I'm always on the lookout for good cheap wine. After all, good wine is easy to find if you're willing to drop a couple bucks, but there's plenty to drink in the under $15 a bottle range. During this holiday season I've been checking out some of the large size offerings, and I've found two favorites:
Pinot Evil This wine comes in a box. It wasn't too long ago that box wine was a joke. In fact it often wasn't even pure wine, often having to be labeled "wine with other natural flavors". Awful stuff, but cheap. Times have changed, and Pinot Evil, which my brother has been drinking for a while now is a nice example. It's a Pinot Noir that comes in a box with cheezy "see no evil, hear no evil, speak no evil" monkey graphics, defying my prejudice against "critter wines". It's sourced from two places, Ile-de-Beaune, France and Hungary. Both are light bodied, as one expects wine from this grape to be. Unlike New World Pinots these wines aren't very soft and plummy. They don't have the bright cherry and refreshing acid you'd find in a good Burgundy, but they are both restrained and simple, which is all I can ask for a budget wine. My experience has been the Hungarian version has a bit more spice, but both are fine for quaffing or accompanying lightish meals. And at about $20 for a 3L box this wine works out the be the same as $5 a bottle, making it one of the cheapest wines I've found this year that's actually some kind of a pleasure to drink.
Barefoot Merlot I'm sure you've seen this one around, in magnums for under $10. (As cheap as Pinot Evil above). This soft, jammy Merlot is just a bit too light on the acid and slightly too heavy on the residual sugar to be anything like a fine wine, but it is drinkable, with no off flavors. It's a blast of soft fruit, but not as heavily extracted as many inexpensive Argentine and Australian wines. Perfect for parties and casual fans of California Merlot.
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4 comments:
I'll have to look around for that Pinot & share it with some friends. Sounds too large for brown baggin' it. (Can you even do that with a box instead of a bottle? Or would the box tear the bag?)
But seriously, your description makes the contents sound appealing. I've been hearing more and more good things about certain boxed wines in the last couple of years.
The last time I checked, the selection of boxed wines at the nearest supermarket was kept on one of the lower shelves. This, along along with your mention of critter wine reminded of the story I'd heard years ago that the early success of Barnum's Animal Crackers was due to the cute critters on the package, combined with shelving low so kids could reach ...
Supposedly these guys are the first to get a drinkable Pinot Noir to the US market in a box. First I've seen, for sure. What inspired my confidence was Old World origins. Low end California wine products pioneered the box wine market, then cheap Aussie wines moved in. I've seen interesting Argentine wines in boxes, but as my taste tends toward Old World wines (not on principle, but from experience) I had to give Pinot Evil a shot.
Yes, the box is corny, even when you get beyond the monkeys. The copy is worse, describing the wine as a guilty pleasure. Clearly they're not marketing the stuff to those of us who prefer to take our pleasure without the specter of guilt, perhaps even seeing something noble in the frugality of it. The target demographic, best as I can figure is fallen temperance supporters. They lack of bottle and strange graphics/copy suggests Puritans getting down with their bad selves, digging the naughtiness of it all as they sip their (gasp) European wine. It's kinda funny.
"Fallen Temperance Supporter." I like it. I could see it on a t-shirt or bumper sticker.
No sign of the Pinot Evil yet, but I did find the Barefoot Merlot, which I tried right away and am enjoying a great deal. And the price was right.
Speaking of weird wines, I remember checking out a highly regarded wine merchant locally a few years back & being startled to see a bottle of KISS wine. I didn't buy it: if they once put their blood into the ink to print a comic book about themshelves, I shudder to think what the hell might be in that bottle.
On reflection, maybe it's not so surprising to see pictured on a wine label. One of them is a critter, after all.
I think Gene would be willing to put the KISS name on just about anything that could make a buck. There is, after all, a KISS casket (Dimebag Darrell was supposedly buried in one), so why not a wine?
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