Theme: Tomfoolery Tasting (grocery store wines) - a play on April Fools for wine
The Rules:
1) Purchase a wine from your average grocery store (ex: Trader Joes, Kroger, Publix)
*specialty grocery stores or the "Kro-Gay" (Kroger) in Ansley area are not allowed
*no "Three-Buck-Chuck" - try to step it up a little bit.
2) Pick out a wine that you know is decent, or that you have enjoyed in the past. If you are not sure, pick one at random. If you can, stay in the usual TWITs price range (aka: up to $20 for singles, up to $40 for couples).
3) Bring the wine to TWITs, in a paper bag, for blind tasting
We will be blind tasting these wines, for fun. Then at the end we will unveil them, and see what wines we ended up with. You may be surprised which ones you liked. The wines can be red or white or sparkling or rose, it does not matter. The point of this tomfoolery is to try to pick something "good" from a "grocery store".
TWITs Tasting Notes:
Enjoy this hilarious video that essentially recaps our tasting.
Welcome Wines: The Welcome Wines were not "Tomfoolery Wines", but listed here so we can recall what we tried.
Welcome Wine 1) Earl Olivier Cousin "Pur Breton" Pays an ange vin ~ $30 at Le Caveau
12.5% alcohol
Welcome Wine 2) 2010 Domaine Galevan - Paroles de Femme - Cote Du Rhone ~ $20 at Le Caveau
60% Grenache, 20% Mourvedre, 10% Cinsault, 10% Carignan, 14.5% alcohol
1) Lamarca Prosecco (Italy) ~ $17 with Kroger Plus Card
100% Prosecco, 11% Alcohol
Guesses: Marilyn and the guys all guess prosecco, Val says Cava,
golden apple nose, light, refreshing, good for a hot tub on a hot day
2) 2012 Villa Borghetti Delle Venizie Pinot Grigio $5.99 @ Trader Joes
100% Pinot Grigio, 12% alcohol
Guesses: white wine, light refreshing, almost tastes like nothing, "like the Coors Light of Wine", Kathy guesses it might be Chateau St. Michelle?
3) 2008 Marques de Caceres Rioja - retails for $30.59, but on sale for $17.49 at Toco Hills Kroger
100% Tempranillo, 13.5% alcohol
"that's my kind of stinky, sweet stinky", dry, no transparency, Rheinallt smells Dill, Sweet Dill, "Dill and Grass" or "Dillon Grass, ha ha the name of your dealer perhaps?" Lynn says sour cream and chive, dry maybe high gravity, leather, earth, Val guesses American Oak (later we found it was French oak).
4) 2012 Sterling Vintners Collection Pinot Noir - $11.99 @ Kroger
100% Pinot Noir, 13.5% alcohol
Val guesses Pinot Noir, nose is light, chocolate notes, cheap Welch's fruit drink, Rheinallt guesses Sonoma County Pinot Noir, Marilyn guesses 12.5% alcohol, dark cherry chocolate, Jackie said she has had Sterling before, but this one is more casual than the one she had. "There are gondolas at the winery" (aka: closed car ski lifts), in the Calistoga area, Casual wine.
5) 2011 Ghost Pines Cabernet Sauvignon - $13.99 @ Kroger
100% Cabernet Sauvignon, but blended from different vineyards
21% Napa, 30% Sonoma, 49% Lake County
13.8% alcohol
Brian says Cab Franc, I said I love the finish, but not the nose, Rhein and I said nose is like a California Syrah, white pepper, Santi says it smells like Chinese food, the finish is great, squid ink, looks like I suffered a gunshot wound, I would eat some lamb with this, Lynn guesses Cab.
6) 2010 7 Deadly Zins - $15 @ Kroger
100% Zinfandel 15% alcohol
opaque, dark bitter coffee, slow broad legs, Marilyn guesses at least 14% alcohol, petrol nose, Santi says fresh rain on a hot road, Matt says Asphalt, Rhein says it smells like I-285, Australian Shiraz? Kathy says you thought you were smelling I-285 but that's Lodi (low-dye).
7) 2009 The Federalist Dueling Pistols - Dry Creek Valley - retails for $40.59 but was on sale for $32.48 at Kroger, according to the winemaker's website, this was bottled on April 1st, 2011 (fitting for this tasting's theme)
50% Zinfandel, 50% Syrah 15% alcohol
more asphalt, burnt smell, guessing Zin, worse than the 7 Deadly Zins
8) 2007 Campo Viejo Gran Reserva - $25 @ Fresh Market
85% Tempranillo, 10% Graciano, 5% Mazuelo, 13.5% alcohol
Jamie says tastes like 4 Deadly Zins, Santi says "a good C+ student, I thought the finish was not impressive
Brian joked "Worst TWITs Ever!" I think we agreed, but we still had fun trying out these wines. We have definitely grown our palate beyond the Grocery Store Wines though.
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