This blog is about wine. Not just any wine, but wine you can reasonably expect to buy if you live in a major metro in California and you want to spend no more than $20 for a bottle. Most of the wine I comment upon is less than $15 a bottle and can be bought at one (but not all) major distributors (Costco, Trader Joes, Bev Mo, Safeway or Albertsons), which is where I get a decent bit of my wine. "Unfortunately" (for some of you hypothetical readers) I live near the The Wine Club, which only has a few Calif locations, so I'll undoubtedly be reviewing harder to get wines.

My style:
- reds: big, fruit forward, oaked, non-acidic.
- white: big oaked chardonnay; zingy, crisp sauvignon blancs.

I'll try to use the following scale:

• A = I should buy a case or more of this wine at this price
  
• B = I should buy 3 more bottles of this wine
  
• C = I enjoyed this bottle and would buy it again
  
• D = Didn't care for the wine at this price, but not at complete waste at this price.
  
• F = You would have to pay me to drink this again

Wine stores:

• TJ = Trader Joes
  
• Costco - selection varies considerably by store.
  
• WC = The Wine Club www.thewineclub.com
  
• BM = Bev Mo or Beverages and More
  
• Safeway
  
• Albertsons
  
• CP = Cost Plus
  

My intended naming/labelling convention is "Winery Year Designation, Varietal ($price - where)". For foreign wines, I hate it when I can't tell the winery from the designation, so I hope this labelling helps.

Among recent tastings:

Columbia Crest 2002 Grand Estates, Syrah ($7 TJ): nice coffee, chocolate hints. Smooth, almost big. Really nice. My first [B+ to A] wine a while.

Rosemount 2002 GSM South Aust ($10 TJ - a special deal): Smooth, plush, medium bodied and intensity. Black fruit with bit of oak. I wished I'd picked up more at this price. [B+] at this price.

Costco Napa Merlot 2002 (?) ($10 Costco Mountain View): A great example of wine with food versus without. On its own, the wine has nice red and black fruit with a woody decent acidity. Thin but flavorful, though I wasn't too fond of it [B-]. With food, it paired nicely as the lean earthy acidity was quite nice. [A-].