Looking for a similar white wine to the brand CONUNDRUM in the $10-15 range.

September 6, 2004 3:10 PM

I'm a huge fab of Conundrum, a white blend wine lately out of Caymus Vinyards. However, here in Boston the suggested retail price of 24$ for a bottle of the '02 is more commonly 30+$. Also, local liquor stores rarely stay in stock. As someone who enjoys a bottle of wine with dinner and saving a few bucks, is there any other similar white (blend or otherwise) you can recommend for 10$-15$ or less? Or if you can find a cheap source of Conundrum outside of NH State Liquor Stores, please let me know!

And of course, after checking and re-checking, I totally missed the "fab." I'm a fan, of course, and such that I had a bottle before posting this. This explains much. Sigh.

posted by robocop is bleeding to Food & Drink (7 answers total)

I was pretty surprised with Quivera Sauvignon Blanc recently--since law (in the US) only requires a wine to be 75% of the labeled varietal, I'm almost certain it's also chard and other grapes (viognier? but I couldn't detect it). It has none of the grassiness typical of SB and it was (probably, I can't remember) oak-aged and/or fermented in oak. But not too oaky. Found it at Trader Joe's here in Portland for around $5 a bottle--that was the other shocker. It was better than many of the $10-20 bottles we'd tried lately.

A good interesting white blend not really in the same style is Boony Doon's Big House White (don't let the stelvin enclosure fool you).

Of course, you're asking the impossible. If Conundrum or anything really comparable was 10-15 dollars a bottle... cats and dogs would be living together, mass hysteria. White blends are relatively rare, or so I've found. Americans are generally stuck on vintage varietals.

Conundrum is also allocated to restaurants first, wine shops etc. later. I managed a wine store for a while in SC seven years ago and getting more than 6 bottle of Conundrum at a time was nearly impossible without sacrificing a medium- to large-sized, innocent woodland creature. If you're in NH, the same probably goes there. CA restaurants and big cities get Conundrum first then the rest of the USA be damned.

You probably know this, but most stores offer case discounts on wine--if I were you, go buy 12 different bottles of various whites, try them, see if any come close. Taste test. The kind of test you can't fail.
posted by josephtate at 3:30 PM on September 6, 2004

well, it says here that peninsula ridge equinox is similar (but not any cheaper).

you can buy it online here for $27.

i've never drunk, to my knowledge, a similar wine. for what it's worth my current favourite white is a santa ines sauvignon blanc, but i doubt it tastes anything like your conundrum.
posted by andrew cooke at 3:34 PM on September 6, 2004

I am also a Conundrum fan in the Boston area, RIB, and if I ever find it for a cheap price, I'll be sure to let you know. My local source is less than $30, but only just.

At one liquor store, they recommended Rabbit Ridge Viognier as an alternative, and it was similar (Conundrum is a Viognier blend) and a bit cheaper.
posted by briank at 5:58 PM on September 6, 2004

Froogle says you can get it at $22 a bottle. Plus shipping. And of course shipping wine has whacked-out state rules, so ymmv.
posted by falconred at 9:39 PM on September 6, 2004

Wine Searcher lists a bunch of places that sell the '02 for under $20. You might have to buy a case or so in order to offset the shipping costs, tho.
posted by shoos at 4:53 AM on September 7, 2004

My dad, the family wine snob, said that Number 9 by Sokol Blosser is similar. He also said that Symphony is sweeter, but very, very drinkable, and goes for about $6 at Trader Joe's.
posted by SpecialK at 11:03 AM on September 7, 2004

Oh, he also said to check for Conundrum at Costco. I've gotten some great wines there, including Rodney Strong Chalk Hill Chardonnay, and it's usually pretty cheap.
posted by SpecialK at 12:09 PM on September 7, 2004