My good friend works for a high flying tech company and his boss is into wine, big time.  Recently, after a success in the company, my friend’s boss opened up a bottle of very expensive wine for the management group.  Each person had a glass of Francis Ford Coppola’s signature red wine:  Rubicon.  In the US, this wine retails for $110.00 USD and is around $170.00 CDN if you can find it in Van City.  The wine is great, but lets face it, who can afford to buy the stuff?

So, there will probably come a time when you will have the boss over for dinner, need to bring a nice bottle to his/her place or order wine at dinner.  Here are some options, that while still pricey, won’t quite break the bank as much as the Rubicon.

Shafer – Across the valley from Rubicon Estate on Silverado Trail, the Shafers have been making fantastic wine for over 20 years.  The 2004 Merlot, Cabernet and “Relentless” (a Syrah blend) are all available in our market and sell for $75.00 CDN for the Merlot and $95.00 CDN for the Cab and Syrah blend.  All 3 wines regularly rate high in all of the trade publications and are worth the stretch.  Put it to you this way, stay home, cook your husband/wife a nice meal and open a bottle of the Merlot.  Same price as the Burrowing Owl in many restaurants, but you get vastly superior wine, better food and you are at home! 

Caymus – This winery makes 2 Cabs: really good Cab and really good Cab that is too expensive.  Look for the “Napa Valley” bottling at $95.00ish CDN.  It always reviews over 90 points, it is blue chip Napa red wine, always ready to drink upon release and will impress the boss, guaranteed!  PS:  The “Special Selection” bottling is double the price but not double as good! 

Cliff Lede – Cliff is living my dream!  He made his money in the real world and went and bought a winery in Napa.  So support a local guy (he is from Vancouver) and try the 2004 “Claret” (Bordeaux Blend) or 2004 “Stags Leap” Cabernet at $60.00 and $85.00 CDN each.  Both are available at the 41st and Cambie liq, but sold out at the winery, so that tells you they are great.  I had the 2003 Cab and it was fantastic even though the vintage was weak overall. 

Banfi & Frescobaldi – We are onto Italy, more specifically Tuscany.  Try the 2001 Brunello’s from either producer.  Both are superb wines, both are under $75.00 CDN.  In fact, 2001 was a dream vintage for Tuscany, so most red wine from this region will be worth trying.  For the new to wine crowd, Brunello is fancy “Chianti” or more specifically a clone of Sangiovese.  PS: if you try either of these wines, you will want to decant them if you drink them now.

Henschke – High end Shiraz, Cabernet and Merlot from Australia, no Yellow Tail fruit bombs here.  Instead you get age worthy, hand made, low production reds from one of Australia’s great Family owned wineries. Henschke products are available throughout Vancouver with the reds tipping the scale at close to $100.00 CDN.  If your boss is a wine geek, he will be thoroughly impressed.

Sebastiani – This Sonoma based family got out of the bulk wine business a few years ago and are better off for it.  The 2004 “Secolo” (Cabernet Blend) is fabulous at $40.00 CDN.  I tried the Secolo this past weekend, blind, with friends, against the vaunted Black Hills “Note Bene” from the Okanogan and it blew the socks off of the NB.  The 2004 Sonoma Cabernet is almost as good and sits at $30.00 CDN.  Occasionally, the liq. will get in “Cherryblock” a single vineyard Cab from Sebastiani that sells for $90.00ish.  Well worth the money, but expensive.  Both the Secolo and Sonoma Cabernet drink well above their price point and won’t break the bank.  A good alternative if you just won’t or can’t buy one of the other choices here.

There you have it, good “impress the boss” wines, most at half the price of the “Rubicon” and surely to all be a crowd pleaser.

Who knows, maybe the boss will take you on the next business trip to San Francisco because he thinks he will have a wine savvy employee to help get the next big deal done!