Have had a lot of wines over the past few weeks, with three wine classes, a blind tasting, and two tail-gates. But four stand out as unique or reliably good.
When we were in NYC a couple of years ago, we rented a car and drove out to the Hamptons and explored the wine country there. Really fun and amazingly good wines. One that impressed was Peconic Bay, and we picked up a bottle of their steel fermented '06 Peconic Bay Chardonnay (12.4% ABV). Opened it last night before a Cab Franc tasting (more on that later) and it was on point, with nice acidity, very Burgundian (as they say), kind of made you proud of what we can do over here if we try. We tasted a lot of other reds and whites that were noteworthy as well. Very much Loire valley styled wines, unfortunately most of them don't make it past the city. Also picked up an '08 Tavel Cuvee Royal from the local co-op and took to the tail-gate. Served with grilled ribs, etc. What other wine will go with Bar-b-cue? You've got to like rose's food friendly profile. Along with this we had an '08 Georges DuBoeuf Macon-Villages that for $9 has to be one of the best overall wine values out there. Consistently reliable Macon Chardonnay. I like reds as much--or more--than whites, but these just happen to be memorable aperitif wines. Then there is Piper Sonoma Brut, one of my favorite Cali sparklers. Drank this one over three days, and it never let up. Solid wine. The Peconic Bay was probably around $20, but the other three were $9, $8 and $12.