Wines for us regular folk

For those of you who tend to spend $15-$25 on wine for parties AND have to drive 2 hours to even get these wines (no wine stores between here and there, groceries have Sutter Home/Kendall Jackson/Meoimi/Josh type stuff)…

I hosted book group last night and just asked people what they liked and brought these out (except the port and Icewine, which were half-full in my fridge). Book group buys wine at the grocery store mentioned above. I rarely drink anything but the KC Sauvignon Blanc when they host.

2009 Walnut Block Sauvignon Blanc, $14. Very light typical cheap Marlborough: light grapefruit, lemon.

2022 Enrique Setafino Gavi, $20. Everything you'd expect but better than others I've tried at this price point: pear, apple, lemon, wet stones.

2022 Inniskillin Icewine, $40. I posted this when I first opened it, and I've seen it mentioned by others here, and it gets mocked. I like it anyway, and I like Canada too. Very sweet, honey, caramel, biscuit, apricot, orange.

2019 Real Companhia Bella LBV Port, $22. This held up well in my regular fridge since July 4. I'm not a big fan of fortified wines but I can sip a bit of this. Sweet, nice red fruits.

2023 Gattavechi Vernaccia di San Gimigango, $15. Butter hits the nose first (that surprised me), but nice enough mix of lemon, orange, pear, and fennel. I'd like to try a better one.

2024 Chateau D'Awieria Tavel Heritage, $22. Pomegranate, violets, cherries, oranges, vanilla, cinnamon. It's OK but I will continue to pay more for the Meyer Nakel and Von Winning roses.

2022 Thibault Ducroux Fleurie, $25. A modern style Beaujolais that has met disapproval in this sub but remains one of my summer favorites. I've been trying as many Gamays as possible this summer. It's cheerfully cherry, blueberry, raspberry, strawberry, berryberryberry, with a light violet and cream.

2019 Chateau du Mercues Cahors Malbec, $24. I prefer their Curvee 6666 (and the Bodega El Esteco Old Vines 1946) but this was a good gamble for a party on my budget. Dark plum, raisen, chocolate, cedar and vanilla. Gets pretty oaky as it sat in my (very small) glass that I sipped on through the night. Fortunately the others drank it fairly quickly.

NV The Cook Sparling Shiraz, $20. Only 5 people were left at the end so we decided to cap off the night with a sparkling. I chose this one because it was the least expensive AND because I knew they'd never had a Shiraz bubbly before. We were a bit (!) tipsy by this point, but I could discern that it was likely a traditional method (it is). We liked it. I plan to buy it again.

2023 Courtney Benham Chardonnay, $13. Yuck. I hate the heavily oaked Chardonnay (so far Chablis has been all I really like, though the better Shaw and Smith is tasty too) but the oldest member of book group loves this, so I bought it for her. Typical mass produced over manipulated California.

2021 The Ned Pinot Noir, $16. Funky smell that displeased me–I hadn't tried this before, and no one requested it, so I opened it after everyone had at least one glass of something else. It met the approval of the group but I won't get it again. Some red fruits but it was not well balanced.