On the eve of my official return to work, post-summer break, it seems fitting to weigh in on the last of the CBC “All in a Day” summer wine picks. We managed to try all 6 bottles since we found the list in July, and included a few friends along the way in our taste testing. I got around to formally reviewing 4 of them, which are all linked below. The final 2 were a bit lack lustre, so I’ve just included a few notes on them below.
To Recap: “All in a Day” Wine Panel’s Summer Picks
Rod’s Picks:
- White: Cono Sur Viognier (Chile) $9.95– 8.5/10 for taste and 4/5 for value- would buy again.
- Rosé: MASI Modello Rosato (Italy) $10.95– 7.5/10 for taste and 3.5/5 for value.
- Red: Antonin Rodet Cotes du Rhone (France) $12.95– 8.5/10 for taste and 4/5 for value– would buy again.
Stacey’s Picks:
- White: Grooner Gruner Veltliner (Austria) $13.30– 8/10 for taste and 3.5/5 for value.
- Rosé: The Beach House Rosé (South Africa) $9.95- Overly sweet and a bit yeasty. Felt like a cheap bottle of flavoured wine, it was just missing the fake strawberry taste. Would not buy again, although would never have bought it, had it not been on the list.
- Red: Santa Carolina Reserva Carmenere (Chile) $11.95- A dry red, spicy and peppery. Had a high alcohol content that took a long time to dissipate. Not the greatest because the alcohol really overwhelmed the flavour.
Trying these new bottles was a fun experiment, although it was not extremely useful in finding wines I would buy again. I think my wine taste is closer to Rod’s, I would buy both his red and white recommendation again, probably next summer. Stacey’s picks weren’t my favourite, all of them were a bit blah or cheap feeling, which is disappointing, because there are lots of $10 wines out there worth buying.
I think the verdict is, there are lots of wines on my $10 list that I would recommend ahead of these 6.
Thanks to Joe Shlabotnik for the photo.
