Sommelier Tries 20 White Wines Under $15

I always tell people, the wines that you're

most excited about trying,

like you try them at the beginning of the night

where you're conscious and you're aware

and like you can appreciate them.

This wine is not bad, maybe this is the last bottle

of the night that you have.

[laughing]

I mean, it'll still get you there,

you know what I mean?

I'm Andre Mack, AKA Mouton Noir, AKA The Black Sheep.

At the world's finest restaurants,

I've poured some of the most elite wines money can buy.

But that's not what's happening today.

[upbeat music]

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

And I'm gonna show you how to walk into a store

and pick out a great one.

I guess the biggest thing that I like about white wine

is that it's refreshing.

There's something about it, it's uplifting,

it's bright, it's singy.

You know wine is this thing of like exploration,

expanding and broaden your horizons.

So with this world wide adventure of white wine,

we definitely can't leave out New Zealand.

They makes some of the most recognizable,

most beautiful sauvignon blancs,

this is from Marlboro, New Zealand, this is called the Koha,

and this is 2020.

What you'll find in these wines

is like just this incomparable, like grassy notes.

They also describe it as this thing that they call cat pee.

[record scratching]

All right, that just doesn't sound real desirable,

but it's really a big distinguishing note.

I think they also call it gooseberry.

Nothing in wine when we talking

about descriptions are literal.

You know, when we talk about cherry, stone fruit, peaches,

all of those things, there's none of those elements

that exist in the wine.

It's just, you know, aromas that you smell.

I believe that senses trigger a memory.

And so when you smell this wine,

it does kinda smell like cat pee.

Which I know is not good, doesn't sound good,

nor do you want to put it in your mouth,

but trust me these wines are immaculate and these are great.

It's refreshing, it's just like bright,

grassy, herbaceous, grapefruit.

If you're looking for New Zealand sauvignon blanc,

this is one you should try.

All right, now we are off to Italy.

And we have a little prosecco here, this is called Figo.

Prosecco is sparkling white wine from Italy,

from the Prosecco region.

It's kinda gained a whole bunch of popularity.

I think all of you out there ballin' on a budget,

we've had this before.

You know sparkling wine to me is festive.

It's always a sign of a party, of a celebration.

Flutes, even though they look cool

and all this other kind of stuff,

they kinda don't really let you enjoy

it the way you're supposed to enjoy wine

or be able to evaluate it.

The fact that it has a very small top,

I can't put my nose in it.

This to me is a better way to enjoy sparkling wine,

it's just a standard wine glass.

Smells lovely, lemon-lime, peaches, slight hint of mint.

It's not sweet, definitely ripe fruit,

you know it's got good acid.

So if you're looking for a celebratory white wine,

you know you can't really go wrong

with any type of prosecco.

I think most people there are for, you know,

the popping of the champagne, the celebration.

And nine times outta 10 they're just gonna pour

orange juice in it.

Let's give it a lemon for citrus,

I'd give it a sparkle, yeah that's about it.

Our next stop in Italy is Gavi.

So this is called Masara and this is Gavi,

from the Gavi grape.

This is 2019.

Look at this thing.

So this is a twist off,

better known in the industry,

it's called a stellven closure.

These actually cost more than an actual cork.

But they are more environmentally safe.

Smells very wonderful, get like white flowers, green apple.

There's definitely a citrus component there.

This is a beautiful, delightful wine.

So if you like pinot grigio,

or any of those type of light style white wines.

You know, I think that the next step for you,

Gavi is a good place to go.

And any of those coastal towns in Italy

that make these really great white wines.

That's probably another step in the right direction

in branching out and getting wines that over deliver.

So we're still in Italy, we have a little Paolo Scavino.

This is called Sorriso, this is 2019.

This is from Langhe, a region within Italy.

And this is a little bit of chardonnay

and sauvignon blanc and vionier.

Before we taste this wine, you know,

a lot of people shop front label.

Always turn it on the back to see who the importer is.

That's a kind of a sure fire way to shop back label.

So you could do Skurnik another one is Neal Rosenthal,

a really huge famous one is Kermit Lynch.

And those guys go out in the world,

and they have, you know, their own ethos,

of the people they want to work with.

And you know, they have a standard of quality.

So shopping back label is also an option as well.

So right off the top, you know,

I'm smelling herbaceous, grassy notes.

You know, that would be the sauvignon blanc.

Violets, very floral,

and generally that would be from Vionier.

It's got pretty decent mouth feel, very rich.

That would come from the chardonnay.

The chardonnay give the wine structure.

That's a great wine, you know,

it's like if you like chardonnay

with a little something else extra to it.

I feel like, at $15 and under,

they could easily sell this wine for 30 or 40 bucks.

It's really top notch, this is incredible, incredible.

I don't know, say three unicorns.

So we have a 2018, this is pinot grigio

from the Cupcake Vineyards.

What's interesting about this, I think,

we all kind of know Cupcake.

At least, you know, to the best of my knowledge.

I associate it with it being an American wine brand.

But this pinot grigio is actually from Italy.

Smells slightly oxidized and when I say that

it smells like cooked apples.

Things reduced slightly.

Not at all what I was expecting.

It's really rich and round, sweet.

It tastes like there's some residual sugar in the wine.

This is kind of like a heavy handed pinot grigio.

Is there a smiley face with like the wavy mouth,

let's do that.

[laughing]

And let's give it a cupcake.

So next up, we're back in the good ol'

United States of America.

This is pinot grigio from Washington state,

this is from the Bueller family.

This is called Daisy 2019.

The world famous pinot grigio.

I think it's something that we've all encountered.

It's probably some of our first wines

that we've ever tasted.

First thing I smell here is like fresh cut grass.

I do smell like honey, dewmelon, melon.

And as I look at the back of the bottle here.

This wine is labeled as pinot grigio.

And by law it only has to have 75% of pinot grigio in it.

In order for it to labeled whatever the main grape

is in the front.

There's also a smattering of other grapes in here.

There's some sauvignon blanc,

hence that's probably where I'm getting

all those grassy notes from.

And then riesling,

and riesling is known to smell like petroleum.

And that's where I'm picking up

this petroleum jelly.

So it's not a bad thing,

it's just something that's in the wine.

It's pleasant, but it's a totally different take

on pinot grigio.

It's herbaceous, it's like eating like a herb salad

with, you know, lemon-lime dressing.

Like a little bit of vinaigrette.

I think this is a great wine,

I think it's a great variation

and gives you something different.

Emoji for this wine, there's melon, herb,

a smiley heart face, is that what they call it?

You know with the hearts in the eyes.

Yeah.

Moving right along, our next wine up is Blue Quail.

This is sauvignon blanc 2019, from Mendocino County

so this is from California.

It's got a wonderful screw cap.

So we can just get the party started.

Wow, definitely herbaceous, green pepper,

there's a little bit of cantaloupe at the end.

If I'm thinking about looking for a great sauvignon blanc,

it should be crisp.

It should have acid.

I know when I say acid, people kind of cringe.

And, you know, they don't know what to think.

If the wine tastes like vinegar,

then you know it's too acidic, right?

That it's gone bad.

This one has great acid, I don't think

it's out of balance with anything else,

it's pretty perfect.

There is some minerality in this wine.

Do they have a rock emoji?

Maybe the rock emoji.

If not, we always use the Easter Island guy.

All right, so we are now onto the next wine.

And this is actually from New York,

this is from the Finger Lakes.

This is Herman Wiemer Vineyard,

and this is their field blend.

So it's a blend of a couple different grapes,

but what they're listing here is riesling,

which the Finger Lakes are known for.

And chardonnay, which I feel is kind of a weird mashup.

But intriguing none the less.

Weird color, almost kind of looks neon a little bit.

Has like this glow to it.

Now the wine has a lot more body

than I would expect from a riesling.

And so I think the chardonnay is kicking in.

Chardonnay being a bigger style grape.

I feel like a lot of the structure from the wine

comes from chardonnay.

It does have some pretty beautiful aromatics.

This wines a stunner, I'm pleasantly surprised.

Chardonnay and riesling, I wouldn't of thunk it.

And this wines kind of out of this world.

I'm buying all of you, this wine for Christmas.

All right, moving right along.

Next wine, oh look at this.

It's the recipient of the gold medal

from the Denver International Wine Competition.

This is Barefoot pinot grigio.

And so, you know, my take on all of this

is like anything that has a gold medal

or medal sticker on it, kind of not cool.

I'm already, that makes me skeptical.

I'm looking at the back of the bottle.

There's no vintage.

You know, so this wine could be a mixture or blend

from different places.

And then also it says pinot grigio American on the back.

So it doesn't give any designation

that it came from a specific state.

There's lots of different things that a label can tell you.

Just not like a little cute image of a foot here.

It tells you where the wine is made.

So the simple fact that this just labels

this wine as American, leads me to believe

that the quality is suspect, right?

If it said California then that gives you a little bit,

a better clue.

But the more specific they can get about

where the particular grape comes from.

The better quality that you have in the bottle.

So I'm smelling it, I smell grassy notes,

I smell lemon-lime.

I do smell a little bit like cotton candy.

That's sweet, it's not as sweet as I thought it would be.

A little too sweet for my liking.

You know, it reminds me of just being a kid

and after you ate your fruit cup,

you know that fruit cocktail?

There was the juice left in it and you would drink it.

That's what it tastes like to me.

I mean, I like that stuff for what it was.

But this, I don't know if I want that quality in my wine.

It's not bad, I've had worse.

If I'm already drunk, you know, maybe.

Emoji, what's the person who does that?

What's that man holding hand out?

And maybe a lollipop.

So next up, we have Kendall Jackson.

This is the Vintners Reserve chardonnay

and this is from California 2018.

This is a name that we all know,

it's one of the big players in the wine industry.

First off, lots of tropical fruit.

Pineapple, papaya, a little bit of green mango.

Get lots of like luscious vanilla.

And that's due to the oak.

It's not over the top buttery and rich in that style.

And there's kind of just, just whack,

it just like hits you right in the mouth.

You know, I think at $11 I think you could find

some other great interesting wines at that price point.

But if this is your jam, this is your jam and $11,

you know, it works.

And now we're off to France.

So this is a little Piquepoul pinet, try to say that fast.

2019 and this is from Domitia.

My take on French white wines, they're lovely.

And some of the best ones are from the most obscure regions

that you've never heard of.

Or are a mouthful to say.

Green apple, there's a little bit of pear.

Peaches, violet.

The wine is flinty, almost slightly smokey.

Great acid, that's a nice little banger there.

This wine is like smokin'.

If there's one thing that you will here me say

over and over again,

is make sure you cultivate a great relationship

with a wine store.

They're always going to bring you to something

that they're personally excited about.

And this is kind of a little known region

and people in the industry, they kind of like

to covet and champion those things.

They would lead you right to this wine.

All right, so we're gonna go ahead and continue

our tour through France, with some of the regions

that you might not be familiar with.

This is from the Eastern part of France.

This is from Domaine Labet and this is Abymes.

Abymes, something like that.

If you're not familiar with those words,

I mean neither was I 10 seconds ago, right?

So you know what I mean?

Like there's always new stuff

and things that you don't know in the wine business.

To be a master, is to forever be a student.

Is that corny?

Just want to give it a whiff,

I always just whiff, it's out of habit,

working in restaurants, you always give it a quick sniff

to see if you smell any off orders, wet cardboard,

wet dog, things that are fault to mind.

All right, we're gonna swirl.

Oh wow, this is, really got this chalky minerality to it.

Peach, definitely some citrus, lemon-lime.

Oh man, that is like electric lemonade.

Really bright, really vibrant.

The chalkiness or the minerality kinda gives off

like this oxidative quality to it,

but the wines not oxidized.

Minerality is a desirable trait in a wine.

A lot of people, when we talk about terroir

and a sense of place.

A lot of that's tied back into the mineralities

that are found in the ground, the elements.

You know, whether this wine was grown on chalky soil

or volcanic soil.

Those all impart different minerality

and flavors into the wine.

All right, this is Muscadet Sur Lie

and this is from Jerome Chablet.

I've never heard of the producer,

but I'm very familiar with the region.

These are one of my favorite dry white wines from France.

This is everybody's oyster wine.

Green apple, finger nail polish remover,

which is not a good thing.

Not a good thing at all.

So the good news is that I don't taste it on the palette.

This is pretty solid, this is pretty decent.

If you look on the label it says Sur Lie,

and that means that wine has been aged on its lees.

And this is the process that they've done in this area

for a long time.

That produces these kind of like, not rich style wines,

but they definitely have this really beautiful

mint palette backed by like acid and mineral.

I wouldn't be mad at anybody if they brought that

to the oyster party.

It's good stuff.

All right, so we're switching gears here.

We're going to the land down under,

so now we're in Australia.

This is 2019 Yellow Tail chardonnay.

This wine is readily available everywhere

and inexpensive too I think.

Wow this is like, lots of vanilla,

lots and lots and lots of vanilla.

I almost kind of smell sweet, peach.

That is like a fruit cocktail, that is really big,

really rich, it's sweet, it's ripe.

I can be honest, I can see why people like that.

Where it tastes like kind of a soft drink in that realm.

Lollipops and don't they have a candy emoji.

You know, I don't know if they have a cream soda.

But those are exactly what it tastes like.

All right so now we're off to Portugal.

And this is called the Las Lilas and this is vino verde,

so green wine from Portugal.

So Vino Verde is a unique wine region located

in the Northern part of Portugal.

That makes these very delicious, high acid white wines

that are exported all over the world.

And I'm anticipating here something light, airy.

Great acid, something to not think a lot about.

So it smells very fresh, like the ocean.

Clam shells, this tastes great.

You know I'm thinking like oyster shells, pear, apple.

There's a little bit of lemon and lime.

So not that this is the most complex wine in the world.

That's not what you pay for here.

You know, this is a wine that you just

open the top, pour.

It's delicious, it's refreshing.

It's not much to think about.

And sometimes that's a great thing.

All right, so now we're off to Germany.

Have this beautiful riesling, this is Schloss Lieser.

And this is riesling 2016 from Thomas Haag.

So we got the fluted bottle that Germany is famous for.

Riesling is interesting right?

Because it used to be, German riesling used to be

some of the most expensive wine in the world.

More than patrous, and all those wines out of Towne today.

German wine, riesling in particular,

generally you're looking for, it's gonna be off dry.

Off dry it means sweet.

Classic on the nose German riesling, is kerosene, petrol.

So you're gonna get kind of this gas smell.

Yep, smell it right away.

That's a good thing.

That's great, it's like unripe pear, green apple, petrol.

Just a little bit of like lemon zest.

It does have some residual sugar, it's sweet,

but it's not cloying.

It's got really great acid to kind of offset

the sweetness of the wine.

So it finishes dry.

To eat french fries and old German riesling

or young German riesling, give me much joy, much joy.

I won't even front, McDonald's french fries,

like you know and riesling, it's like...

Emoji a big big smiley face showing teeth.

All right so now, we're going all the way to South Africa.

This is a Joostenberg chennin blanc,

and this is from Paarl.

So that's a region within South Africa.

You know, I think on your wine adventure.

It could take you all over the world.

White wine from South Africa, why not?

Right, it's something that they do great.

It's another expression of a world famous grape.

You know, these are what

the cool kids are drinking, chennin blanc.

Oh yeah, you definitely smell it

right on the nose.

A little bit of ginger, there's honey, grapefruit.

Pretty full body, I wouldn't expect it to be this full,

but it is from South Africa, so it's a little warmer.

Definitely a kind of style I like.

It's not all the way, say some of the chennin blanc

that's being made in California.

Which is a lot warmer.

But this is kind of a nice medium in between.

All right, next up is Spain.

This is the Spanish white wine, called Altos d'Oliva 2019.

And this is a blend of a grape

called airen and sauvignon blanc.

Looks interesting, see the clear bottle here.

Baked apple, straight off the bat, lemon.

This has this crazy aromatics, you know,

when I talk about sauvignon blanc,

we're talking about herbaceousness, but this has,

this has like this kind of crazy floral note to it.

Tastes like muskat gummies from like Pearl River.

This wine is not bad, you know it's got a creamy texture.

It's ripe.

If you're strapped for cash,

just trying to have a good time.

Maybe this is the last bottle of the night that you have.

All right, continuing on with Spain here,

we have the Costillo del San Diego.

This is a pollomino fino, this is 2019.

This is some of the grapes

that are used to make sherry.

I think, you know, I'm attracted to this particular wine

because I'm a wine geek.

There's no other way to put it.

Knowing something about this particular region

and this grape, you know, sherry is you know,

an oxidized wine.

And you definitely get this on the nose

right at the beginning.

When I talk about oxidized, it just means that the wine

has been like exposed to air.

A little bit over a long time.

And it kind of has like this matted kind of taste to it.

And smell, almost kind of, not burnt.

Somewhere between burnt and caramelized.

This one has more body than I thought.

It's full, it's rich.

It's got decent acid.

Kind of finishes with like this kind of,

caramel popcorn taste at the end.

This is, you know, pure joy from exploration,

like just exploring wine, like.

But like I said, it probably needs a little bit

of hand holding.

But I'm stoked.

But this is really great, I'd give this,

let's give it the horns.

This is a rockstar, like let's rock on.

It's a rocker.

All right, so we are at the final stop of this journey.

And that's gonna be in Austria.

This is Setzer, this is Gruner Veltliner 2019.

Dry white wine, great acid.

It became the darling of the sommelier set,

because it was kind of one of the first wines

that you could pair with asparagus.

Generally white wines kind of fold.

Like a cheap chair when paired with asparagus or something.

There's something about them that makes wine taste tinny.

And Gruner Veltliner was the savior of asparagus and wine.

It's kind of a signature call, or hallmark of the grape.

Oh man, great acid.

This is beautiful, it's refreshing.

This is pretty spot on, when you think about textbook

Gruner Veltliner, this is great.

All right, so here are some key takeaways

for shopping for white wine.

You know, I think the most important thing is

be adventurous, step outside of your comfort zone.

Drink lots of different wines, things off the beaten path.

Things that you don't think you like.

That's just gonna make you have a better palette.

That's just gonna make sure that you're tasting the wines

and really enjoying the wines that you like.

Next, don't be afraid to shop back label.

Build a report with the importer, turn the bottle around,

follow an importer, drink their portfolio.

Let them do all the hard work for you.

And lastly, look for great varietals that you know.

You know, that's a great way

to kind of shift you perspective.

You know that you like chardonnay,

but maybe, you know, choose chardonnay from South Africa.

Or from some other place.

Just to give you a different perspective.

A lot of producers have gone to the trouble

of listing the great varietals on the back.

Just to clarify and to have some type of transparency.

All right, so 20 white wines under $15 in the books.

Some of them great, some of them not so great.

But I did have a favorite.

And my number one pick was from Italy.

This is the Paolo Scavino, this is the Sorriso.

This wine is great, actually it's awesome.

It's one of the best white wines I've had all year.

Not only today.

What makes it unique, I mean it just has texture,

it has body, it has soul.

A lot of those qualities just don't come

in a bottle of wine under 15 bucks.

That's what makes it, you know amazing.

You know, it makes it stand out.

There's nothing like it.

Just from the first sip, I could tell you

that it was gonna be better than all the other wines.

All right that's 20 white wines down, 20 red wines down.

Looking forward to the next 20.

Ideally, I'd like to take you through the whole tasting

just with emojis, I'm working on it.

[laughing] You're like, are you drunk?