Marietta Old Vine Lot 47 Question

I use to drink a lot of the Marietta Old Vine and like so many other wines just stopped for no real reason. The other day I needed a cheap red to braise some short ribs and picked this up. When tasting it seemed to have some noticable residual that I don't recall from previous bottles. Has the style of this wine changed over the years or was my bottle just off. Other than the residual it tasted fine and worked well for the braise but it not a wine that I would want to drink.

Boy am I old. I drank Marietta OV lots with single digit numbers. I thought that most Marietta OV lot numbers less than 20 were pretty darn good QPR. Haven't had it in years.

I go back to lot #9..My experience with lots 40 and up has not been all that favorable, don't know whether the blend or the source has changed or my palate has changed but no longer on my "go to" list re QPR reds

I only started in the early 40s. This has been my house red ever since I first tasted it. However, I picked up a bottle of the 47 and didn't care for it as much as I have the others.

At a "under $15" blind tasting I thought Lot 43 was ok, no RS that I noticed:


#2 - juicy, ripe, some acids, a little herb. I'm guessing South of France, but it's US. The NV Marietta Lot 43. Not complex, but I could drink this without a problem. B/B-

Boy am I old. I drank Marietta OV lots with single digit numbers. I thought that most Marietta OV lot numbers less than 20 were pretty darn good QPR. Haven't had it in years.

Well, Tom...I bought Marietta OV back before they even started putting Lot #'s on them!!
I haven't had one in 3-4 yrs, so don't know if the recent ones have RS or not.
Tom

As another person who had been buying this stuff since perhaps the start of double digits, the recent versions I have tasted have lacked interest. I can't tell if it was RS, lack of acidity and grip or just plain dilution. Cline used to make a similar blend (Cotes d'Oakley, or something like that) that we used to enjoy, but that appears to have vanished. Getting my cheap red thrills from Portugal these days.

I used to sell tons of the stuff at $9.99. Recently, our shelf price went to $15.99, and sales have slowed considerably. In a way, I'm actually feeling pretty good about this: It means people actually are paying attention to QPR.

I used to sell tons of the stuff at $9.99. Recently, our shelf price went to $15.99, and sales have slowed considerably. In a way, I'm actually feeling pretty good about this: It means people actually are paying attention to QPR.

The recession aside, I do think there's something about the $10 barrior. Even though I bought Marietta OV lot #<20 for under $10 10-20 years ago I still think Marietta OV is a $10 wine. So, when I see it at $15 I don't buy it. Of course I'm ignoring 10-20 years of inflation.

As luck would have it, I had the Lot 48 several days ago at the in-laws' house. Pretty straight-ahead Zin blend to my taste, no RS that I could detect. I too used to buy it fairly regularly Way Back When, but it also dropped off my radar.

Mark Lipton