An ongoing tasting of wines under the $10 mark, accessible in Vancouver, that we will post about regardless of whether we loved it or it was absolutely putrid. We will wade through bottles of bad plonk to find those hidden gems around town and hope that in doing this, you won’t have to do the same.

Select Pampas Del Sur 2008 Shiraz Malbec

‘Kay, um, this is a weird one.  I saw this at Brewery Creek, and the name rang a bell, but I was pretty sure the label was new to me – so for $8.99, I picked it up.  Upon returning home, I checked a little ways back on this site and lo and behold, I seemingly bought and wrote about this same wine for Cheap As Clay #2.  However, this one has a totally different label, AND there is the addition of the word “Select” on it.  Could there be another tier at a very similar price point?  Is this just the same wine with different packaging for another market?  Their website offered no assistance.  My tasting notes from it are fairly different from the first bottle, but then it’s not out of the ordinary for wines at this price point to have a range of bottle variation.

As we sat on our balcony at dusk, watching Vancouver’s nightly murder of crows head back east to Burnaby, we had a glass of it - taking note of rich, stewed berries on the nose, with peppery plummy fruit and a mild lashing of heat on the palate.  Slightly tannic, slightly hot, totally drinkable.  I’d certainly have it again, and the price was awesome.  Good barbecue wine for the summer.

So, yeah, I still don’t really know if it’s the same juice that I tried back in March, but at this price for decent quality, I don’t think it’s worth too much concern…