Have you ever refrained from buying a wine because it was too cheap? Yeah, me too. I figured, hey, it can’t be any good at that price. And I was probably right. However, I came across a way to try a $10 wine for $5. The wine was on sale 2 for 1. I will certainly try a $10 wine, but usually not one that lists for $5. Hey, a guy’s gotta have standards. The odd thing here is that I found it in a drug store.
I freely admit that I will look at a wine rack anywhere. Even in a convenience store. I’ve never bought wine in one, but I’ll look. So while on an errand in Walgreen’s drug store, I was looking at the wine rack. I don’t think I ever saw a wine rack in Walgreen’s before, but there it was. So I looked, and I found a Spanish Grenache/Syrah blend. Actually, in Spain, the grape is called Garnacha, not Grenache, but it still can be very good. Spanish Garnacha is one of my favorite red wines for summer grilling – or winter grilling for that matter. Burgers, chicken, sausages, that kind of thing.
This particular wine is 50% Garnacha and 50% Syrah, a blend you might expect to find in the Rhone area in France. Blends of Rhone grapes are becoming much more common from California and Washington; they are pretty hot in the wine world now. This wine is apparently named after Spain’s wild boar, the Agostòn. It is a very easy wine to drink. Lots of red fruit, some spice notes, and not much tannin. It is not a serious wine that needs mulling over; it isn’t complex or long, just juicy and delicious. And when I found it, the price was $10 for 2 of them. How can you go wrong?
After some digging, I learned that Walgreen’s has begun a push to sell more wine in nearly half of their stores nationwide. Of course, if your state’s laws prohibit wine sales in grocery and drug stores, you’re out of luck on this one. I happen to live in Florida, and wine is sold nearly everywhere here. Pretty soon I’ll probably see it in Home Depot.
Once again, we have accomplished our Good Wine Cheap mission. The Agostòn 2009 Garnacha/Syrah is a find, especially at $5. But even at $10, if you are looking for a “house red” this summer, you could do a whole lot worse.
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