I cannot afford $40+ bottles of wine on the regular so my girlfriend and I have been bargain hunting for decent wines at reasonable costs. As expected, we had been pretty disappointed so far, but that was soon to change! We had a pretty damn good wine this last weekend. It's a smooth blend that went extremely well with the Spanish Rice and Chorizo my girlfriend and I made for dinner. Slight spice to it, yet it enhanced the saffron and Spanish spices in the meal. Neither of us are wine aficionados, but we enjoyed it greatly, however we could have asked for a longer finish. We were pissed when her roommate drank 2 glasses of it...

Castel di Salve Armecolo Salento Rosso, from the Southeastern tip, or "heel", of Italy. 80% Negroamaro and 20% Malvasia Nera di Lecce blend. Got it at Moore Brothers Wine Company in NYC for a slightly inflated price of $17, but that's NYC for you...give it a shot for an inexpensive and mellow red without the tannin or fruit explosion. Can't recall if it was the 2005 or 2007...