I love to drink red wine -- I go to some informal tasting parties with friends and read about wines now and then, but I'm not an expert. I just know what I like!

Restaurants always overcharge SO much for bottles, it's ridiculous to pay a lot for a bottle when eating out. If you really want to spend $100 on a bottle of wine, but it at your local wine shop where you'll get twice as much for your money! I look at the least expensive red wines on the list, then find the best one of that bunch. I know a lot of red wines so usually I can pick something I'll enjoy.

Bonny Doon makes some very good inexpensive wines.

Interesting story - a few years ago several of us winos gathered for a blind cab tasting. We tasted about 6 wines and Silver Oak Alexander finished 2nd to last. We were all very surprised as most of us were very familar with wines and a few of us had been in the restaurant business for years with wine lists boasting 150+ selections. I don't remember all of the wines now but I do recall Joseph Phelps and Mount Veeder ranked above Silver Oak.

Rodney Strong for a solid not too expensive wine - red or white.

To wine lover,
Did you say BONNY DOON???? You are being sarcastic aren't you? We were in Hawaii and took this couple who live there out to dinner. We bought a couple of bottles of nice chardonay in the $70.00 price range for the four of us and paid for the meal which came to around $400.00. They in turn took us out to eat. They ordered Bonny Doon for dinner. We had never heard of this wine before and I remember remarking on how pretty the bottle was. They talked through dinner about how they would buy boxed wine and drink that for there regular wine! We had no clue what boxed wine was until we went into a local supermarket in Lahaina, Hawaii and saw gut rot wine in big 2 gallon jugs or boxes. (like a big juice box) When we arrived home we went to the liquor store to buy some wine and my husband started laughing because he came across a bottle of Bonny Doon that was priced at $7.50 per bottle. This man that bought the Bonny Doon for our meal had remarked to us about how he bought a bottle of Cristal for his friend's birthday and told us how he went to many wine tastings. If he was so smart about his wines then why would he insult us with that gut rot? He knew that we loved good wine and as a matter of fact he invited us up to his suite at the hotel to celebrate his new girlfriend's birthday. We went and bought her a nice chardonay as a gift. When we got up to the room he served us a very cheap Kendall Jackson. What was up with that? We were very insulted and felt taken advantage of. Are just being snobby or do you agree?

Mer Soleil Girl, you could not be more wrong about Bonny Doon, which is a highly regarded California winery, not a single wine. It was started by Randall Grahm, popularly known as the "Rhone Ranger", who specializes in growing Rhone varietals in California. Many of his wines are very highly prized, though he does also make some more for the mass market (I'm not aware of any really cheap or "boxed" wines). He's a bit of a character - he sells a wine called "Le Cigare Volant" as a parody of the Burgundian law that prohibits flying saucers (known as flying cigars in France) from landing in their prized vineyards. The also markets an ice-wine (Vin de Glaciere) that's very nice.

He probably knew exactly what he was doing by not spending much on you. With that type of attitude I bet you like white zin.

Bonny Doon doesn't make box wines.

Twice in the last five years, Consumer Reports magazine has rated wines. I'm not a wine drinker, but the articles were really fascinating. They tested affordable wines for a basic consumer (usually under $35/bottle). Each time, inexpensive wines were ranked above ones that cost several times what they did.

Don't have my CR index to tell you when the articles appeared, but wanted to tel you about them.

Do your homewrok next time mer soleil girl. Bonny Doon makes some very good note worthy wines.
http://www.bonnydoonvineyard.com/home.html

I LOVE Bonny Doons Vin de Glaciere. It is one of my favorite dessert wines out there and you are right - very affordable. I think a few years ago they even won the number one spot in the Wine Spectator in the Top 100 wines of the year article they do every year.

Wino,
I never said that Bonny Doon was a box wine. You learn something new everyday. I will definately go to their site and try to learn more about their product. I love a very sweet chardonnay and from what I remember what he had served us was a pinot. It was so light. Mer Soleil is very viscous and the finnish is wonderful. Thank you for enlightening me.

Le Cigare Volant is a wonderful wine. Kind of humorous that they don't list the Bonny Doon on the label. Discovered this one at a little wine bar around the corner from the W Union Square (just east towards Irving Place). It has about six tables and is charming.

Mer Soleil Girl,
Why would you critique a wine you knew nothing about?

Such As?

Count, I'm going to be in NYC this weekend. Do you have the name and/or address of that wine bar? Thanks.

I love this thread! I also am a fan of Bonny Doon. We like the Sin wine that lists all of the 7 deadly sins on the back label. We also have enjoyed the Dry riesling on occasion.

Mer: If the "finnish" is wonderful, how's the dannish?

Hey, peeps: let's start listing some wines, please....preferably sold $80.00 and under at the store - not restaurant. Thanks!

See Winos thread above, they listed some good ones.