Pepperwood Grove Cabernet Sauvignon

 

Pepperwood Grove Cabernet Sauvignon

(March 24, 2022) Yup.  I referenced this in my last post - or the post before that?  TWS isn't really feeling it tonight because I posted my finals a couple of days ago and they're due tomorrow.

Yes, that's right.  This blog is NOT the primary income source for Your Humble Narrator.  I'm not a trustworthy narrator at the best of times and this is NOT the best of times for TWS.  We're coming out of the 'Rona times right now and so I hope in 20 years this remains as a very confusing narrative of our times.

I know!  I would have expected a blog about wine where I basically say "this is another wine and I drank it.  It wasn't bad but it wasn't good" for everything would be enourmously popular!  Especially when I use the Brutish spellings of words.

Sorry.  I meant British.  TWS has a lot of family from other parts of the world that used to be British and might be salty.  Anyway, doesn't matter, no one reads this, blah blah blah.

This wine is fine.

No, listen.  I bought this to compare with that $30 bottle of Ridge I bought a few days ago.  And you know, I kinda like this one better.

Like maybe Ridge would mellow out, lose some of the jamminess and the Big Froot flavors and the sweetness in a couple of years.  Probably, you know?  But who has time for THAT shit.  I can keep a bottle in the kitchen for a week or so before I find a reason to cook with it so I can drink the rest after my family goes to sleep.  And I've got teenagers at home so there's no point in trying to keep anything alcoholic around.

Right.  Ooooo kay.  Maybe you were a good kid who never experimented with alcohol.  Maybe YOUR kids are little angels who never get into trouble or do anything that might lead to your disapproval.  Maybe... oh wait.... nnghhh.... YIKES!  Oh.  Okay.  Sorry - what were we talking about?  A monkey just flew out of my butt and I got distracted.

SO this bottle cost like 7 bucks at the grocery store.  It is not the most complex thing I've ever drank, and it's a little too sweet.  Not the sweetest - it's no Pink Nasty - and it's fine and it does the job it's hired to do.

I drank all the Ridge so I can't give, like, a side-by-side or anything, but I'm exhausted from two years of trying to teach college students and make it meaningful over fucking Zoom and all so that's not gonna happen.  I do have a bottle of Dark Horse Cab that I'm drinking which is surprisingly more complicated than the Pepperwood - the Dark Horse has more tannins, more astringency, and a deeper bottom note.  Pepperwood's pretty up-front and then done.

Which is good, you know?  Do you want to have some drinking with someone?  Sometimes it's good to not have the hoppy-wheaty-bottles time with beer, and vodka just seems like a lot.  Tequila isn't right for a sit-around-and-drink night if you're for serious sitting-around-and-drinking, because Tequila will insist after a while that you go out and just see what kind of stuff might be going on, and we're not our dads yet so we're not drinking whiskey.

I mean.  Wine.  Pepperwood is good for what it is.  I would not serve it to people who know a something about wine but those are the people that you ask to bring wine to you.  When we know things about a subject we like to have that knowing be appreciated, you know?

But maybe you're going to do a puzzle while it snows outside.  Or you've gone to the coast in December to be in a cozy little cabin and read on the couch while you watch the rain batter the sea.  Or maybe you're writing a blog and casting it out into the ether - not because you expect praise and accolades - or anyone to read the thing - but because if you don't write something, now and again, you'll go a little mad, and you want to drink a goddamn bottle of WINE while you do that, ROGER, and stop looking at me like that with those judging eyes.  I didn't say a word when your MOTHER stayed with us for a week unannounced, ROGER, so I can drink my wine in peace thank you very much.

Umm.  Pepperwood is good for all of those.  I have had the Cab.  It is fine and for $7 that gets translated into 'pretty good'.  Ridge is certainly not 4x as good and if you want to start getting into $20 bottles you really should be getting into $50 bottles - you know?  This is a good grocery store wine.  Don't spend too much more than this unless you're looking to fuck someone who cares about appearances but if you need wine for that then.... well, some joke about one's appearance goes here, I suppose.

I teach at a college and I have kids - as I said above, did you forget?  Maybe come back to this blog tomorrow when you're sober.  But that means I don't have $50 for wine on the regular.

Maybe at some point I'll go to one of those stores where the clerk's on the phone and snooty and ask questions they can't answer and laugh and laugh.  And then go and drink another bottle of Pepperwood Cab because this is the best cheap dumb wine I know.