(Or: Cheap wine on the table.) 

Saw this post to Eric Asimov’s NY Times wine blog, The Pour, and I had some thoughts about his suggested cellar.

1. Anyone who is willing to plunk down $1500 a year on wine is going to drink more than a bottle a week. This automatically makes the list kind of useless, since one could conservatively guess that a medium-level oenophile would drink three times as much wine in a year as that. Asimov basically acknowledges this, but it still merits mentioning.
2. The average price per bottle for a year’s worth of wine in Asimov’s imaginary cellar is $27. That’s more than double what I spend on the average bottle of wine in a year, including all the “special” bottles I put away to age.
3. I don’t think you can get most of those wines very easily in California, and certainly not at those prices.
4. Three bottles each of red and white for a year? You’re going to get awful bored of those everyday wines real fast.

In other words, “practical” is not the first word that springs to mind when I consider his choices. Don’t get me wrong, they all look like fun wines, but that list is both too small and too pricy for a wino of limited means and unlimited appetite like me. With this in mind, I decided to try and draft a “workingman’s cellar,” a collection of wine that could sustain two frequent drinkers for an entire year, provide interesting choices, and not break the bank.

First rule: there has to be a lot of wine. Some people have suggested in response to Asimov’s list that three bottles per week is a good starting point. Um, maybe I shouldn’t say this, but pretty much the only times we go through three bottles per week or less in our house are when one or both of us is gone. So let’s say five bottles per week, or 260 bottles for the year.

Second rule: the wine has to be good. Not great, necessarily, but something that you would enjoy opening up on any given night. It should also be wine that matches with food, since most of our wine is consumed at the dinner table, and be diverse enough to pair with many different kinds of dishes and to prevent boredom with your own cellar. Your 40th bottle of cabernet sauvignon will not look very enticing on that night when you’re just having a simple roasted fig salad.

Third rule: it’s gotta be cheap. Our target drinker has a great thirst to be quenched, but his wallet is thin. Let’s set a target of $2000 for one year of five bottles per week.

Fourth rule: it has to be available either in LA or the Bay Area in reasonable quantities.

We’ll also set aside some special bottles, most of which will benefit from short-term cellaring, although our price limits prevent us from getting anything that can sit for more than a few years.

So we throw these rules into a jaunty little chapeau, and what do we come up with?

THE TABLE’S (nearly) $2000 WINE CELLAR
Suggested title: “She Works Hard for the Money”

1 case of each of the following everyday wines. Price is per bottle.

EVERYDAY WHITES

2005 Blason Tocai Friulano - $9
2004 Bocce Pinot Grigio - $9
2005 Domaine de Cassagnole Vin de Pays Blanc - $7
2004 Chateau des Cleons Muscadet Sevre et Maine “Sur Lie” - $8
2004 La Craie Vouvray - $8
2005 Dr. Loosen Riesling “Dr. L” - $11
2005 Sollner Gruner Veltliner - $10
2005 Tobiano Sauvignon Blanc - $11

EVERYDAY REDS

2004 Bodegas Barbaris Tempranillo “Mendoza Barricas” - $7
2004 Bogle Petite Sirah - $8
2004 Cusumano Nero d’Avola - $11
2004 Cycles Gladiator Syrah - $9
2005 E. Guigal Cotes du Rhone - $10
2005 Maritma Sangiovese - $7.50
2005 McManis Cabernet Sauvignon California - $7
2005 Quattro Mani Montepulciano d’Abruzzo - $7.50
2005 Las Renas “Barrica” Monastrell - $10
2005 Las Rocas Garnacha Catalyud - $8
NV Rosenblum Vintner’s Cuvee XXIX - $8

EVERYDAY SPARKLER (good for shellfish!)

NV Fantinel Prosecco Extra Dry - $9

“IT’S A SPECIAL THING” WINES

2 bottles 2005 Selbach-Oster Riesling Wehlener Sonnenuhr - $15
2 bottles 2004 Stangeland Pinot Noir Stand Sure Vineyard - $25
2 bottles 2003 Domaine Tempier Bandol Rouge - $27
2 bottles 2004 Vina Cobos Cocodrilo Cabernet Sauvignon - $20
2 bottles 2004 Zind-Humbrecht Gewurztraminer - $20
1 bottle Clos du Mont-Olivet Chateauneuf du Pape - $22
1 bottle Saracco Moscato d’Asti - $15

240 bottles of everyday wine, less 10% case discount: $1868
12 bottles of special wine: $251
252 bottles of wine: $2118

So, we neither hit 260 bottles nor $2000, but we’re pretty close on both counts. And we have an interesting and flexible cellar, with some fun “special” wines to drink about once a month. I’m sure there are better choices to be found elsewhere, but these are wines I’ve had and so I can vouch for them. The other side of that is that these are wines that I enjoy. Your tastes, dear reader, can and do diverge from mine, so there are bound to be bargain bottles that you would replace one of these wines with.

Of course, this list doesn’t take into account trying ANY new wine in one year, which seems silly considering one of the greatest pleasures of wine is discovering something new to savor. It also doesn’t have any money set aside for tastings or buying bottles at restaurants. All things considered, I don’t think I have the kind of discipline necessary to restrict myself to a list like this, but for a tight budget and a serious wine jones, it might be a good starting point.

Another good list at the $1500 level is up over at Cooking Chat. Check it out - lots of interesting stuff, most of which I haven’t tried.