Bad Wine Reviews Cabernet Dinner at HEB
As all of you know, due to our incessant posts, we have partnered with H-E-B to bring wine tasting to the Mont Belvieu / Baytown area in hopes of broadening palates, interests and knowledge of finer wines and spirits. This past weekend we held a Cabernet dinner that featured six incredible wines paired with a delicious meal prepared by the H-E-B cook team. This was all done at a cost of $35 per person and that beats the shit out of going to Chili’s or some where lame like that.
This tasting worked out beautifully as we timed it with the Father’s Day Cabernet sale - 15% off 6-11 bottles and 20% off 12 bottles or more. So basically you get to come and taste some baller-ass wine, eat delicious food and take advantage of awesome wine sales all while celebrating dad. Dad wins.
The six wines that we featured were (in tasting order):
2016 Trentadue La Storia Alexander Valley ($22)
2016 Sequoia Grove Napa Valley ($35)
2015 Daou Reserve Paso Robles ($50)
2015 Tarot Napa Valley ($45)
2012 Knight’s Bridge To Kalon ($140)
2015 Gemstone Heritage Collection ($160)
We had a fantastic turnout of roughly 30 people which is nearly double what the first event had. As is tradition we opened the event with lame dad-joke introductions and how the night would progress. Nobody flailed out of there at that time so I felt pretty good about it. For dinner the lush-attendees received a filet with H-E-B signature garlic butter, roasted rosemary potatoes and a stuffed tomato. We also had water - lmao ok.
In preparation we allowed the Knight’s Bridge and the Gemstone to aerate for 1.5 hours because A) we fancy and B) it allowed the alcoholic-attendees to experience the wine in its best state. We pre-poured the first three wines so that it gave the impression we were prepared. People tried to start sipping but I was walking around slappin’ hands until we got kicked off.
Andrew Winston (Wine Manager) did a fantastic job of walking people through the technical information of each wine as I cut in with quips and random factoids that didn’t help at all. I did however have a really important job of making sure everyone’s glasses stayed full so I’m sure I was the favorite.
To help people with the tasting I provided two pieces of dead tree - a tasting “how-to”, a notes pictorial and a notes sheet for each wine. I even laminated the how-to and notes one because that’s the quality of service my patrons can expect #respek. The “technical” goals of the evening, besides liquoring up your significant other, was to see if you could start picking out notes that “experts” identified, understand why you did or did not like a particular wine and understand what separated the two high-end wines from the others.
As we reached the end of the evening the liquored-attendees began to open up a bit and started being honest about the wines. This is the part I LOVE! This is when people really start getting into it and enjoying tasting a wide range of bottles. People start identifying the nose on this one sucked donkey balls but the finish was spectacular or this one felt like velvet but tasted like a raspberry farted on a prune. Ya know stuff like that.
The overwhelming consensus of the night was the Knight’s Bridge To Kalon won best in show. That was surprising to me but once I tasted it I knew why - the Gemstone was extremely velvety and fruit heavy (NOT SWEET) so it drank a little heavier than the Knight’s Bridge. The food that was served complimented the Knight’s Bridge perfectly but if the Gemstone was served with a ribeye - I think the vote would have gone the other way. THIS IS WHY I LOVE THIS SHIT AHHHHHHHHH!
Overall we received great feedback, people had fun and they found some new wine. What more can you ask for? We’ll be doing many more of these and I’m proud to announce we’ll be expanding into the Katy area with our tastings (details to come)!
Oh…one little extra tidbit here. The after party. There’s always an after party following a Bad Wine Reviews event. This is where the GOOD stuff comes out, yo. Cigars, wine, whiskey, beer, etc. and we have a big ol’ time. This is the best part of any Bad Wine Reviews event so be sure to join us for the next one!
