Recession Drinking

Welcome to Vine Times Chicago.

Our blog is about everything wine with a Chicago focus. We're not going to tell you about some fantastic new French wine that's a great value...and impossible to find. What good is a wine recommendation if you can't get your hands on it? We've spent the past few years searching Chicago high and low for the best wine bars, shops, and deals.....we'll pass along our favorites.

We hope you'll keep coming back here to learn along with us.

Our first entry is a timely one.....good & cheap wines! All of these can be found locally between $7 and $10. One of our favorite things on a week night is to grab a cheap bottle and hit a BYOB. If we can get away with spending $30 or less total it's a guilt free experience. If you have trouble finding these shoot us an e-mail and we'll point you in the right direction.

Cheers,

Chris & Kristina

2007 Bodegas Olivares Monastrell Altos de la Hoya Finca Hoya De Santa Ana (Spain, Murcia, Jumilla)

The Altos De La Hoya is a steal for 9 bucks. Grab a bottle of this for your next Mexican or Spanish BYOB night out. Full of blackberry and spice, medium body, smooth sweet tannins and enough acid to drink well with food, as much complexity as anything up to $20 or so.

2005 Azienda Agricola Masciarelli Montepulciano d'Abruzzo (Italy, Abruzzi, Montepulciano d'Abruzzo)

There's tons of cheap Italian wine out there....the problem is most of it sucks! Not this Montepulciano d'Abruzzo. It's got that dusty Tuscan taste and sweet strawberry fruit, quite acidic so drink this one with food, it matches up great with Italian dishes with marinia sauce. Great deal at 8 bucks or so.

2006 Columbia Crest Cabernet Sauvignon Grand Estates (USA, Washington, Columbia Valley)

Now usually I wouldn't reccomend a cabernet in this price range. It's just one of those grapes, (espically domestically) that comes with a hefty price tag if you want quality. Columbia Crest bucks that trend. Chocolate, spice and cassis balance out a touch of oak. Good with food or without.