Posts Tagged ‘California’
A Shining Example for Other Box Wines!
Is it possible to get a box wine that actually tastes as good as a wine that comes from a bottle?
After two lackluster experiences last year with Casarsa Pinot Grigio/Blanc Blend and Killer Juice Cabernet Sauvignon, I was asking myself that very question. It sure seemed to me the stigma that box wines are cheap and of lesser quality than traditional bottled wine was holding as true today as it has in the past.
Believe you me – I wanna show some love for the box for lots of reasons:
1.) It’s supposed to stay fresh for up to 4 weeks after opening.
2.) The cool little tap is pretty nifty and very convenient.
3.) The eco-friendly component: It’s recyclable, takes far less energy to produce and transport, reducing the carbon footprint by 50% versus glass bottles.
But in the end, if this bag and cardboard alternative to bottled wine doesn’t taste as good, does it really matter?
I was curious to take another stab at this box wine thing after a wine buddy of mine, who is accustomed to spending $20 per 750ml, became a loyal imbiber of this box. I was even more curious after learning that this box wine was a two-time blind tasting finalist in, “The Wine Trials 2010“. Ok then – Bring on the Black Box!
The Verdict: The 2008 Black Box Cabernet Sauvignon is by far the best tasting box wine that I’ve ever tried. For what works out to be about $5 per 750ml of juice, you’re getting a fairly decent dose of red berry and peppery flavors that’ll make you think that you’re drinking a more expensive bottled California Cab. It’s a good, all-purpose, inexpensive red that most wine drinkers will enjoy – especially those that still think that good wine and cardboard box are not to be mentioned together in the same sentence. Go out and try it for yourself – you just might get turned onto a box wine like I did!
Finally, I must mention that this box was a generous sample given to me by the Holden Family the day before my family and I were trapped in our house for 2 days after a blizzard dumped two feet of snow. My sanity remaining in check during this time was due in large part to this glorious box of wine. Holdens – Many thanks for your contribution towards our survival of the Blizzard of 2010!
WineLife365 Rating: 3-Stars
From: California
Price: $19.99 (Box = 4 750ml bottles!)
Posted in 3-Star, Reviews-Wine | 
Tags: 2008, 3-Star, Boxed Wine, Cabernet Sauvignon, California, Red Wine, Wine Reviews | 
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This Ain’t Yo Mama’s Jug Wine!
This one’s for you, Casey!
A while ago, a dear friend of mine came walking through our front door carrying a big jug of wine in her hand, called Wine Garage. I thought to myself, “Holy crap, she’s either homeless and never told us, or she’s smoked way too much Christmas Weed?!” I wanted to say, “CHILD PLEASE! Have you done lost your wine-soaked mind comin’ up in here with that jug-o-wine?!”
After getting my wine snooty-side under control, I made my way closer to the jug to get a good look at its rather simple and generic looking label – it read, “Wine Garage Red Wine Blend B1″. I’ve seen and tried a lot of jug wines, but this jug was completely foreign to me. Besides that, what did the “Red Wine Blend B1” actually mean?
After doing a little Google search on Wine Garage, here’s what I discovered about this jug wine that sat squarely in the middle of our dinner table just waiting to be opened:
The Wine Garage store is actually housed in a former gas station/tire shop just south of Calistoga, California’s main street. The Wine Garage has approximately 200 different wines available for purchase. They seek out and personally visit small wineries throughout the Napa Valley and other wine regions in California such as Lodi, Paso Robles, Amador and Mendocino looking for what they feel are hidden gems. Another interesting snippet, is that they actually “pump” the wines that go into their half-gallon glass jugs with specially designed gas station nozzles.
The Wine Garage offers up two different jug blends to choose from:
1. The “B1”, (the one we tried) is a Bordeaux-style blend of Cabernet, Carmenere, Merlot and Petite Verdot.
2. The other jug is a Rhone-style blend consisting of Syrah, Zinfandel, Grenache, Mourvedre and Petite Syrah.
I’m gonna be completely honest and straight to the point about the “B1” red blend: There were four of us that night that drank this jug to its last glorious drop, and out of the four only one said, “it’s ok”, while the rest of us thought it was hands down the best damn jug wine that we ever had the pleasure of sucking down.
Grab a jug of Wine Garage, round up a few close friends, and reminisce about the good old blotto days when the jug of choice was Riunite Lambrusco! In the immortal words of Chad Ocho Cinco, “Just cause you got money, don’t mean you gotta spend it!”
WineLife365 Rating: 3-Stars
From: California
Price: $29.99 (1/2 gallon!)
Posted in Reviews-Wine |
Tags: 3-Star, Add new tag, Blend, California, Jug Wine, Red Wine, Wine Garage, Wine Reviews, Wines under $20 |
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Wine Review – 2005 Heavyweight Red
From: California
Price: $9.99
Bare-knuckle boxing is recognized as the first form of boxing, and it involved two competitors fighting one another without the use of boxing gloves or any other padding on their hands. During this era in boxing, John Lawrence Sullivan, who was nicknamed the “Boston Strong Boy”, was considered by most historians and boxing experts as the first ever US Heavyweight Champion of “gloved” boxing and also as the last heavyweight champion of “bare-knuckle” boxing.
Seeing this John Sullivan inspired label enticed me to go ahead and purchase it to taste what this “Heavyweight Red” was made of. After only a few seconds into the first round with this supposed heavyweight, that is comprised of 76% Cabernet Sauvignon, 14% Syrah and 10%, I quickly found out that this heavyweight had nothing more than a “glass chin”, in boxing speak.
Light, fruity, weak and hollow on its follow through makes this red blend a more formidable match in the Lightweight Division. Unfortunately, in the 750ml and under $10 category this “Heavyweight Red” just doesn’t compete!
I award the “Heavyweight Red” 1 Star out of 4. There’s a lot more blood, sweat and tears that need to go inside this bottle in order for it to live up to the legendary heavyweight status of its label .
WineLife365 Rating: 1-Star
Posted in 1-Star, Reviews-Wine |
Tags: 1-Star, 2005, Blend, Cabernet Sauvignon, California, Heavyweight Red, Red Wine, Wine Reviews, Wines under $10 |
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Looking for Clues: Decoding a California Wine Label
The next time you purchase a bottle of California wine, take a closer look at the front and back labels. Besides eye-popping artwork, tasting notes, and love stories, you’re also likely to see one of these three wine terms on them as well:
Vinted & Bottled By
If a bottle lists the term “Vinted & Bottled By” on either the front or back label, this indicates that a minimum of 10% of the wine contained inside that bottle was fermented at the winery whose name shows up on the bottle. Alternatively, the label may also read, “Made and Bottled By”, which has the same meaning.
Produced & Bottled By
This term indicates that the winery, whose name is on the label, was responsible for crushing, fermenting and bottling a minimum of 75% of the wine inside the bottle. However, it does not mean that the winery actually grew the grapes used to make the wine.
Estate Bottled
This is the formal way of saying that 100% of the wine that you’re drinking came from grapes grown on land owned or controlled by that particular winery, located in the specified viticultural area named. It is the formal way of saying that the winery listed on the front label was responsible for crushing, fermenting the grapes, any wine-making processes and bottling the wine in one continuous operation. Some labels may also say, “Grown, Produced and Bottled By”, which means the same thing as “Estate Bottled”.
California Wine Laws require all California wine labels to specify one of these three designations. However, from a consumer standpoint, this label disclosure requirement should not be used as the Holy Grail for determining whether an “Estate Bottled” wine is superior to the other two designations or vice versa; it’s just for legal purposes.
Check it out, the next time you’re shopping for California wines.
Wine Review – 2006 Francis Ford Coppola Rosso
From: California
Price: $10.99
I, like so many other people, have truly enjoyed watching many of the cinematic masterpieces that Mr. Francis Ford Coppola has directed, produced or written over the years. Some might argue that movies like the Godfather Trilogy, The Outsiders, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and Apocalypse Now are some of the greatest films ever made.
Sadly however, it only took two sips of the 2006 Rosso blended red table wine for my taste buds to admit that this public offering was not going to be one of Mr. Coppola’s finer pieces of work.
The 2006 Francis Ford Coppola Rosso is comprised of 48% Zinfandel, 27% Syrah, and 25% Cabernet Sauvignon. It delivers a rather disappointing and mediocre script of cherry-vanilla flavors. To my palate, this wine seemed to lack solid fruit concentration and gusto to take it from being a snore to making it yet another Francis Ford Coppola hit.
Oddly enough, I did however find this wine to be more enjoyable on the second night when I paired it with a thick juicy piece of steak. And based on how it tasted with the steak, I’d imagine that this red would probably deliver a decent performance with a plate of spaghetti and meatballs.
In the end though, the 2006 Francis Ford Coppola Rosso was a dud for me. It just didn’t “make me an offer that I couldn’t refuse” to award it a higher WineLife365 rating than 2 stars out of 4 – even after two nights of convincing.
Posted in 2-Star, Reds, Reviews-Wine |
Tags: 2-Star, 2006, Blend, California, Francis Ford Coppola, Red Wine, Wine Reviews, Wines under $10, Wines under $20 |
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