In addition to telling you about these wines in Plonk of the Month, we do an annual tasting of 50 wines from local retailers who nominate bottles for consideration. Wines cannot cost more than $12 (per 750 ml) at standard retail markup (up from $10 two years ago) and be available in reasonable quantities in the state.
This year’s Plonkapalooza seems to have benefited from the deteriorating economy. The consequent falloff in wine sales motivated importers and distributors to work harder to find quality wines at the lower end of the price scale. The tasting panel’s overall impression is that the effort is succeeding.
We sampled wines from Andover Liquors in Andover; Blanchards Wines & Spirits, West Roxbury, Jamaica Plain, Revere, Marshfield, and Hyannis; Dave’s Fresh Pasta in Arlington; Ralph’s Derby Street Wine & Spirits in Hingham; and Salem Wine Imports in Salem. After reviewing the candidates and eliminating the few inevitable duplicates, we settled on 25 reds and 25 whites to be vetted by our tasting panel in a single marathon session. Each of the four panelists is challenged to name his or her top 10 wines - five whites and five reds.
Joining me was a trio of distinguished sommeliers: Michael Meagher of BOKX 109 and Hotel Indigo in Newton, Bronwyn Wiechmann of T.W. Food in Cambridge, and Eric Buxton of 51 Lincoln in Newton Highlands.
Clear winners don’t always emerge, but this year two white wines, the brisk, bright 2008 Domaine du Haut Perron Touraine (France) and the pure-as-the-driven-snow 2008 Cono Sur Bio-Bio Valley Riesling (Chile) distinguished themselves. They were named by all four panelists. Two other whites, the 2008 Collezione Belpoggio Verdicchio Dei Castelli di Jesi from Colonnara and Casa Santos Lima’s lovely 2008 “Palha-Canas’’ Estremadura Branco, each received three votes. The 2008 Chapoutier “Belleruche’’ Cotes du Rhone and 2008 Domaine Salliès Viognier were picked by two tasters each.
