Wine Tasting Adventures: Winc Edition
Happy White Wine Day! Apparently August 3rd is a day to celebrate white wine so it’s quite fitting that we release this blog today! When you get home from work, or when you’re enjoying your quarantine lunch at home, enjoy a nice glass of white wine!
Last night, we had a lovely glass of white! And perhaps, after work, we’ll have another glass with dinner!
I used to dislike wine. I remember trying white wine when I was quite young by accident. Grams had left a mug of it on the table and I drank it thinking it was water. I don’t know why it was in a mug. I just remember running into the house and wanting a drink. I didn’t think to smell it first, I just drank! It was ruined for me! It was a shock to the system and not tasty for a little kid.
I’m happy to say that I’m over it now.
After living in Italy for 5 years, I learned to drink and enjoy wine quite regularly. Baros is a little less of a wine drinker. He’s more of a beer and whiskey drinker, but he still enjoys a good glass of wine periodically.
Neither of us are wine experts, but I guess I have a little more background after my time in Italy. I learned a lot while out and about and also had the good fortune to go to Vinitaly many years ago. Vinitaly takes place once a year in Verona, Italy and is a giant celebration of artisanal wines, olive oil and other Italian products. I would love to go again and bring Baros so we could learn even more about the production of wines and different varietals produced across Italy.
On Friday night, we tried our first ever Wine Subscription box! Our friend Andrea introduced us to Winc Wines a couple weeks back and we were excited to place our first order and then try it for our Facebook live! (Click the link if you missed it and want to see our antics). I really enjoyed the idea of Winc because you don’t just blindly choose your wines (like I do at the liquor store). I have often chosen wines because the bottle is pretty or because it sounds interesting at the cheaper price point I’m usually working with, and sometimes they’re good. Other times, well, I’ve been sorely disappointed.
Maestro wanted us to open the box…
We don’t think he wanted a drink… he just wanted a new place to play!
I enjoy that Winc has a short quiz when you first sign up and it gives you a basic palette assessment and recommendations for wines you may like. I answered the questions based on my tastes but also keeping in mind that Baros has slightly different tastes than me (he likes mushrooms more than me and is a bigger fan of black coffee). Winc then offered four bottle suggestions, all of which I decided to order blindly. They offer descriptions and ratings of each bottle… but I didn’t read them except to note that they suggested three whites and one red.
I really wanted to see how good the suggestions are.
The bottles arrived about a week later. Normally, they ship a little faster but Corona has slowed down the shipping time on just about everything. And then we waited for the end of the week to try the bottles live!
We were only going to try two of them, but eventually decided, with the encouragement of our viewers, to try all four bottles so we can give the most full review possible.
Our four Winc Taste-tested Wines
We ordered four Californian wines: the 2019 Vinyasa Gewürztraminer, the 2019 Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy Sauvignon Blanc, the 2018 Big Beat® Red Blend and the 2019 Porter & Plot® Sauvignon Blanc. So I made a mini charcuterie board to accompany our bottles. It had prosciutto crudo, spicy soppresata, small mozzarella balls, ghost pepper cheese, blueberry lemon and thyme goat cheese, feta, whole wheat crackers and fresh grapes.
Our Charcuterie Board
Mozzarella balls, ghost pepper cheese, feta, blueberry lemon & thyme goat cheese, prosciutto crudo and spicy uncured soppresata
We tried all the bottle and had three hits and one miss. So let’s start with the miss.
Our least favorite was the 2019 Easy Peasy Lemon Squeezy Sauvignon Blanc. I was actually really excited about this one because of the name! This is absolutely a bottle that I would have bought at the Liquor Store based on the name and bottle. On the site, it has a 3.9 rating out of 5. According to Winc, it pairs well with oysters, crab and avocado salad, or asparagus. They also suggested having it with Burmese-Inspired Chicken Braised in Coconut Milk & Turmeric with Sweet Potato*. The Easy Peasy is supposed to be light and dry with tasting notes of grass, lemon rind, lime and pineapple. And I could definitely taste some of the lemon, lime and pineapple but there was a lot of grass. It was the right amount of sweetness for us but we were not fans of the smell. It had a heavy grassy smell that Baros described rather harshly in the live. I don’t think it’s the worst wine I’ve ever tasted, but it definitely wasn’t my favorite or Baros’. Mostly the smell was off-putting but the after taste was more citrusy. We give it 2.5 stars out of five. Not horrible but certainly, it will not become our go-to wine.
We had a clear winner, but the two in the middle were pretty evenly matched.
The Vinyasa was delicious. It has a 3.5 rating on Winc. They suggest pairing it with a Simple Weeknight Vegetarian Green Curry & Noodles. It sounds delicious and like it would be a great pairing to try maybe later in the week. The Vinyasa is supposed to be light and slightly sweet with a lower alcohol content. It has tasting notes of honeysuckle, lychee, melon and white peach. I honestly don’t remember what honeysuckle tastes like but I definitely got the lychee flavor and Baros could taste the melon more strongly. It was bright and aromatic and quite easy to drink. The Vinyasa was on the sweeter side for Baros but I really enjoyed it. He did too but I think he definitely needed the balancing savory flavors of the charcuterie board. Also, I think the wine could have been more chilled (we had it in the box in the fridge). We agree with the 3.5 star rating on the site. We would get it again for sure.
We really enjoyed the one Red that we tried. The Big Beat Red Blend has a 4 star rating with good reason. It’s medium bodied and slightly sweet with a decent alcohol content. It has tasting notes of blackberry, strawberry and vanilla. According to Winc, it is balanced with leather and a hint of cola and they suggest pairing with Short Rib Chili. We could definitely taste the fruit. It had a hint of sweetness but was really balanced with the earthy, woody flavors. The more I think about it, the more I agree with Baros. It was really good and I can see us drinking this again. It kind of reminded me of a house wine in Italy which is a good thing. I loved house wine in Italy. I also think this wine would be better at room temperature (everything went into the fridge since we didn’t open the box ahead of the live). I think the flavors would really pop a little warmer. It paired really well with the saltiness of the cheeses, meats and crackers. We give this a 3.5 or 4 (I’m still being indecisive!). We would definitely re-order this one some time in the future.
Our absolute favorite wine was the Porter & Plot. It has a 4.1 customer rating. It is a light, dry wine with a super smooth finish. Winc suggests pairing it with seafood and light snacks like hummus, raw or cooked veggies, and cheese and pairs it with a recipe for Lebanese Fish with Herby Tahini Sauce Over Rice (it sounds delicious and needs to be made soon!). It has tasting notes of bell pepper, citrus, pineapple, and pink grapefruit. This was really good. It was smooth and easy to drink and not sweet which was a nice change from some of the other wines. It was light and crisp and I definitely got that citrus flavor. I wasn’t sure how I would feel about the pink grapefruit notes but I actually liked it. It really added to the refreshing quality of the wine. We give this wine a 4 or 4.5. We’ll reorder when it’s back in stock. It was great quality for the price and it tasted pretty amazing.
All in all we’ll definitely be ordering from Winc again. I think we’re going to rate the wines and order the next round of suggestions. I’d like to see how good their algorithm is. Will the wines they suggest be better the longer we order and rate what they send us?
At the very least, we’ll learn about the types of wine we really enjoy drinking and we’ll have something to film and write about! We’ll keep you updated as we try all the different wines. I’m also curious about some of the other Wine subscription services so maybe sometime down the road we’ll try another.
For now, Winc is pretty in depth. I enjoyed learning and trying these wines. They were pretty good and the price point is good as well. There’s more that I’d like to try. The have rose, sparkling wines, cider and even vegan wine. I think in our next order we may try cider or rose in addition to white and red!
We’re not sponsored but if you’re curious and would like to try, here’s our Winc Code to save $22 on your first order!
Have you tried Winc? What did you think? What was your favorite bottle and what do you recommend we try? Let us know in the comments below!
*I absolutely love that Winc gives you recipes to pair with each bottle. We have not tried any of them but I will update as soon as we do!
