transcript

Speaker 1:
[00:08] Welcome to Wine For Normal People, the podcast for people who like wine, but not the snobbery that goes with it. I'm your host, Elizabeth Schneider, author of the Wine For Normal People book and certified wine dork. This podcast is sponsored by Wine Access, the go-to source of people in the wine industry for hard to find, limited production, high quality wines at great prices. If you're like me and don't have a lot of time to shop in person, you can hop online anytime wineaccess.com/wfmp to get into the site and let them know you found out about them through me. You deserve great wine. Get it from people of the best taste in the business. Listen in the middle of the show for more details. This week's show is going to be pretty fun and it is definitely going to be useful. What I'm trying to focus on is more regional. I'm not going to go for individual wines like if you like this particular producer, you will like another producer. That's just a little tiny bit too specific for us and the breadth of this audience. So instead of doing that, I'm going to talk about some regions where the wines are traditionally pretty expensive. Now my definition of expensive and your definition of expensive are probably going to be different. But for purposes of this show, I tried to look at wines where the average price for a good wine like kind of the sweet spot was around $50 for an expensive wine. I think $50 US dollars is pricey for a wine. And of course, if they start at $50, they are going to go up and up. And in the case of Burgundy, which is one of these wines, it will go astronomical. The idea here is to take these bottles that are expensive and to find wines that are similar but more affordable. So I am going to tell you a little about each of the wines, both the originals and the alternatives. I'll talk about the flavors and I'll talk about pricing. And for the alternatives, I'll give you some producer names so that you can know what to look for that are in that lower range. Because there are some producers that are making expensive versions of even the alternative wines but pretty much never rivaling the heights of the wines that are super, super expensive. So very quick, we don't have a lot of patron shoutouts sadly this week. But if you would like to join and help keep this podcast going, I would really appreciate it. You can go to patreon.com/wine For Normal People and join the community where there are lots of perks, including I'm taking a group to Veneto and Alto Adige. You could only do that if you were a patron. And I am currently looking at a partner in Bordeaux. So that's coming up. Croatia will be in 2027. So many fun travel opportunities, but only if you're a patron, can you go. Also, opportunities to get together and hang out with other patrons. It's really a very social thing. Wine is social and the community is really strong. So hopefully you will think about joining. I need to thank Sarah B., Lcoil4, Emily P., and Julia S. Thank you so much for joining Patreon. Look forward to having you in the community. As does everybody else, super welcoming place. patreon.com/wine For Normal People. Also, I just mentioned Veneto and Alto Adige. Those classes are up. And they're going to be offered in May, right on the heels of me coming back from these two regions. So if you really want to learn about these wines and try them with me, that would be fantastic. These are live online classes. That's winefornormalpeople.com/classes. Now, I had originally mapped out alternatives to expensive wines. And I was like, I am going to give them a whole case. And then as I was preparing for the podcast, I realized that maybe it would be better if I actually gave some background on these wines, talked about each of them, and talked about how they're similar. So instead of doing 12, I'm going to do six. I think it's better for us to go over these in detail. Now that said, the list that I have included another six or seven or eight wines. So if you're interested in me doing another one of these, just let me know. And if there's an expensive wine that you want an alternative to, also hit me up and let me know that. You can do it on Instagram or of course on Patreon. Let me know after you hear the show if there's something else that you want me to cover. Let's talk about these wines. And these are some of the most expensive wine regions in the world. We're going to be looking at wines that start kind of at the $50 range for decent bottles and go all the way up. Now, that said, for some of these, I'm going to say yes, you can get less expensive examples. And some producers are doing a very good job of making fantastic red burgundy, for instance. But they are not the top of the top. And so my goal is to give you wines that are from different regions or places that are probably going to be significantly better for the price than the bottom tier of whatever the expensive wine is. This list is going to include some alternatives that are the same grape and some things are different grapes. So we will get into these six wines now. The first wine that I think we should include is Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. Napa Valley in California, this is warmer climate Cabernet Sauvignon. The Napa Valley, which is not that large, does have a lot of diversity. There's alluvial fans, there's sea level valley floors, there's high mountain vineyards that go up to 2,000 feet or 600 meters. We have a lot of diversity, so many, many different soil types. Cabernet Sauvignon represents 60% of the region's overall wine crop. The flavors of this wine generally include blackcurrant and ripe plum, black fruit, black cherry, blueberry, blackberry, all of those kinds of things. It can be pencil-lead sometimes, it can be dusty at other times, earthy dusty, floral, those violet notes, or it can be herbal like sage, cedar, mocha, coffee, leather, tobacco, if it has been in an oak barrel, which most Napa Cabernet Sauvignon has been in an oak barrel. And these wines can be very tannic. Some of them are really soft and plush, and that has to do with various aging techniques or chemical additives in some cases. Some have a lot of acidity in them. They range, but the theme in a Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon is fruit. So if it's from the valley floor, it's going to be more plush and fruity, and have maybe more mint notes, definitely black fruit. If it's from the hillsides, it's going to be dark fruit still, but more of the sage herbal notes, more mineral notes, very strong tannin. On the hillsides, you have generally smaller berries that are going to create darker wines with more tannin. So it's going to take them longer to mature and hit a point where you might want to drink them more like 10 to 15 years at peak, as opposed to the Valley Floor wines, which do really well at 10 years. And some of the most expensive wines, most of the expensive wines are from the Valley Floor. That plush style is the typical Napa style. When we talk about entry-level pricing for Napa Valley wine, it starts at around 30 US dollars. A lot of entry-level wines start at 45 US dollars. This is like regional blends that say Napa Valley on them. They're the bottom base tier. You can get some for 25 US dollars, but usually it's gonna start at around 30. And most Napa Valley wines are going to be between 50 and $100. And these are higher quality reputable wines, sometimes single vineyards. That is, the majority of Napa wines are gonna be 50 to $100. And I would say premium pricing is 100 plus. And then you've got wines that are thousands of dollars. By my definition, Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon is pretty expensive. So what do you do if this is your wine and you absolutely love it? I would recommend, if you're a Cabernet Sauvignon lover, let's stick with Cabernet Sauvignon, but let's get you a Maipo Valley Cabernet Sauvignon. Cabernet Sauvignon came to Chile from Bordeaux in the 1800s. It's the most widely planted grape in Chile. One third of the bottles that come out of Chile are varietal Cabernet Sauvignon, and a lot of it is pretty affordable. Producers have really improved over the last few years, done a great job of handling this grape, and the focus has just made the top wines of Chile, the Cabernet is at the top amazing. There's lots of intensity and they have really old vines, which have been planted without grafted rootstock because they never had phylloxera. So you get some different flavors in these wines, but very similar to Napa in many ways. They may be a little more earthy, but they have those dark fruit aromas I described. They have a lot of complexity. They have a great balance of tannin and fruit. Some of them are more tannic, some of them are less tannic. Again, a lot of the things that I described about Napa Valley hold true for the Maipo Valley. Oak notes, again, Cabernet Sauvignon does so well with oak. Chocolatey, sometimes minty, these dry tannins, great acidity, very similar, except in price. If you talk about an entry-level Cabernet Sauvignon, we're talking about wines that are 10 to 15 US dollars. These are very basic Cabernet Sauvignon. You're not gonna get those flavors I described from there, but you will have a satisfying wine for that price. The mid-range and wines that are really good are from about $15 to $40, and I find some of the best ones are 20 to 22 US dollars. As an alternative to Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, for around $20, I'll give you some producers, my absolute favorite wine is the Pérez Cruz Cabernet Sauvignon Limited Edition. I think it's like $22 US. There's Vina Chocolon, that's a Grand Reserva, so it's been aged for a little bit longer. Arras de Perquet, fantastic wine. Trés Palacios, Family Vintage Cabernet Sauvignon. Santa Rita makes some great wines also. These are fantastic Cabernet Sauvignon. And that green pepper note or the pyrazines, it has faded a little bit. It's not as powerful. I know a lot of people have problems with the green pepper note in Chilean wines. Not as much. And certainly that Peres Cruz Cabernet Sauvignon, which is basically like a house wine, I always have that on hand, 20 bucks. They're a little subtler than Napa Valley Cabernet Sauvignon, but the price is right. Let's just say that. If you love Cabernet Sauvignon, you gotta get on Maipo Valley Cabernet Sauvignon from Chile, your wallet will thank you. Champagne is number two. Well, we're never gonna find an exact replica for Champagne. It's a demarcated region around the towns of Rennes and Ipernay. It's almost at 50 degrees north latitude. So it's really challenging viticulture. It's the most northerly region in France. And the wine making regions extend across a lot of large regions. You do have different styles. The thing that is generally true is that since the wine making has a lot of influence on the wines, there is certainly something that unites the wines of champagne. There are different soils and subsoils. A lot of the terroir is chalky limestone, but it depends. And there's rolling hills and there's some flatter areas. So you have a variety of wines. And actually, up until basically the late 1800s, there was a mix of many, many different vines that were used for champagne. Now they really focus on Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Pinot Munet. There are some other grapes that are also allowed, but those are the main grapes. These wines are made in the Method Champenoise. Bring the grapes in, you press them gently. You do a first fermentation. The second fermentation happens inside the bottle from which you drink it. They put a sugar and yeast solution inside of the bottle. Then they put a beer cap essentially over the bottle. That's going to trap the carbon dioxide inside the wine. It's going to motivate a second fermentation. That second fermentation is going to happen in that bottle. And it rests for at least 15 months on the dead yeast cells, which break up and give you sometimes a nice bready note. But the flavors of a champagne, minerality a lot of times, it is crisp. It's got great acidity. The alcohol level is generally low. Very aromatically intense, like lemons and green apple pear, white flowers. Sometimes if it sat on those dead yeast cells for a while, it will be like toasty brioche. There are many, many different styles, different levels of sweetness. Did the wine go through malolactic fermentation, that softening of the hard green apple acid into softer malic acid? How long did it spend on the dead yeast cells? So that's gonna make a big difference. And also, is it Blanc de Blanc, so white of white, Chardonnay only? That's gonna be more citrusy and minerally. Blanc de Noir, the white wine of red grapes, that's generally out of Pinot Noir, but it can be Pinot Noir and Pinot Munet as well. More strawberry, raspberry notes. The Rosé is very much like red berries. This wine can be extremely complex and lovely out of Pinot Munet and Pinot Noir as well. And they range. Some are bone dry, Brut Natur, to sweet, Dew. But in general, I think when we have an idea about champagne, it has lower alcohol, it is really crisp, and it has some very distinctive citrus, minerally notes. Champagne is expensive. I mean, it's expensive to farm and it's expensive to make. At the entry level, even for real cheap champagne, it starts at about US. $30. Mid-range, where most people are buying champagne, it's, you know, $45, $50 to about $100 US. And if you're gonna buy a bottle of even Vleuf Cliquot or Moye Chandon, you're gonna be paying at least $50 US. And then if you have a premium wine, the Tete de Cuvée, the best wines, the vintage wines, that's when you're talking hundreds and hundreds of dollars, even thousands of dollars. Champagne is expensive because it is an elite and small region. What do you do if you love champagne and you wish you could drink it every night, but 50 US dollars is not on the table for you every night? Wines that are made in the Methode Champenoise, the champagne method in France, are called Cremont. And the alternative that I would suggest is Cremont de Bourgogne. Bourgogne is Burgundy. And these are sparkling white and rosé wines made mostly of Pinot Noir and Chardonnay grapes, which are the main grapes of Bourgogne or Burgundy. They are made in the traditional method or the champagne method. Historically, actually, very interestingly, in Burgundy, they used all the sites that are now classified as Grand Cru for sparkling wine. Sparkling wine was very popular. We always have to keep an eye on history and how things have changed. But it used to be that these top sites were used for Cremont. Not anymore. Now those are just purely Pinot Noir or Chardonnay. In 1975, Cremont de Bourgogne was set up for white and rosé sparkling wines. These are some of the strictest rules in France for sparkling wine. Hand-harvested in whole bunches, which they have to do in champagne. They have to use small boxes with perforated bottoms to make sure that they're not crushing the grapes. Same pressing protocol as champagne. This is very high-end as we would expect from Burgundy, high-quality with the same or similar grapes to what you will find in champagne. And it's not too far away from champagne. Burgundy is warmer than champagne, but it still is cool. Now, the terroir is going to vary. You could make cremant de Bourgogne in Chablis, which is pretty cold and very similar to champagne. Or you could make it down in the south in Beaujolais, which is not really part of Burgundy, but administratively, you're allowed to use grapes from there. The best thing to do if you want to cremant de Bourgogne, look where their domain is. A lot of times that will indicate where they're getting the grapes from. So if it's in Chablis and they're making a sparkling wine, it will likely be that more crisp style. They make the same types of wines here that they make in Champagne. They have Brut dry wines to sec medium dry. They don't have real sweet wines. They have Blanc de Blanc. Few more grapes are allowed in there, Blanc de Blanc, Chardonnay, Aligotet, which is a grape of Burgundy, especially Cotchalines, Melon de Bourgogne, which you may know from Muscadet, Pinot Blanc, which is used in sparing amounts. And then for Blanc de Noir, the white wine of red grapes, they can use Pinot Noir, they can use Pinot Gris, and they can use Gamay, and they can also use that for Rosé. You can only use a small percentage of Gamay. But still, these wines have flavors like for the whites, white flowers, citrus, green apple, minerally notes, great acidity, a lighter style with sometimes some toastiness, depending on how long it sat on the dead yeast cells. Blanc de noir, the white of reds, is more like red fruit and spices. The Rosé is richer. But you have these really lovely floral, citrusy mineral aromas, which you'll find in these Cremantes de Bourgogne. Fantastic wines, and you can get a budget one for like 15 bucks, but they're just okay. For a good one, they can be 20, 25, 30 dollars. Premium ones are 60, 80 dollars. They're expensive, even more than that. For a solid bet, 20, 25 bucks, not so bad. You're going to be hard pressed to find a good champagne for that price. Henri Champlau, Simonette Fabray, Jean-Jacques Vincent, these are three producers that I would recommend. I know that Cremantes de Bourgogne can be hard to find. If you can't find that, Cremantes de Loire is a great standard. It's even less money. They use Shannon Blanc as the main grape. It can be very, very Chardonnay-like. Those are so inexpensive. So in Bourgogne, they are required to age the wines for nine months on the dead yeast cells, 15 months in champagne, although generally it's for much longer in both those places. In Loire, there is a requirement to age the Cremantes for 12 months. So getting more complexity for less money because an entry-level wine is like $10 to $15 for Cremantes de Loire. And then you have mid-range wines that are 15 to 25. And then even their top-end wines are more like $45 or $50. So where champagne starts, you top off Cremantes de Loire. Chateau de Plaissance, Langlo Chateau. These are two producers that are pretty great. Lots of great wines out of Loire, but Cremont is a great stand-in if you don't want to drink champagne every night. I mean, who wouldn't want to drink champagne every night? But if you don't feel like you want to splurge on that every night, here's good alternatives for you. How about Pomerol, part of the Greats of Bordeaux series? Just to refresh you, if you haven't heard that, Pomerol is one of the most prestigious high-quality regions of Bordeaux. And it is so good, but it is expensive. It's on the right bank of Bordeaux in the Libre Nez, one of the smallest areas of fine wine production in Bordeaux. So demand is always exceeding supply, and so they can charge more for it. They've got the prestige. If we talk about the Appalachian, it's red wine only. 80% Merlot is planted, 15% Cabernet Franc and 5% Cabernet Sauvignon. But really, this is a Merlot Appalachian. And what you get out of Pomerol is this unbelievable balance of ripe dark fruit and black cherry. It can also be earthy. Sometimes it's meaty even. It's like iron. There's some iron in the soils in some parts. And with the oak aging cocoa and leather, it's usually not over the top with oak. It is incredibly silky, dark color, just creamy. There's not high acidity. There's not harsh tannins. Usually, this is just a velvety decadent wine. It is less tannic than some of the wines from the Maydak on the left bank. It also requires a little bit less aging for more basic wines, maybe more like 10 years. But in great vintages, they can age for 30 to 50 years. Chateau Petrus, one of the most expensive wines in the world, is located in Pomeran. What's the pricing? Well, I told you already, demand always exceeds supply. So yeah, these wines generally start 45, 50 US dollars. They go to well over $300. That's just for like a basic Pomeran. Top tier wines, Petrus is $7,000, $10,000. Some years in less great years, it's more like $3,000. If I am going to recommend an alternative, it's going to be another podcast that I did on the greats. And that's going to be Fronsac. Let's step away from the podcast to thank our sponsors. First, Wine Access. Wine Access is all about discovery without the guesswork. Instead of leaving it up to chance, they have their team of wine experts who taste thousands of wines every year, choose wines that really stand out. So when you're on their site and you're looking around, you don't just see random bottles. It's a curated selection. It's been vetted for quality. And what's great is they don't just send you wine. They're helping you discover new favorites. So if you're trying to learn more about wine or you just want to open something great, they make it really easy to explore the different regions, the styles, the producers with confidence. You know that everything on the site has been tried and that it is really good. And the experience doesn't stop with the wine. Their customer service is excellent. If you have questions, you need help choosing. You're talking to real people who know about wine. They actually care about helping you finding you something you'll enjoy. If you want to skip the wine aisle and start discovering great wine with some guidance from experts, check out Wine Access, see what they've got for you. Go to wineaccess.com/wfmp to let them know you found out about them through me. wineaccess.com/wfmp. And I'll remind you again, if you would like to support me and keep this podcast going, Patreon, patreon.com/wine For Normal People, meetups, hangouts, and you get to know other members of the community. It's such a great social community. Also, the classes. Don't forget Wines of Veneto, Wines of Alto Adige, and also the great Wines of Bordeaux Part 3 are all posted. Learn about wine with a great community. Wine for Normal people.com/classes. Now let's get back to the show. This is a great alternative to Pomerol, northeast from Bordeaux, five kilometers northwest of the Liborne. It is near Saint-Amelion and Pomerol. The wines are so high quality. They are so affordable. They are amazing values. And there is something really interesting about Fronsac, which is that these wines are acidic even in hot years. We should all be drinking these wines. Go back and listen to the podcast. There's going to be another podcast with my friend Sally Evans, who owns Chateau George Set. We are going to learn more about Fronsac from the perspective of a producer, but it's a hillside appellation with a plateau. The wines can only be planted on hillsides. The terrain is rocky, poor soils. What are the flavors in Fronsac? They're really similar to what I just described with Pomerol. Red and black fruit, spicy notes, truffle and leather with a little bit of age. They're medium to full-bodied. They have a lot of tannin that's going to balance the richness of the fruit, and they have good acidity. This is right around the corner from Pomerol. There's some wines that cost 20 US dollars, Baissez-Jour Cuvée Prestige, Chateau de la Houst, under 20 US dollars. On the average, a great Fronsac or Canon Fronsac, which is the smaller appellation within Fronsac, is 20 to 35 US dollars. So that is the maximum that you're paying for a wine. Whereas Pomerol starts at $50, you'll start at 20 here. Of course, there are premium options that are probably more than $50 a bottle, but that's not what we're looking for. We're looking for inexpensive alternatives. And this is half the price, 20 to $25 versus starting at 50 for Pomerol. Chateau La Rivière, La Villar d'Alem, Fontenil, and Chateau George Set, which I think we'll all be excited to order from when we hear Sally and her amazing story. So again, for Pomerol, Fronsac is absolutely your alternative. Nice and plush, and it's going to give a lot of Pomerol vibes, as the kids say. Let's get to number four, which is Barolo. I will put Barbaresco in here, although they are different wines, and I'm going to explain how they're different. But what they both have is that they're both from the Piemonte region of Italy, which is in the northwest section of Italy. They are both in an area that often has a lot of fog. It can be hot during the day, a little cooler during the night. It is a very, very hilly region with lots of valleys, lots of different orientations. But Barbaresco is on sandier soils. It's a little warmer. The grapes ripen earlier. Both are 100% Nebbiolo. The grape is early budding and late ripening. It needs a really, really long growing season. These are thick skinned, highly aromatic. The greatest sites for Nebbiolo are within Piedmont. The Barolo is southwest of Alba, which is the main city in this wine region. And Barbaresco is northeast of Alba. Slightly different orientation, slightly different soils. Barolo has 11 communes, which are the main areas. There's a variety of soil types that the Nebbiolo grows on. Some soils are going to be more clay based. So you have harsher tannins. It's going to take longer to mature. These wines really can't be consumed for at least five to eight years, in most cases. And then we have mixed soils, and then there's some sandier, lighter soils. Those are going to take less time to mature, softer wines. Still aromatic and tannic, that's in La Mora and parts of the town of Barolo. But we have a combination of many, many different soils, and there's lots of different sites that are called out in Barolo. But Barolo is an exclusive and small area. The wines are like the typical description, tar and roses. They're extremely aromatic. They definitely, I don't know about the tar, but they always smell floral. They've got licorice and plum and herb notes, sometimes dried fruit. They can be minty. They can smell like truffles. These are some of the most age-worthy wines in the world. They can age for decades and still be wonderful because Nebbiolo has that thick skin and very high tannin. It has high acidity and these beautiful, beautiful aromatics. Standard Barolo has to actually be aged for three years before it can even be released. There's a Reserva version five years before release. So Barolo comes to us aged, but a lot of times it needs more age. But when you drink it, it is absolute heaven. Definitely a wine to have with food. And it's expensive because it requires a lot of age and these special sites where only Nebbiolo can grow. Nebbiolo is a really, really picky grape. Barolo is three times the size of Barbaresco. Barbaresco is both smaller and more consistent in many ways. Barolo is cooler, so those wines tend to take longer to ripen. It's also higher in elevation. So in some cases, Barolo has higher acidity, the wines have sharper tannins and they can take longer to mature as opposed to Barbaresco, which is, it's a little warmer here, so the grapes ripen earlier. They are less tannic, they need less aging, and they're wonderful, but they are not inexpensive. They have a lot of the characteristics of Barolo, just a little softer in the structure, maybe sometimes a little spicier. What's the pricing? Well, it varies from Barolo or Barbaresco, but Barbaresco is really having a big moment. So the pricing is not very different between the two. For a budget Barolo, like something that's inexpensive, we're talking about maybe $25 for something that's kind of meh or $28. $50 is still considered entry level for Barolo. Mid-range is, it's sort of Napa Valley pricing, $50 to $100 US dollars. $80 seems to be kind of the sweet spot. $80 US dollars or $90 US dollars. And then you have the really high-end wines. There are some that are hundreds and hundreds of dollars from the best sites. Barbaresco, not much different. A value wine, I mean, there aren't really that many. $25, probably more like $28 or $30 now. The mid-range or the standard, same as Barolo, $50 to $90 or $100 a bottle. And then you have single vineyard wines, which some of these can be like a thousand. Gaia, which is a cult producer, thousands of dollars a bottle. So Barbaresco and Barolo are wines that are unbelievable. Nebbiolo is a beautiful grape. It makes such unique wines. And I know that you're listening to this and you're saying, well, she's definitely going to say either Rarero, Langa Nebbiolo or Nebbiolo d'Alba, which are all wines made of Nebbiolo from the same region. But I am going to take a sharp turn here and I'm going to recommend Cino Mavro from Greece. Yes, Cino Mavro. Cino Mavro, the name comes from Cino, which is sour or acidic. And Mavro, black, even though the skin isn't very pigmented, it has so much in common with Nebbiolo, even though they're not related. Nebbiolo is the most noble grape of Piedmont and one of the most noble grapes of Italy. Cino Mavro is the noblest red in Greece and it draws comparisons to Nebbiolo and Pinot Noir. It makes beautiful reds, makes rosés and sparkling wines, some sweet wines, lots of style variation, but always this grape is growing in central and northern Greece. And it is from the PDOs, the protected designations of origin, Nasa, Amentio, Gomeniso and Rapsani. These are, Rapsani is usually a blend and Gomeniso can be a blend as well. Nasa is all Cino Mavro. Much like Nebbiolo, this is a hard to grow grape. It needs the right terroir, it needs low yields. And it's usually released on the market with at least two years of age and time in oak, because the tannins need to be tamed. And this is very similar to Nebbiolo. It's tough tannins, it's aromatic, doesn't hold color either. Cino Mavro is a really interesting other wine, if you love Barolo and Barbaresco. And let me tell you, when I tell you the prices, you're gonna be pretty excited to try this. But similar to Nebbiolo, it has these floral notes, the earthy notes, tobacco notes, and it has some dark fruit, sour cherry, pomegranate sometimes, savory notes. With oak, it can be like spices and chocolate and leather. Usually, they don't overdo the oak on a Cino Mavro. These wines can also age for decades. These are probably the most age-worthy wines in Greece, certainly the most age-worthy reds because of that tannin and the great acidity, which is so similar to Nebbiolo. You can get great Cino Mavro for less than 20 US dollars. Chiriani, Alfa Estate, Dallamara, Carliades, Thaniopolis. These are wines that are fantastic. I'm sorry if I didn't say those names perfectly, but Chiriani and Alfa Estate are always available for 20 US dollars, and they will knock your socks off. They are stunning wines, and they really do bear a resemblance to Barolo and Barbarasco. I highly recommend them. Even on the expensive side, they're like 35 dollars. Great wines from Nausa PDO and from these particular producers. Let's get to number five, which is Burgundy. Well, Burgundy is the most expensive wine in the world, and I'm going to address red Burgundy here. We could do white Burgundy in another episode, although the last wine is also from Burgundy. It's Chablis, spoiler alert. But red Burgundy, we're in Central Eastern France, around the 47th parallel. Now, you may be at this point being like, why is the list mainly from Italy and France? And it's because if you look at where the most expensive wines are, this is where they come from. They come from those two countries in general. And of course, I included Napa because that is another place with super premium wine. France and Italy are the two pillars of very, very fine and expensive wine. So that's why we're covering those. Let's go back to Burgundy. We're at the 47th parallel. Only about 40% of what's planted in Burgundy is Pinot Noir, which is indigenous to this area. The rest is Chardonnay and a little bit of Aligotay and Pinot Gris and Pinot Blanc and things like that. But Pinot Noir is not the main grape of Burgundy, although it often is the most expensive. Sometimes Montrachet, the Chardonnay will squeak in above it. But we have a huge variation in style in Red Burgundy because it includes a whole bunch of different areas for Pinot Noir. It's the Cote d'Or, which is divided into the Cote de Nuit and the Cote de Bonne. I've done podcasts on all of these. The Cote Chalonnay. These are places where you are going to find Red Burgundy, which is Pinot Noir. And the flavors and textures are going to vary based on vineyard, based on producer, based on vintage. Vintage is super, super important. Some years you're going to find these full, ripe, rich wines, silky tannins, still with great acidity. In harder years, the wine can be a little tart and like cranberries and not great, especially at the lower end. Great producers even in bad years make great wines, but those are almost always prohibitively expensive. The flavors of a burgundy range, but in general, you're going to find mineral and earthiness, mushroom. You could find a little bit of barnyard if there's a touch of Britannomyces in there, truffle, leather, forest floor, black pepper and baking spices sometimes, depending on how much oak, licorice, nuts, black currant, black cherry, black plum, or strawberry and red currant and orange notes. So there's a big range of flavors for burgundy, but the texture is always light on its feet with higher acidity and moderate alcohol. So 13.5% is usually the average for a red burgundy, although it can be more depending on the year. Vintage is what drives burgundy and it drives the alcohol level in the body. It's just how ripe those grapes got. It is at the high end, silky and velvety. It can be savory. It's almost like eating a meal in a glass. Some have more robust tannins, depending on the soil type. If there's a bit more clay in the marl that it grows on, you might get a more powerful wine. Others are very light in tannin. Some are wispy, some are heavy. They are always, in the higher end world, extremely complex. Lots of adjectives to describe it. You keep going in and thinking about the wine, and a really great burgundy is a total delight. However, we could talk about just regular Bourgogne Rouge with red burgundy, which is just, you know, it's like 25 US dollars, 30 US dollars. But what I'm talking about is more the village level, you know, Gervais Chambartin or Volnais. Those are generally priced, they start at around 75, 80 dollars and they go up. Then you have the Premier Cru from specific sites. Some of them are smashing, some of them are less good. That generally starts at the lower end of 100 US dollars and can go into the three, four or five hundred dollar range. And then the Grand Cru, the lower end can start out at around 150 US dollars, but they go up and up and up until we hit Romany Conti Latache, which I think is currently the most expensive Pinot at $10,000 a bottle. These are not cheap wines. And if you buy a basic Burgundy, it's not that expensive, but I'm talking about really, really excellent Burgundy. And the alternative that I have here is not as inexpensive as some of the others, but it is less expensive than the Villages wines for sure. The alternative I'm proposing for Burgundy is Etna Rosso. This was the first DOC in Sicily. It will soon be a DOCG. And instead of at 47 degrees north latitude, we are now talking about 37 degrees north latitude, so 10 degrees south, which seems like it shouldn't work. But on the slopes of Mount Etna, which is Europe's big active volcano in the northeast corner of Sicily, it can be really warm during the day and very cool at night. And the grapes that they are using, mainly Norello Mascalesi and Norello Capucho as well, are light. Growing on volcanic soils, they are minerally. They've got a ton of aromatics and flavor, but they are not heavy wines. We don't have big, bold wines coming out of Etna. Usually they are savory, they're elegant, they're mineral driven. They have a lot of red fruit like strawberry and cherry, much like pino. They have herbs and earth notes similar to what I described with pino, floral notes, minerality, salinity, maybe a little bit of smokiness. These are medium to light bodied wines. They are extremely elegant, and the price is right. The entry level wines are pretty good. Those start at around 20 to 25 US dollars. And then you have the main wines of Etna, which are not starting at $50 like the Villages level or $60 like the Villages level. These are wines that start at around 25 to 35 US dollars, and they go up to around 50. And then you have excellent, excellent wines from single vineyard sites, things that are really special. And those are only at the top end, probably a few hundred dollars. I say only because that's the most expensive you're going to get in Burgundy is over $10,000 a bottle. So these wines can be very special, and they certainly are a lot cheaper than your average Burgundy. And you're going to get a similar experience. Will it be exactly the same? Well, there's only one Burgundy, but it is going to be a good alternative. Pietro Dolce, Gracchi, Giorlama Russo, Frank Cornelison, and Bananti are some great producers that you could check out. Fantastic wines, really, really fantastic wines. And we'll give you a red Burgundy-like experience for a lot less money. Finally, I'm going to end with Chablis. Chablis is in the northern part of the Bourgogne region between Paris and Bonn. It's near Champagne, it used to be part of Champagne. The region itself is located around the village of Chablis. It is administratively part of Burgundy, but off to the north, it's very close to Champagne. There are 20 villages that are part of Chablis. It is near the Serin River, which runs through the region. There's vineyards on either bank of the river. The river's running north to the North Sea. And the 20 villages with Chablis at the center all produce different wines. Once again, we're at 47 to almost 48 degrees north latitude, about 116 miles from Paris or 186 kilometers from Paris. And 83 miles or 134 kilometers from Bonne, which is the center of wine production in the Cote d'Or, or in the main part of Burgundy. Chablis has Chimeridgian limestone soils, which encourage really aromatic wines. Chablis is 100% Chardonnay only, and it is known for pure aroma and flavor. It is a different style from anywhere else in Burgundy. It's almost like the non-sparkling version of champagne in many ways. It can age for a long time. Some of it is oak aged, a lot of it is aged in stainless steel or in neutral barrels, but they do that for texture, give the wine a little texture. At the high end, these wines can be oak aged, but oak is never a big feature of a Chablis. Vines have been here since the Roman eras. The Cistercian monks really made things cook here, but there have been domains that have been around for 13, 14 generations of winemakers. Chablis is a really historic place, their goal is always to emphasize the terroir and show how it can express itself in the Chardonnay. So it's a balance of acidity, flavor, you've got a lot of green apple notes and floral notes, flinty, steely, chalky wines, wet stone. Over time, it can be honeyed. It can have some of those vanilla notes if they do oak, but generally speaking, you're looking at more almost smoky wines, flinty wines when it's aged in an oak barrel. They don't love to do new oak. They like to use more neutral oak just for texture for Chablis. And some of them do Lise aging, aging on the dead yeast cells. That's going to give the wine a little more body, a little more flavor. But a lot of times they don't do that because they're looking for high acidity and really great pure flavors of the Chardonnay. You can get entry-level bottles of Petite Chablis and even regular Chablis for $20-30. But if you want high-end nice Chablis, you're going to start with Premier Cru bottles, single vineyard bottles. And those are going to cost starting at $40-45 and go up. And then you have Grand Cru Chablis, which is counted in the world of Burgundy as one Grand Cru for all of Burgundy, but it is seven sites. That's the highest tier. And there you're looking at $75 to start, maybe $65 in some cases, but the best are more than $100, $150, $200, $300. So if you want really high-end Chablis, Premier Cru or Grand Cru Chablis, you're looking to spend at minimum $40 to $45 US dollars. So I have a surprising alternative for you, and it is in the same region, but it's not the same grape. There is a wine that is made in the Chablis region, and it is a curiosity. It's Burgundy's only appellation that's allowed to make white wines from Sauvignon Blanc and Sauvignon Gris. It is in the heart of the Auxerre region near Chablis, in a town called Sambry-les-Vinault. It's a village that is old. It's got stones everywhere, and there are medieval cellars that run for miles and kilometers everywhere underneath the city of Sambry. It's a cool climate. It has those chalky, Chimeridgean limestone soils. This is like Chablis, like in its kind of essence, but it's Sauvignon Blanc, so it's a completely different grape. These wines have amazing acidity, but instead of more of those green apple flinty steely notes, you'll get some of that, but you'll get the Sauvignon Blanc, lime, grapefruit, gooseberry, herbal notes. But still with saline and mineral and flint, it's acidic, it's aromatic, it is extremely reminiscent of Chablis, mostly stainless steel fermentation. It's going to provide that brightness, the acidity, the freshness. Some of them do that surly aging. Some of them put the wines in aged oak barrels for texture. But usually it's all about this steeliness. These wines are best enjoyed young. They are not for aging, unlike Grand Cru Chablis. If you're looking for affordable versions, they start at around 16 US dollars and go to around 25. A mid-range wine is 25 to 35 dollars US, and premium really stops at around $50. So where great Premier Cru Chablis begins, that's the highest end that you can get in Chablis. And you don't need to go that high. You can stick in the $20 range and still get great wines from one of the best cooperatives in Europe, La Chablisienne Chablis. So they usually make the wines in Chablis. They also make it in Chablis. William Favre and Bernard Defa, there's a lot of others. But Chablis is really a surprising wine, and it's a great alternative to more expensive Chablis. It will give you the same satisfaction for a lot less money. So to recap, to nap a Cabernet Sauvignon, I say pick up a Maipo Valley Cabernet Sauvignon from Chile. To champagne, Cremate de Bourgogne or Cremate de Loire is the right choice. Pomerol right next to it is Fronsac, and those wines are way more affordable. A lot of people don't know about them, although they should. They taste so good. Barolo or Barbaresco. No, I'm not giving you another Nebiolo. Zino Mavro from Greece as an alternative. Red Burgundy, Etna Rosso from Sicily. For Chez Blé, we're going to go to its neighbor, Sambry, and have Sauvignon Blanc. That's my list. There are so many. I mean, I thought about Brunello and Chateauneuf de Pape, White and Red, Hermitage White and Red, Cote Roti, Grosses Gevax Riesling, or Alsace Grand Cru Riesling, Terrazi. I thought about some of the GSM from Australia. There's a lot to choose from. So if you're interested in me covering anything I just listed or anything that you're curious about, let me know and I'll do another show like this. That's your alternatives. And with that, this has been another episode of Wine for Normal People. Thank you so much for listening and we will catch you next time.