Sunday, April 10, 2016

In this case , the reviewers are correct !

I used to buy wines from Bogle about 20 years ago . Looking at the grapes used in this blend I was curious to see if Bogle could pull off a nice wine for $ 8.99 , right in the range of a 'weekday' wine price for me. There's old vine Zin, Syrah, Cabernet Sauvignon and Petit Sirah in this blend, not really a Bordeaux or Rhone style-more of a California "Hey.....let's try this and see what happens" style-or at least that's how I interpret it. About 8 years ago I bought a wine called River Park that possibly was a similar blend with grapes from central California and it was one of my top picks of the year. I can't say if this Bogle is that good but on first taste I will say that it is a very successful experiment and a wine that I will keep buying. This 'Essential Red' 2013 can be found at Trader Joes and scores a 7 1/2 swiggs-oustanding for a sub $ 9.00 red. The wine Enthusiast gave it 89 points and I think that they are right on the mark-almost an outstanding wine.

Napa Valley red with heart

That's a purple heart to be more precise. This wine is made by a Viet Nam war veteran and he annually donates to the Purple Heart foundation some of the proceeds from the sales of this wine. There are other reasons to buy this wine- for one , it is reasonable for a Napa red at $ 13.99. For two, it is very well made and a nice dry example of a red wine from this great region. I found this one at Shopper's Corner here in Santa Cruz but I'm sure that it exists elsewhere. We gave it 8 swiggs, a good score in this price range. There is no information on the label indicating what grapes are in the blend but it seems to be a Bordeaux style .