Winedown Wednesday: Grocery Store Wines?

In a conversation with My Daughter Diandra some time ago, I used the phrase “Oh, you mean grocery store wine”, about which said Daughter thought I was throwing shade at her millennial budget sized choices in wine. While I don’t believe I was throwing shade, I do agree that on occasion that condescending eye-rolly thing I do to try to keep something condescending from coming out of my mouth doesn’t always work. 😦

Well, much to my great delight, the excellent and quite instructive Washington Post wine columnist Dave McIntrye recently went on a mission to find out if supermarkets or convenience stores actually had anything worth drinking. I say to my great delight because I am all about finding quality wines at reasonable prices and if they can be found at my local grocery store, I’m here for it.

Here’s a summary of the article. He bought 29 “grocery store” wines (10 chardonnays and 19 cabernets and blends) with all but a few priced under $10; mixed in some more expensive ones; and blind tasted them. He and his tasting crew found five – two Robert Mondavi Chardonnays and three Chilean Cabs – that were respectable given their low prices:

• Chardonnays: Woodbridge Chardonnay (by Robert Mondavi) and Robert Mondavi Private Selection
• Cabernets (from Chile): Santa Rita 120, Cousiño-Macul and Los Vascos

I do recommend you read the whole article. It’s a fascinating and informative look at the best-selling wines in America. There you will find out what he liked about the best, how he felt about the worst, and see such descriptions as:

• sewer gas
• smelled like a wet dog
• tasted of cough syrup, rubber, machine oil or worse
• Our least favorite red was [read the article] a popular brand that tasted simply like a junkyard in a bottle.

You can find it here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/food/these-wines-are-cheap-and-ubiquitous-but-are-any-of-them-worth-drinking/2017/09/01/714d605c-8da9-11e7-91d5-ab4e4bb76a3a_story.html?utm_term=.e4693898aed0.

Oh, that Mondavi Private Reserve Chardonnay I got at Wegman’s for $8.49? Not bad. 🙂