There are so many products in our stores that I love to recommend to our guests with a high Q.P.R. (Quality to Price Ratio) -- all under $10.00 a bottle retail. For example, at a dinner party during the Thanksgiving holidays, some of my guests didn't enjoy the Rose I was offering (they only drink red wines). I fortunately have an ABC Fine Wines and Spirits located right across the street from my home. Knowing our wine selections, I ran straight to the Spanish wine section and grabbed two bottles of Gladius Tempranillo ($7.99 a bottle), one of the wines in Spanish wine importer Jorge Ordonez's portfolio. It is from the Provence of Cuenca in the La Mancha area of Spain. The wine will please both the Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot drinker as this 100% Tempranillo wine exhibits bright fruit with a medium body and a soft finish. My guests at my home responded with "Larry, you are such a snob and always bring expensive wines.”  I revealed the truth about the price and they went out the next day to one of our locations and picked up two cases for their home.

Next, I love this wine from Southern Italy in Manduria.  Gregory Perucci, from Academia de Racemi is one of my favorite winemakers and producers of Primitivo. His wines are selections of Nadia Galati and hopefully some of you got to meet him and taste his wines at our Italian Winemakers Tour at the beginning of March. The 2010 vintage of Racemi Portile Primitivo arrived from Italy a couple of months ago. The wine has always been $9.99 and a favorite of my guests since I have worked at ABC. The 2010 is my favorite vintage so far. The vines are more than 50 years old and the vineyard is located on sandy soils very close to the Ionian Sea. The wine is an explosion of black raspberry and blueberry fruit on the palate with a hint of black licorice and white pepper on the finish. It is a tremendous value at under $10.00 and you get to drink the first grape known to mankind (Primitivo = Primitive in English), one that is related to the Zinfandel grape here in the USA.

Next time you visit one of our ABC Fine Wines and Spirits locations, let the wine consultant know you want a wine that costs you under $10.00 but drinks like $20.00 and you will be amazed how many white and reds ABC offers that meet that criteria.

Guest blogger Larry Baker is the wine consultant at our Pembroke Pines store.

 You can read more of Larry’s wine reviews and suggestions on his website: www.larrythewineguy.net