Weekend wine with Blake Creedon

MOST wine-producing lands market a seamless spectrum of wines, from inexpensive everyday ones through to posh upmarket bottles.

But California is one of the exceptions, represented in Ireland by two contrasting faces — a select bunch of highly ambitious handmade wines with prices to match, and an enormous volume of undistinguished, heavily-advertised brands.

Cheap and cheerful?

Perhaps.

Except many of them aren’t really that cheap, increasingly eclipsed by the growing wave of excellent sub-€10 wines, particularly from France.

A recent tasting organised by the Wine Institute of California reinforced this view — but between those extremes I did find some excellent moderately-priced wines plus (rebuke to preconception) a handful of big-brand bottles well worth investigating. See my blog at www.blakecreedon.wordpress.com for a look at further Californian wines including various styles of the region’s signature grape, zinfandel.

Gallo Family Vineyards Chardonnay

Widely available nationwide at about €9

Budget creamy-textured chardonnay, balancing citrus piquancy and warm tropical fruit flavours.

Gallo Family Vineyards Summer Red

Widely available at around €8.49

A dark deep rosé aimed at chilled-out red drinkers, this is an eclectic blend of pinot and smoky zin.

Robert Mondavi Fumé Blanc 2006

€15 at selected independents

Fantastic value barrel-aged sauv semillon, fresh succulent fruit set in a spicy round-textured body.

Cycles Gladiator Pinot Noir 2008

€15 at Bubble Brothers English Market and Marina Cork or www.bubblebrothers.com

Amiable but rich and dark, earthy, rounded pinot.