By Gaby Israel
Here’s my best cellar wines list for this release as a shopping list that you can print.
Italy – Piedmont – 2008 Patrizi Barolo (653527) – $23.95
Barolo for $24? My #1 choice for this Aug 4th release. The Manfredi Family has a long history with wine. In the Second World War, they delivered wine by wagon. 2008 was an outstanding vintage in Piedmont – RP rated it 93 indicating that the wines are age worthy.
Argentina – Mendoza – 2004 Cicchitti Gran Reserva Malbec (155713) – $21.95
My #2 choice of this release. Yuval, this wine is for you – from the reviews I have done, it’s seems like this is the Malbec to beat. RP gave it a very respectable 92 indicating a long term cellaring (until 2025), which gives it a great GPCi.
United States – California – 2011 McManis Family Vineyards Viognier (658112) – $18.95
An absolute ‘must’ to everyone who likes Viognier. I’ve been having these wines for the past few years and it’s consistently good value.
Argentina – Mendoza – 2010 Benmarco Cabernet Sauvignon (232637) – $17.95
I have been recommending the Benmarco Malbec for the past couple of years. The Cab Sauv shouldn’t be any different. – Benmarco seems to produce high quality wines for a very fair price. RP gave this wine 90 indicating a medium cellaring potential (until 2017).
Italy – Tuscany – 2009 Castellani Filicheto Vino Nobile di Montepulciano (184937) – $17.95
When a Vino Nobile di Montepulciano from the great 2009 vintage in Tuscany is offered for $18 (usually $25+) and it gets 92 by RP, I say “here is your new House Wine”. I’d buy 2-12 bottles.
Spain – Rioja – 2001 Burgo Viejo Gran Reserva (190611) – $21.95
Bodegas Burgo Viejo was founded in 1987 by six families of farmers. This wine is a 100% Tempranillo that was matured in French oak barrels for 24 months. Decanter gave this Gran Reserva the highest 5 stars rate. For $22 you won’t find many 11-year old wines with similar high quality. A great buy for the Spanish wine lovers, like me.
Gaby Israel has been providing wine tasting notes and buying recommendations for several years now.
The name WineGPCi (pronounced Wine Gypsy) was given by his friends. GPCi stands for Gaby’s Potential Cellaring Index. While searching for “treasures for the cellar” without going to the bank, the GPCi was initially used to calculate the ratio between the price of the wine and the number of years it can potentially be cellared for; trying to find the wines that had the smallest index/ratio possible.
Any good wine that had a GPCi of 3.5 and under, was worth buying (mainly if you were planning to develop a cellar). Many years and “750 bottles in the cellar” after, his knowledge, experience and passion continued to grow. He continues to focus on helping the consumer finding “logical” ways of buying wines and planning the budget for it.
His great passion for wine revolves around old-world wines such as Spain, France and Italy while experimenting the new world exciting regions of Chile, Argentina, Australia, Canada, the United States and others.
Posted with permission of the LCBO.
