New recommendation

Australia is beating California in cheap, extremely high quality wines. Get to the wine store tomorrow and find these. Mollydooker label, name The Boxer, varietal Shiraz, vintage 2006. About $20. Awesome. Tightly knit, well balanced, extremely complex flavors. May be tough to find though, they're selling these out like crazy. If you find one sitting on a shelf, purchase it. This is a screw top closure which most people associate with Boone's Farm. Little do most people know, screw tops are considered superior to both synthetic and natural cork as it prevents early oxidation and a "disease" called TCA which is only given out by natural cork (not harmful but tastes and smells horrible). Even French Bordeaux wines are slowly beginning to go to screw top closures.

The other one shown here, you will almost undoubtedly find. Yellow Tail - The Reserve. Not the regular Yellow Tail. Either 2005 or 2006 vintage, again Shiraz. Over the past 3 or so years I've tasted upwards of 250 different wines, and this is by far the most aromatic wine I've had in that time. Again, very tight and balanced with a great finish and after taste. Best part - should only cost you about $9 - $10. Both of these wines are rated 90 or above.

PS - US restaurants and most consumers are drinking red wine way too warm. This brings out the alcohol too much and overpowers the fruit making it seem unbalanced, maybe even spoiled. Red wine should be served between 55 and 60 degrees. I've been to a couple of wine tastings where the exact same wine was served at two different temperatures and the tasters were asked to vote which wine was better. Over 95% invariably picked the lower temp wine (not knowing both tastes were the exact same wine). Suggestion - put the bottle in the fridge for about 30-45 minutes before opening. Open the bottle and let aerate for about 15 minutes then pour. At a restaurant, ask the waiter to bring an ice bucket to drop your bottle into for a few minutes. The waiter will roll his eyes thinking you're an idiot, but we'll all secretly know the truth.

Sidebar - while most restaurants serve red too warm, I will go on a limb and say white wines are ALWAYS served way, way, way too cold. Too cold inhibits every thing in the wine and it sometimes feels like you're drinking pure ice. Biggest secret of all - red and white should be served just a few degrees apart from each other.

All that said - if you like red wine warm and white wine with ice...well then that's the best way to have it and to hell with what I or anybody else says right?

Happy drinking!