WTN: 2009 Toca Diamonte Malbec/Cab

2009 Toca Diamonte Malbec/Cab

I've become a sucker for cheap wine. Show me a potentially interesting bottle for under $5 and I'm there. Most of these bargain basement wines get sipped and poured straight down the drain. Though I have never had a great wine for under $5, I do occasionally hit a winner. Such was the case with the '09 Toca Diamonte Argentine Malbec/Cab blend (70% Malbec, 30% Cab).

For $3.95 at Aldi I couldn't resist. The wine was quite well balanced and had solid cherry and dark fruit notes. The finish was reasonably lengthy, and was long on licorice. At the price, it makes for a tasty table wine and pairs very well with grilled fillet. I will certainly pick up more the next time I head that way.

You're by no means alone in this search, Sam.

And I'll go you one further: I have had great wine in the $5.00 range!

True, some of that wine came to my notice when I was a buyer for a big chain, and was constantly being offered special deals from people desperate to get rid of things they otherwise couldn't sell, or on the big players trying to finish out a vintage so they could bring another one in.

Both my close out bins and my customers were at times delighted too.

I recall one whole container I bought in distress---wine already here in the US, customer reneging on the buy, importer desperate to get rid of it, even at a loss---of rose' that provided immensely good pleasure at a whopping $1.99 a bottle. Glug glug glug all summer. Now, I'm fully aware that there a denizens on this board, and most certainly other boards, who would frown mightily at such a cheap wine being called 'great'---and to them I say "PHBHBHITIT!!!!" in a loud an vulgar manner. This stuff was great drinking!

But even afterwards, say in the aftermath of some of the early dot-com wine ventures, I snapped up a ton of uncommonly good bargains. (And I recall Mike Filigenzi and some others haunting the aisles of Grocery Outlets during that time too.)

Oh, and there was that bottle of Chateau Margaux for $4.99 in a close out bin in a tiny little mom 'n' pop store in Louisiana that will forever be a cherished memory. And countless Germans with indecipherable names (heh heh heh) that owners were just throwing away to be rid of them.

Oh, and there was that bottle of Chateau Margaux for $4.99 in a close out bin in a tiny little mom 'n' pop store in Louisiana that will forever be a cherished memory.

Hoke,

And that is why I dig through every single close-out bin that I come across. No $4.99 Margaux yet, but I have picked up a $9 JJ Prum Auslese and some $14 Jadot Clos de Ursules. You just never know.

Sam-
Dumpster diving again?
BP
Leave late April open... never know what can be happening in hillbilly-land.