Barrel Ax Red (California)

Our bottle of Barrel Ax was a 2013 vintage (was that a good year for wine?).  This bottle was recommended by a super friendly and informative TJ’s employee at the Clarendon, VA store.  We asked if Emma Pearl wine (Emma Pearl Pinot Noir Review here) might be coming back (sadly, he thinks it is not, as it was a limited supply, sigh).  But since he knew we like Emma Pearl, he suggested we try this Barrel Ax (it is in the “super cheap wine” category, as was dear ol’ Emma).  It is only $3.99 a bottle, so we grabbed one.  I mean, how horrible can it be, it is not a huge investment, right?

Simple, cool label

Newsflash:  I REALLY LIKE BARREL AX!!

It is a pretty good substitute for Emma Pearl (which we hoarded a case of, but the case is almost gone).  Barrel Ax has a nice, balanced taste.  It is not too strong.  We drank it with a beef dinner (and had a second glass with brownies!).  It is a California wine, and the label says it has flavors of raspberry and strawberry and is aged in oak up to 5 months.  It also says that this is the perfect wine to enjoy with BBQ or PIZZA!  This is perfect, because David just scored us FREE PIZZA FOR A YEAR from a new local pizza place!!!!  I know, right???   (Story about the big pizza win here:  Pizza Kindness )

Whaaaat??  Free pizza for a YEAR?  

Barrel Ax is a good table wine.  It is simple, seems like it would pair well with about anything. 

David says, “I like it.  it is very deep and earthy and red table wine-y.  But not table wine-y in the sense that it tastes cheap and nasty, but rather that it is RICH and full bodied.  It goes well with a hearty meal, a beef or something.  It has a lot of tannin going on.”

David being tough with a bottle of wine

Susan:  Funnily enough, I think this wine tastes neither rich nor full bodied, the descriptions David gave it.  I don’t think it would over-power any meal.  It holds its own but it is not “rich” to me.

I think I might stock up on a case of this stuff!  Heck, we can just put it in the case that the Emma Pearl was in.  

Price:  $3.99

Rating:  4.25

Day 251 - Coconut Water

We hit up yet ANTOHER Trader Joe’s!!  This one was in Columbus, Ohio in an area called Easton Town Center.   And man sakes ALIVE is it in a fancy outdoor mall!  There was just about every store there you could imagine – J. Crew, West Elm, PF Chang’s, heck, there was even a VITAMIN WORLD and a WORLD OF BEER!  Talk about a good combination of stores, eh?  J 

Look - our 18th Trader Joe't to visit in the last 251 days!  This time in Columbus, Ohio

The Trader Joe’s was nice.  There was a wine tasting (wheeee!) and little bits of cheese.  One of the wines being sampled was the Grand Reserve Meritage that I reviewed on day 13 of this blog.  It has the distinction of being one of the few (perhaps the only??) product to get only half of a star! 

http://traderjoes365.blogspot.com/2015/01/day-13-grand-reserve-meritage-2011-red.html

But I won’t hold the fact that they were sampling what I consider to be a really crappy wine.  The store was nice.  The employees were friendly.  The shelves were stocked.  (Well, they were out of the infamous Emma Pearl Pinot Noir that I reviewed a couple of days ago that we have fallen in love with…  They are the second store we visited that was o-u-t of Emma Pearl…)

Anyway, we were not there for wine.  We were there to find products we had never tried before!  And that we did. 

For a few months I have been curious to try COCONUT WATER.  I have seen it in stores (including Trader Joe’s I think) in strangely shaped cardboard-ish containers…  But the containers have always been LARGE or sold in packs of 4 or 6.  And, being a commitment phobic, I did not want to COMMIT to that much coconut water.  I just wanted to taste it.  So when I noticed a bottle of it in the refrigerated section of the Columbus Trader Joe’s I decided that was my chance.  I would risk it!

Here you have it - 355 mL of 100% pure COCONUT WATER

Though I am a fan of coconut, for some reason I was not a true believer that this product would be delicious.  I like coconut, as you will see if you do a search on the word “coconut” on this blog.  But I was LEERY of coconut water.

See - even before cracking the lid open I was leery...

And now that I have tasted it, I can say without a doubt that I was right to be cautious.

Bleck.

Basically, to me, this is the poopiest part of the coconut squeezed into a bottle and slapped with an expensive price tag.  I know by reading the label that there are one and a half coconuts in this one bottle, so I understand the high cost.  But the water is not “thirst quenching” even though I thought that was one of the claims to fame for coconut water. 

I don't begrudge them the price.  The TASTE, however, is another matter.

I drank it really COLD – right out of the refrigerated section at the store.  I think it would be even worse if it were room temperature.  In fact, I think it would be gaggy if it were room temperature… 

Ok - I am willing to try this...

Taking a sip

Oh yuck...

Ummm, no thank you.

Even though it was David’s birthday, I basically forced him to try the coconut water.  Poor fella.  Here is what he thought:

The birthday boy, willing to give the coconut water a go...

NOT enjoying it.

Ewwww gross.

David wishing I had not forced him to try this one.  Especially on his BIRTHDAY.

David:  “TERRIBLE.  Umm, uhhhh…  Really remarkably UNPLEASANT.  It is like drinking coconut milk but with none of the niceness of that.  I think I can unquestionably give this a ZERO rating.  I would give this a zero rating.  Because I would not take another drink of that even if I were thirsty.”

I disagreed with him on that regard.  If I were super thirsty and say, like on the trashy reality tv show “Naked and Afraid” and someone brought me a bottle of this coconut water from Trader Joe’s, I would drink it.  I give the product a 1.25.

The reason I give it what seems like a “high score” for a product I really disliked is because even though I personally did not like it, I do not really think it is any worse than any OTHER brand of coconut water.   I think it is just coconut water itself that we probably do not like. 

I dumped over half a bottle of this crap, errr, I mean water out when we pulled over on our drive. 

Here is David MUCH happier with a big ice cream sundae for his birthday from a cool place we found in
Zanesville, OH called Tom's Ice Cream Bowl http://www.tomsicecreambowl.com/

Price – $2.99

Rating (average of David’s 0 and my 1.25 rounded up) - .75

Day 249 - Emma Pearl Pinot Noir

I cannot believe this Pinot Noir is only $3.99.  Oh I hope, hope, hope Trader Joe’s keeps carrying it and I hope they don’t raise the price.  It is great!  

Simple label, lovely wine.  Flyer item!

Maybe it tastes so great because we have been drinking mostly white wine this summer and it is a nice change of pace to have a red.  But seriously, this really tastes good!  It is good with vegetables – I guess I think it would be good with ANYTHING.

David agrees with my assessment on this one and says, “It is a Pinot Noir, so it is light but it has some body to it!  It is really well balanced.  It even borders on a hint of “earthiness” but not too much, you know, like a heavy Cabernet Sauvignon or something.  It is really a good “go with everything” wine.” 

CHEERS - to a good, cheap Pinot Noir from Trader Joe's!

This is an all around good red to have on hand at all times.  We will be stocking up and squirreling away a few bottles as the weather gets colder. 

OH NO – before I posted this review I checked the Trader Joe’s site to see what they had to say about it.  Here is what is ringing in my ears, “When it’s gone, it’s gone…”.  NOOOOOOOO SAY IT ISN’T SO!

Holy smokes I need to get to Trader Joe's...  Gotta stock up!
 I am thinking perhaps I should not have told all of you about this one...  I should have kept it for myself!

Looks like I need to make a stock up trip even sooner than I expected.  I am coming, Trader Joe’s, I am coming!  Save me some Edwin Pearl Pinot Noir!  (Here is the link to the bad news - http://www.traderjoes.com/fearless-flyer/article/2491 )

Price - $3.99 (insanely cheap)

Rating - 5