Our great friends Dean and Di Lamothe from Hudson were given the task of bringing wine for 10 (well, eight people and me), to our house last weekend. When they asked what to bring I said, "Something cheap that goes with sirloin, sausages and lobster." They're both accountants, and I don't lightly say the word "cheap" to any accountant-let alone one I've known since our ages added together barely produced a double digit sum. I reassured them that I wasn't using reverse psychology by pointing out that I have of late been drinking in the under $15 a bottle category. I didn't want them to worry about impressing anyone; the night was going to be about the family, old friends, and soon-to-be-martyred crustaceans. Simple table wine would be altogether appropriate.

Of the several bottles they brought, my favorite was one that inexplicably survived the night with its cork intact. The famous movie man Francis Ford Coppola bought the decrepit Inglenook castle in Oakville in the late 1970s. He's carefully revived and replanted vineyards and purchased surrounding property to return the estate to its former scale of well over 1,500 acres. The Diamond Collection has made huge advances in the estate's overall quality in this price category over the last few years.

This line of wines uses generous amounts of French oak to match the concentrated fruit they are producing. Aromas of blueberries, vanilla bean, black raspberries and a bay leaf/fresh clove spice jump out of this deep red wine. Velvety fruit runs the show on the tongue, but the oak and spice tag-team with the overripe plum and berries for a thrilling ride that culminates in a mature tannic finish at $30 a bottle proportions. Buy two.

Craig Pierce, clubhouse manager of Baker Hill Golf Club, can be reached at This email address is being protected from spam bots, you need Javascript enabled to view it