I've had wonderful luck buying AU wines. I've written about AU before; they're an Australian wine conglomerate that does a fair amount of U. S. Export under the Aussie Vineyards label. Their labels include 12 Apostles, Au, Buckley's Cove, Element 79, Fly and Tamborine. I've tried the Buckley's Cove Cabernet Sauvignon, and was somewhat underwhelmed, but I've enjoyed Au wines. I suspect that as a corporation, they may be rather similar to Bronco wines in the U.S. I've mostly been buying AU wines at Bargain Grocery, though I note I've seen AU Gold Label wines on several wine lists at restaurants in Seattle and Los Angeles. I've written abut their AU 2004 Barossa Valley Shiraz.

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I've written about the McGuigan winery before here, in the context of McGuigan's Black Label Cabernet-Merlot blend. McGuigan's Bin Series wines are sourced from single regions; this one is, as the label suggests, from South Australia's Limestone Coast, that is, the southeastern coast of South Australia, from the Victoria border towards Adelaide. The wine regions along the Limestone coast include Coonawarra, Wrattonbully, Mount Gambier, Robe, Mount Benson, and Padthaway, with Coonawarra perhaps the best known in the U. S., particularly for Cabernet Sauvignon. McGuigan has a name for advanced technically innovative wine-making, and for blending wines from a number of vineyards and growing areas; this Cabernet Sauvignon exemplifies that approach.

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The McGuigan vineyards and winery are a family operation, beginning with Owen McGuigan who was born in the Hunter Valley of Australia in 1869. Now a fourth-generation of winemakers they've expanded from their own vines in New South Wales' Hunter Valley, to sourcing grapes from a variety of wine regions, including Hunter Valley, Barossa Valley, Coonawarra, Adelaide Hills, Eden Valley and others. In 1947, the McGuignan's opened a second winery in the Barossa Valley. Currently, the McGuigan Wines group is Australia's third largest wine producer under their corporate umbrella of Australian Vintage. They are the family behind the Wyndham Estates winery and label, begun via the purchase of the Dalwood Estate Winery from Penfolds in 1970. In 1990 the international conglomerate Pernod Ricard seized control of Wyndham Estates in a hostile takeover.

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This bottle of Mad Housewife California Chardonnay was another Fred Meyer find at $4.99. I'm again impressed by the Mad Housewife quality (you can find my Mad Housewife Cabernet Sauvignon review here). It's a distinctively California Chardonnay—the fruit is there, but there's enough of the California style oak to announce this as California. It's pleasant, light, and not what I suspect a fair number of people expect from a California table Chardonnay. It's not bitter, acidic or so tannic that you can't smile while you're drinking. You can, I think, tell from the Mad Housewife Chardonnay why so very much French champagne begins as Chardonnay—this is a fun wine, and one I'd try on those who insist they hate Chardonnay.

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Mad Housewife is a fairly middle of the road California Cabernet Sauvignon—and that's in no way meant disparagingly. This is a reliable, affordable table wine. It's a lovely crimson in the glass, with a dark cherry aroma that has a hint to something darker. It's definitely fruity on the palate, but the dark cherry is restrained by a hint of something that's almost like bitter chocolate. I note that Mad Housewife Cabernet Sauvignon won a Silver Medal at the 2009 National Women’s Wine Competition in Santa Rosa, California. It's 13.5 ABV, and while it usually runs around $8.00, I found this at Fred Meyer for $4.99. There's an interesting recipe section on their Website; I like that they've included drinks made with wine, something that's a lot of fun at this time of year. You'll notice that there are a fair number of recipes that rely on Mad Housewife as both a pairing and as an ingredient.

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This was an instance of an impulse buy based on packaging, and I admit it freely. While shopping at the Bargain Grocery Outlet in hopes of finding more Ciao Bella Sangiovese, I spotted the distinctive ultra-modern aluminum and plastic 750 ML bottle of Sassie California Cabernet Sauvignon 2006. I figured that for $3.99, it's worth a gamble. Sassie wines is a company started by South African born and raised Denis Sasman of SASSIE International Vintners & Distillers; he's announced plans to import and bottle Italian wine this year, and South African wines next year.

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This was a spontaneous end-cap buy at Trader Joe's, sparked by my curiosity about Sangiovese. It's 100% Sangiovese, from Italy's Puglia region. It's an attractive but very dark crimson-purple in the glass, with a faintly piney sour cherry aroma. It coats the glass quite thickly. Pungent, slightly acidic and resinous, but still fruity, this is a quaffable table wine, with a 12.5% ABV. It's a bit more tart than I'd expect from the herbal-fruity aroma, and decidedly spicey, even peppery (though some of that may be the alcohol, I suppose). Still, this is more fruit forward than I'd expect from a Sangiovese.

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I've been on a pronounced red wine kick of late, in part encouraged by Trader Joe's red wine blends, both the Chariot Gypsy and the Aquila Doro Toscana 2007, both of which feature Italian Sangiovese. So when I saw this 2007 Ciao Bella Sangiovese from Italy at the Bargain Grocery Outlet for a mere $3.99, I snagged a bottle. Ciao Bella is one of the numerous Precept Wine labels, and, like most of them, it's hard to find much about it.

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I'd never heard of this wine until I saw it at a hugely discounted price at a local bargain grocery. It's currently selling for $4.99 a bottle. Turn Me wines were initially released in 2007 in the U.S. through the importer Wein-Baur. The wine is currently available in two varieties, a traditional German dry Riesling, and a red blend. A sweet wine, "Turn Me Sweet" was introduced a year later. "Turn Me Red" is an Austrian Zweigelt grape blend created by Hans Nittnaus, a respected German winemaker. "Turn Me Riesling" is from Germany's Nahe region, and "Turn Me Sweet" is a sweet Spanish wine. All three retailed originally for around $9.99. The Riesling won the "Gold Medal" award in the under $10.00 category from the Beverage Testing Institute (BTI) in its 2007 World Value Wine Challenge.

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I've been looking for this red table wine blend for almost two years now, since the 2006 release. I made a concerted effort to find the 2007 release at my local Trader Joe's, but both lots sold out within days of arrival at the local Trader Joe's because just about everyone was buying a case or three. The Trader's Joe's wine clerk mentioned that she's hearing that this year's version is better than last year's. It's bottled by Chariot and sold exclusively to Trader Joe's. I started hearing about it from wine bloggers and wine lovers who would excitedly let the world known when their local Trader Joe's stock of Chariot Gypsy arrived. You can read what wine blogger Jason says about last year's Chariot Gypsy here.

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