You're listening to another episode of Barrel to Bottle, The Binny's Podcast. I'm Alisha Barrett. I do wine education at Binny's. Oh, Alisha's here. Wah, wah. I don't like being with you anymore than you like being with me. Hey, I'm Pat from the Whiskey Hotline. Why do you guys spend so much time together? I mean, it's kind of ridiculous, given the mutual disdain. We share similar tastes in pizza toppings. Oh, well, that'll do it. That's a bond that you will never shake. I have similar frustrations with other colleagues. Oh, are you talking about me? Hey, I'm Chris. I do wine stuff. And I'm Gabriel, the wine manager of Lincoln Park. Welcome back, Gabriel. Yeah, it's been a while. It's been about a year. It's been about a year in the house. Very good to have you and thanks all for tuning in. We are going to be talking about a new concept that we have launched this year. And I'm very excited about it because you all know at the end of the year, every wine publication kind of puts out their top 100 or top whatever number they've picked. And some of these lists, well, some are maybe more respectable than others. Bought and paid for is what you're applying. So we thought we at Binny's taste thousands of wines every single year across all 45 stores. And we thought we would put together our top 50 under $50 for 2023. And we did this in, I think, a pretty cool way to involve the entire state of Illinois and really all of our wine staff. So we asked every store to get their wine team together. Everyone brought their favorite wine of 2023 to basically a mini blind tasting within that store. The kids call that crowdsourcing, Alicia. Okay. So they crowdsourced these wines. And then as a store nominated their wine. So here we have 50 wines for you this year in 2023. We're going to taste 50 wines today? 50. Nice. 50. One wine a minute. You can have a whiskey top for every third wine. Oof. Yeah. To Pat's disappointment, we will not be tasting all 50, but we will be tasting 10 of them and talking about them and hopefully inspiring you this holiday season to get into our stores, look at this signage, sign our website as well and try some new stuff. These are all vetted by our wine staff. And I think there's some great picks. We have a lot of experts on our wine staff. And that's something that can be overlooked. You go into any Binny's location, there are wine experts there always. How many people have gone through our education program just in the last year or have been certified by WSET in the last year? We've got really knowledgeable wine people and they are itching to talk to you about interesting, cool stuff, not just the big brands that we might put in the newspaper ad. That really is just on top of the people that like the generations of experience that are sitting in our stores. I mean, there's people that maybe haven't had the formal side of it, but I've just spent a lifetime around the product and in the industry. It's invaluable. We have taught well over 500 people this year that have gone through our education program. A third of our staff have at least WSET two credentials, a third of our wine staff that is. So we are just building upon each year and trying to- I doubt there's any other retail establishment in the country close to that. Yeah, that is truly some remarkable statistics there. So good list and hopefully we can draw your attention to 10 that I think are pretty cool. And we're going to get started with a real kind of stronghold classic Alsatian producer, especially as it is November. We need to be thinking about- Turkey pairing? Turkey pairings! Alicia loves turkey. Loves turkey, yeah. Glad that never dies. I'm sorry, you cemented that in our hearts and in our lives. One holiday season. Just not ashamed about it at all. It's positively stuffed into our heads. So this wine is pretty special because Trimbach is now, I think, 12 generations of wine making there in Alsace. It's pretty remarkable. They're just starting to get their feet under the toes at this point. The newcomers. Johnny come lately. This is a Trimbach Riesling and this is Alsace. Did I say that right? Correct, yes. So this is part of their kind of classic line here. And Jean Trimbach was just in Chicago, just did an advanced training for our staff. And this is their most popular wine in terms of production. And I think is one that they nail every single year. And it was unanimous in the group just tasting through just the quality. It's a unique style, I'll say. It's a pretty kind of stern expression. But it's one that I love every time and no brainer for $25.99. Wow, nice. Yeah, no doubt. I mean, this house is known for their bone dry style across their lineup. Even grape varieties that often are given a little residual sugar to pump up fruit, they tend to lean very, very dry, very minerally. I haven't tasted this vintage yet, but the nose is freaking gorgeous. I love it already. Yeah, I mean, Alsatian reasoning is no softball for a top 50 for any wine company. Yeah. It's almost embedded. There has to be one. If there's going to be a reasoning, this is where it's at. I personally really enjoy that the aromatics are very bright. You get a little bit of that mimicking on the palate, but it's not overwhelming in that. You have enough zippy acidity, you have enough green fruit to counter that really aromatic style. The harmony in those two to have those aromatics, but not completely mimic on the palate, I think that makes this really unique and really well-built. I like the minerality across the palate from the back. It really makes for a lively mouthfeel in the wine. Yeah. I mean, this is super fresh, super delightful, lime zesty kind of nose and acidity on the palate. It's just super pleasant. I love this wine. Nice. Which store nominated this? Can you disclose? Of course. Yeah. This was nominated by our friends in Crystal Lake. Nice job, guys. Yeah. And gals. Solid call. CL. Not only turkey here, but I mean, think roast pork, things that involve sauerkraut. I mean, perfect. And I enjoyed some sauerkraut just a couple days ago. Yeah. Did you have it with Riesling? No, I did not. In all sauce, they tend to cook their sauerkraut with Riesling. I had it with blood sausage. Nice. Yeah. What was the drink? Water, I think. You. What is wrong with you? Did you run out of hams at the house? I didn't run out of hams. I haven't had a hams all week. They raised the price of hams, so I'm on strike. Let's not make it political here, Pat. I've been drinking whiskey. You and the rest of America. I don't think I've ever seen Pat drink water. I don't think I've ever seen Pat without a hams. What is happening? The world is upside down. It's a new me. I've turned a page. You're going to the Pabst Blue Ribbon now. In all seriousness, this find so good. It's so good. It's spot on. Just imagine how good it's going to be with turkey. Yeah. On Thanksgiving dinner, when you got the mashed potatoes and then you got the gravy and the stuffing, lots of stuffing. Our next wine hails from the... Greece is the name of the place that it comes from. The beautiful island of Santorini. The beautiful island of Santorini, indeed. This is the Sigalas Santorini Assyrtico 2022. What accent was that? I don't know. It was Polish-Greek. There was an accent there? Polish. I'm a product of my environment, and I got Pat sitting across from me. I thought he was doing the same accent that Armando Sante did when he played Odysseus on NBC's Made for TV movie of The Odyssey in 1995. What? You know what? I'd expect that out of Chris, but not you. I definitely watched it. I just read The Odyssey in school. I was like, wow, yeah, this is awesome. It's got the most low-grade special effects of all time. Recite a few stanzas from The Odyssey, or perhaps The Iliad. Assyrtico from Santorini. I've tasted, I think, at least one of these before when we had the Greek Wine Podcast. Was this maybe one of them? You've fanned out the one when you saw this. Probably. Yeah. You're hard-pressed to talk Greek wine in the greater Chicago land area without talking about Sigalas. I think you're hard-pressed to talk about Greek wine in the world and not talk about Sigalas. I mean, they're an empire. Sigalas is the winery, yeah? Is the winery, correct. So grape variety, Assyrtico, very cool grape variety, very, very high acid that can accumulate sugars very nicely, lots of ripe fruits, but it has this incredible salinity to it. And in fact, the vine itself is well-known for kind of forming a basket shape. The winds are so brutal on the island. And so to protect itself, they train the vine, yes, into a kind of basket, like imagine almost like a bird's nest. And so the clusters are trained to form kind of on the interior to protect it from the winds. But if you're an island sitting in the middle of the Mediterranean, all of that kind of salty air that's coming through helps to create this salinity in the wine that I think is absolutely stunning. That's wild. Is this grape only grown on Santorini or other adjacent Greek islands? It's even on mainland Greece. Okay. We don't know it by some other name in Italy or something. But you can find it in odd, far flung places in very tiny quantities. I think Washington, I've seen it in... Wow. What? I've seen it in Washington. Yeah. Really? Well, people like to experiment, just like tiny plots of things, see how they work. For the dummy, it's a high acid white wine that still develops a nice balancing sugar? In terms of the fruit profile that will come. Yeah. Sugar accumulation in the grape that will eventually be converted into alcohol. You'll span from citrus through to some tropical fruits here, but you'll notice two things. One, that little briny saltiness to the wine, and they also age it surly for a few months, and that's going to add a little bit of that texture that you're feeling to give it a little more weight and body than it would otherwise have. Yeah. It definitely has a creamier mouthfeel than you might expect from smelling it. Yeah. This vintage definitely tips into the more tropical zone, especially following the Riesling. This doesn't seem as acidic as I usually think of this wine, and there's some plump upfront fruit for sure. It's showing pretty well. I think that if you're looking at the variety of acetic oil available, I think the biggest differentiating factor is going to be how tropical does one get from the next. All of them will have some sense of balance to them, but I think the Sigalas in particular is always regarded at a different level because of how serious it is, because the tropical is just nuanced in there, it's not as forward. And I think the biggest variation to vintage to vintage is really the acidity. How much tension, how like, anxious it actually is. And this is quite modest, I think, compared to other years. I agree. This is the first time I've had this, and usually the acid is like screaming. Enamel stripping. Yeah. We're having 2022, by the way. Yeah, this seems really moderate, but the balance is still very nice. It's much friendlier than I usually think of it for just sipping. But I mean, what a wine for seafood. Obviously, you're in the Mediterranean, incredible with sea bass, branzino or something like that. Say a novice was blind tasting white wines and they came across this, what would they be most likely to compare it to, for something more familiar on the white spectrum? A couple of things come to mind for different reasons. One, some of that salinity and tropical fruit and some lees aging can be found in alboreno. You also find a little bit of that acidity, that kind of minerality a little bit in Chablis. I was also thinking about even the fresh acid, more citrus fruits in say, a mousquadet, for example. It's very impressive. Different grapes there for different reasons. Sure. But I think if you like any of those, you will very much enjoy this. Any others to add? Who doesn't love a good mousquadet? Again, going back to those maybe slightly less premium offerings, but still well-made, you start to see more tropical styles that maybe liking themselves to Verdejo a bit, maybe a little Vermentino, maybe a little bit of Shenan, where it does get a little more aromatic. That's not as extreme as that by any means, but you do get a lot of that concentrated pineapple thing. Cousins though, so to speak. Yeah, not far off. Yeah, it's almost an amalgam of several grapes. It's hard to pick one, just like these two are saying, because it has this rich density of fruit and the creamy mouthfeel, but the acidity is so bright. For me, Muscadet is a great call for the acid structure and the mineral notes, and the salinity, those things, and Albariño is spot-on for the fruit and texture. I mean, it's just a hybrid style, but if you like crisp, refreshing, but generously fruited wines, I mean, it's super nice. Super versatile as we think about food pairings. Oftentimes, when we get these high acid clean expressions, we go simple and we think, oh, tomatoes and salads and so forth, and okay, yes. But because of that creaminess and because of the weight and the density of fruit, the store that nominated this, shout out to Geneva. They're talking about scallops and risotto, some heavier things that you think, oh, wow, just a high acid fresh white wine, I wouldn't have gone to, but this has the body and texture to take on some serious food. Absolutely. This would be great with risotto, that creamy texture, but the bright balance of the acidity. Even poultry in a cream sauce or richer sauces, going to work really well with this. Some grilled halloumi as well. They had mentioned. That's a weird cheese, people. If you're local at Chicagoland area, I think we all need to take a trip to the Boston fish market right now. This is what it's asking for. Again, this is 2022 Sigalas Santorini Acertico on the shelf for $41.99. It is one of the more expensive Greek wines on the shelf, but, Mayon, especially this time of year, if you're going to spend the money now, this is a great buy. It's an interesting wine and worth exploring this category for sure. I would point out there may be just a bare hint of jackfruit on the fruit row. Bare hint? Sound that horn, Jimmy. Next wine up, 2021 Lange Estate Winery Chardonnay, Three Hills Cuvée, out of Willamette Valley, Oregon. Yeah, this is, so this is a brand new wine for us. We just got it in a couple weeks ago. We always had the kind of classic Chardonnay from Lange, and I am a big fan of the winery. We were just out there in late August. If I could have like a house Chardonnay every day, this would be it in terms of what I think it offers for the price. Right off the bat, you're getting such a clean style of Chardonnay here. You're getting not a neutral style, just a very clean. Yeah. My first thought was very bright, fresh note, almost Chibli-esque in the nose. It's undeniably in that kind of vein. I personally, when speaking of Chardonnay or Pino, comparing new world to old world, I like referring to it as more old world in style. But I think that at this point, Oregon has found its own identity. This Chardonnay is awesome by the way, and I don't say that about many Chardonnays. Well, the nose smells so clean and fresh and citrusy, but there's such a round palate. The mouthfeel is so luxurious. It's fantastic. That's where I think it has found its own groove versus Chablis, because that roundness has come in. The acidity is so well integrated in there. Yeah. We're honestly living through an Oregon Chardonnay Renaissance. This is a grape that was planted relatively widely back in the day, but everybody who was growing it eventually thought, these clones we're using are not the perfect fit for our terroir here. Now, we're looking mostly at Dijon clones replacing old heritage clones from California. You'd say these clones really cut the mustard? They do. Yeah. Whole grain. It's a Dijon joke, Gabe. Yeah. It just seemed like you might have missed it. He's just not reacting whatsoever. What are we selling this lovely Chardonnay for? Mustard. Yeah. Moutard. Moutard, yeah. This is on the shelf for $39.99. We will use some new oak, but mostly all old. Expensive but not Napa expensive. I think that holds its own in premium Chardonnay territories, domestic and abroad. Yeah. I mean, I just can't get over the balance between just rich mouthfeel and crisp acidity. It's so nice. It's really, really well done. Before we jump into pairings, I think this could be an easy holiday favorite for just being a luxurious wine, but also screw cap. Yeah. Three of these open right off the bat. Yeah. Indeed. You need to get into wine fast when the relatives are over. Real quick. This is a second-generation family-owned winery in the Dundee Hills. To Gabe's point and to Chris' point of this golden age or getting into the golden age of Chardonnay in the Willamette, we do have a number of other producers that I would highly recommend. The Druins are doing excellent Chardonnay under both the Domain Druin Organ label as well as their Rose Rock project. Yeah, those wines are on fire. They really are. They've just really found their stride. They're not trying to be in the other region but the Willamette. After going to the region, and a number of Binny staff went this year for different reasons, and everyone came back just raving about Chardonnay. So switch it up. Bring a Willamette Chardonnay to your party. Shout out to Eveningland as well. I think they're really cut above there too. Keeping things Pacific Northwest to Woodinville in Washington, we have Delille Cellars, the Chaleur Blanc 2021. This is a classic Bordeaux Blanc style. It's 67% Seminoles Blanc, 33% Sémillon. And a personal favorite of mine, Delille being arguably one of the pioneers and one of the, I guess, forefathers, grandfathers. Yeah. It was kind of the, it was a big kickoff point for Washington wine separating itself in terms of quality. Yeah. And one thing, I don't think you mentioned this, but one thing that we shouldn't gloss over is this is definitely in the Bordeaux style seen some oak. So this is not a completely crisp and light and dry expression of Sauvignon Blanc. Oh, it's luscious. It is lush and rich and this is a Chardonnay drinkers Sauvignon Blanc Sémillon Blanc. I mean, it brings you all of those rich, oaky, lactone flavors and aromas. We're so quick to liken this to Bordeaux Blanc. That's what it is. But I'll say, I think within Bordeaux Blanc, you see a variation in style from vintage and it's really ripeness is what you're looking at. I mean, like Pop Clement's great example of you have still these luscious styles, but some are just going to be so ripe and pineapple and tropical. Others will be a little bit cleaner. With this wine from the last six, seven years that I've been drinking it, always maintains great texture, great richness, but a very, very streamlined citrus bright note. I mean, absolutely a testament to the consistent climate in Washington state as opposed to Bordeaux. Yeah. I was thrilled to see this wine nominated. This was nominated by our great friends in Rockford, and it is appellated as Columbia Valley. Of course, the largest region that encompasses a lot of the sub-AVAs within Washington state, but they're sourcing from some amazing vineyards. Five different vineyards are pouring into this, and just for any Washington geeks out there, the Boucher Vineyard, Sagemore, Clipson, all really highly regarded. If you're not a geek, those are top vineyard sites. As was mentioned, that oak, that creamy texture, all coming from Six Months in French Oak. This is just a jaw-droppingly complex, beautiful wine. It is really gorgeous, and the finish is long and concentrated. There's that oak lingers on the palate in a butterscotch-y way. Yeah, totally. I dig this. I've never really had wine in this style before, I think. I've maybe had some white Bordeaux, nothing particular that I recall though. Yeah. Well, the thing about white Bordeaux and the comparison is, if you're shopping white Bordeaux in the 10 to 20 range, likely it's going to not see new oak. It'll probably be stainless steel. This has a firm oak though. Yeah. Once you get up into the classified growths who are also making white wines or things from Pessec Lagnon and Grave, you might see a fair amount of new oak on them. This style would be what they're following here. Yeah. You went to Washington a few years ago on a trip, and something that has continued to really just impress me about the region is, as was mentioned, the consistency of climate and the great growing conditions they have, but the diversity of wine that they can produce. Here we're raving about this very old world Bordeaux Blanc style wine, but they're also making world class Syrah, and they're also growing excellent Riesling. So they really are planting dozens of grape varieties and all doing well, almost to their downfall, because we can't pin them down as a consumer. That's right. The Columbia Valley does not possess a clear identity as Napa Valley Cabernet, because they do so many things so well. In a rain shadow of mountains, desert, essentially, drip irrigation, you get a great year almost every year. Oh, yeah, arid desert. I think I was there five years ago maybe, and something that was recently pointed out to me is that even with vendors within Washington will say, we kind of reinvent ourselves every five years, which is great that there's consistence like Delille that always are going to overachieve. But it's really cool to see a winery go from maybe more modern styles of whatever Cabernet Seurat is to leaning it up, cleaning it up, or just replanting, doing something different, and doing obscure varietals getting into, maybe in a Cedartico, maybe having an Albertino, maybe having, you know, instead of focusing on just Seurat, having more Grenache-focused wines, and even kind of playing into that, that minimal intervention scene and help, you know, allowing that to take play in their vineyards and wine making. It's really interesting to see how they've changed in the last, well, I mean, you know, going through the late aughts, you know, being dominated by Cabernet and Seurat, big muscular wines They do. Yeah. And I mean, that's not the first change. You know, if I think back to when I first started drinking Washington wines- Chris is older than Gabe. For those at home that can't see them. He's actually taking me to driver's ed class later today. Anyway, you know, I think back and my first thoughts are Merlot and Riesling, you know, back in the day. And that's what they were all about. Of course, Cabernet. But yeah, the addition of Syrah and all of these things, things that you think of as old school now, are still a little new wave for me. Oh, yeah. Not to get on a tangent, but I tried that Chateau St. Michelle, Cold Creek. Oh, yeah. Cold Creek Cab? Cold Creek? Or Merlot? No, it's the Merlotsky. Unbelievable. Yeah. I mean, there's still a great, as little as traction as Merlot has in the market for years now. If you're looking for a good Merlot, Washington State, you could do a lot worse. I mean, I didn't make some solid Merlot there. All right. So that's Delille Chaleur Blanc on the shelf for $37.99. Okay. As promised, every three wines, Pat gets a whiskey. In the meantime, we'll have- Wait, wait, wait. Wait, only Pat? So we got a little bubbly now, huh? Yes. So we do have a couple of sparkling wines on the list, and this is one of the champagnes that made the cut. I grabbed it to show us today because, well, it is a personal favorite of mine too. But also to turn a little bit of maybe what you think about the region and producers on the edge here, because a lot of times, especially recently, we're all about the growers. And, you know, Gabe, you can probably attest to this more. I'd imagine more and more people come in and, and yes, I know not everyone, but they're like, oh, I want to buy grower champagne. I want to buy grower champagne. And I just don't want to lose sight of the balance of the producers that are in the region and why they're all important to the total makeup. And that was one of the key kind of takeaways that I took when I was there earlier this year, that the houses have a role to play, the growers have a role to play, and the cooperatives have a role to play. And unfortunately, you know, sometimes cooperatives don't have the best reputation because we think about kind of like huge co-ops in southern Italy and the wine's just very average, it's table wine. It's just a place for people to dump their grapes. But that is so far from the truth in Champagne and specifically with this cooperative. This is Champagne Palmer. Generations have been involved with this cooperative. It started with seven families, I think, back in the 40s. And the wines are really magnificent and we used to carry them. And then they were off the shelves for a while. And then they were just re- presented to us earlier this year. And we brought in the Brut Reserve Non-Vintage, which is what is on the top 50 list. We also have the Rosé made in a kind of a Solera style, which is cool. But I love this wine. This is Non-Vintage Chateau Palmer Brut. Correct. And this is at $49.99. Gabe and I were just talking Champagne earlier and tasting some stuff, which I'm not saying $50 is inexpensive. But when you look at where the median Champagne price is, yeah, no kidding, is these days. This is a steal. No doubt. I mean, prices have only gone up in recent years and significantly so. And this is a very high quality Brut for $50. I mean, that's that's a good price these days. And I would just say on that co-op train, sure, there are some bad co-op wines. But I mean, I put these guys in the class with like Turlano in Northeast Italy or Proditoria and Barbaresco, just like incredibly quality conscious growers who have banded together to make really fantastic wines. No reason to look askance at co-ops. I love how fine the carbonation is and it somehow still has this creamy body to it, this texture. It's texturally, it's really just a delightful champagne. Yes. It is a really cool balance, very fine bubbles, yet there's great depth and creaminess to the palate, which seems counterintuitive. I'll just add 50 percent Chardonnay here, 40 percent Pinot noir and 10 percent Mugne, minimum four years on Lies. Great amount of time for a non-vintage. That is really delicious. I don't think you can stress enough how fine the bead is on this. I mean, these bubbles are micro bubbles. Yeah. Yes, $50 is expensive. Yes, champagne has gotten very expensive. This, I would argue, is probably one of the best $50 champagnes in the store, easily. Oh, yeah. So check out our website on this one, guys. It's not everywhere. It's about a third of the chain, but have a look. Give a call. I'm sure it can be ordered. Oh, very much so. Yep. Your local store can order them for you. Just give them a call. Before we jump into Redwines, and we'll probably mention it again throughout the podcast, but where can people find this list? How is it going to hit our viewers? Yep. They're our listeners, but we appreciate that. Oh, I thought I was on camera the whole time. Yeah, you can relax now. Let the cut out. Is that why you were doing your makeup earlier? Yeah. Well, I didn't know what they'd clean up in post. binnys.com. Trust Jim, not that much. I thought you weren't wearing pants because you knew we weren't on camera. No, I needed to claim the office. binnys.com. Just click on the wine header and under what's new, you'll see Binny's top 50 under 50, but you'll see in-store signage throughout the chain and lots of QR codes you can follow, but everything's on our site. Going live now. All right. Indeed. Live today. Live today. Start your holiday parties with this. This is a gorgeous aperitif. Yeah. I mean, who wouldn't want to be welcome to any party with a glass of this, right? I was thinking about it today in preparation for a Instagram Live on champagne. I was thinking about when's my favorite glass of champagne, and it's always the little- Bubble bath. It's the bubble bath. Yeah. You're soaking in it right now. That's why you're not wearing pants. I get a vanilla-scented and a Nora Ephron, and I just melt, Pat, melt. I like the little treat me glass of champagne. When you're about to go out to dinner, like, you know what? Screw it. Let's have a glass of champagne before we leave, or like- Then you got to finish the bottle. Now, it'll be there waiting for you to get back. It's not going anywhere. Or there's like four minutes left on the Stouffer's in the microwave, and you're like, I'm going to have a glass real quick. You had me until the Stouffer's, but I always justify it as, well, if I have the glass of champagne at home now, then I don't have to buy a glass or a cocktail first. I can get right into the battle line. But somehow, I always still grab that first round. It's the little- I like the little treat me champagne. That's what makes me feel the prettiest. So treat yourself. Champagne bomber. There you go. All right, let's get into the reds. Let's do reds. Did you line them up in? I did, but I'm going to change it because I think for quality, for value, for something exciting. Do that first. I'm going to do the GD Vyra, 2022 Lange Rosso. Alicia, you may- God damn Vyra. All right, hit us up with some Vyra. GD Vyra, 2022 Lange Rosso, my pick. Really? Nice job. This is going to go- Well, you're store's winner. But it was Gabe's pick, it submitted to his store's blind tasting. You have the largest wine department in the chain, probably with the most consultants working in it. We did- Very educated department too, this is cool. Oh yeah. I think we had 10 submissions all in. So there were a few folks that didn't have any skin in the game. It ranged from a Margaux hitting at that $50 mark to really proper like $30 Beaujolais, to really interesting, unique like South African, single vineyard Chenin Blanc. So there wasn't a- Was that Benz? No, he did a Beaujolais. GD vira, Langa Rosso. Yeah. Barbera Dolcetto Nabiolo and I think Alba Rosso. Oh really? Or Alba Rosa, I'm sorry. I was going to say, I bet this was the least expensive wine of all the submissions. Probably close to that. You know what's really cool about the list is when we called for wines, one of the criteria that we kind of tried to plan in people's minds was kind of the best bang for your buck. And so we've showed a few higher end expressions, but there are a lot of sub $20 wines on this list. So don't think top 50 under 50 means everything is like $40 to $50. There are some excellent value buys and that is precisely where this sits at $14.99. Well, and that's something that when I asked my staff for submissions, I made it very clear, this isn't your favorite wine of the year. This is the wine that you've enjoyed selling the most, the one you've been most confident selecting. Those are two very, very different categories, especially when you have such a variety of customers request so many wines to choose from. If you ask any one of us what's our favorite wine, it maybe isn't that available. It isn't that accessible. It's pretty niche. We're selling this for $14.99. Yeah, incredible, right? $14.99. Let me see that bottle. Just to back up Gabe on this, it is predominantly Nebbiolo, Barbera, and Dolcetto. Then there are some smaller quantities of lesser known grape varieties that we're just going to leave out, just really think about. This is Piedmont in a glass, really. Yeah, for sure. Let me see the bottle again. This is great entry point for people that maybe have heard of Nebbiolo, maybe have heard of Barolo, want to jump into it, maybe just want to jump into Italian wine. This is a great alternative to the $10 Chianti, the $10 Montepulciano, the $10 Toscano Rosas, which are all wonderful, respectfully. But it's hard to break into Piedmont at sub 20, sub 30 even for something really unique. This combines the charms of all of these grapes so seamlessly. It has enough fine structured tannin underneath from the Nebbiolo. It's got a deeper purplish color from Dolcetto. It has bright freshness from Barbera. And the fruit is fantastic. This is not a lean and mean Piedmontese wine. This is relatively lush and delicious. I mean, pizza, Italian sausage, anything you can think of for a weeknight. A little Dora Ephron and a Soca in the tub. Yes. I mean, I would drink this on its own, which I wouldn't say about a lot of Piedmontese wine. But it's also going to be a great food wine. I haven't had this in a while and this is an outstanding pick. To Chris's point, all these grape varieties are in play. One criticism at this price point, even just looking at say Barbera or alone, is sometimes I think the finish can be a little disappointing, and you get all these brighter red fruits, but you need a little more weight sitting beneath the wine, a little more structure, and this really does deliver on all fronts. It's not just fruit too, there's a lot of savory, there's some virality, there's that kind of earthy dried herb thing going on too, and so absolutely outstanding, super versatile with food. This is a great pick for when you don't know what's going to be served, I think. Yeah, Gabsie. Way to go. Thank you GD Vyra, thank you Lincoln Park for backing me up. Great. Great wine. Great wine. Another great wine. We're really shifting gears. We're going back west here. This is the 2021 Sandi Santorita Hills Pinot noir. Santorita Hills, of course, in Santa Barbara. This is on the shelf for $36.99, nominated by our friends in Orland Park. Oh, they know what they're doing in Orland Park. Do they ever? This is a beaut. This is what Pinot is supposed to smell like. Gorgeous Pinot noir nose. It's lifted. It's rose petals. It's red fruit. It's just complex stuff that you don't want to stop smelling it, but it's inviting. Super pretty. All right. Enough said. Next wine. It is really floral. Yeah. Like really. It's like shoving your face in a bouquet of roses. Yeah. Yeah. And there's this kind of like this like cranberry undertone, little bit of this kind of mushroom umami quality as well. But a sweet cranberry. It's not like a crunchy crushed cranberry that you get. It's not tart in that sense. It's a very welcoming wine. The finish is so earthy. It's just like that lingering earthiness on the finish. A forest floor kind of thing. Oh yeah. If you want to know what earthy kind of savory tastes like in wine, this is a great one to go with. It leads with the fruit and then follows with the earthy qualities. How much do you say this was? $36.99. Okay. Maybe a hint of beetroot. Earthy, sweet beetroot. I don't know how people will take this comment, but I think this is what the style of Pinot that people would anticipate out of Oregon maybe like five years ago. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, if you're blinding this, I'd probably place it in the Lamott for sure. The upper left. Yeah. It doesn't taste like a lot of California Pinot I've had, I feel. That's the beauty of Santa Barbara. Yeah. But I would also say within this appellation, you get a lot of really super powerful expressions of Pinot. Think about like sea smoke. I've had that. Yeah. It's silky. It's big. It's right. Yeah. This is so elegant in style. Pontani loves that. That's one of his favorites. Is Pontani a Pinotator? Yes. Yes. Really? 100%. Oh, I can't wait to call it that. Oh, I'm so glad you picked that up. I've enjoyed it every time I've had it. So it's San Rita Hills, a sub-AVA there sitting in Santa Barbara. And this is where that coastal mountain range changes orientation. So it's running east-west. So all those cool winds from the Pacific come in to really slow down the ripening process in the grapes, retain fresh acidity. And so as a result, you as a winemaker have some choices. And to Chris's point, if you want to pick a little bit later and make some bigger styles, you can. Some wiper styles. But power to the winemaker. And that's here with Raj Par and his choice to keep it a very kind of fresh purity of fruit. And again, that kind of earthy, savory expression. That balance is quite remarkable. Well, that's the sommeliers thinking coming to play here, you know, keeping it fresh and bright and not getting too heavy and making it super food friendly. Yeah. So Sandi Pinot noir. Go check it out. Fantastic pick. Yeah, fantastic pick. I'll say that the folks in Orland in their description when they sent it in, their last line was, I would drop a microphone if I had one. That's how much they love this line. Some of these are new, so let's not drop them. Okay, so we actually have another Pinot noir, Gabe. We do. I'm so excited about this. This hails from, this is Emeritus. This is their Hallberg Ranch. Emeritus. Emeritus. That's SZ Emeritus. Also known as Emeritus. Yeah, and I'm here for a little flair, thank you. This is what I get paid for. English professor Emeritus. Yeah. Yeah. All right, start over on this one. And call it Emeritus, Emeritus. Our next pick is another Pinot noir coming from Emeritus Vineyards, hailing from Hallberg Ranch and Russian River Valley. This is their 2019 Pinot noir. This is shout out to Mari Jones. their website describes her as president of fun. Mari Jones is a fantastic overseer of, I think one of the coolest Pinot projects. One of the probably most pivotal wineries to get fruit from Hallberg Ranch. There really isn't many. So it's cool that we have one of these and it's cool that we have one of these at what is, I think, a screaming great deal. So this is going to be really cool to taste side by side. I must say, actually, I don't think I've had this wine yet. I hope not either. No. So very cool. So now we're going to Russian River Valley. This is like classic Cali Pinot country here. This is in Sonoma and it used to be a cooler spot relative to other areas around it. But they did enlarge the Russian River Valley some time ago. As a result, it's quite diverse. There are some cool areas, but there are some now warm and warmer areas that are making riper style pinot noir. So this will be fun to contrast to again, that kind of slightly more cooler climate expression we saw earlier. Yeah, for sure. My first thought upon sniffing it was that it doesn't have that kind of ripe cherry cola thing that often comes out of the Russian River. There's very earthy elements in the nose right off the bat. But it really explodes with fruit on the palate though. Like, compared to the last one we had, much fruitier and just more plush on the palate, little tiny bit sweeter. It's really beautifully balanced. And I like that it still delivers that earthiness up front, but then it does have a lot of that kind of cherry fruit character, that dark red fruit character. And what a silky mouth feel. Yeah, 100 percent. This one, it kind of enters your mouth and then it just I want to say like it explodes. I want to say crescendo. It expands. It enrobes the tongue. It just rounds out and fills your entire mouth with plush red fruits, tons of like bing cherry. It still has some earthy quality to it. For short, it's unmistakably Pinot noir, but man is that fruit pretty and the tannins are super fine. It's a soft but structured mouth feel. It's a very pretty wine yet bigger than the last one we had. For sure. I mean, this is just super gorgeous because it does manage to marry those things. Like I'm going back for another sniff and I'm getting whiffs of smoke and earthiness, but then so much fruit in the mouth and such a plush, plush feel. It's great. I like it. So what other California producers might someone know or enjoy that might like this wine? You mentioned Gary Farrell. I think the Radio Couture drinker could get into that. I think maybe your Ossidental drinker. I'll say a couple of years ago, this wine was a lot more modern and flashier than it is today. I really love where it is today. It is richer as we're saying, it's not quite as big as like an Ossidental, but I think you could find a correlation there with that Taipino drinker. I think maybe some wines out of the Anderson Valley too would be a good comparison here. Yeah. Golden Anderson. Until Farms maybe. Something like that. Yeah. This is an excellent one. This is again, a heftier expression. I think you can be even bolder with your food choices. This, I think, excellent for Thanksgiving of the two. I think this is going to be probably a more crowd favorite and also more versatile. Because of the plushness of fruit, you can be more liberal with what's on the table. This is $46.99 in the shelf and submitted by our friends in Downers Grove. DG. I think that food note is absolutely correct. I mean, this is going to handle that diversity of flavors so much better because of the density of fruit and the richness of the fruit. Even if you're doing a salmon for Thanksgiving, like at Alicia's house, it's going to work. Alicia always talks about how you have to pay for great pino. $47, yes, we have a lot of cheaper pinos on the shelf, but this is a stunner. This is a showstopper of wine. Yeah. And you can't miss it on the shelf too. Big black bottle, big silver E on it. It really stands out nicely. Quality juice on the inside. That's what matters. We got another big bottle here. Oh boy, this is a big bottle. This is the Pingus PSI Vintage 2020. Also known as PSI. Is it? A Greek letter. And you can see that the vine- I speak no Greek. Look at the vine. Never mind. It's a PSI. Yeah. What a- And I'm PSI-ing audibly right now. What kind of wine is this? This is mostly Tempranillo, I think 90% Tempranillo, 10% Garnaccio. Classic Ribera del Duero. Okay, Ribera del Duero. One of the great and very high-end producers of the region. their main wine, Pingus, is very, very expensive. And this you can have for a relative song and the quality is great. Yeah. This is $34.99. So yeah, if you do go into your local store and you say, I'd like to buy Pingus, you're going to be shocked. It's going to be a grand. It's going to set you back quite a bit. But this wine, this incredible entry into Ribera del Duero. So if you think about Tempranillo and you think about it growing in Rioja, that's really where people first associate the grape. We're going kind of south and west of Rioja, kind of further inland to a warmer climate in Ribera del Duero. Oftentimes, we see more structured, bolder, powerful examples. Traditionally in Ribera del Duero, we also see more use of French oak versus the traditional American oak found in Rioja. This is really a staff favorite around the chain. I show this a lot in classes when we're talking about Spain and everyone loves it. You'll look like you know what you're talking about with wine because it's kind of this second label, if you will, of Pingus at a fraction, a true fraction. How much is Pingus, the big one? It's a thousand. What? It's up to a thousand. We have thousand-dollar Spanish wines? I thought Spanish wines were cheap. No. Is it that much? That's a lot. You know what? It lived around 800 for the longest time, so it's not that steep of an increase. You also have Vegas Acylia in this area, which is iconic. So, Pingus sitting at a thousand, Florida Pingus 115. I was going to say Florida Pingus is more like the second wine. This is their entry level. The representation of the winery. But it's phenomenal. There's even comparison to when we talk about a first to a second, your second is made to have some approachability. Florida Pingus is still a monster of a wine. It's still really, this is a friendly one. Yeah. This is what you actually want to serve at any given meal or something like that, or entertain without laying it down for. What a friendly wine. Holy cow. Black cherry and plum all over that nose. Trying to figure out these herbs and spices that I'm getting. Pingus side. It's a little gorygy maybe? Yeah. I mean, there's definitely some dried herbs and. There's also kind of a tobacco-y, leathery side to it. That oak really punches up in the back. Is that American oak they're using? Did we say that? Likely French in this area, as Alicia said. ribeiro de Duero does not have the deep history that Rioja does. I mean, Vegas, Sicily has been there a long time, but it wasn't even, you know. It came up in the late 70s, right? And Vegas, Sicily, is that expensive too? It's very expensive. But not as much. And they also have tiers too. They do the Valbuena, I don't know what it is now. 180. Oh, it's that much now? Times they are changing. Yeah, so this sees 18 months in a combination of cement, large bats and small used barrels. This vintage in particular is very well integrated on that oak. I think there's a few that have been screamers by comparison. This is the best this wine has been a long time. Yeah, so this is great. Great submission from our friends in Willowbrook. Oh, Willowbrook. One other thing I would note, aerate this wine a little bit, suck on it, and there is some power underneath here. It's so plush and friendly up front, but you can probably lay this down for a few years without any trouble. I totally agree. Forget about that. People come in during the holidays and they're going to bring a wine as a gift when they're going over to a dinner party, and they don't know if that person is going to open the wine that night. They don't know if they're going to keep it around for a while, and so I'm always trying to recommend this wine that you won't cry if they do open it that night, but it does have the potential to sit if they do want to do that and they take that seriously, and this is, I think, a great example of that. You know, decant it that night, but it will definitely kind of, I think, settle in and become a little more cohesive texturally as the years come on. Yeah, it's almost, in my opinion, this is kind of the modern ideal that wineries are shooting at now. We are no longer living in an age where you absolutely have to lay the majority of wines down for 10 years to get to a point where their tannins have softened enough for them to be friendly in the fine wine range. The goal now is supple, upfront, but power lurking underneath, that you have to maybe spend a little time searching for it. But when you find it, you're like, oh wow, there's some tannic structure under there. We're selling this for $35? Correct. And it's in most stores? Yes. And who submitted this? Willowbrook. Nice job, Willowbrook. Yeah, really good submission. So, our last wine. I'll let Gabe tee it up. We're going back to the new world here. And I think it does really show. We've bounced around the world from Greece to California, to Spain, to France, and cannot have this podcast and talk about this list, of course, without a Napa Valley Cabernet. It's about without a Sonoma, without a California Cabernet. This is the 2021 Details by Sinagal Cabernet Seminone. Never had this. This was submitted by Grand Avenue, our downtown store. This is where I first started at Binny's. So we'll see what they're up to. I mean, right away, it's got that beautiful purple tinted red. Yeah, it's pretty gorgeous in the glass. Oh, the aromatics are very pretty, too. Yeah, you could tell there's some muscle in there, but. Oh, wow. Yeah, it's nice. Blackberries and cassis and violets. I know that Senegal has, again, tiers, maybe not many. There's the main wine is no slouch. It's what, like, in that kind of more ultra premium side of California. Especially in Sonoma, yeah, they're not cheap. But yeah, this is around 50, right? Yeah, this is $48.99. And again, kind of like we were saying with champagne, we know that is expensive. But we just did an episode a little bit ago on mostly Napa Cabernets, and the prices are screaming. So this is, I think, a wine that really shows off a lot for a price point that is hard to even find now in Napa. Yeah, I mean, you're, and maybe this is redundant to the last episode, but your old favorites, your old standbys in Napa of more, not every day, but every week, a couple of times a month, accessibility are getting into that, that next echelon of pricing. And this is a great time for people to start looking back at Sonoma County for making really proper, proper Cabernet. There's like cherry and plum and blueberry and cocoa and... Yeah, very mocha, you know, a little caramel, but all just harmoniously linking together. This is an excellent cap. It would have easily stood shoulder to shoulder with our favorites from our recent Napa Cab episode. Yeah, it has a beautiful concentration of fruit. Yeah. The all, all dark structure. It's not it's it's very well balanced. And, you know, and so many big Cabernets that cost $50 or more now are leaning one way or the other for this to be so well integrated as a relatively young wine, too. It's really excellent. This is drinking beautifully right now. And like the last one, you can seek out some real power or underneath this really satiny veneer. I mean, it's beautiful right now, but it's got some structure to it. Well, it has some regional kind of highlight to it. It has a varietal composition to it that it's not just a homogenized $50 cut and paste. Here's New Oak, here's big extraction or something like that. There's a lot happening in there. Yeah, I think the blend is somewhere around 85 cab, but there's Merlot and Petite Verdeux and something else. Keeping it interesting. Yeah, little highlights. I mean, I always think you noted that violet note. I always think Petite Verdeux tends to bring that out. Not that you can't find it in 100 percent cab sometimes, but it really accentuates it. So maybe that's doing the lifting there. For sure. So that wraps up kind of 10 highlights from across the globe on our top 50, under 50, and we are not lying. There is a wine for everyone on this list. And obviously no stinkers. These have been vetted by, you know, dozens and dozens and dozens of professionals. I'm curious to explore some others on this list now. I mean, really, seriously, we taste so much wine and this is a super solid lineup. Yeah, yeah. So thanks all for exploring the list. Get out there and shop, folks. We hope you enjoy it. Remember, if you got any questions for us, reach out to us at comments at binnys.com or at Binny's Bev on the social media of your choosing. If we answer your question on the podcast, we'll give you a $20 Binny's gift card. You can get a whole viral Rosso for that. Yeah, and a candy bar. Yeah. And a candy bar. There goes some of hers on the way out too, yeah. Home of your favorite potato chip. Thanks again, guys. I'm always glad to join the wine episodes where you bring all the chubby stuff out. So this worked out great for you, boy. What are you taking home? Maybe the Pingus. Nice. Very good. The chubby stuff. Very good. Yeah, Chubby Wines, under 50 bucks, available at your friendly neighborhood Binny's. List is dropping when? The list has dropped today. We'll be back in your feed next week, maybe a Roger episode. Hold on to your butts. Until then, I'm Pat. I'm Chris. I'm Gabe. And I'm Alisha. Keep tasting.