Sommelier Tries 20 Red Wines Under $15

[light pleasant string music] [muffled chatter]

I'm André Mack, AKA Mouton Noir, AKA the black sheep.

As a sommelier at some of America's finest restaurants,

I've selected and poured the world's most elite

and expensive wines.

[record winds down] [cap twists]

But that's not what we're doing here today.

I also like a bottle of cheap wine,

and there's no one better than picking them out me.

[hip upbeat music]

That's what we're gonna be doing today.

I have 20 wines behind me, all $15 and less.

You absolutely do not have to know a lot

about wine to enjoy it.

Yeah, for me, I think wine tasting notes are bull [beep].

It doesn't matter.

It's what I taste and what I smell,

and it's all subjective, right?

At the end of the day, you're an expert in your own tastes.

I'm just an expert in wine.

So the first group of the 20 wines that we have

are from Italy, so we've broken it down by country.

And to me, I always think of old spaghetti westerns, right?

Slightly dusty, rustic, and that's what I think about

when I think about Italian wine.

So we have the Villa Medoro.

So this is a little Montepulciano d'Abruzzo, 2018.

Looking at the back label, you can see the vintage,

you can see their region, you could see where it's bottled,

and then you can also see the importer,

which is something I'll talk about later.

One good way to shop is by shopping by importer.

The other thing, the Montepulciano,

that tells me the area that it's from.

Generally, I just stick my nose in the glass. [sniffs]

I just wanna smell first, checking for the same odors,

if it's off, if it's bad,

if it smells like my grandmother's basement.

You don't want those kinds of qualities in a wine.

Plum, blackberry, a little bit of leather.

This is pretty tannic. Let's see, tannin.

Tannin really dries up the sides of your cheek,

so think about more like black tea.

But this is pretty high tannin.

It's got some really great acid. Starting to salivate.

Tannin is a very positive thing in a wine.

It just depends, too, tannin gives the wine structure.

So if I was gonna pair this wine with beef stew

or something that was rich in that way or steak,

you need and to help break down the protein.

So this wine, even though it's under $15,

I feel like it has longevity.

This would be a big thumbs up emoji.

I think just like maybe a double one.

What I taste in a wine is not necessarily

what you would taste in a wine,

and so I decided that maybe using emojis

would be the best way to be able to communicate

what I really think about this wine.

This is a little Toscana.

This is the Donna Laura Ali, and this is from Tuscany.

Generally, when you have anything labeled from Toscana,

Toscana's a region, the grape that's grown there,

the indigenous grape is called Sangiovese.

Generally, when it's labeled just Toscana,

it's a blend of Sangiovese and what they call some

of the noble grapes some France,

either Cabernet Sauvignon, or Merlot.

If you're really into the noble grapes Cabernet and Merlot,

this is probably not a great place to start

because this is gonna be predominantly more Sangiovese,

which is just gonna just add a little bit more vibrancy

to it, like it's the life of the party.

It's electric, it's acid,

and a little bit more of those tannins.

First thing is always, I'm gonna put my nose

in the glass as far as I can.

I've got a big nose, so I just wanna fill it,

[sniffs] and I wanna exhale through my mouth.

So I wanna open up my olfactory senses.

So 80% of taste is actually through smell,

so you get a better sense of what you're smelling.

Really great acidity. I'm already starting to salivate.

So we already know that the wine is high in acid.

I'm gonna be talking a lot about acid.

Acid's an amplifier.

The reason why you put salt on food,

lemon on seafood is really to amplify the flavors.

This wine over delivers for the price.

I would pay double the price for this wine.

Emoji, emoji.

Cowboy hat, electric bolt, and a strawberry.

Next wine Franco Serra. This is a Barbera d'Asti 2018.

Barbera located right in the heart of Piemonte,

a great region for great wines,

best known for the king of all wines, Barolo.

But generally, if you ask what the local people drink

on a everyday basis, it's this wine right here, Barbera.

I'm swirling just to aerate the wine,

blow off any off odors or anything like that.

Actually, if we're on it and we're talking about glassware,

it's called stemware for a reason.

Has a stem on it if you wanna get technical.

This is actually so your hands or anything

don't warm or change the temperature of wine.

This is fruity, juicy, ripe.

There is a little bit of tannins, pretty decent acid,

not high off the charts of what I would normally like,

but that's due to the grape.

Barbera's not a real high-acid grape.

This is quintessential Barbera d'Asti.

Anybody and everybody should enjoy this wine.

This should be your go-to wine.

This is your Tuesday night wine, pizza, hot dog.

This is just great living, fun wine.

What's the smiley face with the stars in it? Yeah.

So next up, we've got a couple of wines from Australia,

the illustrious and elusive Yellow Tail.

I'd have to say that I haven't had this wine

in, say, wait a minute, I turned 40, about 35 years.

Yellow Tail.

So already, when I'm looking at the color,

it looks a little too bright, a little too polished.

I always look at the color of wine.

First and foremost, I wanted to see if it's free

and clear of any debris.

I wanna make sure there's no sea monkeys

or anything floating around, but this is pretty clear.

You can see through it.

There is a little bit of anise, blackberry, boysenberry.

Smells like bubblegum, like Big League Chew.

[slurps and swishes wine]

Has this sweetness,

this roundness that doesn't feel natural.

Even the color doesn't look natural.

Probably has no color added to it,

mega purple 13 and stuff like that,

which you're allowed to add to wine.

Yellow Tail was the largest producer

of Australian wine that was exported.

I would also say that it was probably one

of the big reasons why wine became America's beverage

of choice, surpassing beer, and I have to tell you

that a big reason for that was stuff like Yellow Tail.

But I dunno, this is...

All right, next we have, from Australia,

this is called Point Ormond,

and this is Cabernet Sauvignon.

Cabernet, generally speaking as a grape as a whole,

is one of the noble grapes from France.

It is a thick skin grape.

It is the son, the offspring of Sauvignon Blanc

and Cabernet Franc.

Produces big style wines, burly wines,

broad shoulders, rich style wines,

especially when they come from warm places,

which Australia is.

Stelvin closure, as this is called,

affectionately known as just the screw cap,

was associated with [beep] wine for a very long time.

But for me, and it's changed, right?

Screw caps are, like I said,

there's really about just getting the party started, right?

You don't need one of these. You don't need one of these.

You could just do this, and we're ready to go.

And in wine speak, that's called the wine

is accessible, accessibility, and we're gonna find out.

Oh man, this is like boysenberry.

I smell a little bit of a lead, pencil shavings,

raspberry, currant is another one.

[slurps and swishes wine]

Mm, wow, man, that is a big fruit bomb.

This is a barbecue one,

big ribs from Morgan's, some coleslaw.

This is really rich and layered.

This is an awesome line for 15 bucks.

This'll be the smiley face with the sunglasses.

Yeah.

[soft funky music]

Next, up we have a few wines from Spain, some Tempranillo.

All right, so we have Ercavio. This is a Tempranillo.

This is probably the most well-known grape

in all of Spain, Tempranillo.

It's more like Barbera.

It's juicy. It's fun.

It's an everyday drinking wine

but a little bit different in its profile,

but it it fills the same void but from Spain.

[bottle rolls] [wine pours]

So I'm looking at the color here. It's a little bit darker.

The wine does have some age on it.

As a wine starts to age, color starts to fall from it,

so it has a little bit more brickish color.

It's not as bright.

That would just tell me that it's a little bit older.

And I think the first thing off the back I get

is this rich leather, like brand new leather,

like sitting in a big leather sofa.

[Man] For someone who doesn't wanna drink a leather sofa,

[André laughs]

why are you attracted to that?

It's funny.

The grape juice, the wine actually ages in oak barrels.

In red wine, it's expressed in several different ways

in it could be vanilla.

It could be a leather that lots of people talk about.

Those all things come from oak and being aged in oak.

They don't have a leather sofa, do they?

I don't know, dude. Who knows what they have.

[Woman] There is an emoji of a sofa.

There you go, sofa. Cozy.

Next wine here, also from Spain, Tempranillo.

This is called Altos d'Oliva, 2018.

[cork pops and bottle rolls] [wine pours]

First off, this wine is flawed already.

It has volatile acidity.

You can actually smell it. It's really rancid.

Smells like fingernail polish remover,

so I wouldn't drink this. [laughs]

We got a backup bottle. All right.

So we're gonna try this again.

Yep. So this is awesome.

I wish you guys could smell, we had smell-o-vision.

You could smell the two glasses. This is much better.

This actually smells a little bit reduced,

like stewed plums, raspberry, boysenberries.

Obviously, the exact same bottle from the same producer,

but what's inside, like I said,

one is flawed and one is not.

And it just brings me back to the important part.

When you're in a restaurant and it's not all for show

when they pour you a little sip of the glass

and you taste it and all those things.

It's really to taste it to see

if the wine is of sound quality.

There's absolutely nothing wrong with this brand.

It's just this particular wine that's inside this bottle,

and it happens.

All right, last up in Spain is the famous region of Rioja.

It's 2015. This is Campo Viejo.

Rioja, one of the famous, or actually the famous,

most famous region in all of Spain

with its most famous grape, Tempranillo.

[bottle rolls] [wine pours]

You can already see the color.

It's a little, not as bright, almost a little brickish.

Like I said, that does tell you

that it does have some bottle maturity to it.

Not getting much off the nose. It seems pretty muted.

That does happen some time. I have a little trick for that.

So you can put your hand on top

of the glass like that and then swirl,

and then you wanna just bring it closer to your face.

All right, now I'm getting a little something,

and it just basically trapping the vapors,

trying to get a little lift.

[slurps and swishes wine]

Even though I find this wine to be somewhat one dimensional,

it's pretty well balanced.

I feel like this is a pretty remarkable wine.

To be honest, I've never had this wine before,

and I think I've heard of the brand every now and then,

but this, I'm pretty surprised by this wine.

This is pretty solid.

And I would also say that this wine probably tastes

like it could be 20 to $25.

Emoji. Is there a justice [laughs] holding the balance?

I think so, right?

So next up, we're back

in the good old United States of America.

This is Beringer.

They callin' it Main & Vine,

and this is their Cabernet Sauvignon.

First thing that's jumping out,

it says American Cabernet Sauvignon,

which would lend me to believe that there

might be a little bit of funny business going on.

The fact that it is so vague,

this wine can actually be sourced from anywhere in America.

The more specific you get on a label,

the better quality it is.

So if they're saying it's from California, that's great.

But now they're saying it's from Napa Valley,

that's even better.

Now, if it's saying it's from Oakville,

which is inside of Napa Valley, that's another thing.

And then if they're talking about a specific vineyard

within that particular sub region.

So the more details you get, the better quality you get.

There's no vintage on the wine.

That's another thing to look for.

So this means that this wine can be blended

from many different vintages.

It's not a good thing at this price point

when wines don't have vintages.

[wine pours] [slurps and swishes wine]

So this wine, it's pretty flabby. That's a wine term.

When I say flabby, it just means that the wine has no acid,

has no lift, sits on the middle palate,

has this round rich, sweet thing going on in the middle

that I don't really associate with a Cabernet.

So we have another California Cabernet.

This is 2018. This is called Backstory.

So I'm looking at the label.

It says Cabernet Sauvignon, so we know at least

that it has 75% of that grape in it by California law,

and it does say California

whereas the other bottle just said America.

All right, so this has a darker color than before.

Yeah, I smell a little black currant,

a little bit of licorice, a little bit of anise.

There is some vanilla. Smells artificial.

It's a abundance of it,

so it doesn't feel like it comes naturally from oak,

so maybe it's added.

[slurps and swishes wine]

It's green, it's vegetal, all qualities

that I wouldn't associate with California Cabernet.

This is a hard pass. Another California Cabernet.

This is actually from Paso Robles.

This is called Chop Shop. This is 2018.

If you see any wines from Santa Barbara,

from Paso Robles, I would generally start there.

They have lower cost of entry just

because the land is a lot cheaper.

[cork pops] [wine pours]

Look at the color.

The color is dark, richer, just has more hue to it.

Yeah, it's starting to get those signs

of currant, raspberry, graphite.

Now this wine has some vanilla as well,

but it's not in the same.

It doesn't seem artificial as some

of the previous wines that we had.

This smells amazing.

[slurps and swishes wine]

This is a pretty well-balanced wine,

but at that price point, I'm just wishing

that there would be a little bit more giving.

It seems a little shut down. Let's do a meat cleaver.

I don't know. Do they even have a meat cleaver?

All right, next up is Joseph Carr,

Josh Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon.

This is the Craftman's Collection.

This is vintage 2018.

Already, I'm just looking at the color, man.

It's too ruby, too dark.

It looks like it should be port, but it's not.

[slurps and swishes wine]

It's this ripe bubblegum. That's the same stuff.

It has this thing to it. I can't get past it.

All right, so have a little bit of Merlot here

from the Francis Ford Coppola Diamond Collection.

This is 2017 Merlot.

I know there was a lot of talk about not liking Merlot.

I like Merlot. This color looks great.

Oh wow. Smells pretty good.

[slurps and swishes wine] [bright upbeat music]

It's too sweet. You could pour this over ice cream.

This is from California.

It's warm there, so it's gonna be ripe.

So it's gonna have this ripe fruit,

which a lot of people perceive as residual sugar,

but this is just outright sweet.

The Merlots you wanna drink are probably

from Right Bank Bordeaux,

and they actually don't say Merlot in the label.

Is there a catfish emoji? Can we put a catfish?

Can we have somebody make a catfish

and put it somewhere around there?

[hip rhythmic music]

Last but not least, in California, we have 19 Crimes.

It's called Cali Red. It has Snoop Dogg on it.

Look at that. You see that?

♪ La da da da da ♪

It's got a mesh that's on the cork.

Oh, look at that.

It's got Snoop on there. See that?

It's interesting.

When you look at the bottle,

it's like this matte black finish.

This is generally what you find.

Well, but they would probably call frosted.

And generally, you would think that it's frosted or coated

to help protect it for longevity against the sun.

I don't know if anybody's aging 19 Crimes, but we'll see.

19 Crimes. Let's hope this is not the 20th.

Aha!

It's a little bit of sulfur.

This is like a hair salon action going on here.

It's got pretty decent color.

It does vacillate index, weird.

Weird purple color that doesn't really exist in grapes.

[slurps and swishes wine] [moans]

Cupcakes. We should some cupcakes on it.

So next up is Argentina and the world famous Malbec.

We have the Adelante. This is from Mendoza.

That's a good place. So Mendoza's a good place for Malbec.

So I'm excited to try this.

All right, well, definitely has that color

when I think about Malbec, very dark, ruby, purple color.

It doesn't have that hue that makes me think

that it's got some chemical in it

or something or mega purple 13.

Oh wow.

This smells raspberry, tobacco, smoke, pretty earthy.

[slurps and swishes wine]

This wine catches me off guard.

I was expecting something to be a little bit more rustic.

This is pretty refined.

I think a lot of Cabernet drinkers migrate over

to Malbec just because it doesn't have as long a finish,

so it's better with food in some ways.

If you take a sip of wine,

[slurps and swishes wine]

swallow, and now you just wanna mentally count

how long do you still have the taste in your mouth?

This is a pretty long finish.

I'm still tasting the wine now, but it's not like Cabernet,

which would last probably into the next sip,

depending on how fast you're drinking.

But that is a sign of quality.

But also in Malbec, you're looking for a wine

that's full with tannins, right?

So we talked about the drying out

of the inside of the mouth, generally moderate alcohol,

raspberry, blackberries, licorice,

and it definitely is gonna have a little bit

of earthy component to it.

I'm speechless. This wine is great.

Let's do a mushroom emoji for earthiness,

cigarette smoke for smoke.

There's some tobacco in the wine,

and let's do, what do they call that?

A flexing muscle emoji?

All right, so next up, Colonia Las Liebres.

All right, I think I got that right. And this is 2019.

Look at that color. It's really dark, looks rich.

Almost looks thick when I was pouring it.

There's a little bit of sulfur.

I get some vegetation, like cherry tomatoes, graphite.

[slurps and swishes wine]

Raspberry, blackberries,

like a fruit cocktail of sorts of berries.

This is a blueberry pie.

The fact that this wine is $9 is really surprising.

I'm taken aback.

Also, I'm just stupefied. What do you mean?

This wine is amazing for $9, for $15, for $20.

This is a hidden gem. Emojis, emojis.

Starstruck. Is that one?

Is that the one with the...

[upbeat music] [cheery accordion music]

All right, so now we're on to France.

So this is one of my favorite regions.

This is from the Cotes du Rhone. This is Rhone wines.

Think Grenache, Syrah, Mourvèdre,

and this is like the standard bearer,

and this is 2019 Les Garriques.

Great color. This is 2019.

This is pretty fresh.

First thing right off the nose, I smell pepper,

ground pepper, little bit of white pepper,

almost wanna make me sneeze

is the first thing that I get.

Strawberry, strawberry jam, Smucker's.

There's a little bit of rosemary.

There's some herbs in there. It's slightly sweet to me.

I guess my perception would be it's ripe.

It's pretty ripe fruit. This is classic Cotes du Rhone.

This is a beautiful expression and a great place to start

for anybody wanting to venture out

and taste wines from the Rhone Valley.

Let's say strawberries, herb, a big thumbs up.

Now, a little bit of Beaujolais.

This is Domaine de la Madone,

and this is Beaujolais Villages, 2019.

So this says 2019 here on the front label,

but when I look at the cork on the back, it says 2017.

Interesting. In all honesty, the labels are regulated.

The corks aren't regulated.

So the corks can have anything on them, so to speak.

Well, has the right color when I think about Gamay.

Oh, so a little bit of cherry blossoms,

and I get this funny thing with Beaujolais.

I actually taste smell bananas, right?

It's like this thing of fresh banana being peeled.

[slurps and swishes wine]

Man, that is a perfect wine. That is amazing.

Good job, BA on the temperature. The temperature is spot on.

This gets double thumbs up.

This could easily sell for 30 or 40.

All right, looks like we're headed back

to the Cotes du Rhone, so the Rhone.

This is 2019. This is Bieler.

See the color's a little bit darker for sure.

Wow, that's a heavy bottle. It doesn't matter.

It's not a sign of price or quality.

This is a little bit of dill.

Definitely smell some leather there.

That reminds me of when dad gave me his old baseball glove.

All my friends made fun of me.

It was just this old wrinkly glove.

[slurps and swishes wine]

Oh, wow, wild strawberries.

There's a little bit of eucalyptus, mint.

It's got really great long finish.

I'm still tasting it now. Some acidity, right?

My mouth is starting to water.

I like this one actually better than I liked the last one,

and I was really surprised by the other one.

This is, like I said, a little bit fuller

and modern take on it, but I like it.

So my advice to all of you is make sure you go

to your wine shop, your local shop and ask for wines

from the Cotes du Rhone.

Emoji, maybe a baseball and a glove,

so a little catcher's mitt.

I remember that reminds me of leather,

a little bit of graphite, so a pencil,

and the fire emoji.

This wine's straight fire.

All right, so we are down to our last bottle.

It's called Zoe.

It's the tree of life, and this is from Greece.

So 2019, so indigenous grape from Greek,

and it's about 10% Cabernet.

All right.

Slightly earthy, mushroomy, herbaceous,

rosemary, sage, this cherry cola.

Not a lot of fruit.

It definitely feels like it's a wine

that could be served chilled,

but very pleasing on the palate.

I would totally drink this wine.

Emoji. Let's go with the herb.

Is there a surprise look emoji?

And a big okay. [clicks tongue]

[hip rhythmic music]

My biggest takeaways for you

is drink outside the box, right?

Look for off the beaten path grapes because I do believe

that they over deliver on quality, right?

Because the demand is not high.

Looking, shopping by label, it's a landmine.

You're better off building some type of relationship

with your local wine shop where you can build trust.

I know that all of our tastes are different,

but for me, when I think about a sound and quality wine,

it was always about balance.

I really would encourage people

to embrace that philosophy when drinking wine.

All right, so that's it. That's a wrap.

Let's all go home and drink more wine.

I don't drink $15 wine. No, I'm just [beep] with you.

[everyone laughs]

[muffled speaking] [beep]

No, that is not true.