D

Live Blog Feed

Yummy French Wine for $8

Posted on July 2nd, 2008 10:53am by Julie Blacklidge
Filed under Wine & Spirits

When you’re buying for a crowd, no one will fault you for not serving Opus One. You don’t want to serve wine from a box this Independence Day either. Not sexy. You’d be surprised how many phenomenal bottles of wine you can find for less than $10 a bottle. Skalli Family Winery Winemaker Laurant Sauvage recently visited Dallas to show off a few bottles from his tasty lineup. While I thought the Robert Skalli wines were lovely and drinkable, I couldn’t get over the value of the Fortant Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Chardonnay. The Chardonnay is bright, fresh, and fruit driven. It is not aged in oak. Very easy to drink, perfect for any Fourth of July barbecues. And, let’s not forget that the French gifted us Lady Liberty as a symbol of Independence, so French wine is perfectly acceptable on this very American day. You can find the Fortant line up at Sigel’s, Goody Goody, and Centennial for $7.99 a bottle. I shouldn’t forget to mention that (edit: some of) the Fortant wines are kosher.

6 Comments to “Yummy French Wine for $8”

foodczar @ July 2nd, 2008 at 11:00 am

A good, UNOAKED French Chardonnay for under $10? I’m there!!!
Stacy @ July 2nd, 2008 at 11:32 am

Hey great post…there is a great site you might of heard of, AnswersTV.com. The have a very informational wine channel you could probably write about in a future post, even embed a video from there maybe. Check it out, and have a Happy 4th!
Laurel @ July 2nd, 2008 at 1:21 pm

As someone who keeps kosher and buys lots of bottles of wines as gifts for hosts who have me over for Shabbos meals, I do like the Fortant merlot and the cab. (Haven’t seen or tasted the Chard.)

How nice that it’s French AND Kosher AND relatively inexpensive with a great taste!

They are that low price at Goody Goody, which has a nice kosher selection at their store on Greenville Ave., but sometimes is low on stock and doesn’t re-stock often enough! Also too much Manischewitz and not enough gourmet kosher wines, which I told the wine buyer! I recently cleaned out their shelves of their remaining 2001 vintage of the Fortant cab, and they were out of the merlot.

Found some of the merlot at Centennial at Walnut Hill/Central, where it was $9.99 and was the 2005 vintage.

BTW, each year Fortant uses a different style label, and the older bottles also had cool grape imprints in the glass of the bottle, which the newer ones don’t.
Brandy @ July 3rd, 2008 at 5:10 pm

i am going to state for the record… my fiance and I have found a FABULOUS BOXED wine. Now, would I bust it out at a dinner party? only with close friends that know we are not cheap. but this stuff is GOOD. the reason that box wine works is that it stays fresher longer. the air is not getting to the wine while it’s in the fridge. Try the Black Box at Whole Foods. the Cab. it’s like 4 bottles you can suck on for a week (while making dinner) for twenty smacks. bargain.
Jason @ July 10th, 2008 at 9:05 am

Thanks for the recommendation. I’ve been drinking a great Southern French wine called Bouscade, a 100% Syrah that retails for $13 and is just fantastic (especially with ribs and BBQ – who knew, maybe the best way to mend Franco-American relations?).

I got this at the Wine Library online and it’s just great, I love it.

Keep up the good work!
Jason
Kristiana Heap @ July 10th, 2008 at 5:07 pm

I went to Centennial in HP Village last night to find the Fortant Chard, and the owner said they didn’t carry the label—he couldn’t find it in the Centennial system, either. You may want to skip their stores if you’re going for Fortant specifically.