Cabernet Sauvignon

1995 Casa Lapostolle Chardonnay, Rapel Valley ($10).This ripe, lush, well-rounded chardonnay is a vivid example of how far Chilean winemaking has come in the last decade. When you taste wines with such outstanding balance, polish and complexity, it's hard to believe that Chilean white wine was a joke just a few years ago. The Lapostolle shows well-integrated flavors of baked apple, lemon, vanilla and spices. It's a wine to serve with salmon or ham. Lapostolle also makes very good merlot, cabernet sauvignon and sauvignon blanc, but this is the best of its current nonreserve releases.

1994 Fabre-Montmayou Malbec ($7)Malbec, a red grape from Bordeaux, is usually a bit player in blended wines. Usually, that's all it's fit for. This Argentine wine, the best varietal malbec I've ever tasted, is a brilliant exception. It's a bright, exuberant, full-bodied wine that's ready to be enjoyed immediately. Value-oriented consumers should keep an eye out for the name Fabre-Montmayou. Besides a brilliant malbec and cabernet sauvignon, it is also producing one of the few merlots that justifies its price tag. Both the 1988 and 1989 are excellent.

Most $10 wines are strictly for early consumption, but this full-bodied Spanish red has the structure and intensity that make me suspect it will be even better in five to 10 years. There's no need to wait, however, to enjoy its vibrant blackberry and black-currant fruit and meaty, earthy flavors. It's a little tight when the bottle is first opened, but it develops added complexity and a smoother texture in the glass. Ludovicus is a skillful blend of grenache, tempranillo, syrah and cabernet sauvignon.

1998 Simi Rose of Cabernet Sauvignon ($10).This dry, crisp, fresh and flowery pink wine is perennially one of the best of its kind, and it's good to see that Simi is shipping it in time for summer -- the season it was made for. It offers flavors of cherry and strawberry and a hint of the typical black currant flavor of grown-up cabernet. Its finish is long, clean and refreshing. Serve with ham, salmon or fried chicken -- or by itself, just for the fun of it.Pub Date: 06/23/99

1997 Monterey Vineyard Cabernet Sauvignon. Monterey County ($8).This well-made, medium-bodied cabernet offers a lot of class for a very reasonable price. It shows a good depth of flavor, with ripe blackberry fruit and hints of chocolate and smoked meat. It's a supple wine that's ready to drink now but has enough backbone to last a few years. It shows no signs of heavy-handed processing -- a rarity in this price range for California wines. The winery's suggested retail price is $6.99, but that might be optimistic for East Coast stores.

Let's just come right out and say it: The 1994 California cabernet sauvignons are spectacular.Not just excellent. California cabernet achieves that standard about five times a decade. I mean better than such legendary vintages as 1990, 1985, 1978 and 1970. That would make 1994 the best year for cabernet in the modern era of California wine.The vintage's combination of impeccable quality and lower-than-normal quantity has led to a serious escalation in the price of the top-of-the-line boutique cabernets (and cabernet-dominated proprietary blends)

There is a worthy gentleman of my acquaintance who simply cannot abide California cabernet sauvignon.In his refined English drawing room voice, he recently explained to me that the cabernets of the Golden State are leaden in their crudity and molten in their alcoholic heat.No matter that some of these wines fetch $50-$100 a bottle. No matter that some of the leading proprietors in Bordeaux have set up shop in the Napa Valley. To my friend, even the greatest names in California cabernet cannot compare with a middling Bordeaux.

It's widely available, it's moderately priced, and it doesn't require a corkscrew. What more do you need in a red wine? It doesn't hurt that this medium-bodied blend of shiraz (75 percent) and cabernet sauvignon (25 percent) shows plenty of earthy character, with vibrant flavors of blackberry and chocolate. It's not the most complex red on the market, but it's thoroughly enjoyable and ready to drink. A wine for the masses, not the critics. From: Australia Price: $13 Serve with: Grilled meats, pasta

Finding the right gift for a wine lover doesn't require spending $100 on a bottle of Bordeaux, Burgundy or bubbly; many good wines are available at reasonable prices. These suggestions should please both the people on your holiday list and your own pocketbook:* California offers some bargains in well-made wine. Favorites here, all priced at less than $6 a bottle, include Round Hill Chardonnay, Hawk Crest Sauvignon Blanc and Estancia Sauvignon Blanc. Of the three, the Round Hill is best for meals of seafood or chicken, while the two sauvignon blancs can serve well as either cocktail wines or with shellfish and cold poultry.

2002 Wine Block Cabernet Sauvignon ($10/1.5 liters). A wine writer recommending a boxed wine? Horrors! What gives? Well, this uniquely packaged item from California just happens to be an impressive cabernet for the equivalent of $5 a bottle. Its cubed shape makes it very compact for travel, and the bag-in-box format renders it immune to cork taint and quick spoilage (more than a few weeks would be pushing it). The wine itself is medium- to full-bodied, with an admirable smoothness. Its black-currant and black-cherry flavors are not ultra-complex, but this wine competes well with its bottled counterparts in the $10 to $15 range.