Re: The Franzia Challenge ( cheap wines vs. good wines )
 

I have a hard time telling anything on the first taste. But I can do a lot better comparing. I suspect a lot are going to fall into this category.

Re: The Franzia Challenge ( cheap wines vs. good wines )
 

I bring this wine to a lot of wine parties/potluck tastings: (Australia)

http://winelibrary.com/images/25102.jpg

It cost $20/bottle and usually wins are comes in top 3 for overall favorite.

Make sure you get the Cab Sav, the other grapes are now where near as good as this one from this vineyard.

All years have been good, currently drinking the 2004 as its the one on the shelf.

Santa Rita's (Chile) Cab Sav and Cab blends from Chile is also very good for a $20 wine.

Also look for South African wines from the Stellenbosh growing region, usually pretty good and cheap.

Re: The Franzia Challenge ( cheap wines vs. good wines )
 

[ QUOTE ]
So,

I'm convinced that most people would be very hard pressed to tell the difference (or have a preference) between a $10 bottle of wine and a $50 bottle.

[/ QUOTE ]
Make this $5 to $50 and I'm with you. [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]


[ QUOTE ]
I'm looking to have a blind-wine tasting, and see just what works out. Future challenges may be created for beer or vodka.

[/ QUOTE ]
This can be a real blast. One mistake I made at one of mike l.'s party was bringing one of my cheap wines at the wrong temperture. You want the playing field as level as possible.


[ QUOTE ]
Franzia box-wine will obviously be included in hopes of someone choosing it as their favorite.

[/ QUOTE ]
You might want to also try a fairly decent boxed wine such as Black Box Wine. It's in the $20 range for a three liter box (compared to $10 for 5 liters of Franzia) which should be eqivalent to about $5 per bottle. Target also has cute little 3 liter boxes for about $15 that IMO are decent (and fit perfectly on the second shelf of the fridge). Of course to fairly (i.e., blindly) compete you would have to put the boxed wine and its competion in a decanter or perhaps transfer the contents of the box to a clean bottle (this may screw it up; I'm no expert).


[ QUOTE ]
It would also be cool if I can get everything from one store - like a CostCo or similar.

[/ QUOTE ]
I haven't seen boxed wine at Costco but there is always hope [img]/images/graemlins/grin.gif[/img]

~ Rick

Re: The Franzia Challenge ( cheap wines vs. good wines )
 

[ QUOTE ]
Also, stay away from the Franzia Sangria.

That stuff is terrible.

[/ QUOTE ]


It really is.

Re: The Franzia Challenge ( cheap wines vs. good wines )
 

For level 1, definitely try the Alice White shiraz. It's $5.99 a bottle where I get it (HI) & spanks a lot of much more expensive wines.

I drink wine often & will regularly splash out 20 or 30 for a bottle. I like to try different ones out at all various prices. AW shiraz is our house red currently.