Thursday, September 21, 2006

Featured Boxed Wine - Peter Vella White Grenache


Perhaps it's unfair to Peter Vella Wines to start here. I do buy Peter Vella wines for cooking, and I have been known to slurp a little while preparing dinner, and some are not that bad. I'm sure there are people who love White Grenache, but I am not one. As a rule however, I do not present my own opinions here. Perhaps I can do better by Peter Vella Wines in the future, but today, this is what I put before you.

First, the description from the Peter Vella website:

The delicate salmon hue of Peter Vella® White Grenache comes from leaving the juice on its skins for just the right amount of time. Our White Grenache has a lighter body with enticing flavors of fresh, red berry fruit. The clean, crisp finish makes this wine a real winner on hot summer days.

Peter Vella - Our Wines


Now, the only review I have ever seen in the press. In December 2003, Carol Emert of the San Francisco Chronicle tasted 31 boxed wines, including five in 5-liter packaging.

The traditional, 5-liter box wines ranged from surprisingly good to shockingly bad. ... The worst was Peter Vella's white Grenache, a wine that I will not taste again without hazard pay. My tasting notes say it best: "Ick. Skunky odor with port underneath. Cat food and gasoline. Cloying flavors. Oooooh, icky cat food finish. I MUST BRUSH."
The San Francisco Chronicle

Thank you Carol Emert, for all your many excellent boxed wine reviews. Readers, you have been warned. There is nothing more I can add.