What can you buy blindly?

One of the great aspects of wine is that it has vintages. For a serious winofile, it is part of the fun and yet quite confounding. And trying to pass vintage information to more casual drinkers looking for advice is eyeballs rolling into their sockets time.

What then would I recommend you buy if you are vintage blind and looking something nice? The following have all been consistently good for the last 4 years with at most one slighlty off year.

1. Montes "Alpha" Syrah. World class stuff for under $16-20 with good availability. The Cabernet hasn't been quite as good, but is still very solid. Their Chardonnay is also well rated, but I haven't tried it.
   
2. Lehmann Clancy. This blend of Shiraz, Cabernet, Merlot and occasionally other varietals is the model of consistency. Along with the fruit, there's a touch of bordeaux with earth and tobacco. And I've found it for $13.
   
3. Lehmann Shiraz. And the Cabernet Sauvignon is awfully good too. Pretty much any red from Lehmann under $20 should be nice.
   
4. Beringer Alluvium. This white blend is one of my favorites and it's consistent.
5. Perrin & Fils Vacquerayas. A high quality Cote du Rhone (CdR) for under $18. This will age nicely too.
6. Any of a number of good New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc producers. Drylands, Babich, Matua, Huia, Kim Crawford, Nobilio and many more. I find them all to be quite good and somewhat indistinguishable, so I try to keep it at under $13 a bottle, since I'm not caring much about differences. Prices are rising slowly though. And they say these should be drunk young.
7. Thorn Clarke Shotfire or Barossa anything. The "Shotfire" Shiraz is their premier wine but the new "Barossa" cuvees of Cab and blends have also been very nice the last 2 years. They also made nice riesling in 2006. They are firing on all cylinders.
8. Rosenblum Petite Syrah, Syrah, whites, and Zin. There are so many different bottlings it is hard even for me to keep track of them and I'm very loosely affiliated with them. The style is over the top. Huge fruit, lots of oak. I think the Petite and Syrah are their best wines for the past 2 years and I haven't had a bad white (Viognier, Marsanne, Roussanne, Chardonnay, and blends). The Petite Heritage Clones has been a deal in 2005/6 with decent availability.
9. Jacob's Creek Reserve Shiraz. Marred a bit by inconsistent bottles, but I've had stunning bottles of the 2001, 2002 and 2003. The 2004 got another 90 pts from WS. And under $10 at many places.

Not quite as reliable but very good to excellent at least half the time are the following.

1. Sebastiani Merlot Sonoma. Give it 5 years of age from the vintage, and some of these (2001, 2002) have been sublime with tobacco and slight herbal note over the rich fruit. It has good availability often for under $14.
2. Rosemount GSM. My main concern is some difficulty in finding this. And it can be over $20.
3. Hess Select Cabernet whatever is under $20. They have a $14 bottling (red label) and just recently released the new label Allomi for $18 (Costco). I've had some great bottles and some so-so bottles. But it's hard to find good Napa or Sonoma Cab for this price.
4. Marquis Philips Cabernet, Shiraz or Sarah's Blend. The wines from this joint venture between Sarah and Sparky Marquis and Dan Philips have lagged a bit the past year after the Marquises left the venture. But they are still solid at $14.
   
5. Mollydooker anything near $20. This is the new venture for Sarah and Sparky Marquis and the past two years have been nice. The problem is they cost $20 if you're lucky.
   

And I've saved the best for last. If you read this column with regularity, you know what is coming.

The Columbia Crest Grand Estates line. Tremendous availability at $7 to $10 at Trader Joe's, Safeway, Lucky, Longs, .. you name it. The one caveat is that nobody I've mentioned Columbia Crest to has confirmed they like it. (Except Darick.) Sigh... pearls before swine.

It's a fruity, oaky style on a medium to big body. Regardless of price, these are some of my favorite wines. As my palate matures, I very occasionally think they manufacture a wine "product", which any producer of 100,000 case wines probably does. However, it is a product designed pretty much exactly for my preference.

And in a blind tasting the other day, I gave their 2002 Shiraz 91 points.

1. Cabernet Sauvignon. Their 2004 and 2001 were amazing wines. My wife doesn't proclaim "Wow, this is yummy" too often but this wine has done it several times.
2. Merlot. The only poor vintage was 2002. And WS thinks so too, giving the 2001, 2003 and 2004 all 90 points. I've bought at least 6 bottles of 2003 and 2004. And 18 bottles of the 2001, which is showing some strange woody notes and has become drinkable again, after tasting poorly from 2005-2007.
   
3. Chardonnay. Our favorite Chardonnay. Often very oaked with buttery notes. The 2002 was my wife's and my favorite Chardonnay. Ever. (It has gone down hill as of 2007, with 3 of the last 5 bottles not being so good. A lesson that not all wines age well. We have one bottle left.) The 2004 was terrific, too. The 2005 just got 90 points from WS, but the one bottle I tried wasn't as good as the 2004.
4. Syrah. I don't have as much experience with this varietal in the Grand Estates line as the other varietals. The 2002 was very delicious with a caramel overtone in early bottles I tried and in the last bottle 4/2008. (Two Vines their cheapest label had a wonderful 2001 Syrah.)