Wine Blogging Wednesday... By the Label, Yo!
Derrick Schneider recently came up with a fun idea for Wine Blogging Wednesdays: purchase a bottle purely by the label alone, sample it, and report back. Easy enough. I hit the wine shop with a visiting friend and DucCat; we soon pared down our choices, and walked out with two bottles.
(click on any image for a larger view)
We opened the first bottle, an Eredi Lodali 2003 Dolcetto d'Alba, with a Friday night dinner of tortellinis. I sniffed (rather flat on the nose), and swirled (she wasn’t very leggy), and finally took an extended, gurgling quaff. The wine was exceedingly mild, with perhaps a faint aftertone of harsh berry. Suddenly, the finish came in with a thick smattering of ugly, ragged grape skins that seemed to catch at the back of the throat. After some quick consultation with DucCat, we decided that the wine hadn’t gone bad- it was just nasty. This went promptly down the drain.
Since we still had bowls piled high with tortellinis, DucCat pulled out another bottle (not purchased on label alone), a Musaragno 2003 Selezioni Malbech. This one doesn’t really stand out in memory, but was leaps and bound better than the Dolcetto.
The label was pretty dull, though.
A few nights later, still riding that Florimonte’s high, we decided to make pizza.
As DucCat spun a cutter through the emerging pies, I glanced over the wine racks.
My eyes settled upon the second of our new acquisitions,
an Il Vino Del Lunedi Biso 2003 merlot.
It was fairly dark in colour, with a mellow fruity presence on the nose.
As I swirled, soft red fruits tumbled about, then lazily slipped down the back of my throat.
This wine was definately a wallflower, not at all bad, but nothing memorable.
Thankfully, it perked up a bit when it got around the pizza. This very basic merlot reminded me of the wine that you’d find at your local Mom’n’Pop Italian-American joint, listed simply as “Red”.
What have we learned today? Just like my mamma always told me, you can't go 'round judgin' wine by it's label, girl!
Wednesday Wisdom:
Eredi Lodali 2003 Dolcetto d'Alba
price: $9.28 retail
status: Sucks ass. Big time. Pretty label, though.
Musaragno 2003 Selezioni Malbech
price: unrecorded, but around $10
status: Eh. Won't go seeking this one out again. Label was quite masculine.
Il Vino Del Lunedi Biso 2003 Merlot
price: $8.26
status: Soft and unobstrusive, like your distant Great-Aunt. Would drink if nothing else was available. I want to step into that label!
(click on any image for a larger view)
We opened the first bottle, an Eredi Lodali 2003 Dolcetto d'Alba, with a Friday night dinner of tortellinis. I sniffed (rather flat on the nose), and swirled (she wasn’t very leggy), and finally took an extended, gurgling quaff. The wine was exceedingly mild, with perhaps a faint aftertone of harsh berry. Suddenly, the finish came in with a thick smattering of ugly, ragged grape skins that seemed to catch at the back of the throat. After some quick consultation with DucCat, we decided that the wine hadn’t gone bad- it was just nasty. This went promptly down the drain.
Since we still had bowls piled high with tortellinis, DucCat pulled out another bottle (not purchased on label alone), a Musaragno 2003 Selezioni Malbech. This one doesn’t really stand out in memory, but was leaps and bound better than the Dolcetto.
The label was pretty dull, though.
A few nights later, still riding that Florimonte’s high, we decided to make pizza.
As DucCat spun a cutter through the emerging pies, I glanced over the wine racks.
My eyes settled upon the second of our new acquisitions,
an Il Vino Del Lunedi Biso 2003 merlot.
It was fairly dark in colour, with a mellow fruity presence on the nose.
As I swirled, soft red fruits tumbled about, then lazily slipped down the back of my throat.
This wine was definately a wallflower, not at all bad, but nothing memorable.
Thankfully, it perked up a bit when it got around the pizza. This very basic merlot reminded me of the wine that you’d find at your local Mom’n’Pop Italian-American joint, listed simply as “Red”.
What have we learned today? Just like my mamma always told me, you can't go 'round judgin' wine by it's label, girl!
Wednesday Wisdom:
Eredi Lodali 2003 Dolcetto d'Alba
price: $9.28 retail
status: Sucks ass. Big time. Pretty label, though.
Musaragno 2003 Selezioni Malbech
price: unrecorded, but around $10
status: Eh. Won't go seeking this one out again. Label was quite masculine.
Il Vino Del Lunedi Biso 2003 Merlot
price: $8.26
status: Soft and unobstrusive, like your distant Great-Aunt. Would drink if nothing else was available. I want to step into that label!
posted by s'kat at 12/07/2005 06:00:00 AM
2 Comments:
Food (and drink) for thought.
s'kat,
What wonderful descriptions of the wine, though I'm sorry the first was so very disappointing. I agree about the label on the third!
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