RP: A review of cheap wine at Sprouts

Taytee · February 2010

(I know some of you don't hit the main board anymore!)

Sprouts has some wines 3 for $10. I got 6 with a 10% case discount making them $3 each (DH opened the cab last week and drank it all, so I'll never know about that one). I figured if I hated them, no biggie since my grande cup of hot chocolate at Starbucks costs more than that. Since it's cold weather, I chose Merlot for a blind taste test with 3 other friends of mine. Long story short, none of us were willing to drink ANY of them enough to even get a buzz. From worst to best (or at least not likely to induce vomiting).

Lindemans South African Merlot - "tasted like nail polish remover", "suck", "acid"

Festival 34 Merlot - "like taking a ride on the vomit comit", "ick"

Tisdale California Merlot - "Duh-RIE", "D-r-y" and "Goosebumps, not in a good way"

Marcus James Malbec (not Merlot, I snuck this one in to see if we could tell it was a different wine. We couldn't) - "Drinkable if you were already drunk", "maybe if we had food", "last bottle of the night"

Marcus James Merlot - "not the worst", "drinkable"

2 of us ended up pouring an actual glass of the Marcus James Merlot but neither of us finished it. It's possible to find a bargin wine and have it taste good but none of these were it. I guess I'll stick with the M?nage ? Trois Red which is cheap but tasty. $18 was still worth the laughs and funny comments though!

ETA: We tried letting some of them "breathe" and no, it didn't help any of them!

shanwalk2 · February 2010

i'm sorry you didn't have good luck. That does sound like a fun night - just testing out some cheap(er) wines and hoping we get lucky with a delish one.

fwiw, my favorite wine (and it's only $6 at HEB!) is Alice White Lexia.

BLONDIE6FT · February 2010

i just bought a red at sprouts called 'broke ass' wine (had a donkey on it). it was $5 on special last week. i thought it was good (but then my everyday wine is the target box wine--the cab/shiraz blend--it's won awards!)

michelleaxo · February 2010

I've had the same problem finding a cheap good wine. I am a big fan of Lambrusco (sp?) but that is not anywhere close to a Merlot.

Cristina<3 Whit · February 2010

Boo, sucks that they sucked, because the concept is pretty cool! I see them every time I'm there and think, "I should get some, but I bet they're not too good"...guess I wasn't missing out on too much.

BLONDIE6FT · February 2010

some regular ones at our house for cheap are (reds):

menage a trois

rex goliath (cab or merlot and the chardonnay wasn't bad either!)

ohhhhh....i can't remember the other one! darn it! when i see it at heb, i'll post again

and of course target box wine....i'm tellin' you, it's good! especially the sangria--which i don't buy anymore because it's like grape juice and i wanna guzzle

Fa1ryG0dm0ther · February 2010

My sister brought a bottle of "Lucky Duck" (from HEB or WalMart, I presume - they live in Marble Falls, so their store options are limited.) It was very good - ESPECIALLY for a $4 bottle of wine. It was a red. Cab Sauv if I remember correctly.