Review: 8 Cheap Wines from Chile, South Africa, Germany, and California

I recently decided to expand my cheap wine horizons beyond 3-buck Chuck, and bought some inexpensive whites and reds. All wines were less than $5 at Trader Joe's.

South Africa
Zarafa 2005 Pinotage from Mountain River Wines
The label promised a "fruity, plummy nose with soft tannins and a lingering aftertaste". The wine delivers a nice fruity fragrance, but unfortunately, the aftertaste was reminiscent of brake fluid and it lingered. I declared it undrinkable after one mouthful. I found out later that the Pinotage grape is notorious for developing an industrial solvent-like flavor if it is not fermented correctly.

The Pinotage variety's biggest claim to fame is that it is a hybrid developed in South Africa in 1925. A heat-tolerant, prolific variety known in South Africa as Hermitage (known elsewhere as Cinsault) was crossed with the hard to grow but desirable Pinot Noir and their offspring is the Pinotage.

Germany
Rhineflur 2004 Riesling
This tasted more like a California Sauvignon Blanc to me than a German Riesling. It was tart, as expected, but too light for my tastes. In other words, unremarkable.

Chilean Wines:
Chile makes great red wines. I have had the fortune to drink a few of them, but not recently. Both of the Chilean wines landed firmly in the "I'd rather drink Three-Buck Chuck" category.

Panilonco 2005 Merlot/Malbec
The Malbec grape is widely grown in Argentina and Chile. Malbec grapes can make an intensely fruity, complex wine, but this wasn't one of them. It's soft, like a Merlot, undistinguished but drinkable. There are several better California Merlots in the same price bracket.

Panilonco 2005 Reserve Carmenere
Carmenere grapes can make a deep red wine with a fruity flavor enhanced by smoky, spicy and earthy undertones. Unfortunately, this is not one of Chile's great Carmeneres, and it's a stretch to call it mediocre. It is much like a Merlot, with a soft, fruity taste, but this bottling had an unpleasantly strong earthy undertone - too much mud pie flavor is bad for wine.

California Wines:

Mount Eden Vineyard 2003 Edna Valley Chardonnay
Wolff Vineyards
This was a totally unremarkable wine. It's white, it tastes like fermented grapes, it's boring.

Black Mountain Vinyard 2005 Zinfandel
Cramer Ridge
The label claims this is a "rich mellow zinfandel with the distinctive 'bramble' character". It was drinkable, but not worth repeating. It was neither rich nor mellow and the typical berry overtones of a Zinfandel were barely detectable.

Jake's Fault 2004 Shiraz
Allied Domecq (a wine conglomerate) seems to be the producer
This was labeled as being "rich, juicy and full of flavor". It was liquid, but not exactly full of flavor. Another mediocre wine. The producer is apparently a one-trick winery, because they haven't released anything else.

I found that they have a website. They should spend more time on the wine and less on the rich multimedia experience Web 2.0 website, which tries to build a trendy community around a mediocre wine.

Villa Mt. Eden, 1999 California Syrah
This was very tannic, with lots of sediment. If you have some, open it and carefully pour it into a wine serving flask and let it breathe. It's drinkable after you let it breathe, but it's just an ordinary Syrah.