best wines under $100 available in New Hampshire?

[marcs]

I have a friend who lives in NH who asked me for wine tips that he can get through their state system. He tends to like Duckhorn Merlot, California Pinot, and inexpensive Bordeaux advised by Michel Rolland, so that gives you an idea about where he's at taste-wise. I think that is in part due to lack of experience, so I would like to level him up a bit while still respecting that he likes what he likes. He set me a $100 limit, maybe I could try to get him slightly above that for something really great. Any thoughts?

[DavidG]

I don't know the NH system, but would bet Clos Fourtet is available at under $100 and in his wheelhouse. Doesn't meet your objective of trying to shift him to less ripe/modern wines, though. I'm a bit hesitant to do that on the other person's dime unless they ask for something to expand their horizons.

If he is ready to try something different, Haut Bailly should also be under $100. While not Orlando Bobby level traditional, it is less ripe and modern than a lot of St Emilions and offers a nice Graves-y experience that should be very different from his usual go-tos.

[JimHow]

If he is planning on buying a dozen or more bottles, he should wait for one of the 15% off sales they have several times a year. Otherwise, there’s still a lot of 2016 Bordeaux on the shelves in the Granite State.

[marcs]

Thanks. Jim, do you have any specific suggestions? NH wines are not on Winesearcher so it's hard to tell what they have beyond just saying "buy anything 2016"

[Racer Chris]

New Hampshire Liquor and Wine Outlets

[JimHow]

As Gerry M will tell you, the prices aren't very good in NH, except for when they do their 15% sales. Too bad he wasn't looking during their sale of 2014s, we really cleaned up during that sale. I see they have Duckhorn on sale right now, I'm not sure what would be a good deal in Bordeaux right now.

[Gerry M.]

Sorry for the late response. As Jim stated, in general the NH prices are not really that attractive. You have to wait for their sales to really get pricing close to the low end of Wine Searcher. Occasionally when they finally relent and drop their drawers on closeout you can really make out as with the 2014 Bordeaux cleanout Jim and I did.

NH sales usually have a theme like "All cabernet or Merlot wines" or by country. It's tough to recommend specific wines since they vary on availability. In general, when on sale, their Champagne, mid-level California ($50-$125) and Bordeaux pricing are very competitive. Germany, Burgundy and Northern Rhone are a wasteland with very little offered except for Jadot and JJ Prum. Piedmont and Tuscany are ok but cant be counted on to find many producers.

Since you know his tastes better than us, I would give him some of the usual suspects you believe he should experience and utilize the web link that Chris provided above to see what may be available. The new site is not the most user friendly so if you give me specifics I can try and chase down for you.