Rhone region red wines - including one in particular - a real bargain and true delight

These dark, inky wines have a rich, full-bodied taste that lingers on the tip of your tongue like a farewell kiss.

Many wine lovers rightly rave about the Bordeaux or Burgundy regions of France. But further east, near the border with Switzerland and Italy, there's another wine region that produces some of the best, most affordable and readily drinkable wine in the world: the Rhone region.

And while I could devote several articles - and probably will - to all the great wines in this region, I thought I would focus on one red wine in particular that has proven to be delightful day in and day out for several years: E Guigal's Cotes du Rhone, specifically the 2005, 2007 and now the 2009 vintage.

This wine normally costs around $12 a bottle. I'm telling you that since there are often many different kinds of E. Guigal wine on the shelves, some of which can soar into the stratosphere and cost hundreds of dollars a bottle. I'm sure the much more expensive bottles are good, but at prices like that, they better be fantastic and come with a couple of steaks.

I probably shouldn't even be telling you about this readily available wine for under $12 in many stores. It's one of those ones I always snatch up any chance I can get since it tastes as great - or better - than many other full-bodied red wines that cost twice as much or more.

I know that's not the way someone who writes about wine should think but there's that part of me that's always astounded when I come across a case or two of this wine, especially when it's on sale. I don't even think twice about buying it anymore. I immediately start filling up the shopping cart.

What makes this wine so great?

For one thing, it's not made with just one grape like many American wines. For some reason I still can't fathom, many wineries in our country seem to take great pride in promoting wine that's made from a single grape - as if blending were something evil or some form of cheating.

It's not. Wine makers should make the best wine they can with the grapes they have. And if that means blending a few different grapes together, so be it. The French get this. So do many American wineries too, but they don't seem to get the same amount of attention as the single-grape, California cabernet sauvignons or Oregon pinot noirs.

E. Guigal blends three or four different grapes together to make its Cotes du Rhone: Syrah, Grenache and Mourvedre. (Sounds like a French law firm.) The 2005 vintage contains 55 percent Syrah, 35 percent Grenache, 8 percent Mourvedre and 2 percent autres, according to the winery's web site. The 2007 vintage combines 50 percent Syrah, 40 percent Grenache and 10 percent Mourvedre. The 2009 vintage blends 45 percent Syrah, 52 percent Grenache and 3 percent Mourvedre.

Notice how the winery fine tunes the recipe from one year to another. Such small changes might seem minor. But it's those minor tweaks that often make the difference between ordinary and extraordinary wine.

It's hard to find the 2005 and 2007 vintage anymore in stores. But they still sometimes crop up here and there. Luckily, there's plenty of the 2009 vintage. And that year is slowly starting to develop into another great vintage.

Personally, I would advise opening the 2009 two hours before dinner and decanting it. Or even opening the wine, pouring a small glass, then saving the rest of the bottle for the next night. I know that sounds nuts but you have no idea how many wines taste so much richer, so much smoother the next day.

It's hard to put into words exactly what makes the E. Guigal Cotes du Rhone such an exceptional wine, especially for the price. The best I can come up with is that these dark, inky wines have a rich, full-bodied taste that lingers on the tip of your tongue like a farewell kiss. I honestly can't understand why people would pay so much more for wines that disappear faster than the memory of a bad movie. But I guess I should just consider myself lucky - and you should too.

So snap up some bottles yourself. Just make sure you get to the store before I do.