauvignon is always a good jumping off point when talking about high-end, nicer wines. Since Stag's Leap beat the French in a blind tasting, Cabernet Sauvignon has been the reference point when talking about the top teton of American wine. You don't have to spend a bucket of money when buying a good Napa Cabernet, but you can and often it will titilate your tongue in ways you can only imagine. Wines like the 'Astral Cabernet' from Star Lane rock all day long at a price under $100 dollars, something that has become a rarity since the birth of the 'cult' Cabernet Sauvignons that spilled out into the market a decade or so ago. 'Astral' is an austere, tightly woven blackberry bundle, dripping bakers chocolate on warm layers of tobacco and pristine cuban spices. Winemaker Nick de Luca is an anomoly of an artisan, making his way from forklift operator to a young sensation in a market that can often look cookie cutter. Plus he used to be a semi-pro mountain biker, how cool is that? Moving through Napa, one of my favorites is Alpha Omega Cabernet Sauvignon. The definition of 'pedigree', Alpha Omega's consulting wine maker is Michel Roland. Roland is wine's Waldo, showing up like a phantom in the night and making red and white gold. Jean Hoefliger is the estate wine maker who formerly worked at Lynch-Bages; I almost don't need to tell you how the wine is by now. A powerhouse of a Cabernet Sauvignon, the key is the subtlety of the fruit. The lush black currants hide behind cured leather, echoing just enough bramble to suggest ageability. I cannot say enough about a wine that has a nose and a pallette that match up as well. The tenderbox like nose is full of round blackberries and dusty cocoa. Here's the best part, it's not even $70. Look for it to get better, I've tasted this in verticles(past vintages) and I can safely say it's only getting better.
But it's not just Cabernet Sauvignon that I'm on my soap box about. Easily one of the best Bordeaux-style blends on the market is Krupp Brother's Veraison: Synchrony. Cab based, this big boy flows forward with bold fruit, dark berries buried in red currants. Everything about the full body rounds out the mid-pallette, coating the tongue in what can only be described as mellow bakers chocolate. Veraison is the term for the change a grape goes through from berry growth to berry ripening. In many ways it describes the growth of Krupp Brother's rise to one of the best boutique wineries in the world. A fun vineyard, they integrate Napa cowboy culture into their wines, including a gigantic syrah(Blackbart) named after a gentleman stagecoach robber who actually stuck up a stop where the vineyard is located. The Syrah is good, the Synchrony is fantastic. It could age, but I haven't garnered the strength to save it. At under $80 dollars expect to be just as wowed as this wine nerd.
Pinot is taking center stage in many households, and for many of the right reasons. A lot of people transition from white to red in waves of delicate taste patterns, and as such they experience Pinot Noir as a stepping stone. The problem therein is that they don't spend enough on a Pinot Noir to really gather a solid opinion. A few wonderful examples are Siduri, Mi Sueno and Miner; three family owned vineyards with a lot to cheer about. My current favorite, however, is Saintsbury. With over half a dozen seperate Pinot Noir vineyards, they make a Pinot for all types. Saintsbury fights the idea that the American pallette craves BIG style wines, refusing to make overextracted, overbearing juice that gluts the California scene. My personal pick is the Lee Vineyard, a nice, Burgundian stylized wine that steps up to the plate with hard bing cherries set against a mellow velvet lining of spiced plum. It goes a long way to muscle up, but not out muscle, avoiding the pitfall of watery North Coast style Pinot Noirs. It's a steal at under $60 and for what Burgundy Pinots are running, it's the only real way to go.
I could wax poetic on litereally hundreds of GOOD wines, but the point is you need to go free and try them yourselves. I created this site to introduce you to the gems of here and abroad, but like your mother always said; "you can lead a horse to water....". I'm always at the shop, eagerly awaiting to shock you with some of our great stock, and I'm always up for questions, the point is it's your job to formulate some. Think hard, and drink well, what else is life for?
Cheers
Cameron