Day 143 - Rene Barbier Mediterranean Red

Ok, how many times am I going to be swayed by a LABEL?  I mean, how many bottles of wine can I pick just because they are pretty???  Apparently, quite a few.  Because this one, exactly like the Rene Barbier White Wine reviewed on day 131, was chosen only because the label looked beach-like and we were heading to the beach…  And, just like the bottle of red, I planned to serve this at our “Beach Bash Party”, but did not…  People drank beer, white wine, and a red that a guest so lovingly brought. 

Cheap red wine with a pretty label

 So now, 3 nights after the party, here I sit, alone, drinking this bottle…  Pitiful, huh?

I exaggerate….  I am not sitting here chugging wine out of a bottle.  I have a tiny juice glass with some of this cheap wine in it.  I mean, a person has to TASTE THE PRODUCTS to write the reviews, right??

Mediterranean Red in action

This wine is “okay”.  When we opened it last night, neither David nor I liked it.  Maybe it was because of what we were pairing it with (which, if memory serves me correctly, was raw baby carrots, potato chips and buffalo wing flavored chip dip…  yeah, now that I write that, I see THAT could have been the problem…  But it was 2 am and we had just gotten in from a night at a theatre festival and were too tired to COOK…)

So tonight, with a fresh palate and mind, I tried this one again and it is not so bad.  It is a blend of grapes, no single note stands out.  It is super cheap - $4.99 – so the line on the label bragging that this is made of “Spain’s finest grapes” must be taken with a grain of salt.  How FINE can a grape be to end up in a bottle of wine costing less than a fiver?? 

But I can see this wine pairing well with pasta or pizza.  Just not buffalo wing flavored chip dip. 

Price - $4.99

Rating – 3.25