Given Gut Check's never-ending quest for obsession with great wine values, we figured it'd be a good idea to check in from time to time with local merchants. They pick three wines they consider to be excellent values, and Gut Check buys and tries one of them. Price is important, but value is really what we're all after.

Dave Nelson

Bob Gray of Grapevine Wines in Kirkwood.

​Next up is Bob Gray, co-owner of Grapevine Wines in Kirkwood (309 South Kirkwood Road, Kirkwood; 314-909-7044). Grapevine is home to an eclectic selection that covers all price points with thoughtful, interesting choices. We're particular fans of the Italian and U.S. sections of the store, and the attention paid to Missouri's own as well.

First up: Gray's Value Pick...

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Pinot grigio is an unequivocal commercial success. From sales of literally nothing in the mid-1970s, pinot grigio has risen to second place among white varietal wines in the United States, trailing only chardonnay.

Success has come at the expense of value, however, and many of those pioneering pinot grigios are simply not a good deal any more. The name that ruffles the most feathers in the wine world is restaurant darling Santa Margherita Pinot Grigio, which retails for $20 to $25 a bottle and often appears on wine lists at $40 or more.

image credit

This here is your pinot gris grape (a.k.a. pinot grigio), near as we can tell.

​While a crisp white of moderate alcohol and intensity is dandy and a handy tool to have in one's bottle arsenal, the market is full of wines that perform in this role as well as pinot grigio for a fraction of the price. Look to Spain's albariño, France's picpoul, and New Zealand's sauvignon blanc for zesty, characterful refreshment at $10 to $15 a pop.

That said, laboring in the shadow of Santa Margherita is another style of Italian pinot grigio that we sample today to see if it's worth the bother...

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Given Gut Check's never-ending quest for obsession with great wine values, we figured it'd be a good idea to check in from time to time with local merchants. They pick three wines they consider to be excellent values, and Gut Check buys and tries one of them. Price is important, but value is really what we're all after.

Dave Nelson

Today's wine man: David Stitt, proprietor of Veritas Gateway to Food and Wine in Chesterfield.

​Up to bat this time is David Stitt who, along with his wife Stephanie, owns Veritas Gateway to Food and Wine (1722 Clarkson Road, Chesterfield; 636-530-9505). Veritas is home to one of the most interesting and eclectic wine selections in St. Louis. It's a treat to talk with David Stitt and explore the offerings Veritas has tucked away in its racks.

First up: Stitt's Value Pick...

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Less well-known than the other ancient cradles of wine-drinking, Georgia is home to the earliest archaeological evidence of intentional cultivation of grapes to produce wine. Whether the region truly is "the" birthplace of viticulture, the inhabitants of this small mountainous nation (about the size of Louisiana) nestled in between Russia and Turkey, have been making wine for a long time.

As in, about 8,000 years.

wikimedia commons | Nino Narozauli

A Georgian kvevri, the traditional wine-making jug. Is it significant that these were often buried underground?

​Georgia is an iconoclastic and fiercely independent nation. Its language is linguistically unrelated to any other in the world, and its history is full of stories of courageous rebellion against much larger nations. Similarly, its wine comes in hundreds of styles (many of them sweeter than what's currently fashionable) and is made from unique indigenous varieties.

Today we fire up a dry red made from the saperavi grape, one of the few Georgian varieties that's made into wine all on its own, rather than being blended with other grapes.

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You can read, read, read, read, but there's no substitute for actually tasting wines, which is why wine flights are such a boon. Instead of getting a single glass or bottle at a time, ordering a flight gets you three or four smaller pours of different wines. Not only does that multiply your experience, it also allows you to directly compare the wines to each other.

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​Here are some flights on offer around town that are worth going out and trying...tonight!

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Dave Nelson

Today's victim!

​​Italy is home to a staggering variety of wine grapes. At last count, there were some 350 varieties approved to be used in regions that stretch from the chilly foothills of the Alps to the baking plains of the boot heel to the complex island climate of Sicily. So it's no surprise that only the most dedicated Italophiles are up on the intricacies, while most of us suffer from some large degree of confusion.

Still, Italian wines have an incredible affinity for food, and even unfamiliar names are often well worth a gamble.

Such is the case with today's wine, a 2006 Poggio Morino Morellino di Scansano, which you can pick up for $18 at Veritas Gateway to Food and Wine.

Scansano is a small village of about 5,000 just 10 miles from the coast in the Maremma, a region that forms the southwestern coast of Tuscany. While Scansano had a reputation for quality in the late 1800s, the region overall was a bit of a backwater (literally -- much of it was full of swamps), and it was comercially invisible compared to Chianti and Brunello di Montalcino, its much more famous Tuscan neighbors.

After the jump: the story of the Maremma's redemption -- and a virtual tasting...

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Given Gut Check's never-ending quest for obsession with great wine values, we figured it'd be a good idea to check in from time to time with local merchants. Note that we say "wine values." Price is important, but value is really what we're all after.

Today we tap the barrel of knowledge at the Clayton location of the Wine & Cheese Place (7435 Forsyth Boulevard, Clayton; 314-727-8788), in the person of Paul Hayden.

​[Click here to read a profile of Paul Hayden.]

Value Pick:
2008 Viña Siegel San Elias Carménère Chile - $8

The carménère grape originated in the Bordeaux region of France, but it was wiped out there by the devastating vine louse, the infamous phylloxera, in the late 1800s. Fortunately, vine cuttings had already been exported to Chile, where carménère thrived.

Hayden tells us not to be misled by this wine's price. "The San Elias does have a Bordeaux quality: rich fruit balanced by good tannins and earthiness."

He suggests pairing it with a good cheese plate.

But wait! There's more!

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2007 Domaine Arlaud Bourgogne Rouge Roncevie ($27)
33 Wine Shop & Tasting Bar, 1913 Park Avenue; 314-231-9463

Say a hearty hello to 2007 Domaine Arlaud Bourgogne Rouge Roncevie

​Tasting notes:

Pale red in color. The aroma is redolent of tart cherry fruit, but there's an undercurrent of earthiness -- a hallmark of red Burgundies -- and spicy oak. Medium weight in the mouth, where the dark fruit stars again. You get some tannic structure, but nothing overpowering. This wine took a couple of hours to really get singing, so if you're drinking it now, decanting before pouring would be a good idea.

Today's wine is an example of a single-vineyard Bourgogne, from the well-regarded village of Gevry-Chambertin. (It's farmed organically, though this small producer doesn't bother to seek certification.)

For anyone who likes wine, it's worth getting to know Burgundy, because it is the point of origin for two of the finest grape varieties -- pinot noir and chardonnay. In addition, Burgundy is one of the best areas to explore the concept of terroir, that virtually untranslatable French term for the phenomenon that grapes transmit to wine some of the character of the ground they're grown in.

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2008 Pazo das Tapias Alma de Blanco Godello Monterrei

2007 Pena das Donas Verdes Matas Mencía Ribeira Sacra

Exploring Spanish wines often means encountering unfamiliar grape varieties. Two recent encounters -- mencía and godello -- came at the suggestion of Andrew Traughber at Bon Vivant Wines (123 South Main Street, Columbia, Illinois; 618-281-3464), which Riverfront Times named "Best Wine Shop" in 2009. Both these wines provide further evidence in favor of establishing relationships with good merchants.

Wikimedia Commons

The mencía grape of Spain

​Godello and mencía are indigenous Spanish grapes that hail from regions only a few miles apart. (In fact, godello is grown in the region where today's mencía wine was made.)

Godello's a white grape, and the wine featured here comes from Monterrei, which forms part of Spain's border with Portugal. Monterrei is not exactly a star of Spanish wine. In fact, authorities suspended its status as a Denominación de Origen (D.O.) for a time before restoring it in 1994.

Mencía, a red grape, is similarly obscure in terms of international recognition, though not quite as much so as godello. Today's example comes from the Ribeira Sacra, a small region comprising only about 3,000 acres of vines, and one that only achieved D.O. standing in 1997.

The Ribeira Sacra is becoming increasingly prestigious and has seen the founding of many new wineries over the past fifteen years, but the region's history dates back to Roman times. Remnants remain of ancient terraces on vineyards that rise steeply from the rivers that run through the region. It's heartening to see them revived, particularly with their indigenous inhabitant, mencía.

First up...

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This week we continue our exploration of German riesling. I have a particular passion for the grape, the subject of either misunderstanding or outright dismissal by most people interested in wine.

User "Siego," Wikimedia Commons

A vineyard growing Mosel riesling

​Germany enacted a comprehensive (if probably wrong-headed) wine law in 1971. That statute created several levels of wine quality with separate requirements: geographic, minimum alcohol, added sugar, etc. The one of most interest to geeks is the qualitätswein mit prädikat (QmP) designation.

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