Cheap Wine That Doesn't Suck: Augey 2008 White Bordeaux

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Sometimes the best accompaniment to a good wine is a little history. 

A million or so years ago, I read a review in the old Gourmet magazine about this great little French restaurant in Sausalito, just across the Golden Gate Bridge from where I lived in San Francisco. In it, the reviewer (I think it was Caroline Bates) mentioned a simple, inexpensive yet quite delightful White Bordeaux that partnered perfectly with the restaurant's hearty bistro cuisine. I bought a bottle and liked it so much that I started buying it by the case as my everyday "go to" wine. Then I moved, and it seemed to disappear from store shelves, and I forgot all about it. 

Fast-forward a million years (give or take a millennia or two) and I'm living in Key Largo, cruising the wine shelves at the local Publix in the hope of finding a simple, inexpensive yet delightful everyday "go to" wine. 

OK, so you know where this is going. . . 

It was the Augey White Bordeaux, probably the 2003 vintage, and it was as good and cheap and food-friendly as I remembered. I'm lucky enough not to have to buy wine by the case any more, but I'll still spring for a bottle or three of Augey, now vintage 2008, because with stone crab or lobster or even fried chicken, it's tough to beat its crisp Meyer lemon and green apple flavors with a minerally undercurrent; its long, tart citrus finish; and its $7 price tag.

It's still a great wine for every day... or every millennia.