Start the year by finding great wine values

This week retail stores hold their white sales and after-Christmas discounts. When it comes to wines, however, there are bargains to be found year-round. Value wines exist on nearly every wine list and store shelf.

Value wines are not necessarily the cheapest available. Value means getting the most bang for your buck, so value wines can be found at all price levels.

To find these hidden gems try lesser-known varietals. Instead of picking up the usual chardonnay, try a pinot blanc or viognier. Rather than the standard merlot or cabernet sauvignon, experiment with a grenache or mourvedre. Some wineries produce secondary labels that can be quite good as well, as can lesserknown products from different countries, such as Spain and parts of South America.

Frank Pulice, owner of Austin's Wine Cellar in the Villas Plaza, believes there are great values to be found among both French and Spanish wines.

"The 2005 Bordeaux Superior is a stellar vintage and Cru Bourgeois as well," he says. "Year after year great winemakers make great wines, and average winemakers make average wines. In a stellar year, nearly all wines are great wines and great values. There are $20 bottles of wine that are drinking like $200 great growths from France."

COURTESY PHOTO Frank Pulice Of Austin's Wine Cellar

The first bottles appeared on retail shelves last fall with more becoming available through th the winter.

He also recommends Spanish vintages, particularly those from 2005, such as Monastrell wines from Vinos Sin-Ley, which means "wines without laws." According to the importer, Ole

Im Imports, these are made by a group of young winemakers from various regions in Spain.

"The wines crafted at Vinos Sin-Ley are value oriented, driven by experimentation and innovative insight shared by their philosophy," the importer notes on its Web site.

What makes them special is that the grape varieties they use are not well known to casual wine drinkers, and the wines are made in nontraditional ways. That means they don't conform to the region's regulations concerning grape varieties used, time aged in oak casks, and other practices.

Richard Kinssies wrote in a recent review of Spanish wine in the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, "Unlike France, say, or especially Germany, where the wine areas have been mapped and regulated to the point that the only suspense is the quality of the next vintage, Spain is always showing us a new side. Monastrell is another gift from Spain. This is a big, inky dark grape that plays an important role in the vineyards of Southern France (and increasingly in California and Washington), where it's called mourvedre."

Osmin Rodriguez from 55 degrees Cool Wine and Cheese, at Gulf Coast Town Center, likes Spanish wines, too, along with some South American varieties.

"Quality-wise we get a lot of value from Chile and Argentina, and recently a lot of selections from Spain," he says. "These wines are pretty hot now coming into the United States. There are a lot of family owned vineyards and wineries that are starting to export their product because they can get more money, but the prices to us remain low. This quality wine from California would be twice the price as these wines from Spain."

Wines from Argentina have gotten progressively better and people are catching on so prices are rising, he says, much the way it happened with Chilean wines before them. The best bargains now are in Spanish wines, Rodriguez believes.

"One new selection coming in is from Augustin Cubero, called Stilo. This is an old vine garnacha, or grenache, and has a lot of character due to the age of the vines. It is produced from Catalonia, outside Barcelona, and retails under $12."

He also recommends Toro from Vinaguarena, (from Castillo y Leon, in western Spain, near the Portuguese border).

"This wine is wow, very well made, and worth more than the price (less than $18)," he says.

It's made with tempranillo grapes, but the soil conditions (known as terroir) are different from those in Rioja. The result is a well balanced, medium bodied wine with lots of dark cherries and dark fruits. Several of the Toro varieties start at less than $12.

"People get stuck in a rut with the same ones and they don't bother with trying new wines," Rodriguez says.

To help break out, he recommends a South American malbec reserve from Avieso, a producer in Mendoza.

"This is a full bodied red," he says, "with strong dark fruit flavors. It is smooth and light in tannin, but full bodied. This would go well with steak."