Monday, August 2, 2010

2008 Reds - A wine for the people




Zin blends! Here comes a proletariat version of The Prisoner. Screwcap and all!

Good times. The zin comes roaring out at the start! Whammo!

For some reason the nose reminds me of an airplane cabin.

They softened the start with very berry middle a cream finish.

Very deep color. Don't worry about breathing or decanting. Open and pour!

Also very cheap. Like eight bucks cheap. Thus dethroning Red Truck as the go to cheap California red table wine! Sadly, good luck finding it.

Buy a whole case when you do find it!

Here's the link: http://www.laurelglen.com/laurelglen/catalog/view_product.jsp?product_id=1039&cat_id=1001

Drink well!
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Wednesday, February 17, 2010

2007 Apothic Red

This is the second bottle I've uncorked, but my first time reviewing it. This should be tipping you off...

Anyway, not much of a nose. Some so-so legs.

GOD I LOVE THIS WINE. But perhaps that's b/c I love grapefruit. This is a grapefruit-ey wine. There's some roasted smokey berry tastes, but nothing to deep or meaty.

For the most part it's a light balanced start, some sweet with some sour.

Grapefruit-ey middle, then goes a bit green towards the finish.

It ends very light and sweet.

It's a blend of merlot, syrah, and red zin grapes. For me, the merlot and the syrah come through the most - it's mild fruitiness masks any spiciness the zin brings.

Super drinkable - definitely a LIGHT red table wine. This will NOT hold up against red meat or any spicy foods.

Gamblelynn had a similar review - I think we're on the same page with this one.

This was $9.99 bought on February 12th.

I strongly recommend this wine. It will easily stand up to table reds in the twenty to thirty dollar range.

Food accompaniment was stove-top unsalted popcorn (per usual) with the album Wood by Moxy Früvous.

Drink well!

Thursday, February 11, 2010

Bogle Vineyards Phantom 2006



Day 1

Let's see... a blend of petite sirah, zin, and mourvedre. Sheesh, even the font screams "Prisoner copycat". Ah well, one could do worse than trying to copy the best red blend in Cali.

This wine has no legs, it just sheets. Odd.

Nice nose, but not very distinctive.

Harsh start, creamy berry flavored middle, nice smooth, sweet, flowery finish.

Lets dig deeper... (i.e. drink more).

It's just too raw at the start and I really can't pull out anything distinct, but the journey after that tells me the wine has some good things to offer. I don't get a lot of depth or complexity here - all the flavor is generic, obvious and on the surface.

Let's give it a day of breathing and see what happens. In the meantime suffice to say it's a 15 dollar supermarket wine, and for fifteen bucks please just go buy a bottle of The Turk. Sadly it's getting harder and harder to find The Turk. This is my sad face.

Also... Wincentric did a fairly positive review of this one. While I agree with him on the Tootsie Roll Pop finish, the rest seems to be all in his head. What's a "wine lover's wine" anyway? Is that kind of like saying the rest of you are to dumb to appreciate this well-marketed mediocrity? This reminds me of people who like Classico tomato sauce because the cheesy label and mason jar it comes in makes it seem "authentic". (Classico tastes like crap btw).

Too green and generic to be a solid table red. I don't recommend it, despite it's nice finish.