Chiroulet Cote D’Heux White Wine – 100% Gros Manseng – huh?

This is a series of weekly bargain wine picks by the members of the Vintage Wine Tasting Club. We meet every other month for a formal tasting session but in between we communicate with each other whenever we discover a great wine bargain. We love the sport of bargain wine hunting. Here are our bargain wine picks from the past week.

Chiroulet Cote D’Heux 2009 Weimax $13.99 (Vintage Club Pick)
Vintage Wine Taster George served this wine at his lunch following our blind taste off last week. What a delight to find a new and interesting wine. This wine comes from the Chiroulet Winery, which is located in a commune by the name of Condom located in southwestern France. It is made from 100% of the Gros Manseng grape, the main white grape of this area. The wine was fermented and aged in wood and thus has a gentle oak aroma and a very nice feel in the mouth. The characteristics of this wine are far different from any white wines we have tasted. Give it a try; we think you will enjoy this wine. If you drink this wine by itself you may not enjoy it as much, because it really is a food wine and matches perfectly with seafood and poultry.

Rivetto Barbera D’Alba 2006 $12.99 BevMo (Joe’s Pick)
I recently returned from a very fun trip visiting several wine regions in Italy. While in the town of Alba, in the Piemonte wine region, we stopped in at the Rivetto Enoteca and sampled several of their wines. We purchased a bottle of their Barbera and later in the early evening sampled the wine with some cured meats in our B&B. Back at home, I was surprised and happy to find this same wine staring me in the face as I browsed the BevMo Italian wine section. It is a medium-bodied wine with good fruit flavors and nice acidity. I think I prefer a Barbera to the Chianti wines which are made from the Sangiovese grape.

These next two wines finished in a close race at our blind tasting this past week of Sauvignon Blanc wines from the Loire Valley. Both are priced nicely at under $20 and certainly provide a very excellent alternative to drinking California or New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc wines.

Les Trois Chenes Touraine 2009 – Weimax $15.99, K&L $14.99 (Vintage Pick)
This is 100% Sauvignon Blanc and barrel aged. This wine has a lot of character with some minerality that adds the right touch to the wine. This is another wine to be enjoyed with seafood.

Xavier Frissant Roses du Clos Touraine 2007 – $16.99 Weimax (Vintage Pick)
This was my first choice largely because I love the mouth feel of this wine. You just want to hold it in your mouth and savor the body and flavors of this wine. I think if I found a similar California S.B. fermented in barrel like this one, I would have to pay over $25 for it.

One our readers, James, has a good tip for Cost Plus World Market wine shoppers. If you go to the Cost Plus website and plug in your ZIP Code you can find the ads for your area and check out the coupons for wine discounts.