There's plenty of Grenache in France; Languedoc-Roussillon, Cotes du Rhone and Gigondas have plenty of Grenache based wines.

Perhaps something from Beaucastel or St. Cosme he might fancy?
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I thought that Priorat is a region in Spain??

On a side note, I did buy some Bogle Petite Sirah from 2008 along with another 2005 Bordeaux, Clos Marsalette.

The Bogle has been a hit for some guys in this thread. I may try their Merlot or Cab.
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Or their Zin. It's at our Costco.
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Great prices from Bogle too.
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Several good cheap brands are Barefoot and Yellow Tail. Usually about $6-7 bucks a bottle. They have Merlot, Cabs , Sauv, Moscatos and several others. Worth a try!
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Definately will try some of these suggestions.
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Moses,

Aren't CdPs (Beaucastel and St. Cosme in this case) blends with varying degrees of Grenache in them? Priorat is pure Grenache, and new American oak barrels to boot (even winder flavor variation). They are different animals and as much as I like Grenache blends, 100% Grenache when done right is magic.
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Spend $5-6 more and you can find some good stuff. Yellow Tail to me is like the BudMillerCoors of the beer world. There's no "terroir" with Yellow Tail. I know many people like it, and if that's what tastes good to them, that's no problem with me.
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Ok, some tasting notes on the 2008 Thierry & Guy Fat Bastard Merlot: (100% Merlot, from France, not sure the exact region)

First off, great rich red color in the glass.
On the nose, I'm smelling ripe cherries, strawberries, hint of cream(vanilla maybe), and raisins.
On the palate, up front there are sour cherries, ripe red fruit, and some earthy flavors.
To be honest, this wine drops off quickly. I like wines that are strong on the mid-palate, and have a good finish. This wine has decent stuff up front, but you loose the flavors fairly quick. I have had $20 merlot from Cali thats been worse. Not a terribly merlot. I think this bottle was $12.
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I am sure there are posts on Yellow Tail somewhere in this thread, wine is not the first thing that comes to mind when discussing YT, their pride in the chem lab size and effort is. I'd rather drink Bud/Miller/Coors before I would even consider drinking Yellow Tail. Or stick with water.

At YT price point much better wines, real wines, can be had from Fetzer, which is a major step up in quality, IMO.

Bogle, Sebastiani are very affordable and great producers. Lower priced Rosenblum offerings are seriously good as well (Chateau Le Paw?).
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Sounds like you were describing a Cab not a Merlot.
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Fetzer makes a nice gewurztraminer, I agree. I have found some of the Robert Mondavi products close to same price at YT and to be much better. They make a meritage, which of course is just a bordeaux blend, but my wife and I find for something less then 15 a bottle is very drinkable IMO. But as before, each person has a different taste, and of course someone who has been drinking wine for longer period usually has a dryer taste. Hey I am someone who enjoys a petite verdot in a single varital, and btw that is a wine I think stands up to a nice smoke very well. :-)
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How are the higher end Mondavi offerings?
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Rob,

When talking about YT it is not a question of dry or not, its simply that the wine is a chemical concoction produced by careful dialing in in a chem lab. Their own proud admission and marketing point.

Actually, I do like off dry wines, whites in particular, with spicy food (Oriental) as well as after dinner (Quarts de Chaume in particular and Pedro Ximinez with cigars, there is no better pairing, period).
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Nate,

Higher end Mondavi Cabs are good wines, but not as good as their competition at same price points. If you want to try a GREAT Napa Cab that is still flying under the radar for a long time now, buy a bottle of Paradigm. Best bargain around, IMO. If not in IL market they do sell direct AFAIK.

An interesting blend you may want to try is Parador, the components (varietals) sound like they should not work together, but the blend works really well, IMO.
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I was just making a comparison, not saying one was dryer then another, as far as the cab, Kendall Jackson makes one about the same price as the higher end Mondavi in which I think is a much better cab. I was just saying that for the under 15 dollar range, I can even get a French "45" which is even a nice "steak" wine, as a matter of fact... Hmmmm I might just have to pop over a 45 tonight.... :-)

And as far as an off dry white my wife and I enjoyed a nice Moscato from the finger lakes with mexican which I thought went well together.
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My favorite budget wine is fetzer. I can buy it at my local walmart liquor store for 6.97. Fetzer actually has a great pricepoint for the quality. I prefer their chard, cab, and Pinot noir.

Had an okay yt merlot. Not something I would buy to appreciate though.

A great Pinot noir at a decent price is bogle. 16.99 locally. I believe the only other bogle Ive had is the Shiraz.

My favorite mid range cab is frei brothers. But that is 22.99 iirc. I started buying it when walmart had it for $16.00.
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While not strictly a wine, I got a bottle of Fairbanks Cream Sherry for Christmas. Tasty stuff. Smoke, raisins, honey are flavors I get from it. Moderately sweet. It has a touch of bitterness though. I could drink a lot of this if it didn't have so much alcohol.
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Under $7, there's plenty of wines from Spain, France and Portugal that offer terrior and authenticity. Tempranillo "Rioja's", Dao's from Portugal, or general Pinot Noir from France are all great on a budget. CA is turning out some decent Cab's on the low end too.
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I'd like to pick up a few Chateauneuf du Pape wines. I can't remember ever having any, but I've been looking around for some stuff in the $20-30 range and it seems these wines are priced fairly high. Can anyone name of some good labels in that range? Also, I've noticed that CdP produces almost all red wine, and I Rarely see white coming out of CdP. How are the whites?
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2007 is a good vintage for CdP. Vatican, Perrin, Guigal and Telegraph are popular. White CdP is actually popular and worth trying if you're into whites.
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