House Wine Red 2009 Review

Wine Blogging.  I hear it is the way to drive traffic to your blog and get free wine from distributors looking for someone to shill their wine.  Some places only give good reviews, working from the perspective, If you don't have something nice to say, say nothing at all.  Phooey.  Swill is swill and it deserves to be called out, no matter if you buy it or someone else does.

Good news is, House Wine Red 2009 is a pretty good wine, especially for the 5 bones it cost me at Gordy's in Eau Claire, WI.  Gordy's clearances out a lot of wine - if it isn't selling, it gets clearanced and they move in something else.  So I manage to try a variety of inexpensive (under $20) wine.  I picked this up (regularly $12.49) for $5.00.  It doesn't have to be great to be good at that price, but this is worth it's regular price and a great buy at clearance - I intend on buying out the rest tomorrow.

So, what is House Wine Red?  Made by the Magnificent Wine company, it is part of their Washington State wines that are designed to go with food - Steak House Red, Fish House White, etc. This is the general red - a wine that goes with many items on the menu, if not all.  68% Cab, 22% Merlot, 4% Malbec, 4% Syrah and 2% Petit Verdot, all from the Columbia Valley.  Some companies would call this "Meritage" or some glossy name, but here it is just House Wine.  

Somehow both a deep red and a light red together - almost Pinot Noir like.  Through the side of the glass it is dark, but looking down, much lighter.  Odd.  The nose is fairly soft, with some fruit and alcohol.   First sip is slightly fruity (blueberry?), soft,(some might say silky) with slightly tannins, with the tannins building up and fruit staying.  While there is alcohol on the nose, there is none in the tasting..  A dry wine, but not a fruit bomb (thank you for that), this is a wine that is fine by itself, better with appetizers and great with food.  Beef, lamb, veal.  Should be fine with chicken, fish or pork - a real house wine, comfortable with everything you serve.  If you enjoy a red wine with your meal, you will find this more than acceptable.

Good at retail price, excellent on clearance.  For another review, try The Drunk Yinzer blog.

Wedding Beverage List - Wine, Beer, Water, Soda

This worked out pretty well for my daughters wedding - I know I searched the internet for advice and got conflicting information, so here goes what worked for us.

Setting - 200 guests - 180 adults, outdoors, on a hot summer night (no, not that hot summer night).  Wedding at 4, dinner at 6, dancing till 10.  We had an open bar - no charge.

20 cases of water - we ended with two cases left - did I say it was a hot day?  We put it out in galvinized wash tubs so guests could grab one as they arrived, and placed them around the tent also.  I had frozen 4 cases to help cool down the rest and save on ice.

2 half barrels of beer (actually 1 half and two quarters).  We went with PBR and two micro brews - PBR went first, so don't fret serving cheap beer.

4 cases of Champagne (12 to a case, Barefoot Extra Dry) - we ended up with one left.  This is the only area I think we could of gone with less - 3 cases for the toast would of been enough.

6 bottles non-alcoholic sparking cider - we should of gone more - at least 12.

7 mixed cases wine - I went overboard with the varieties - Menage et Trois red, Columbia Two Vines Merlot, Houge Chardonnay,  Barefoot Moscato, Columbia Crest Riesling, Lindemans sauvignon blanc Wolersheim's Prairie Fume.  The amount of wine was fine - ended up with a mixed case at the end.  But if I were to do it over - I would of gone with just the Merlot, the Chardonnay, the Sauvignon blanc and the Moscato.  Buy what people want - that's pretty much it - it doesn't have to be expensive - just worth drinking.  And I think all of those wines are pretty good on a hot summer night

3 cases mixed soda (half diet, half regular)  Interestingly enough, I should of gone another case of regular soda - we had diet left over at the end of the night, but none of the regular.

300 lbs ice - you need a lot to ice down all that, especially on a hot summer night.  (no, not that hot summer night either)

We used 4 galvanized wash tubs for water, and four coolers to keep the wine cool - I also dropped some ice in the red wine cases - no one really wants to drink red wine that is 85 degrees.

The venue provided the insurance, but we still had a licensed bar tender there.  Good way of making sure you are cutting off those that are getting a little too happy, and are good at dealing with people.

It was a great fun night.