McManis Family Vineyards 2008 California Cabernet Sauvignon, $10

My nephew Ron lavishes on me wines of good quality — sometimes superb, well out of my price range. Tonight, with a ground turkey meatloaf gussied up with black olive tapenade and capers, I opened the McManis Cab. I figured it would also work well with gnocchi lightly dressed with spaghetti sauce, and al dente carrots and asparagus. It did. Nice meal, thank you, Ron!

Sometimes I can tell where the grapes come from but this time, I’m stymied. When a winery says “California” on the label it can be for several reasons, but a major one is that there are grapes (mostly from California) but from non-contiguous growing regions. I imagine that’s the case with this wine.

It is rated at 13.5 percent alcohol but it’s cool and smooth and while it has a modest tannic-acid backbone, it’s very mouth-friendly, more like a good Merlot.

Also like a good Merlot, this wine suggested, to me, cherry pie. I don’t mean there’s any residual sugar, as in a pie; there certainly isn’t. I also detected some unusual aromas and flavors –blueberries and, to a northern New Yorker . . . elderberries! And since I am “fearless” in reporting what I find . . . I find a background of red flame grapes! I know nobody wants a nice wine to taste like table grapes, but . . . .

From the first pour to the last, the outstanding thing about this wine is its rich, clean, fruity balanced acids. I even allow myself to think there’s a hint of red grapefruit in nose and palate.

This wine is made by people who love wine and love grape-growing and at its price point, which is somewhere around $10, it sure is a great buy.

Update, 12 February 2010:

An advertisement from McManis Family Vineyard in the San Francisco Chronicle today informs me that the wine I wrote about, above, won a silver medal in the world’s largest judging of American wines. I loved the wine but thought it was just a tad different from global standards for cabernet sauvignon — noticing things like that is the job of a professional wine writer. Again let me say, it’s a fine wine, and it’s nice to know the judges agree, even if I don’t know why!

Here’s the complete lineup of McManis awards at the San Francisco show:

Gold: 2008 River Junction Chardonnay

Silver: 2008 Pino Grigio, 2008 Syrah, 2008 Petite Sirah, 2008 California Cabernet Sauvignon, 2008 Pinot Noir, 2008 Zinfandel.

Bronze: 2008 Viognier.

Bob Cramer.