Value or Greed

 

Is it the love of finding a good value or my greediness that makes me buy a GIANT bottle of wine when i'm at trader joe's? Either way, this impulse buy worked out very well. Liberty Creek Cabernet savignon was a delightfully drinkable wine. It was pleasant without being too sweet or very dry at all. For 7 dollars, I didn't expect a complex wine and I didn't get one. This TJ's find paired well with an awesome spaghetti dinner and some burnt garlic bread (my contribution). Best served among friends :). 4/5 for flavor and 5/5 for value! Also, as a side note, this wine comes in an ENORMOUS liter and a half bottle (or thereabouts).

New Cider spotted in... WHAT? Light Cider?

You didn't read wrong: Light Cider. Now I'm not going to sugar coat this, and the buyer of this cider already knew, the stuff was AWEFUL. If you want a cider that is not only light on calories, but light on flavor and alcohol, go ahead, try Michelob's light cider. I combination of watered down apple juice and flat alcoholic beverage, this is something that should never have left the testing facility. It gets 0/5 for flavor (grosssssss) and it has no value. Period. Also, Hermes would like you to know that the peace sign was him. I cannot blog tag him, and my boozey pics don't make it to fbook.

Good thing Krista decided to save my evening with a nice bottle of my bread and butter: cheap red wine. Blue Fin is one of the Trader Joe's wine, and at 4$ a pop, this bottle has a hearty value of 4.5/5. It goes down nice and easy for a Pino Noir, without much dryness. I'd definitley drink this wine again, and now i'm excited to try the white wine from the same winery that I bought last weekend. Blue fin Pinot Noir rates a solid 4/5. I can't give it a 5/5 because, while it is super tasty,  it doesn't have much depth. It does go down easy, though.

Back with more stories from the Red on Monday!

World Market Sangria

While I was doing whatever the opposite of relaxing is in San Diego last week, Krista and I wandered over to a very interesting store called World Market. Composed of a mix of imported snacks, bags, jewelery and home goods, there were a few things that simply called to us. One of these things was a very large bottle of Sangria from el Toro Flaco. The whole bottle was about 6 or 7 dollars making it a solid 4.5/5 in the value department. As for flavor I'd give it a 4/5. It was nice, fruity, a little heavy on the grape juice, but just what i was looking for at the moment. If you want something cheap, in a big bottle, and REALLY easy to drink, then go for it. Just make sure you drink enough water after; I'm sure this stuff could make for a real mean hangover.

What to do on a Friday night?

While Rob was in Denver having an awesome and cider filled Friday, back in indiana it was BBQ and drinking time! The afternoon wound down with some grilled packet-steamed asparagus with lime juice, olive oil and garlic *(mega yum), and a few bottles of woodchuck and homebrew. After eating we headed to the liqueur store to pick up some essentials for the evening. The booty was a bottle of Woodbridge Cabernet Savignon and a bottle of Vinho Verde, which I'll post on later. The red wasn't bad, but for 7 dollars a bottle, I thought it was 5, but the store LIED, it wasn't a bargain, and tasted like cheap red. 2/5 for flavor, and 1/5 for value. Robert Mondavi- you can do better! I guess I can't hope for much if i'm going to drink out of a plasic cup anyways.  For now, back to work, graduate school calls....

Pre-Race Dinner

Just another lazy Friday afternoon. Well mostly. This Friday contained the last few hours before Mike and I (and some other really BA friends) would be completing a sprint triathlon. To prepare we cracked open an early bottle of Gallo White Zinfandel to start us off with something light while Mike worked on his car. Carb loading, right? This particular bottle was on sale for $2.99, probably my favorite wine price, and was light and drinkable without being overly sweet. I'd rate it 4.5 for value, and 4/5 for its drink-ability. Although please note: that is because I personally liked it, not because I think its a "good wine". It lacks depth (like most white zin's i've encountered) and is pretty much exactly what its label says, white zin for 2.99. Whoot!
Later on in the night we pulled out some Gallo Family Merlot. Generally I try and stay away from the really cheap red wines, and this was a fairly good sample of why. The smell was fairly fruity- mixed with isopropal. This is a decent wine as long as you don't start with it, or expect much. 3/5 for value (still only 3 dollars, and you could probably cook with it) and 2/5 for yumminess. Sorry Mike, maybe next time...
The race itself went AWESOME this morning, more celebratory drinks later!

Catching up

Its been a little while and i've been a bit bad about emailing pictures to myself from my bricked out Iphone. For a quick catchup- about a week and a half ago Patrick's roommate Marissa treated a few of her awesome friends to a delicious homemade Italian dinner of stuffed pasta. In addition she provided a very tasty and well matched cabernet savignon from Livingston. For 6 dollars, this giant bottle made its way around the room. Sadly, i was not there when the bottle was drained, but it was definitely empty the next time i came by. I'd give it a 4.5 for value (giant bottle!) and a 3.5 for yumminess!
 Moving on to last Thursday! Date night! We didn't get around to eating until about 8pm, and pizza salad was on the menu. We baked some Pillsbury pizza dough up with some freshly grated parm. Then when it was done topped it with salad and some veggies that were sauteed in a fairly tasty pinot from Jacob's creek that was left in the fridge after the classy party (3 for yummines and ? for value... I . We drank some Trader Joe's Costal savignon blanc.Very tasty! Another 4 for taste and 5 for value at 4 dollars.  After dinner we enjoyed some delicious rootbeer floats spiked with vanilla vodka. A great way to top of a relaxing evening. A very filling and relaxing evening. I'm sure there will be more floats this evening since we are celebrating all things Patrick for St. Paddy's day! And while i might be a little Irish via Boston, I too cannot resist celebrating every holiday that employs drinking as its official celebratory act. More to come!

First Post!!!!

So, I'm actually putting this together, even though you probably thought I would never get around to it. I figured this blog would be a nice place to share what we've discovered in our adventures through cheap alcohol, more specifically the bottom shelf and sale department of the local Payless wine isle and other liqueur selling locations.
At right you will see two types of the Tavernello wine that Kate and I aquired at a Coop in Venice, Italy. For 1.49 Euro we enjoyed the best that juice-boxed wine has to offer in both red and white. Both were a bit dry, and overall, well worth the trip to Venice. I can't wait to go back!