The Bogle Tasting Room
Bogle has been mentioned here before as having good wine for good prices. It is listed on my Value Wineries and Wines page here on the blog. I have tried their Cabernet Sauvignon, Old Vine Zinfandel, and Petite Sirah and liked all three. Always looking for good wine cheap, I took this opportunity to try one of their whites, a 2009 Chardonnay, and another red, the 2009 Pinot Noir.
Bogle 2009 Chardonnay
Most white wines are pop ‘n pour. This means you pop the cork and pour the wine, giving no thought to letting it breathe. This white wine actually improved by being open a half hour or so. I know there are people who don’t care for the style of most California Chardonnay. If you don’t like California Chard in general, you won’t like this one. If you do like them, you will be OK with it. It has some pear and apple flavors, but not as much tropical fruit as is often seen in California Chard (melon, mango, etc). The oak seemed to soften into a nice caramel/butterscotch after being open a while. It is of medium intensity for a California Chard. Serviceable, but not my favorite Bogle wine. Quality price ratio (often called QPR) is where this one stands out. Less than $10 in many markets.
Bogle 2009 Pinot Noir
I popped and poured this one too, just to see how it would change. A little acidic at first, it smoothed out after 20-25 minutes. Inexpensive Pinot Noir is a chancy proposition at best. It is a difficult grape to grow, and good Pinot normally commands a pretty high price. Most Pinot Noir that is around $10 is barely recognizable as Pinot Noir. Bogle’s Pinot is certainly recognizable as such, which is an accomplishment in itself. This is not to say it is a long, complex wine. It is a fruit forward, medium bodied wine with good flavors of cherry and strawberry and maybe a bit of earthiness thrown in. If you are looking for something that tastes like a $60 single vineyard Pinot from the Willamette Valley, this is not it. Enjoy it for what it is; an excellent value on a very enjoyable, easy drinking wine.
While good, neither of these is my favorite Bogle wine. This doesn’t mean I won’t ever drink one of these two again. I do really like the Pinot Noir as a backyard BBQ sipper. My favorite Bogle is the Cabernet Sauvignon. Very nice stuff, especially for the price.
So how should we look at some of these $10 value wines? There are 2 ways to evaluate wine. One is the wine itself, without any consideration of price. The second way is to add the value component. Myself, I can’t escape the value component. We all make these kind of judgments is almost everything else we buy. Why should wine be any different? A value for one person may not be a value to another. Don’t know abut you, but I’m always interested in something good that I can get for less. Bogle’s wines fit this category. Good wine cheap; it’s a beautiful thing.
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