WTN: Barefoot Sauvignon Blanc

WTN: Barefoot Sauvignon Blanc, NV

Continuing to sample cheap stuff. This one was recommended by a non-wine geek friend. It comes in at $8.

Color: Yellow straw

Nose: Under-ripe melon, lemon juice.

Taste: Juice. Mostly pear juice, with a dash of pineapple juice. The juice is a heavy juice at that. None of the zip that I love in a good SB. No boxwood, or grass notes to spice the wine up a bit either. Nothing of interest here at all. I can see why non-wine drinkers would like this stuff as is effectively a juice box with a bit of alcohol mixed in. Would most definitely spend the extra dollars to get even a low end NZ example. No comparison.

Sam,
Are you a Gallo stockholder?
Bill

Are you a Gallo stockholder?

Bill,

You can't prove that! In order not to incriminalify myself I plead the fifth commandment!

Actually, my New Years resolution is to try more inexpensive wine. Last year we drank very few (approximately zero) wines under $15, and most were more than $20. In order to recalibrate my palate, and my pocket book, I have become a sponge for inexpensive wine suggestions. If it's under $10 and someone mentions in a sentence with "barely tolerable", or better, I'm there! Thus far into the year I have been largely unimpressed, but have found a gem, or two, eg. Fairvalley Pinotage.

Don't know if you bought this at a Trader Joe's, but if you did and like to bottom feed there, they have an Archeo Nero d’Avola in a very cool black bottle with red and gold lettering for $3.99 that is better than serviceable.

[edited for memory lapse]

A good non-wine-geek friend of mine and I walk at lunch every day and one of our topics is wine. He really likes Barefoot and mentions it often. I am going to direct him to your post, Sam, so he can see that it isn't just my opinion.

Barefoot is a label that has been around the block, several times. It started out as a cutesy second label for jug wines at Davis Bynum in the Russian River Valley, labels that used to mention "Chateau La Feet" on the back label. Get it? From there to part of the Gallo empire, I don't know what happened but there's no connection left except the name/label.

If you're interested in look in looking for another inexpensive but widely distributed Sauvignon Blanc, you might look for Hogue Cellars' version (they call it Fumé Blanc) from Washington state. It's rare to find remarkable complexity in a wine in that price range but I've found the Hogue FB to be reliably pleasant, well-balanced. It should be available for about the same price you paid for the Barefoot. It's bottled under screwcap. Hogue was in the news for conducting their own ageing studay a few years back and made the decision to use screwcaps on most, if not all, of their wines. I know that FB is one.

Thanks for the suggestions guys. I will definitely seek out the Hogue Cellars and the Archeo Nero d’Avola as my quest continues.

Jon, I can see how this (Barefoot) wine would be very appealing to non-wine geeks. It has that un-winey taste that non-wine drinkers crave in a wine. The way I look at it is ' why bother drinking wine at all', but to each his own I guess.

WTN: Barefoot Sauvignon Blanc, NV

Continuing to sample cheap stuff. This one was recommended by a non-wine geek friend. It comes in at $8.

truncated

Sam, I have been buying the low end Geyser Peak sb for $6.99 and find it to be pretty good for that $$. I also find that many of the Chilean sb's in that same price range to be good as well. I haven't had one in some years but the Mondavi Woodbridge sb was the best of that lot. The Columbia Crest (CC) Grand Estates sells here for sub $10 and I like all of the bunch. They also have a lower end wine that sells for about $7 and is serviceable too. The WA State Snoqualmie is supposed to be good but I haven't had it. One more pointer...if you search the archives here you should still find pages and pages of low end priced wines under Chris Coad's pen, cheap crap or something like that.

WTN: Barefoot Sauvignon Blanc, NV
Sam, I have been buying the low end Geyser Peak sb for $6.99 and find it to be pretty good for that $$.

I'll second the Geyser Peak recommendation - another reliable label in low-end SB.