Per your request

At the request of a friend who was looking for a good deal on a good Cabernet Sauvignon, I began a quest to taste a few sub-$10 wines and offer my take on the best.

Meridian 2005 Cabernet Sauvignon Reserve took the cake. It's a medium-bodied wine with great balance and a full flavor. Hints of blackberry, currant and vanilla give way to a smooth, subtle finish that makes this a sure-fire hit with even the more refined palates. Aged for nearly eight months in oak, the wine's tannins give it great balance and texture.

Meridian wines are another product of the Central Coast in California, an area known for producing award-winning wines years after year because of the unique climate that allows the area's grapes to mature more slowly, capturing full flavors and developing unique characteristics that create equally unique wines.

Tres Pinos

After a long day of work, I decided to open a white that had been chilling in my fridge for several weeks. The Tres Pinos 2007 Paso Robles Tierra Blanca was a welcome delight.

It's a blend of Gewuztraminer, Chardonnay, Viognier and Muscat Canelli, and perhaps one of the most well-balanced wines I've tasted in a while. At this point, this is my top pick of 2009 for under $10.

Tres Pinos is a product of California's Central Coast, a features a bouquet of citrus fruit and wildflowers. It's a medium bodied wine with a smooth finish that pairs well with pastas, vegetables and chicken.

Really big (really good) rooster

Home for a long weekend that promises to produce future blogs (picked up two new wines that I'll review somewhere down the line, once I find the occasion to enjoy them), but wanted to update with two quick notes.

First, if you're in or around Durham, N.C., check out Brandywine Cellars across from Southpoint Mall. www.brandywinecellars.com

The owner is a 30-something wine lover, and the shop is an upscale, classy little niche shop with great variety and great wine tastings. I picked up a Malbec that I'm looking forward to sharing more about in the future.

Then I headed back to Burlington for a nice Valentine's Day dinner with my wife. Among the highlights was a 2007 Giant 47 Pound Rooster Pinot Grigio by Rex Goliath. This light, crisp Pinot offers a mouthful of citrus undertones, with a light, smooth finish. For about $10, it's a nice offering to pear with pork, chicken or light pastas.

HRM ("His Royal Majesty") Rex Goliath is based out of Gonzalez, Calif., and gets the 47 pound rooster name from a a famous rooster (named His Royal Majesty) that traveled with a Texas circus. None of the HRM Rex Goliath wines are more than $10.

No Monkey business

New Zealand's 2007 Monkey Bay Sauvignon Blanc scored 87 pts. by Wine Spectator magazine. Not too shabby for a sub-$10 bottle of wine. This light-bodied white is defined by hints of lemon and grapefruit as well as gooseberry and grassy notes, with a dry, but quick finish.

It would pair best with seafood or other light offerings.

It's certainly not my favorite Sauvignon Blanc, but it's on the short list, if for no other reason than there's a monkey on the label.

Great grapes in a glass

To really enjoy a wine to its fullest, it's important to experience the subtle nuances that different varieties offer.

One way to do so is to make sure you're drinking from the proper glass. While you won't likely notice substantial difference based on what type of glass you drink from, small differences in the size, and shape of a glass can bring out small differences in a wine. The size of the rim, for example, determines which part of your tongue tastes the wine. Since different areas of the tongue are more sensitive to different tastes, glasses are designed to deliver wine to areas of the tongue that will bring out the best of a particular wine.

Below, I've attached a chart of different types of wine glasses and the wines that pair best with them from www.2basnob.com.

Warm weather riesling

Just a quick post on a very nice wine my neighbor shared with me this weekend. And what a pairing the wine and weekend made.

The 2007 Moselland Lighthouse Series Riesling ($10) is as attractive as it is tasty. The frosted bottle holds a medium bodied, crisp wine that's full of fruit flavors. Served well-chilled (optimum temperature is slightly warmer than refrigerator temperature), it's a great sipping wine when enjoying unseasonably warm winter weather.

The wine is tagged as a Qualitatswein wine. Qualitatswein is a term used for late-harvest wines from one of 13 regions of Germany. Late-harvest grapes are overly ripe, therefore producing intensely sweet wines that often define the Riesling variety.

What's that in my wine?

It is a common misconception that sediment forming on wine corks or in the bottom of the bottle mean that a given wine has gone bad. In fact, there are several possible explanations for this build up.

Some winemakers simply don't filter their wines as completely as others. Often, these winemakers will say they leave some residual sediment to enhance the flavor of the wine after bottling.

Another possible reason for the build up is more common in highly-acidic wines and grapes. Wine made from Concord grapes, for example, often develop tartrate crystals, which build up over time and look a bit like sand. These crystals are not harmful, but may change the taste of wine over time.

The best way to deal with sediment is to decant your wine before serving. By decanting, the sediment will settle to the bottom and not in your glass.