I am basically the king of cheap wine. No not Boones Farm, but wines that come in a bottle with a real cork in the end. While I don't have much money to spend on wine, I still like some body to it.
Today I have a really good US inexpensive wine, and one from Austria that I really don't want to know how much my buddy Al paid for it. Both are red wines and barrel aged.
Hans Gangl Vilex Zweigelt Barrique 2003 vintage is the Austrian variety. Since Al works for a local distributor he does at least get a discount, but this also means to find this you'll need to venture into an actual package liquor store to find it. A brief Google search turned up nothing in a language I could read. The short of it is that this was an excellent red with a very full body.
The American variety comes from Tisdale Vineyards in California, a Cabernet Sauvignon of no given vintage so I would assume 2007 or 2008. This treat was discovered at Kroger and on clearance making it an especially good buy. I can't seem to find a web site for them however so there's not a lot of information to be had about them. This wine was a very nice surprise with a good solid body and an obvious oak flavor from being barrel aged. I also tried their Merlot but it was disappointing.
So there you have it, two good reds at opposite ends of the scale.
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