Cheap and cheerful from Trader Joe's, went well with chicken, parsnips, and shallots braised in cider (yummy hard cider from Normandy!). Definitely not a complex or nuanced wine, but having the gewurz-y characteristics of apricot, floral notes, and a roundness in the mouth.
Once in a while we pick up a few bottles of cheap red and white wine just so we are not tempted to open something way too good for what we're eating. Often it turns out fine, but on occasion not so much. While my wife informally practices a "don't cook with any wine you wouldn't drink" rule, usually the failed experiments become cooking wine.
Enter the Little Penguin. You may have seen this brand in your grocery store, looking "cheap and cheerful." Don't be fooled. We opened a bottle of Little Penguin red, poured two glasses and took about one sip each. We couldn't do more.
In fact, though the Little Penguin sat on the counter near the stove for a couple of weeks, we couldn't quite get passed the memory and actually pour that wine into something we were going to eat. Eventually it went the way of all penguins, back to the sea. (Well, technically, to the waste water treatment plant, but eventually eventually I'm sure it made it all the way downstream.)
Maybe we should have been a little more forgiving, because cooking is a great leveller of wines. At least according to an entertaining story in the New York Times by Julia Moskin: It boils down to this: cheap wine works fine.
Well, cheap wine works fine with some limits according to Moskin, so read the story and see how low you can go.
Usually about this time of year, Andrea and I hit the wine store and pick up a mixed case of cheap but promising white. We go through them as the spring warms up, and when we find a favorite we get a case for the summer.
First this year is Colombelle 2006 from the Gascony region in Southwest France. 70 percent Columbard and 30 percent Ugni Blanc, both indigenous grapes for the region. Dry, but soft, with floral notes and grapefruit. Long, lemon finish - but it is a lemon flavor without the tartness.
We picked it up for $7.99, which certainly qualifies for "Cheap and Cheerful" and makes it a strong candidate for the summer white.
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