Karen MacNeil’s Wine Picks: Uncorking Excellence for Every Budget!

In this video, John Jackson, DipWSET a/k/a Attorney Somm interviews Karen MacNeil, author of THE WINE BIBLE. Karen recommends her favorite wine recommendations at the following price points: (1) unlimited budget; (2) indulgences at under $100; (3) wines at about $50 per bottle; and (4) steals $25 and under!

These wines are from a variety of different regions and should appeal to a variety of wine tastes and preferences. Better still, these wines are ready to enjoy immediately, but will also reward cellaring.

Thanks to Karen MacNeil for joining me! Please be sure to subscribe to Karen’s WineSpeed newsletter for more of her excellent recommendations!
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So everyone thanks very much for joining us uh this is John Jackson also known as attorney song and with me today is Karen mcneel who’s the author of the very famous wine Bible which is an award-winning book that sold more than a million copies and in fact Karen has won

Every major wine award in the English language so certainly one of the most influential people in the entire world of wine and we’re very excited to have her with us today Karen thanks so much for joining hi John it’s a pleasure to be with you and it’s my uh my

Understanding that you even have your own Barbie doll now is that correct I do where’s Barbie I’ll get her off the shelf in minute um it’s not um it’s not that I collect Barbie dolls it’s that Matel made a wine Barbie modled on me so yeah pretty silly right certainly

Doesn’t get much better than that so that’s that’s fantastic so uh everyone we have a great episode for you today k is going to share some of her favorite wine recommendations with us at a number of different price points including unlimited budget indulgences at or below $100 per bottle wines that cost around

$50 and steals at $25 or less uh why do we do them kind of from most expensive to least expensive right so if money was no object and you could spend an unlimited amount on wine what is the wine that you would select well you know I think that lot of

People uh would immediately go to burgundy or or Bordeaux but I thought about this and I thought you know you’re there in Texas I’m in California I’m going to choose uh to mention two us wies one is corison Cabernet the Kronos spard Kathy Corson was the first woman

In the Napa Valley to own her own Winery um this is her probably I think 45th vintage and she makes cabinets with what I call a a lit from within quality they are so alive they they are full of energy they’re really Sleek they age beautifully they are she just has an

Exquisite ability to combine um elegance and power you know Napa valy gives you power um we have a lot of sun here uh but to to kind of be able to extract or eek out Elegance out of her old Kronos Vineyard where the vines are about 50 years old now it’s remarkable

So Cathy cortison Kronos Vineyard cabernet from the Napa valy would be one of my choices it’s about $230 or so a bottle and then the other one which collectors may know is probably the most well certainly the most collectible wine from Washington State and it’s qu Creek

It’s hard to get on their on their weight list even to get on to their mailing list but you can sometimes see these Wines in great restaurants around the United States Quita Creek is in a class by itself it’s probably in fact the most bordeau like wine in the entire

United States it also has that kind of lit from within energy exquisitely um perfect for seling and these intoxicating Aromas kind of like being in Washington state you know you feel like you’re breathing this Pine infused rarified Mountain Air it’s uh if if you’ve never had Quil Ceda Creek it’s

Really worth having and it too is it’s not um not overwhelming it’s about $250 a bottle and uh on the Cathy Ken wine someone actually Blinded Me on the Kronos uh wine from I think 2012 or so maybe two two or three months ago and I didn’t guess that it was Napa Valley

Because it was definitely lighter and more elegant I think the ABV was around 13 13.5 and so that’s just not something that that really occurred to me when I was trying to formulate my Impressions about that line but a very impressive cabinet for sure yeah you know um napab

Has has been criticized um sometimes for making ones that are is so monolithic that they’re almost impossible to really drink well two people a whole bottle of let’s say I mean the first few sips taste great but then they’re wines that are um almost taxing in their power and

Uh I think there’s a movement in their whole Napa Valley away from that toward greater Elegance certainly the Harland wies are like that pror is like that uh the bond wines are moving more towards Elegance and Kathy has been making that style now for 40 years um so

Interestingly enough though she has been around for a long time her wines are now at the in a sense the Apex of their popularity and I’ve also noticed that there’s been a reduction in the amount of new French Oak as well so uh less less of the oak influence on some of

Those wies too yes yeah uh with that why don’t we go to the uh Ence is under $100 I have to start with champagne because um I I admit to being I don’t know a champagne ftic I guess I I drink a glass of champagne every night of my life um

Every single night um thank God for bons and also for coravan sparkling um uh device where you can keep the bubbles in a bottle of champagne but you know even though I taste a lot of different champagne recently I tasted the Bruno Payard rout zero um that is about

$775 and it was so intensely flavorful without a width of heaviness I I think that Champagnes like that they they remind me of sort of tasting snow or something they are so fascinating they’re both well intense complex but also fragile in a sense and of course global warming has changed

Champagne a bit um and the major way in which it’s chained champagne is uh to allow for much less dosage um 20 years ago a typical brute would be 12 um grams to 20 to excuse me to 15 grams per liter residual sugar now the average brute champagne is down to

Seven gram per liter and a lot of wines in fact the the fastest growing category of champagne are these root zero wines with no sweetness at all um because the grapes are riper you don’t need any sugar to disguise um less than perfect ripeness so the Bruno Payard is a definite for me

Um and then two other ones I’d like to to mention one is if you haven’t had of any South African lines lately um the name to know is Ken Forester and the great variety to know is Shen and Blanc I mean most people associate Shen Blanc with the lar Valley

With L which is of course it’s its birthplace but South Africa makes more great shennon blocks than any place else on the globe right now and Ken Forester makes a WI called the smmc I don’t think I’m allowed to say in public what that stands for but anyway uh shenon Blanc it’s about

$7 it is so larous rich and exquisite um it’s just a it’s a must have once in your life and you’ll be knocked out if you have never had great self African Shad block and the other one that I would would like to mention is Radio CAU um

Eric susman uh is a New Yorker who’s very quiet he’s very private it’s really hard to even go and visit him but I I tracked him down a number of years ago because every time I had one of their SAS or their P noirs I would be like who

Is this guy I mean any radio CTO wine um is phenomenal he gets pure tea out of red wine like you wouldn’t believe so his estate SRA which is called Harrison Gray from somoma is um a stellar it’s just stunning in fact and if you think

I’m not sure I like sarra this is the wine that’ll change your mind yeah s is definitely one of my favorites so I’m glad you mentioned that on the South African wine is that one that people in the United States should be able to obtain yes absolutely um yes

The Ken Forester is from stellin bos and it is uh absolutely available in the United States all of these L offer with that why don’t we move on and find out which wines you would consider if you were looking to spend uh about $50 per bottle if you’re interested in

Wine recommendations wine collecting strategies and learning more about wine please do subscribe to my channel I’ve been collecting wine for more than 15 years and also have a level four diploma from the W so I have both formal certification as well as substantial practical Knowledge from the School of Hard KNX yes about

$50 I’m gonna choose two wines one is pan calvarino Which is a saave Classico from Northern Italy now some people may remember you know sort of really weak and inid suab of let’s say 30 years ago this is not that this is one of the most hisor

White wines in Italy and a few um months ago I after lots and lots of tastings I named it one of the three best Italian white wines suab is made from a great variety called garganica which has a lot more personality and character than most Peno

Brios and this wine is like Starburst of of minerals it is so Lively so refreshing um lots of Exotic floral notes and bone dry just it’s it’s white wine as we all hope it will be racy and intense and minerally and then um from Australia it’s about $48 or so and then

From Australia I’d like to mention the great producer henki which makes two great um wines Mount Edon and um the wonderfully named Hill of Grace but this wine that I want to mention is called Henry’s 7 Hill of Grace and mount Edon are almost you can you can barely get

Your hands on them they are collector’s lines that fly out the door Henry 7 is about again $50 and it’s modeled on chat same great varities ganach s morette it is it sort of sings with all of these menthol and red fruit and Sher kinds of

Characters and it’s it’s such a as as so many great Australian wines are it’s a very hedonistic wine you put this in a decanter and you pour it um anyone is going to think that they are tasting absolutely one of the greatest sh NOS at a fraction of the price though excellent

And speaking of uh I guess timing most of these wines it seems are wines that you can enjoy either on release but they will age as well if if people want to have that flexibility in their salary yeah um you know I think I remember 20 years ago when

People would first began talking about that I would think oh come on this is the biggest PR line in the universe a wine cannot be good now and good 20 years from now but actually that’s not true um I think I and and everyone else who follows wine closely have realized

That the cultural techniques and especially the ability to pick a perfect physiological maturity means that many wines if not most really good wines can be really great now it doesn’t mean they won’t be even a shade greater in five or 10 years but it’s really nice um it’s

It’s in fact the premise when you think about you know why are there cases of wine why why are there cases of wine one of the premises of buying a case of wine was that you could see it over an evolution of time so even though many of

Us don’t buy full cases for any of these wines I would suggest buying three to six bottles um because they’re going to taste great right now and they’re going to be fascinating uh some years from now and I’ve noticed that it takes some experimentation too there’s some wines I

Enjoy when they’re young and others that I enjoy with more age so that could vary by person in by by wine as well kind of like all of us yeah well shifting gears now a little bit in moving down to the $25 price point do you have any steals at $25 and

Under that you like yes you know we write in wi speed every week about Steals and Deals steals under $25 and Deals under $35 because um I I believe that even though um many of us want to splurge on an Indulgence or love wines that cost

Over $50 a bottle um that is not mutually exclusive with really appreciating a wine that is essentially $5 a glass right $25 and under it’s $5 a glass who doesn’t want a wine that tastes like it costs twice as much as it does so here I’m going to go start by

Going back to Australia I think you’re uh like me a fan of resling and um while people don’t associate Australia with reing from the CLA and Eden valleys which are right near the barasa valley but much cooler the reings are phenomenal really bone dry really racy

And recently we tasted a Pikes p i KES Pikes bone dry resling from the CLA Valley that was like jumping into an icy pool of Mandarin oranges and cucumbers I mean it was so refreshing um it was I you just cannot fall in love with a wine like that and

Then um I would I would go back to the lir valley and say you know one of The Unsung appellations of lir Valley is called 7 year um the wines are super super minerally because s year like many parts of burgundy is underlaid with Limestone um the great variety is shenon

Blanc again but uh a wine called shat de e p i e is um one of the great historic sers and it is uh it is just a phenomenal wine it’s about $25 you feel like you’re swimming in the ocean with these just waves of oceanic mineral that

Sounds wonderful so and these are again are wines that are readily available and people should be able to buy pretty much wherever they’re located yeah you know one of the things that we decided uh right in the beginning with wine speed was that we would never write about

Wines that you cannot get because how you know how frustrating is that so um in fact with wine speed whenever we write about a wine that wine is also a lake you can just click on it and it will take you right to the retailer in

The United States where you can buy it perfect and these are all examples of wines that you featured on your uh your win speed newsletter in the past we yes we’ve written about all of these lines