Bargain Wine of the Week: Venta Morales Tempranillo 2008

Remember the old Chianti wine bottles from Italy that came with a wicker basket woven around the bulbous bottom part of the bottle? Well, we don't have fond memories of those wines — only the times we had when we were drinking the wine. The wine, and probably the fact that we had too much of it, gave us a headache.

And the bottle was memorable not only for the wicker, but also for the coffee table candleholders that everybody made out of the empty bottles in college dorms across America.

Today's wine has nothing to do with the basket wine, except that the label has an illustration of woven wicker in a wide band across the middle.

This wine isn't even from Italy, it's from Spain. But it's a heckuva bargain. It is a red wine, made from Tempranillo grapes and made in a non-oak-barrel inexpensive way — except that the grapes are grown in an old vineyard that yields only two tons per acre, so the grapes have lots of flavor.

And, here's the best of all: It tastes so good that it was rated 88 by Wine Advocate; it has depth; and it only costs $6 a bottle. Yes, that's right, $6. If you see this bottle in your local store, buy several bottles, because it's a bargain and a half at that price.