Wine Find on Maui: La Vielle Ferme, Cotes du Ventoux

The country-kitsch label makes perfect sense once you taste this drinkable, medium-bodied, easygoing wine.

Buying wine on Maui is like buying anything else on Maui–you pay more than you would elsewhere. I call it the living-in-paradise tax.

We love wine, but we don’t drink much, so we tend to buy very inexpensive-but-good bottles or totally splurge. So when a tasty inexpensive bottle shows up, we buy a case.

There’s a bottle we’re currently in love with, and it’s at  Costco for $9.99 (steal!!). It’s Cotes du Ventoux, from La Vielle Ferme in Rhone, France.

The 2008 vintage is not particularly complex, but it’s terribly clean and completely drinkable. We taste cherry, and big grapes, and the tannins are pleasant (not too sharp). It comes in a large bottle, which makes it perfect for a party.

The medium body and the clean finish makes it a great pair with either chicken or beef (we’ve done both). Last Sunday we stayed home and made a roast beef with yorkshire pudding, and this was the perfect accompaniment.  Like the meal, the wine was delicious, simple, and unfussy.

I have a copy of the Fearless Critic’s Wine Trials 2010, which has introduced us to several really yummy inexpensive bottles this year. I don’t know if Cotes du Ventoux is in it, but it should be …

If you’re looking for a good table wine, this is it. And you can’t beat that price.