Step One: Get a Box

Black Box Cabernet Sauvignon, 2008

Price: $22@Kopps Supermarket

Brian sez: Black Box has a pretty good reputation in the box wine world. Or at least, it was one of the first box wines about which I heard someone say good things. I'd had it once before thanks to friend of Cheap Wine Challenge, Corra, but I figured it was due for an official review.

Cheap Wine Challenge enjoyed this wine over the course of a week or so and it makes for a perfectly adequate-- if not somewhat uninteresting-- answer to the question, "Hey, what would you like to drink with dinner?" Round and relatively balanced, not too tannic with a little bit of black fruit and a little bit of spice.

Bottom line: Although I wasn't sad to see this one go and I won't rush out to buy it again, it's a passable Tuesday night wine.


Binary Scale Rating: 1

Maybe the koalas like it...

Down Under Shiraz, 2008
$3.33 @ Jenifer Street Market

Brian sez: This rounds out the "three for $10" deal I scored last week. Loyal readers (both of you) will remember that while the Crane Lake Pinot Grigio didn't really show well, I thought their White Zin was a lot of fun. Unfortunately, the last member of the triumverate did not raise the team score. 

It's not the worst wine I've ever had, but I wouldn't serve it to friends. To be honest, it tastes too much like grape juice. My main complaint, though, is that it just doesn't have any of that big fruit that Australian Shiraz usually has.

Oddly enough, the two reviews I found online were pretty positive about it. Perhaps I got a bad bottle or maybe we here at CWC just have higher standards for our cheap wine... : )

Binary scale rating: 0

Pink is the new Red (Bonus Math Joke Inside!!)

Crane Lake White Zinfandel, 2009
$3.33 @ Jenifer Street Market

Brian sez: Best. Pink wine. Ever.

I bought this bottle as part of a "Three bottles for $10" deal when I dropped in to the Jenifer Street Market early last week. The Pinot Grigio from the same producer was a disappointment, so I wasn't expecting much from this bottle. I could not have been more wrong.

The standard I use to judge all pink wines is Susana Balbo's Rose of Malbec. If you haven't tried it, you owe it to yourself to grab a bottle (it should be pretty easy to find at most respectable wine shops) and enjoy outdoors with a plate of cheese and crackers before we exhaust this year's supply of warm summer nights. Forget what you think you know about pink wine-- this isn't Beringer White Zin...

Well, if Rose of Malbec is the standard, the Crane Lake is the first alternate. It's clean and crisp and tastes like crushed fresh strawberries. Incredibly refreshing without an overwhelming sugary finish. I could drink a bottle of this after mowing the lawn.

Now, I should probably give a caveat here: We took this wine camping this weekend and enjoyed it right out of the cooler, probably at a temperature close to 35 degrees-- not significantly colder than recommended serving temperature for cheap pink wine, but maybe enough to hide some of the sugary-ness. Anyway, for $3.33, I don't know how you'll find a more delicious and refreshing cheap pink wine. As such, Crane Lake White Zinfandel earns an unprecedented ONE FACTORIAL on the binary scale...

Binary scale rating: 1!