万花筒 Kaleidoscope 2007-01-30&31, 精选香醇红酒

（单词翻译）

I'm Ed Deitch at the NBC Wine Tasting. When it comes to ordering wine in restaurants, I'm a real cheapskate. I know that wine is an important profit center for restaurants, but I just can't get used to the idea of those huge markups, three to four times the price I would pay for retail¹. So my little secret is I'll scan the wine list to see everything that's offered, but I will almost always go back to the first wine on the list which often isn't too well-known, but is usually the cheapest. I did this the other night, and I found a terrific cheap red wine.

Here it is, from Southern France the 2004 Saint-Chinian Grand Reserve from Maisn L'Aiglon. Now Saint-Chinian is named after the town of the same name in the L'Aiglon Region. I paid $28 for this one in a bistro at my neighborhood. They were selling it for 875 a glass. So it's an example of the bottle price almost always being cheaper if you are in your day and you are going to have a couple of glasses of wine yourself. But here's the astonishing thing. When I got home and started looking on the Internet, I found that the wine goes for as little as $6 to $7 a bottle if you buy it in a store. Now at that price, it's a real bargain.

The wine is a blend of three grapes common in southern France, Grenache, Syrah and Carignan. It has pretty aromas² and tastes including blueberry, raspberry and touches of pepper and herbs. It's got nice complexity³ for the price. We had it with steak and leg of lamb; it will also match well with roast chicken and pork. I scrolled⁴ it around in an ice bucket for a few minutes; bringing the temperature down a bit to make it more refreshing⁵. Ultimately we had a very good dinner with excellent food and a satisfying bottle of wine that I will be buying again. Only this time to enjoy at home at well under $10 a bottle.

For more on this wine and many other reviews, go to my weekly column at wine.msnbc.com. Question your comment; you can email me at [email protected]. For now, I'm Ed Deitch. I'll see you at our next NBC Wine Tasting.