Sauced

Well-Priced Wines from a Seattle Expert

This week: Esquin’s Jameson Fink.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Jul 06, 2011 at 01:06PM 2 Comments

Wine expert Jameson Fink is proud to drink wines that are cheap and cheerful.

Photo Courtesy: Jackie Donnelly Baisa

New series: There’s no shame in it. Everyone loves to discover, and show off, great inexpensive wines. Even—nay, especially—the pros. So I’m asking local wine experts to weigh in on their budget bottles.

I pick an expert. The expert picks a theme, then offers up a red, white, sparkling, and rose wine in accordance with it. Meantime, you drink well and cheaply. Because let’s face it, it’s always been about you.

The Expert
Jameson Fink, European Wine Buyer and Social Media Director, Esquin Wine Merchants.

The Cred
Who, outside of a Roald Dahl book, gets to be named Jameson Fink? I love that name. Plus I follow him on Twitter and have learned that he knows a lot about wine—including how to have fun with it. And that is perhaps the most important wine-related skill there is.

So what’s this week’s theme, Expert?
“Cheap and cheerful wines under $10.”

Why did you pick that theme?
“These are my daily drinkers. I don’t come home to a bottle of Chateau Fancy Pants as often as you’d think.”

All right, let’s get to the wine.

The Red
2009 La Carraia Sangiovese Umbria ($8.99) “The ultimate pizza and pasta wine. The Wine Advocate calls it ‘full throttle’ and ‘not for the timid’ but I disagree. It’s just an easy drinkin’ red.”

The White
2009 Domaine des Cassagnoles Cotes de Gascogne ($7.99) “Every wine nerd in town is selling or buying this wine. The definition of a porch-pounder, it’s a light and fresh wine to consume liberally. And if you see the words ‘Cassagnoles Gros Manseng’ on a label, buy first, ask questions later.”

The Rose
2010 Miradou Cotes de Provence ($9.99) “Yes it comes in an enticing, hourglass-shaped bottle that should influence your buying decision. (I am not immune.) It’s also a textbook crisp, dry rose. Poach some shrimp, grill some salmon, and slake your thirst with this pale, austere gem.”

The Sparkler
NV Mas Fi Cava ($9.99) “Bubbles forever! Unfortunately there is an ocean of ungodly awful, cheap sparklers that will make you hungover just by looking at them. This Cava from Spain, however, is a little charmer that you can actually enjoy all by itself or with a mixer. Get creative.”

Thanks Jameson. Before you go, give us three reasons why you work in wine.
“The convivial eating and drinking, the cast of characters in this industry, and the fact that the lucrative job market for my MA in History seems to have dried up.”

Add a Comment »

Tags: Sommelier stuff, Sparkling Wine , Cheap Wine for Weekdays, Well-Priced Wines from a Seattle Expert

The New Deal at BOKA

Sundays and Mondays mean half-price bottles all day long.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Nov 22, 2010 at 07:00AM 1 Comments

Boka in the Hotel 1000 Now with half-price wine bottles.

I was mad at BOKA when it dropped its Monday all-night happy hour deal. I can’t know what bottom-line reality drove the restaurant in the Hotel 1000 to do that, I only knew that I showed up one Monday for happy hour at around 7pm and it wasn’t to be.

This almost makes up for it: All day every Sunday and Monday, BOKA is charging half price on a selection of the wine bottles on its long list.

Try one that will hold up against the juicy house burger—squishy with Beecher’s cheddar and bacon jam. It feels decadently disorienting to go to town on that sandwich amidst the pink LED lighting at BOKA.

Dinner here means playing tourist, and is fun. “Staycation,” I think the PR people call it.

Add a Comment »

Tags: Wine, Wine Specials, Cheap Wine for Weekdays

Cheap Wine for Weekdays: the Whites of Airfield Estates

Taste the lineup at the Woodinville tasting room.

Posted by: Jessica Voelker on Jun 17, 2010 at 10:11AM 0 Comments

A really great bottle of white wine at the $10-$12 price range is basically unheard of, and frankly I don’t really need one on Tuesday nights. What I’d like is a tasty value wine to sip while I sort through the mail. If it works well with a simple snack, all the better.

At its Woodinville tasting room (across the street from that strip mall with Purple Cafe in it), Prosser-based Airfield Estates sells an entire lineup of inexpensive whites.

Right now I’m liking the Fly Girls White—a blend of Viognier, Gewürztraminer, Roussanne, and Chardonnay. I don’t like the Fly Girls label—the little airplane emblem is so cool, I don’t know why they had to go with the dated-looking vintage illustration thing for this one—but I was brought up to look past such things. The sweetness contrasts winningly with my current snack crush: roasted-tomato salsa and seed-flecked tortilla chips from Trader Joes.

And the unoaked chard is a rock-star value at $12. If you’ve always despised the big, rich, buttery, oaky qualities of chardonnay, let Airfield reintroduce you to a lovely, and much abused, wine grape.

Add a Comment »

Tags: Wine, Cheap Wine for Weekdays