Good wines under $15.

Wine's holy grail is a great bottle for around $12. And there is a great deal of wine on the market in this price range. Well, here at Vinthropologie we have decided to take on the task of finding that holy grail (it's a tough job but someone has to do it!) So each week, we'll try to taste at least one bottle of wine that's priced below $15. We'll only profile those that we like since wine and matters of taste are so personal.

Up first, a delicious little number from the south of Spain. It's called Botani and it's made from the Muscat Alexandria grape. Now, this is a grape that I'm sure very few of us have tried. It's traditionally vinified into a sweeter wine but this is vinified dry, meaning that most of the sugar has been converted to alcohol. This wine is also unusual because it comes from an unusual region: Malaga Spain. Málaga is in far southern Spain, on the hot, sunny Costa del Sol, and it made its name on sticky-sweet wines made from raisined grapes. What you don't see from this region is a dry wine, until now. I have to say when I saw this bottle at Costco for $13.99 I was intrigued.

This wine has a pale straw color with aromas of honey, lemon, and tangerine. It's seen a bit of French oak so it's a bit rounder than I expected, yet it is still very refreshing. On the palate you'll taste the honey and the tangerine and also a back note of herbs, although it's not grassy. It does have a slight bitter taste on the finish but that doesn't interfere with the overall crisp and refreshing nature of this wine.

I hope you seek this one out, you'll have fun with it.

Cheers,
Sandy