Central Coast, California
2008
The winery is named after the firefly's that are present on the ridge. This cabernet is a dark, super rich wine - with black cherry, currants, and (as the bottle says) violets. Though - we didn't really taste anything floral in this wine.
Colin: This is a very crass wine. Smells okay, but without food, there's just something off about it. It's very smokey, and the flavors that it boasts about are not accurate. The finish was okay, which is why this isn't rated a one-glass wine.
Rating: 1 out of 10 glasses
Rachel: After running this through our aerator (you can see the ones we use in our amazon store), it still wasn't all that great. It's very sour initially, but has a smoother finish. When paired with a mac and cheese, the flavors in the wine were downright awful. When paired with tomato, garlic rich bruschetta, the notes were more delicate. Still too sour for my taste. Recommend only with the heartiest of Italian meals.
Rating: 2 out of 10 glasses
Where can I find it?
Vons, supermarkets -- Vons had it on sale for ten dollars off the original price, which makes Colin and I wonder if they left the bottles out in the sun. We don't really want to bother trying another Firefly Ridge wine, but if you have a different experience, please post it (and if you think we should give it another shot - tell us why!)
Cost: $5.99, originally $15.99
All the Firefly Ridge wines I've tried are mouthwash. Had the Syrah this weekend and it was swill. Please stop putting bad box wines in bottles and calling it table wine!
ReplyDelete@Purpleteeth - we were not the biggest fans either, which is why it rated so low on our blog.
ReplyDeleteWe recommend that you don't buy anything that we've rated below a 5 - because it's not really worth the money.
I know it's not a Syrah, but there's an inexpensive Merlot by Three Knights that's absolutely fantastic if you are looking for a good for the price red. :)
I have had the Merlot and the Red Flash....loved them both...I am certainly not a wine critic but I know what I like. It certainly is not "mouthwash" and I drank it with my lean cuisine which is not a "hearty Italian meal" and it was lovely.
ReplyDeleteYeah, it's weird, I quite liked this wine too - I googled it cause I had no idea where it actually *came* from (I think someone brought it over at some party ages ago). I'm totally not a wine critic at all, in fact I'm pretty much a wine noob, but this is one of a handful of wines I have actually enjoyed that weren't on the sweeter end. I definitely don't get anything floral, though I definitely do get black cherry and currant, and as Colin said, much smokier than I would generally expect in a non-scotch-based alcohol. Probably why I liked it; I like scotch. :p
ReplyDeleteHad this Chardonnay..It was sour/off, plus it's not from the central coast! Livermore and Ripon are both northern california. Very odd.
ReplyDelete