There are two categories of wine consumers, those who can afford it and those who can't, and those of us who earn all or part of our incomes selling wines we can't afford to people who actually can have to find wines that satisfy our palates sufficiently enough away from work, without bankrupting us simultaneously. Living in Edgewater, my supermarket wine is Aquinas Cabernet Sauvignon. The current vintage is 2004. Like a guileless child star, this wine is a triumph of vibrancy over depth. The bouquet is all cassis, licorice, thyme and green herbs, but this inky wine has balance. Dark in color and yet light in body, this wine can harmonize with red sauces, and drink easy on its own. In certain ways this is cotton candy-Cabernet, all fruit and wilingness, and little finish, but a Cabernet with friendly fruit, a vegetal quality and balanced tannins is not the easiest thing to find under ten dollars.

I'd much rather savor the juvenile delinquecy of a young Aquinas or Gallo of Sonoma than pay top dollar for a Cabernet like Silver Oak. Taking a stand against Silver Oak on the basis of it being blowzy or over-oaked is a cliche, but opening a bottle of muted, cocoa muddy boots-tasting Alexader Valley Cabernet 2003 was a terrible dissapointment. It drank like a merlot, with a dusty, muted fruit quality. Nothing against merlot, or a hesitancy in the fruit; Chateau Petrus is merlot-based, after all, and an older vintage would display reticent fruit, but that is not the same as absent fruit, and California cabernet should offer a power and vibrancy which this bottle failed to display.

The virtues of certain wines are not immediately available to the transitional palate. I took to La Mission Haut-Brion 2002 like an acolyte on first sniff, but a spätlese-styled Zind-Humbrecht Pinot Gris 2003 left me wanting some lemon-water to wash away the taste of a reckless tango between fructose-sweetness and overly assertive acid. Some wines just don't grab you, regardless of price, and I'm consistently far less dissapointed by a serviceable wine made with some intention, than a highly -plotted name-wine without moxie.