WINE WEDNESDAY - Cocobon, and Future Trader Joe's Lineup

Yoyoyoyoyoyoyo.  I am back with a not-so-new idea: review cheap wines.  This is what the people want and so I will do it.  Everyone is looking for low end value...a very worthwhile pursuit.  I am here to offer some insight into this omnipresent endeavor.

The background for today is this: I was asked to review a mainstay cheapo wine familiar to Trader Joe's clientele: Cocobon. 7 Bucks.  While I found myself in Trader Joe's I decided to see what else caught my eye.  The following selections were made:

Heavyweight Lineup!

So, the plan is as such: I will review Cocobon now.  I will review these other 2 soon.  A quick word about why the other 2 caught my eye:

Panilonco Carmenere Reserve: I have high hopes for this wine to be a value pick for the centuries: $5 for something that is still allowed to put a respectable region, grape, and "Reserve" designation on the bottle!  My only worry is that it is somehow past its time and will just be super flat (maybe trying to get these out of storage?).  We shall see!

Simpler Wines Chardonnay Can:  I can't say that I've never seen canned wine before but I will say that I feel like I should finally try it.  $3 for a 1/2 bottle fluid volume equivalent (what would be referred to as a "demi" bottle (375mL)).

BACKGROUND

Winery:     Cocobon Estates
Grapes:    ?
Region:     Cali
Country:    USA
Vintage:     ?
Price:         $7
Aging:        ?

The legendary wine.  They don't even give a year!

Translation: We are able to make good value cheap wine because we buy the undesirable leftover fruit from decent vineyards.  We don't tell you what's in it because it changes every year.  We don't tell you where (specifically) it's from because it changes every year.

I think the wording here is critical: "grapes from some of the finest vineyards," NOT "some of the finest grapes from our vineyards."  Furthermore the flavor profile that they suggest here: "Dark cherries and vanilla," is pretty vague and generalized.  Dark cherry is a flavor that you could make an argument for with any medium-to-full bodied red wine.  "Vanilla" means they used oak/wood chips during the aging process at some point.

I'm a fan of the label and looks nice in that glass!  Also, shout out to Veritas for being one of few wineries to give you a glass as part of the tasting.

Ok, enough cheap shots.  The honest truth is this wine is pretty good.  We'll get into the review real quick because there's really no further background I can do that would be helpful.

THE TASTING

Tasted with my homemade super spicy chili.

Something new: I will just give you my short hand notes from while I was tasting and then write some conclusions.  Wine was opened while making dinner and sipped throughout the night.

-Vicious bite-needs air because super young
-Dark but not very dark red color
-Coffee, Earth, zin main
-Fruit comes out with time or with food: blackberry, licorice
-Relatively sweet, not too acidic
-Airy kick of heat just like a straight cab s or merlot
-After an hour: wine soft and different, pretty bland

SO, basically I really enjoyed the wine...a decent bit going on for the price.  As expected it has a bite when you first open it; this just means in general it is young.  No problem, just open it up ~30 mins before the main event.  The color doesn't give too much away especially since we know that it is a blend of grapes and not one particular varietal.  The main flavor profile I was getting: coffee, cocoa, slightly cinnamon-earthy, licorice, pungent taste in my opinion characterizes this as a wine made with mainly Zinfandel.  The only issue is that the color of the wine is not characteristic of Zinfandel (which would be a more deep purplish).  Therefore I would venture that Cabernet Sauvignon or one of its close relatives is used also (more of a true dark red hue).  Fruit came a little later with the food; found some berries/cherries in there.  After a while the wine flattened a ton which just means it's made with lower quality fruit (we already knew this).

Conclusion: Decent sipping wine, has more to offer with food, drink in one sitting with friends because probs doesn't store long.  Better value exists but overall a solid cheap wine.

Rating: 6.4254 / 10
Value: 3.5 / 5