Who Says There's No Value in California?
Bogle is that rare winery that consistently delivers bang for the buck
Posted: Oct 5, 2011 10:25am ET
Everyone likes a good $12 bottle of wine, whether they buy
wines by the case or strain their budget with just one bottle. Value is the
great wine leveler.
Retail wine shelves are a big colorful blur of cheap
California brands from the conglomerates, but let's be real: A lot of it is
crap. The odds of finding a value label that's tasty across the board—from the
Chardonnay to the Cabernet Sauvignon to the Pinot Noir—are slim to nada.
The list of those across-the-board value California
producers is short, but surely Bogle Vineyard must be near the top. Search Wine
Spectator's database of Bogle reviews and rarely do the
wines score below 84 on our 100-point scale and seldom do they cost more than
$12.
A fine example is the Bogle Zinfandel California 2009 ($11),
which is soft and spicy, with lively cherry and smoky herb notes. I rated it 88
points, non-blind. On par is the Merlot California ($10), which has fresh
cherry and herb aromas, flavors of plum and tomato leaf and distinctive
varietal character for the price. I rated it 87 points, non-blind.
One reason that quality is high is that Bogle still uses oak
barrels, not some cheaper substitute like oak chips. That's almost unheard of
at this price point. Both the Zin and Merlot were 100 percent barrel-aged in
American oak for 12 months.
For me, the Bogle wines are appealing for another reason: I
grew up in the Midwest, so I have a soft spot for family farmers, even big ones.
The Bogle family got their start in Clarksburg in the Sacramento Delta in the
1850s farming corn and sugar beets.
In the early 1970s, they started planting vineyards; at
first, they sold grapes to other wineries but then launched the Bogle brand in
1979. It started out small and grew and grew and grew.
There are 300,000 cases of the 2009 Merlot alone, so this is
no modest family farm. They harvest not only from their estate vineyards but
also buy grapes from Monterey, Amador County, Russian River, Mendocino, Lodi
and beyond. And yet whenever I talk with anyone at the winery, there's nothing
slick about what they have to say. They still come off as farmers.
Matriarch Patty Bogle passed away earlier this year
after a long struggle with leukemia, so the winery is in the midst of its first
harvest without her. Not an easy task. But her dedication to good wines at a
good price lives on. Lucky for us.
Have you tried Bogle wines? Do you have other favorite value wines from California?
Tim, Have you tried Rabbit Ridge out of Paso Robles lately? They have many fruit-forward great drinking wines in the $8 - $16 price point.Don't get me wrong, I know they are not overly complex wines but they are delicious. In fact it's the only wine club I belong to because of the value and specials they often have. I call them my weekday wines. I have tried Bogle in the past and have enjoyed them. I think it's time to take another taste!