Sideshow

[telophase]

So my grocery store has just started carrying this wine label called Sideshow. With that name, how could I not buy a bottle? I got a red called Puppetmaster - it's a mix of Syriah and Malbec wines, apparently. I was industriously trying to get the paperish wrapping off the top so I could get to the cork when it finally hit me that it wasn't paperish wrapping, it was aluminum and the fucker had a screw cap. Erm. I got a bit nervous at that point. Anyway, opened it, poured a glass, and it was pretty harsh.

However, after a while - I sat back at the computer and sat the glass next to me and forgot it - I tried it again and after it had warmed up and breathed for a while, the harsh bitter notes went away and it mellowed into a nice, lightly fruity red. Phew. So, for $8.99, I don't have to pick chunks of cork out of my glass or worry about splashing it everywhere when I finally pop the cork out (because I lack the gene for opening wine bottles), and it's a reaosnably drinkable fairly cheap wine. So when I drink my usual two glasses and then forget the half-open bottle for months, I don't lament the cost.

Comments

[badnoodles.livejournal.com]

I'm totally bringing a case of Two Buck Chuck to Texas for con next year. It's a surprisingly drinkable $2 wine from Trader Joe's.

[telophase.livejournal.com]

Wow, impressive.

Mind you, at $2, that means it's practically disposable.

[cicer.livejournal.com]

That stuff is actually very good. We have quite the stockpile at our house! *grins*

[solarbird]

Sealers like screw-caps may be the wave of the future. Cork may be traditional, sure, but it grows a fungus that degrades something like 1 bottle out of every 20 of wine enough for most people to taste. Reportedly, several wineries are going to try to make a slow switch soon.

(The biggest problem, of course, is that people still equate "screw-cap" with "bottlecap" with "night train" and the like.)

[maxineofarc.livejournal.com]

Winemakers keep trying to bring in screw caps - apparently they're much better for the actual wine, or provide fewer variables for things to go wrong with it than corks do, or something. So it's increasingly common to see them on all kinds of bottles, cheap or not so.