Dark Horse–Big Red Blend

Sometimes you walk into the wine section of the grocery store and you know exactly what you want. You know that you want a red, a Merlot with tobacco and chocolate flavors that’s on the dry side and will go great with a juicy rare steak.

And other times you walk into the wine section looking for something new and CHEAP. I often like to try different wines, and I tend to avoid the bottom of the barrel $5 wines because they are usually closer to the complete crap side of the spectrum. Sometimes, you get lucky and you find a gem that is both delicious and cheap. Dark Horse is definitely one of those rare gems. It was on sale for $7.99 a bottle and the label was good and the description sounded fantastic, so I thought, “What the hell!? Eight bucks is a pretty low-risk bottle of wine.”

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Such a classy label!

Dark Horse is not as dry as Dreaming Tree, it falls closer to the middle of the dry-sweet spectrum, maybe slightly more on the dry side than the sweet side. It has a truly luscious round fruit flavor, but with balance to keep back what can often be an overpowering sweetness.  Lots of tart cherry, blackberry, and currant flavors with a dash of oak on the finish. For such an inexpensive bottle of red, it is so delicious. I would pair this with food or just to sip on the couch while enjoying a classic episode of Top Gear (such as the episode where they launch a Mini Cooper off of the ski jump at Lillihammer).

Definitely consider picking up a bottle the next time you visit your local grocery store (I got mine at Hannaford!).

Winey Woman 🙂

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Svenska Red and a Brief Mention of the Finger Lakes Region of Wine, Beer, and Spirits

Svenska Red by Swedish Hill Winery is labeled as a semi-sweet table wine, but really should be labeled a dessert sweet wine. With 11.5% alcohol content, Svenska is a doozy, and will get you feeling happy quickly, if you can drink enough of it at one time, due to its sweetness. Overall, it’s a nice fruity dessert wine that I think would taste amazing poured over vanilla ice cream, but definitely not a table wine I would have with dinner.

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Svenska Red…sweet and yummy!

Svenska Red is an upstate New York Finger Lakes Region wine. If you have never visited the Finger Lakes Region of NY, and you’re a fan of wine (and beer and spirits!), you are truly missing out. There are over 100 wineries and several breweries and distilleries along the beautiful shores of Cayuga and Seneca Lakes.There are many companies that run wine tours so you do not even have to drive yourself to each winery.

View of Seneca Lake from Glenora Winery- Finger Lakes Region, NY

View of Seneca Lake from Glenora Winery- Finger Lakes Region, NY

Beer Man and I did a mini-tour last year while we were participating in MINI Takes the States (MTTS), a cross-country rally for MINI Cooper owners that had a stop in Buffalo, NY last year. While we couldn’t do the entire cross-country rally, we did the last three stops in Buffalo, NY; Bethlehem, PA; and Boston, MA. We took the long way to Buffalo and spent a night at the very bottom of Seneca Lake in Watkins Glen. As we were leaving Watkins Glen to head to Buffalo we stopped at several wineries and a brewery called Climbing Bines, which I imagine we’ll post about separately on this blog in the future.

Beer Man and Winey Woman at the Watkins Glen Harbor Hotel

Beer Man and Winey Woman at the Watkins Glen Harbor Hotel

Beer Man in the Hops Field at Climbing Bines Brewery

Beer Man in the Hops Field at Climbing Bines Brewery

We will undoubtedly return to the region soon, so I will end the post here. Check out http://www.fingerlakeswinecountry.com/ if you want to plan your wine tour now!

Winey Woman 🙂