Life in the Big House
I picked up a bottle of 2004 Big House Red for one reason: My local package store wisely attached a laminated card boasting Big House's critical accolades to its cubby in the wall. I learned, in a glance, that Big House received 90 points from Wine Spectator, and earned Best Buy honors.
Big House Red is a blend of mostly Carignane, Petite Sirah Sangiovese, and Zinfandel, which gives it nice structure and complexity, and a satisfying long finish.
There are punches of ripe fruit throughout — dark fruits like blackberry and black cherries, framed elegantly by acid and tannins.
Cheap — $9 — and no corkscrew required. Plus you gotta love the label; from afar it reminds me of a highly stylized Quentin Blake illustration. My biggest complaint? The back label is nearly impossible to read thanks to the annoying ransom-note typography. But I almost wish I hadn't been able to read the copy; it's insufferably "irreverent" and "hip." That said, at least they put anything back there at all. I often get annoyed when wines have absolutely nothing to offer on their back label.
We amateurs need all the help we can get.
Big House Red is a blend of mostly Carignane, Petite Sirah Sangiovese, and Zinfandel, which gives it nice structure and complexity, and a satisfying long finish. There are punches of ripe fruit throughout — dark fruits like blackberry and black cherries, framed elegantly by acid and tannins.
Cheap — $9 — and no corkscrew required. Plus you gotta love the label; from afar it reminds me of a highly stylized Quentin Blake illustration. My biggest complaint? The back label is nearly impossible to read thanks to the annoying ransom-note typography. But I almost wish I hadn't been able to read the copy; it's insufferably "irreverent" and "hip." That said, at least they put anything back there at all. I often get annoyed when wines have absolutely nothing to offer on their back label.
We amateurs need all the help we can get.
posted by theogeo at 12:02 AM
6 Comments:
I really loved this wine at the Belcourt, and got a bottle after you left. We so should have reviewed the wines we drank during your visit.
That said, Martini & Rossi Asti champagne? AWESOME.
Next time we will do wine reviews. And also do all the things we plan beforehand instead of chintzing out to stay home and drink said wine.
Ha ha, yeah right. Our asses will be planted on the couch, watching TV and getting crunkulated.
Big House is surprisingly good to be so cheap, though. Glad you like it too!
For reals, though, we can totally do wine reviews next time. And we need to get cheese involved, too.
I need to pick up some champagne some time. I always look at it, but I never take any home. I guess I just figure I never have an occasion for champagne.
That's dumb, though.
I laughed out loud when you punctuated that thought with, "That's dumb, though."
Well, the Martini & Rossi is what you had here. Asti. The Champagne Brut Rosé is the only other one I can recommend by name.
Doing a review of Brie? That I look forward to.
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