They got me to a wine meeting. I actually went to a wine meeting. Not only did you go, but you spoke. For a long time. You're one of a few people who said, you did a really good job. Is this your first time talking in front of people? It was kind of a back-end and compliment, isn't it? But you know what? I'll take that comment. I will take that. That's amazing. That's really funny. I did fist bump you too. Yes. Thank you. Okay. But I was very excited to talk about Binny's Beverage Depot's communication policies, but also to try wine because this was the 30 under 30 tasting and voting. It sure was. This is the first time we have done this in this spring season and we thought what better way to kick off the Easter holiday, the warming temperatures, just the fun summer ahead, then hold our chain-wide tasting panel an additional time and ask our staff, what is your favorite wine under $30 this spring? And so that's what happened around the chain. Each store held a blind tasting where staff members could submit their favorite wine and they then nominated two wines, the first and second place. We compiled that list. Those wines, about half of those wines were tasted by all wine managers at this wine meeting and they voted with Great Northern Beans to select their top 30. Beans were integral to the process. Everybody got a bag of beans. A lot of them. A lot of 30 beans. Yeah. Everybody voted 30 times. And so we're here to present you our Spring 30 Under 30. Hey, you're listening to Barrel to Bottle, The Binny's Podcast. Backing your feed with 30 under 30, I'm Greg, I do communications at Binny's. Hi, I'm Chris, I do wine. Hi, I'm Ben, I'm a wine manager at Lincoln Park. Alicia Barrett, wine education. I'm Emily, I'm a wine manager over at Montgomery. Ben and Emily, not your first time on the show. Nice to be back. Yeah. I call him Bemily. That rolls off the tongue. Yeah. So much cooler than Bennifer. Really weird. Really weird. No, it's been a while since I got an invite, so probably forgot about my last time. There's a reason for that. Yeah. Because. Okay, passive aggressive. That was just straight up aggressive. You didn't even invite me to this show. Ridiculous. I didn't invite everyone here but Greg. That's true. He just kind of showed up. Talking about passive aggressive. Your very presence is passive aggressive. You didn't get the invite. Okay, nuts to this. What are we tasting? What do you got? What are you bringing here? I grabbed wines from this list so that we could taste these because I will confess, I did not taste that day because it was crazy and there was a lot going on. So I'm excited to try these wines. You all to revisit and we're going to share our thoughts. We're going to share our honest feedback on these. We'll tell you who nominated them and hopefully, they end up on your dining table this spring. All right, so we're going to start with Chablis. And I'm really glad this made the cut because I feel like you can't have a spring wine list without Chablis on it. This is Thomas Labille Chablis, just Chablis AOC 2023. And this was submitted by our friends in Glencoe. So shout out to the team over there. Good going Glencoe, stony. Yeah, but also quite fruity for Chablis. The nose shows a lot of fruit, apple, stone fruit. A little bit of grass, super bright and refreshing, lemony with a lemon bitterness too. Not austere at all, nice ripeness to it. Agreed. Yeah, this is very forward and modern take on Chablis, I would say, rather than the austere, stony style that many people may be used to. But yeah, this has a fair amount of fruit here. This is delightful. I just want to tap out right here. Just let me have the Chablis do the rest of it. Oh, it's this go-to spring wine at this point, yeah. Yeah, there's a little bit of a fruit cup element to the wine that you sometimes find in an Alborino. I get that on this wine. You're right. It's definitely a modern style. The minerality is way in the back, and it's all about the fruit. And this is a modern winery, too. This is not one with hundreds of years of background. It's only been around for a few decades, I think. What does that mean, modern techniques, too? Steel tanks and stuff like that? Yeah, steel tanks, but I'm sure they use some oak, too, at some point in their lineup. And they're higher in stuff, just to be clear. Yeah, at some point in their lineup. Yeah, probably with Grand Cruises. These days, it's very common, as you move up the quality ladder in Chibilly, to see more and more new oak. Okay. So Premier Cruises might get a little Grand Cruises, which are weightier and can handle more. But not every producer does that, of course. How much under 30 is this? Regular price of $23.99. So expect to see that on sale. Fabulous. Yeah. And I think especially fabulous in Chibilly, where prices have continued to rise, as we've seen in many regions of the world. But to get into Chibilly, I think at this price point and not be a petite Chibilly, which is that next tier down, I think is a great value. Cool. That is absolutely true. Good call to get Chibilly at that price these days. Sorry for talking over you. That's okay. I'm talking over you. Yeah. Good call, good girl. You know what else I like about this? I know we made this clear, but I think this is an easy Chibilly to take people from the US to, if they want to try Chibilly, this is a great entry point because of the slightly richer body. That's exactly what I was going to say. It's got that rounder texture to it, which I really like. I think it can pair really nicely with different foods, especially for Easter. I feel like it's not going to be too light, but it's a good marriage of both. Yeah, it's nice. Let's stay in France and let's have some white Bordeaux. This is Chateau du Cas 2023. Does it say the breakdown of Sauvignon and Semillon? Oh, it's 70 Semillon and 30 Sauvignon. You just know that? Yeah. That's a little unusual. That's pretty Semillon-heavy. Well, this guy is a Sauternes producer and his properties are down. He also owns Graville Lacoste, which is on our shelves and looks exactly the same. Can I admit to a Chuckle Nuts thing? Every time I see this label and I've been seeing it for 20 years because I've been working here so long, I always have Robstein in my head. Du, du Cas. Now I'm going to think about that. You've ruined it. Yeah. Enjoy. The complete opposite of what they're trying to convey in this label. Super elegant, pristine label. I don't know. I'd go Leibach with this. What? You don't know Leibach? No, I'm sorry. All right, Chris, as you were saying, because they're a Sauterne producer, having more vines planted to Sémillon, so they're able to go Sémillon heavy. Correct. Especially in a time where we're seeing more and more Sauvignon Blanc dominate the blend. True indeed. True indeed. This is perennially a delightful wine, in my opinion. You can pick out that Sémillon texture, I think, rather than being sharp like a straight Sauvignon Blanc. It has a rounded mouth feel, but it still has bright, fresh acidity. Deeper green types of fruits like kiwi or something like that? What am I looking for? Yeah, I got kiwi here. Yeah. So that Sémillon is adding a ton of stone fruit, in my mind, and a lot of kind of white peach. But the Sauvignon Blanc makes its presence known, as Chris mentioned, through the acid profile, but also with a little bit of that kind of tropical fruit and just the tiniest bit of herbaceousness that just sits on the bottom for the whole time. Yeah, it cleans up the finish. Yeah. I think this is a great wine, and white Bordeaux is too often overlooked. Ben, what do you see in the stores with customer shopping for white Bordeaux? Do you have to bring them there or do people seek it out? Because I think for even sub $15, it should be on everyone's list. I feel I have to introduce people to it, which I love to do hands down. White Bordeaux is one of my, if not my favorite category of wine. It's probably the category of wine I drink the most at home of, and I love introducing people to it. I think a lot of customers don't know white Bordeaux. They think Bordeaux, they think red. They don't know that's a great value, kind of under the radar, but wines like this, there's some tremendous white Bordeaux for 10, 12, $15. Okay, how much is the Ducasse? $16.99 regular price, so I'm sure it'll tuck. That's so cheap. I will definitely associate this with a higher price. Well, this is a very high quality wine. This is Kermit Lynch imported. He's been with them for a long, long time. Good game, Kermit Lynch. Yeah, always, always a good game. I feel like as soon as you get people over to white Bordeaux, they keep going back. I think it's just that initial like, hey, I think that this would be a really good pairing, or I think that this would be a nice, a nice white blend for you. They tend to go back to it. Yeah, it's one of those categories, though, that maybe doesn't do itself any favors with the variety of styles you can end up with under this broad category. You know, in the price range we're talking about, it's almost always neutral oak or stainless steel fermented. But as you move up to, I'm not going to say nicer chateaus, but more expensive wines, there's often a new oak component that totally alters the profile, you know. If you'll go to UGC, which I know you guys all do, you know, you taste some of that high-end white Bordeaux, and it's rich and oaky and tropical. And it can be a door-hudge and white Bordeaux. And again, the only time I ever tried is at UGC, because, you know. Yeah. Bernard McGray was there this year. Pop Clamont. No, Pop Clamont, that's always a standout at that tasting, right? And yeah, that's exactly that. It's rich, it's tropical, it's oaky. And who brought this little bottle of affordable luxury? This was nominated by our friends in Gurnee. Gurnee. So well done. This is everywhere. I can't speak highly enough. Yeah, totally a great one. Sweet. So, we're going to stick with the Semillon Great Bridey, but we're going to ramp it up and go from 70% Semillon in White Bordeaux to a wine from California, Andis Wines Semillon from Bill Dylan Vineyard. And this is in the Sierra Foothills. Greg is making the weirdest faces. Didn't we just have this like last week? Yeah. We just had this on the show. Well, anyway, that show is all popular. Alicia doesn't listen to Barrel to Bottle to Binny's Podcast. I did, though, I did see it pop up in our comms platform. Oh, at least she reads the comms platform. But, what are you doing in a spring wine episode a week before the spring wine episode? I did see that. This was booked forever ago. He wasn't invited, it's true. I did have that slight sinking stomach, like, oh, did I miss it? Was that the one I was supposed to be on? They would have called, right? Oh, no. Oh, that could have been worse. I'm still driving. You miss a meeting, no one reaches out. I just do what I'm told. I'm excited to try this. I actually skipped over it, not on purpose at the wine meeting, but just got a little busy, so I'm excited to be trying it. It's on our shelves and it looks very interesting. Yeah, kind of an oddball. I mean, you don't see a ton of 100% semillon out of California. That is for sure. And especially not from 45-year-old vines like this one. Ew. I'm just kidding. It's very nice. I was never ever done that before. Psych. Okay. No, this is an adorable wine. I still like it a lot. The pears, it's all over, and then it's got the acidity, but it's not like Sauvignon Blanc. It's a little more of the Outback and allows it to be more plush. Yeah. There's more tension to the acid. It's not as just obvious. It's interwoven with the fruit, and then that waxiness really comes out. I think it's such a great wine for those that don't know Semillon that really want to wrap their head around the varieties. You see that here. I will say there's an herbal component or something that I'm picking up that I think adds to the serious nature of. For sure. Did I say this last time? If I tasted this blind, I would totally guess it's Viennay. Like a really high toned one, but it has the same melon notes. At least she's like, nope. I would say the same thing. But whatever. Greg, there's no wrong answer when it comes to. Except yours. That's just what Greg would say. It's just what Greg would say. This has such a long finish on it. Yeah, it does. It is still just giving on the palate. It's giving in the nose. I mean, it is quite fragrant and really long. That's them old vines. I feel like Semillon is becoming a bit of a winemaker darling. It's a little project. I just see certain really passionate winemakers making Semillon. I'm thinking of Zuccardi in South America. Yeah, you see people working with it around the world, but not in huge quantities. One, this is a spoiler alert, and I don't know if I should say it, but Alicia and I were tasting Australian wines the other day, and we're going to bring in some Hunter Valley Semillon from Australia, which is one of the world's great regions for growing Semillon. We tasted Tyrol's, which we haven't had in many years, and it was freaking phenomenal. It was. It was. So delicious. Yeah. Look for a nice, fresh Australia set coming your way soon because we're trying some old and new things on the shelf. Exciting things to come. But man, try that Tyrol's. I'm telling you. And even I can see this Semillon too. Sometimes it can be fairly neutral in its youth, but this too has all that it needs to be a really interesting aged wine. And expect that kind of nutty kind of honey quality to come out. But it has the acid, it has the texture and the density of fruit to hold them. That may be a well-known secret in the wine community, which is that Semillon can age like gangbusters. 1899 on the shelf. If you are looking to bring something different to whatever summer, spring gathering you're doing or holiday party, Semillon from the Sierra Foothills in California. Delicious. Who picked it? Logan Square. Good game, Logan Square. Okay, we're going to stay in California and go to one of my favorite places, Santa Barbara, and taste the Presquille Pinot Noir. 2023. Certainly, Chris, we've had to have talked about this winery at some point on the podcast. We have. Like last week. Are you serious? For the spring wines, right? It was the Chardonnay though. Yeah. Oh, it was the Chardonnay. Okay. See, look at this division. Whoa, dodged a bullet there. So if you're curious as to whether everything is coordinated by marketing or buying or anything, you can see that it is not. We're making this up as we go along. Totally. The agenda is just getting it done. I would reiterate your pronunciation there because this is a weird looking word for a lot of people and it is Presquille. Presquille. Yeah. It is such a pretty color. Yeah, beautiful. My goodness. Classic pale ruby color for Pinot Noir. Very transparent. It's really aromatic. I'm pretty congested today and I can still smell all of this. Nose is great. It's all rose petals. I like it too. Red fruit. Oh, wow. The nose is very perfumed but on the pale, it's very subtle and elegant. This is a nicely made Pinot in this price range. 100%. So this is $22.99. That is insane. That's tremendous. It's so hard to find good, true to form Pinot at that price. And this cuts against the grain in a lot of California Pinots. Even from the Santa Barbara region, like in Santa Rita Hills or Santa Lucia Highlands or Russian River, you know, tend to get ripe, darker colors, big. Some people make this style, but this is very elegant. It's refined. The acidity or tannin or something is like really weird and grippy on the palate too. It's like absolutely driving me to continue to drink this. It makes me want to drink so much more. Definitely going down easy. I'll say that some wines when they have that perfume quality on the nose and you get to the palate and they're kind of lacking in substance, and this one just accelerates. The fruit condition that you think might just be this like strawberry, cherry, like kind of bright and simple, turns very wild, brambly. There's almost like a little gaminess to this kind of turned earth quality. It's absolutely delightful. Yeah, like sour cherry a little bit, just a little bit of that kind of like tart cranberry, pomegranate bouncing against the ripeness. I think there's even a woodsy or herbaceous component too. I would imagine that some of this is whole cluster here, but I don't know. You can get the complexity of the fruit, but also there's kind of that vegetative edge to it, but I think it's very pleasant. So real quick, just for the listeners, what about having the wine, if you were to set aside producer in that, especially of the nose, that makes you think this is whole cluster? When you do whole cluster, you're doing a couple of things. You're putting in whole clusters of grapes, which includes the stems. So sometimes you can get spicy notes and all kinds of different vegetative flavors. You can get rotundone out of stems like black pepper, but more in a case like this, more like rosemary or marjoram or something like that, which is all on a continuum of rotundone. But also you're engaging in semi-carbonic maceration, which makes the nose really bright and lively like this is and the fruit poppy and fresh. But depending on how much you do, you know, you can do 30 percent whole cluster, you can do 100 percent whole cluster. It's very popular in Burgundy, Beaujolais and Oregon all over. Yeah. So if you're at a dinner with a lot of Pinot wine makers, that can be your question for the group because there will be some strong opinions for and against. Absolutely. Yeah. Well, how do you feel about whole cluster fermentation? Yep. You'd sound real smart. Even down to the fact whether like how you Put them in your back pocket. choose to your stems, you know, do they go in a little green or do you let them lignify? You know, like if you're in the grocery store and you see a bunch of grapes and the stem is all bright green, it's really fresh looking. And then another bunch is like all woody. That's lignification. That can happen post-harvesting, you just dry them a little bit. Some people want all 100% really lignified stems, some people not as much. Gives you a different flavor and aroma profile. Okay, we're moving on. Yeah, we should do that too. So shout out Rockford. Excellent choice. Nice to call. I remember in the top 50, whether it was this year or last year, they had the, I think it was the DeLille Schaller Estate Blanc. Also excellent. Yeah, so they know their stuff out there. Speaking of oak-influenced Bordeaux-style whites. We're going to grab on to Chris' Beaujolais comment and head over to that region in France, just out the Burgundy, and taste Jean Foyard's Beaujolais Villages, 2022. Always a favorite. Yeah. One of the all-stars. Yeah, top tier producer. Centered in Morgan, this is Beaujolais Villages, however. But I think it probably is, I don't know this for a fact, but I'm going to say it anyway. So probably a lot of it's declassified Morgan. This was one of the favorites. I think the number two wine to come out of our session. Everyone loved it. I remember it showing really well at the tasting. This is a wine that was submitted by our team in Lakeview, and it sits at $23.99 on the shelf. Cherry candy and spicy. Oh my goodness. Delightful. It's the cinnamon candies, those red little ones that you put. The red hats. Little red hats, yeah. The buttons on the gingerbread. Absolutely. Definitely the nose. This is how little red candy is called. This smells great though. Really great. I can see this getting a lot of beans. Yeah. It's worth its beans. So for all the new wave natural wine lovers out there who have jumped on to that bandwagon, this guy goes back to 40, 50 years ago. This is the root of the modern natural wine movement right here. Before there was a name for it. Yeah. They just called it wine making. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, just good wine making. And we'd still just say that today. Yeah. Enough with all the fuss. Just make good wine. Yeah. Some of these producers in Beaujolais make no sulfur added bottlings, but I don't think anybody's hung up on that either. And I agree. And I don't think all of the original Beaujolais people who really kicked this movement off don't consider themselves part of it necessarily. This is stunning wine. I think this is the best Beaujolais I've ever had. Yeah. Well, it shows you, sorry, the weight and the seriousness and the length that Beaujolais can have. And you think about it as just this like quaffable wine that you can just put a chill on and not think too much of, which it has its purpose. But this is serious. And I think, Chris, just by how the wine shows, you have to be right that at least some of this is just declassified, not from the actual outer areas of non-village, of non-crew, excuse me, plots. Agreed, given the quality here. It's another Kermit Lynch. Yeah. So Kermit Lynch is the one who dubbed the four producers, the Gang of Four in Beaujolais, who are working in this traditional style, and Foillard is one of them. All right. How much is this going to set me back because I'm buying this tonight? $23.99. That's fabulous. Yeah. This is fantastic wine for the price. I don't even have any tasting notes on this. It's just dang delicious. It's the wine that I'm smelling the most. Every time I go back to it, I just feel like there's something else to explore in it. It's just, it's... I don't know. I'm going to just... Yeah. There's an herbal quality that's coming out more and it seems like perfume, like a delicate perfume. It's lovely. If you haven't explored Beaujolais because you only know Beaujolais Nouveau, now is the time. If you haven't explored Beaujolais because all you know is an inexpensive Beaujolais Villages that's insipid, now is the time. Yeah, this is the same category as a lot of other wines that are sold for half the price and this has quadruple the quality. This is better than some Morghone that I've had for sure. What do you think about having this with some lamb? Yeah. Yeah? Yes. Easter lamb. But I think very versatile for food pairing. Do you like it, Ben? I don't really want to go against the group here, but no, it's phenomenal. Category that is easy to overlook, ignore, find some very poor examples of, this is a world-class wine, hands down. Who picked it? This comes from our new store over in Bucktown. Top-notch team over there, go visit them. They know their stuff. Great pick, guys. That store is great. Yeah, they're killing it over there. Love it. It's big. I haven't been. You guys are neighbors. You can practically walk there. It's salty about Bucktown. No, they're doing a good job. It's fine. It's fine. They're eating your lunch. Yeah, it's good for them. All right. We're tasting another wine. I admit this is going to be a little hard to follow. We're going to try. Well, this is a good choice to follow it up with. Thank you. We're going to stay in a Chardonnay Sloped Shouldered Bottle. Also known as a Burgundy Bottle. A Burgundy Bottle. I don't know. I'm just trying to attempt an Alicia-like transition. Does that mean I transition poorly? I'm going to start calling it a Chardonnay Bottle. No, actually that into Beaujolais comment was like almost perfect. Oh, okay. Almost like you guys plan stuff, but obviously you don't. No. We just are of the same mind at times. We're heading back to California, but there's a French connection here which we'll talk about. Jean Hackman just died. That's the connection. The French connection. Yeah. You never saw it, did you? Nope. Real good one. We are over in Paso, and we are at the winery Tablas Creek. One of the original, if you will, of a team, but of the kind of the Rhone Rangers over in California, brought over carins right from Chateau de Beaucastel. We are going to taste their entry level Rhone blend here, which whoever has a bottle can share the blend. This is 24.99 on the shelf. You're a cunois. Do you want me to say the percentages? Sure. I mean, I just like to say things off the top of my head. No, Chris, see if you can tell us what the percentages are. I have no idea. Grenache 45, Syrah 30. Oh, you got to flip them. Oh, okay. But that's it. You have to flip them. Flip them? And then I'm guessing cunois is like 5% or less. Two. Two. Very good. So can you read the, read the blend? Oh, yeah. That was my guess. That's what I'm trying to get at right now. No, we're only going to follow us. 45 Syrah, 30 Grenache, 23 Moved, 2 cunois. Cunois. Cunois. How did I get the 45 and 30 right on but backwards? I would have thought Grenache first too, just because of what most do. But all right, so here we go. Jason Haas is behind Tablas Creek. And this has been kind of a tried and true wine for many years for me personally. I used to recommend it a lot. And I would say that it's a safe bet, that I don't know that it's necessarily like mind blowing, but it's gonna be a big tent wine. I get this undertone of Tootsie Rolls. It's like, you know, you have that tart cranberry, the wild strawberries, but it's just undertone of this Tootsie Roll that's really nice. And a minerality that edges toward sanguine. They don't like it when I say bloody. Tastes like pennies. Like I say, Greg, all the time, you can do with being a little more sanguine. Thanks buddy. Not in the bloody sense though. Yeah, I like it though. The Syrah seems more present than the Grenache, right? Like in heavier fruits and in that like streak of iron going through it. And it's not too heavy. And that's probably what you mean, Alicia, like it's not too tannic or overly acidic or aggressive. But it's not like a tutti frutti wine either. Oh, it's such a supple texture to it. Yeah. Yeah, I think this is supposed to be equivalent to a top-notch Coturon. I would say that it's a, yeah, yeah. I mean, that's right in there. Yeah. Except I also don't know how to say that grape. What is it? Cougnoise. Cougnoise. Cougnoise? Was? There's an E at the end, so you pronounce the S. The E makes the S not silent. Sweet. How do we make you silent? Take the E off the end. Take your E away. Yeah. I get a little scrubby herb here too, as would be typical in the Rhone. I pick up a little maybe a hint of Rosemary or Marjoram or something like that. Yeah. A little bit of that Gary quality that you find with these wines. Maybe a little lifted floral. What's cool is that I really don't think if you blind tasted this, I think you'd be able to easily identify Rhone blend, but it's not distinctly California, especially as the Rhone gets warmer and we're seeing bigger wines and riper wines come from the Southern Rhone especially. They are making this in a very old world style and have chosen sites that this fruit is restrained and demonstrates that as well. I was thinking about that. I agree. Like this, France, California, Australia, it could come from any of those places. Cool. And who picked it? This was another one from Glencoe. So they were one of the few that we had a couple stores that had two submissions for our tasting and this was one of them. Glencoe, killing it. I know. Game. Yeah, the picks per capita there, it's just out, just completely off the charts. I will also say that what did not, because again, we had to narrow down from like 100 wines, so we couldn't do all, we couldn't taste all of them. But Tablas Creek, the white, was nominated by two stores as well. So check out the white side of this portfolio as well. All right, we're going to Italy, I think, our only Italian wine on the show today. Chris, did you just taste this in your last spring episode? Yes. No. No. This is Vietti up in Piedmont. I imagine all of our listeners are familiar with this producer. We've tasted a lot. We carry a lot of skews from Vietti, one of the benchmark producers in the region. But this is their Dolcetto, and I was glad to see this nominated by North Riverside. And I think it's a great variety that is often overlooked. But I personally consumed quite a bit of Dolcetto on my rooftop this summer while home with my newborn. And this is, in my opinion, this is always one of the best examples we carry. Very, very nice. You think this is for fans of Beaujolais? Yes. So there was a time where people would equate Dolcetto and Beaujolais. You don't see that as much anymore. A little bit more like tannic and like bitterness to it, I think. The nose is pretty similar, but then it has this citric acidity, lemon peel acidity. Yeah. I always get this like kind of bitterness of Dolcetto, which makes it to me a very great food wine. It is like straight up bitter. And in fact, this would be considered one of the everyday food wines of the Piedmont for sure, because it's inexpensive and you don't have to lay it down like you do Barolo or Barbaresco. So between Barbera and Dolcetto, this is what people are drinking with their dinner. I was really on the nose, really expecting like a tutti frutti kind of experience. But that lick of acidity and bitterness really classes it up. Yeah. So my go-to sandwich on the grill for lunch when I was having this wine, would be whatever high quality bread you're going to have. And then pesto and sun-dried tomatoes and grilled red onion and mozzarella. I'm so damn hungry now. Yeah, it sounds delicious. Yeah. This was the wine. This is again Vietti Dolcetto d'Alba Trevie, 2023, 1999 on the shelf. Outstanding. Yes. Good game North Riverside. There's a lot of really good wine here. It's going to cause a problem. It's all under $30 though. Yeah. So you can buy them all. Maybe not all. Like Pokemon? Collect them all. You can trade them. Drink them all. Drink them all. Now, we're going to head to Spain. I have no great transition here, other than this is one of two Spanish wines on the list. Staying in planet Earth. So, this is from, the producer is Palacios, and this is his Petalos from the Biurzo region. Do the Petalos on the labels change from year to year? They seem more blue than I remember. Good question. Yeah, I think they do. Cute. Gracias. There you go. Gracias. Are we in Catalan? No. Oh. What are you doing? No. Now, you're all the way across. I mean, if you went straight west from there, you'd just about hit this. We're up in the northwest, but not all the way up to kind of like Ria Spicius area, but adjacent to that. An Almancia, $23.99 in the shelf. This was nominated by Willowbrook. That has a very distinctive aroma on it. What is it? Tell us, Ben. Yeah, what is it? I had to pin down. I want to say- It's like a soil type. I was going to say like clay, like warm clay. But I'm also getting like have an almond character off of it. Less. I was just going to say, less is more. Less. Yeah, Chris always teases me about it, but it smells like the soil of my hometown. What's your hometown, Greg? Council Bluffs, Iowa. Okay. Don't tell my parents I said that I was born in Nebraska. The home to the only less soils in the world other than any number of places. Did Greg claim that one time? No, I grew up believing it. They were like, in school, they were like, we have these hills, they're special, they're only here and in China. But it turns out anywhere where there's a body of water that can create humidity and knock the wind-blown silt out of the air of these stupid hills for me. Stupid hills. You used to love them, now you resent them. No, I miss them because Illinois is so flat. Just so flat. What a boring place. But not as boring as needed to make up soil uniqueness in school. Yeah, and also I continue to live here, I do like it. Yeah. It smells slightly salty, briny, but it's got this nice fruit character that's coming through on the back end, but on the nose, I don't know, it's slight meat or salty. It's menacing. Yeah, but then when you taste it, it's like, oh, okay. I get a little bit like oyster shell kind of salinity to it, but also nobody's mentioned, it's called petulose. I think there's a floral top note here for sure. I used to think that Mencia was going to have, or Mencia was going to have this big revitalization and discovery, and I feel like we saw a little bit of it, and then it's this kind of plateaued. But what do you guys seen in the stories? Do you think that was true? Yes. I was going to agree. It's still absolutely under the radar category. Insider, I think people who asked for it because they had it recommended to them at a restaurant, or it's being hand sold by people like this who fall in love with it. But yeah, I think it's still definitely an unknown category, at least in our market. It means you can get it, and also you can continue to afford it. That's good. Yeah. I think for a while people were trying to kind of call it like the Pinot Noir of Spain. I can sort of see that. I think that was kind of more marketing. This actually kind of reminds me of the Dolcetto we just had. I was just thinking that. It starts off seemingly fruity and then it gets serious. Yeah. It gets serious towards the back end. I can also see a correlation between this and maybe Cab Franc in certain circumstances. Yeah. I like that. But it is still totally under the radar despite the very, very high quality of what we have available to us in the market. We have a couple of just great producers that we carry. I think it's a classic example of people in the industry are excited about it, and it just doesn't quite break through to the mainstream. But it should. But it should. So don't miss the opportunity to try this one. How much is it? $23.99. That's a pretty good deal. Yup. Thank you Willowbrook. Willowbrook. All right, three more wines. Let's stay in Spain, Marques de Murrieta. Alicia, I didn't vote with beans. Yeah. But probably for the best. Newton slipped me a bean and he- Did you? He voted twice for this one via me. So, Bill is our Spanish buyer and he loves this wine. And for Bill to love something is, it's a challenge. So, the fact that he has come out and endorsed this wine many times, I think, speaks to the quality. This smells great. He's a tough critic. He has standards. He also forced me to try it, you know. So, you did have one wine. Oh, I tried a bunch. Oh, okay. Yeah. This is the only one I voted for. You just didn't vote, okay. Yeah. I didn't want to have Alicia call me an idiot, then accuse me of screwing up the results. This is already on Mirabelle. I wonder who did that. Okay. Chris? I was just going to say this is one of the great historic producers in Rioja. In fact, they're credited with making the first Rioja in the 1850s. It's such a wonderful combination of modern and classic. Like the fruit is full, but then it has this autumnal orange peel tea kind of quality in the nose, too. It's like so interesting and also fun at the same time. Yeah. Every time I have it, I always think it's going to be so big and forceful with the tannins, forceful with the body, but it is just so nice. I feel like it dances on the tongue with the acidity. The fruit is in harmony with, I think, the soil concept of it. But I'm always very surprised by it. Picking the cherry off the tree right before it's ripe. You still have a little bit of that savory like hoisin, suey sauce element that you find in Rioja that can really slap you in your face. But here it's a little more subtle, but it is still distinctly tempranillo. And they're using American oak, correct? They do. And I think they use a little French too. They're a relatively traditional house. And a lot of their stuff is, you know, is traditional, but they do make some nods to modernity, and especially in their wood choices. And as you notice, the quality of the fruit, you know, it's not faded at all. This is bright and fresh tasting for a Reserva, in my opinion. And the tannins are super well integrated, but definitely present. I'm hearing you talk about wood, and it's getting to my head, because I'm trying to figure out what this herbal quality is. This is like prickly dill. Yeah. So that is often a result of American oak. Yeah. Yeah. Yep. Now that you say it, it's like, oh, yeah, I get that. Right. Right underneath everything else. It's not as blatant as some of the other traditional producers who really lean into all American oak like Rioja Alta or Lopez de Haridia. They're often the oak is just really, really screaming out of the glass and there's a lot of herbaceousness and a lot of coconut and stuff like that. Here things are more elegant and subtle. Not to say that style isn't fantastic, because that hyper traditional style is beloved by some. But this is kind of a bridge. Hoisin. I need better descriptors in my empty life. I'm sure you eat a lot of hoisin. I don't know. Really? Do you eat Chinese food? Rarely. Chinese American food? You know what they do? They put pineapple on it. Well, not all of it. I know. They're like a handful of dishes. Talk about throwing the baby out with the bath water. Right. All right. And it's hard to eat. Give me a fucking fork. You can use a fork. After you buy it, you can use whatever you want. These are constraints in your own mind, sir. I learned my whole life from watching TV, so I eat it with chopsticks out of the box. Yeah. You can't be on TV and not eat right out of the box. Right out of the box. You can open up the box and then it becomes a plate. Yeah. That's on the- Have you seen that? 36 ways to use products that- Hidden secrets that you don't know how to. Like the Pepsi tab, you turn around, put your straw in there and it holds it in a slightly smaller opening. Yep. We read the same clickbait articles, is what I'm telling you. How much? One of the other things that I always see on television that drives me nuts, next time you watch a show and they have wine in it, they always hold a glass. They put their hand on the bowl of the glass. Every time, I've never seen anything. And even when they're trying to convey a serious wine moment, it's terrible. Alicia, I've been talking about this for probably 30 years. And I notice it every time. And I think directors universally say this makes you more relatable. They just got into it. Hold it by... Yeah. There is no way that every actor in the world, especially with the salaries they make and the wines that they're probably drinking, don't use a stem in their real life. Yeah. There's no way. Yeah. But universally, you are correct. It's just as pervasive as the Chinese box and the chopsticks. Trope grapes. Yep. How much? All right. $26.99 on the shelf. Big shout out to Crystal Lake. Good game Crystal Lake. For this submission. Yeah. Outstanding. Great one. Last red wine, we are going to Dry Creek Vineyard, Cabernet 2021 from Arlington Heights. 28.99 on the shelf. Let's see. 28.99 on the shelf? Still under 30. It is. And once again, expect to see these on sale. Yeah. Yeah. This is a winery that's been around since 1972. I don't think I've had this wine in 15 years. Really? I like all their wines, honestly. Yeah. Super reliable. Zoom producer. Yeah. Even their Chenin Blanc, which they grow or source from Clarksville, I believe, not from the Dry Creek Valley, is quite excellent. This smells so ripe. This is one I'm always recommending to our guests, always. So Dry Creek, in case you don't know, Dry Creek is in Sonoma, and it's directly adjacent to the Russian River Valley, but it's inland, so it's much warmer, and it's also near Alexander River Valley, where it's, you know, where Cabernet is commonly grown. So they can grow a lot of different things here. Zin, Sauvignon Blanc, Cabernet, Merlot. They're in kind of a sweet spot for cool and warm climate grapes. I also like that they have a whole spreadsheet of facts about the wine right on the label. What do they tell you? Dry Creek Valley, 19 months in French, Hungarian, and American oak, thin, rocky, iron-rich soils, 3.4 tons per acre. Harvested between September 6th and October 15th, 2021. Lot-specific extended maceration, fermentation, at 25.4 bricks, resulting in a 14.5% oak by volume at elevations of up to 1,100 feet. Cool. That's neat. The varietal blend on the back is there too. Yeah. 80 cabs, seven Malbec, five Petite Bordeaux, four cabs, Franc, Fourmer, Low. They got it all. Also, it's like spicy. You can pick it up with spice on this one too. Yeah. Did you say Petite Bordeaux on the list? Yeah. Yeah. I mean, definitely see that in the wine, I think. Unlike the Tablas Creek, I'm like, oh, you could probably put this in a few different places in the world. This is distinctly Californian, the ripeness of the fruit. However, with that said, the acid keeps it so fresh and approachable. So it's not like meal in the glass big, but if you like ripe fruit and round plush tannin, then that's the right one. Yeah. Appetizer, of course, Cabernet. No. Well, I don't know. I don't know about that. I was thinking like, what an appetite. I was going to say, Cab's not my go-to for warm weather. So going into spring, going into summer, I veer away from Cabernet, but I think this is one that could work, and it has that lightness, that freshness to it with the right meal. Some of these cooler spring nights, this would be a great red wine. It gives it balance. It means that the rich fruit is in balance with something refreshing and not just tannic. For those of us who do drink seasonally, I do quite a bit as well. But you're going to start throwing steaks on the grill and things like that, and this is the time of year for lamb, and that will work nicely with this. And we're still getting snow on the grounds. It worked. Yeah. And with the advent of modern air conditioning, you can eat your porterhouse and 65-degree weather in your house. I think it is nice to drink seasonally, of course. But when you look at your time, it's not like you walked home for an hour in the 90-degree heat, and so you can't have the bigger wine. I mean, you might have. But if you're going from car to home, then you should just still drink what you want. I actually only exist outside probably like 40 seconds a day. Generous. No concept of the season, the temperature. We got windows, but it's only a brick wall, so we can see. Might as well be a television screen. Yeah. Computer monitor. Okay. Good game, Arlington Heights. I like it. Yeah. I mean, there's a lot of Cabernet under $30, but this is a stand-up. Yeah, it's got true Cabernet character. Yeah. Again, a little bit of savory kind of black olive quality. You were supposed to make it go... Oh, I thought you wanted loud. Oh, well, in that case, make it go... Our special effects department is really on today. There's no actual wine on the table. It's all just been like a Foillardist off to the side. The last wine that we're going to taste, that we pulled from the list, is a Sparkling Rosé from Lucy and Albrecht up in Alsace. This is a Cremont d'Alsace. They're making this in the traditional method, but your minimum time on lease for this is much shorter than that of champagne, so nine months by law. I'm really thrilled to have this because it is so versatile. We definitely want a Rosé on the list, so I'm glad it was nominated by Bolingbroke. But we're just starting to see all the 2024 Rosés come in. Rosé is always one you want to keep vintage in mind, and so look for those to be hitting shelves very soon. But until then, you can drink Sparkling Rosé all year round. This is lovely. I'm so glad that a Sparkler made the list today. That's what my go-to. I just feel like it's for any occasion. If I'm opening up a wine, I always lean toward a Sparkler. So super glad that one was represented. Yeah. And affordability, if you open them up, and is very important. And this one is affordable. 100% Pinot, right? Pinot Noir. I don't know if they blend anything else in here. I believe it's 100% Pinot. Yeah. This has been a go-to for the Vershoff's World for some time. Since I worked in Skokie, in fact, exclusively from Pinot Noir. Yeah. I think actually by law, Sparkling Rosé in all sauce has to be from 100% Pinot. Cool. Yeah. Ben? It's kind of a truism in the industry as long as I've been working in restaurants, working in wine retail. If you don't know what to pair with a meal, Sparkling Rosé. And I think this is a perfect example of that. This can go with just about anything you're serving, you know, spring and summer. You said 17.99? Yes, 17.99. Did anybody tell them they could charge more? Don't tell them that. I know. I mean, this is a really easy-going style, too. It's got brute dosage, but probably on the higher end, you know, it's soft. The fruit is upfront. It's easy-going. Yes, I agree. I would imagine it's up at like 10, 11 grams. It has a very kind of strawberry shortcake, playful feel. Lots of fruit. I'm craving your pesto mozzarella sandwich with this one, too. It would be real good. Yeah. This is the kind of sparkler that I don't think you even, for me, it's just delicious upfront. I don't think about the complexities. I don't think you need to think about the complexities here. I think it's just delightful. This would be nice on a hot day, especially with those strawberries, that kind of cantaloupe, fruitiness. I mean, this is hot day weather when you do get that one hot day in spring, which is never, but this would be nice. We get it. We go from winter to summer in about a week. Yeah. Yeah. I think it's going to be 70 this weekend. Yeah. That's what they said. Yeah. Except it's last weekend when this airs. I hope it was nice. Yeah. I hope you had the foresight or the insight or the hindsight, I don't know what we're going to call it, to buy a bottle of this and drink it on the 70-degree day. I'm not going to comment on the dourness of your, you guys are like, no, this wine is most fun. It's such a delight. It's the NPR level of thrills. Yes. I'm just vibrating with enthusiasm. This wine is great. It's such a classic. It's such a standby and I'm stoked that it made it on this list. Standby is precisely what Lucy and Albrecht is. Albrecht's been around for hundreds of years too. This is an old winery, but Cremont only became an official thing in the 70s. Not that they didn't make sparkling wine. Bottle looks classy too. Yeah. Good game, Bowling Brook. All right, guys. That was a taste of our staff selections for spring 30 under 30. Less than half of the total. Correct. That was a dozen wines. We hope a few of them piqued your interest. But check these out. They will be all over the chain. We'll have some on display for you to quickly shop. But these were vetted by staff in three rounds. So if they're on the list now, it's good stuff. We did it in March and it was madness. I'm buying that one, and I'm buying that one. That's going to be tonight. Thanks. We'll see you tomorrow. Yeah. All right. Cool. Yeah. Not a stinker in the bunch, I have to say. That was a nice lineup. Agreed. Outstanding. Cool. A little bit of everything. Yeah. Everything was represented today. It was nice. Thanks for coming, you guys. It's a beauty of having all these opinions that go into this list. It gets all kinds of stuff. How much of this is the average person walking in the store and just picking up, but we all love it, right? Yeah. And it's good to be reminded. It's good to be reminded of some of these favorites. Precisely that. And to your point, and Ben, you can attest to this in Lincoln Park, how many wines were submitted for your blind tasting ballpark? Eight, nine. Eight or nine wines. So you have eight or nine staff submitting these wines. They had quite a diverse selection. One of their winners was a Sparkling from Argentina, just to show again the diversity. Another one was a Natural Wine from Oregon. So you had a lot of voices here. And I think when you look at the 30 wines, it shows you don't have to go super mainstream when you get to value wines. That there are some affordable price points and a diverse selection on the shelves. Just you need to ask or seek out some different wines that you're not familiar with. That really all over deliver for the money, you know, compared to a lot of other wines of the same price range. No doubt. Well, thanks so much for trying these guys. Thank you for putting them together. We could have had 13, I'm just saying. Until next time. All right. Hey, thanks for listening to Barrel to Bottle, The Binny's Podcast. I'm getting the rapid up music, like it's the award season. Back in your feed next week with something else. Until then, I am Greg. I'm Chris. I'm Ben. I'm Alicia. I'm Emily. Keep tasting. I'm Emily, and that's it. Say, Keep Tasting. That's the news. We reported the news. Say, Keep Tasting. Good night and good luck. And Keep Tasting. One more time without him talking over you. And Keep Tasting. Sweet. All right. That's the news. That's the way the news goes. And I don't listen to the podcast.