|
100 Point Rating Guide | ||
|---|---|---|
| 96-100 | Extraordinary | A wine of finesse, complexity, and expression. True to variety and region. Perfect balance of flavors with a long finish. |
| 90-95 | Excellent | True to variety and region, with terrific complexity and balance. While not a wine for the ages, a superior example. |
| 85-89 | Good | Meets your expectations, with sound flavors and balance. Might have limited complexity or be short on the palate. A sound wine. |
| 80-84 | Average | Drinkable, might not have as much varietal character. Simple flavors, no flaws, but nothing special. |
| 75-79 | Below Average | Might contain one flaw, simple straight-forward flavors, off-balance, unpleasant. |
| 60-74 | Undrinkable, Flawed | Contains significant flaws. Unpleasant, not commercially acceptable. |
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4 User Reviews
Apr 08, 2007
Grape jelly on the nose, with some tobacco, oak, and vanilla. Then, the vanilla decided to stick around for the taste (when doesn't it?), which ended up turning into grape yogurt. Some cherry too, but hardly any dimension or structure to this wine.
It is a solid companion for those bargain shoppers, but it's fairly inconsistent across vintages and varietals. I recommend picking up a case and hoping you get 8 winners. (8 $2 winners) > (1 $16 winner) ... don't you think?
Aug 14, 2007
Surprisingly acceptable. Pleasant on the nose, slight astringency, balanced, if mildly weak fruity flavor. Not a stand alone wine, but good with sandwiches and pasta as a general table wine. I have had many wines not nearly as drinkable at ten times the price.
Apr 26, 2007
Light nose of overripe cherries w/ hints of sour green apple. Extremely soft/pliable on the palate w/ faint notes of welchs grape juice and a touch of spice. Lightning quick finish.
I've been waiting to do a serious review of these "two buck chucks" for sometime and I have to say that for $1.99 (at least in California, 2.99 elsewhere) this really isn't so bad. I certainly wouldn't want to make this my house wine... even for the price it's just too boring. But for an occasional I'm-broke-and-don't-give-a-damn wine, this is well worth it.
I'm also a big believer that many of the extremely cheap wines at TJ's and other huge retailers vary bottle to bottle. So while this might have been OK, others could be a real doozy. So watch out for that first step.
Jun 21, 2007
As you may know, the Two-Buck Chuck wines vary in quality from shipment to shipment, making rating very hard. The case of this 03 Merlot I bought two years ago at Trader Joe's and it was harsh and hard on first opening. I just opened a bottle this week (June 2007) and it has settled down and opened up very nicely.
The wine is milder, more approachable, with nice fruit -- it's turned into an entirely acceptable vin ordinaire, which is a victory for a wine priced at under two dollars.
If you bought any cases of Charles Shaw reds and you didn't like them when you bought them, give them a couple of years and take another taste. They bought some firesale juice from some good vineyards back during the wine glut, so it's worth experimenting.
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