Last night our neighborhood wine group had a tasting called "Recession Reds and Whites of Woe". Instead of our usual well-dressed sit-down tasting which requires participants to bring six wine glasses, we had 58 wines, all priced under $10, available for self-pour and guests were encouraged to dress "down and out".
It was the most fun party we've ever thrown. If prizes had been given for best outfits, the top prizes would have gone to Tom Highfield who wore a wine barrel over long johns and his wife Vanessa who wore a cardboard dress made out of wine boxes with peek-a-boo close-ups of wine bottles strategically placed in front underneath which appeared the words "Nice Bottles". My husband would have taken second place as a more upscale down and outer in a tuxedo jacket, French cuffs, undone bow tie, AIG bonus check in his breast pocket and Fred Simpson boxer shorts which proclaimed "I've never done anything wrong in my whole life." That's right, no pants. (I was dressed similarly in mink stole and black evening wear with skirt suffering dangerously from campfire burns.)
The white wines were a mixed lot. The crowd favorites among the whites were the Kenwood Sauvignon Blanc, Chateau Ste. Michelle Riesling and Bonterra chardonnay. Chardonnays from Chateau St. Jean and Guenoc (my favorite) also showed well, as did sauvignon blancs from Fetzer and Cono Sur. Worst white, and in fact the only bad one: a 3.99 chard purchased at Trader Joe's called Santa Barbara Landing which tasted of sugar water.
Among the reds (reds outnumbered whites 2:1), the prize for crowd favorite would have to go to the three Argentine malbecs as a group. The brands were Gascon, Alberti 154 and Gougenheim, and each had their fans depending on whether you like big and rustic (the Gascon), big and fruitier (the Alberti), or complexity and finesse (the amazing Gougenheim, my WOTN). Castle Rock's Columbia Valley cabernet was also quite drinkable as was the Gnarly Vines Zinfandel from Lodi, Gallo of Sonoma cabernet and a Salice Salentino from Trader Joe's called Epicuro.
The disappointments among the reds were some wines touted in past years as good values, like the Rex Goliath Merlot (absolute dreck) and Pepperwood Grove pinot noir (tart and thin).
For yucks, we also threw in a gallon jug of Carlo Rossi Paisano and a 1.5L of Gallo's Hearty Burgundy which, I'm sad to report, no longer comes in the iconic, wide-bottomed bottle in which it established its reputation. The Paisano was vinegar, absolutely awful--not the pleasant quaffer an old roommate of mine used to buy. And the HB was only marginally better--not vinegar, but hardly as good as I remembered it, and yes I've tasted Hearty Burgundy on and off over the years and though it was never a wine I loved it was always durably same-same, hitting only one note but hitting it fairly well for the price.