My local Safeway had Barrymore wine in stock so I thought I’d pick up a bottle and give it a whirl. It’s been a long time since I browsed the Safeway wine aisles. I’ll just say I’m kind of shocked at how expensive the largely mass produced wine they carry is. Barrymore’s pinot grigio was $20, and her Rose of pinot noir was $23. I was anticipating the prices would be around half of that. I’ll also say that I find it difficult to do a fair tasting note on a wine I know to be mass produced. I found myself critiquing aspects of the wine that I’d probably be a lot more forgiving of if it carried, say, a Kermit Lynch sticker on the back. The wine is made at Carmel Road winery in Monterey and Barrymore lists herself on the bottle as a “wine-making partner” (Kris Kato is the Carmel Road wine-maker who partnered with Barrymore).
Screwcap. The wine is pale yellow. Strong notes of reduction on the nose which obliterated anything else at first. Some peach and lemon emerged with swirling and air but the persistent stinky odor remained. On the palate, a sharp pointed lick of citric acidity which gave way to some sweeter stone fruits and melon before the whole thing disappeared quickly on the mid palate leaving just a trace of heat behind, along with a slight metallic flavor. Not awful, though maybe verging on it, but definitely generic – the kind of white wine you get btg at some low end restaurant and makes you opt for a beer instead. 13.5% abv.
If I were Barrymore and could slap my name on a bottle to sell this stuff for $20, I’d do it in a heartbeat. But it’s definitely ridiculous when you think of all the wine-makers who produce fantastic, painstakingly made wines at this price point who don’t have access to the same kind of sales channels/mass buyership. Though, to be fair, I could make the same point about quite a few of the wines I saw on the shelves yesterday.
Hi Katrina
That sounds very much in the realms of commodity wine (or if being more brutal - industrial wine). Adding a famous name is certainly a way to squeeze a few more dollars out, and even as far back as my earliest drinking experiences, Black Tower and Blue Nun showed that having a strong brand recognition can go a long way towards shifting stock that wouldn’t sell without the impetus of being widely recognised.
Sounds like they also need to ease back on the SO2 levels - are they normally makers of cork-sealed wines?
Good on you for buying a bottle and tasting it. In vino veritas and all that.
Does everyone know this is industrial wine or is it just speculation? How does one define industrial wine? AFAIK Jackson Family produces wines in all price ranges but I don’t believe they use any of the chemical engineering techniques utilized by what I would consider the industrial producers. They seem to have a large team of winemakers who each make wine with similar methodology to small producers, albeit with more cellar staff and the capital for modern equipment. If the wine is reductive, maybe it was the choice made by Drew Barrymore when tasting through the blends?
That’s an interesting question, and goes back to how difficult it was for me to produce a fair tasting note for this wine. When I first sniffed it, I thought “Yuck: chemicals” but then I thought no, it’s reduction, just really strong like I’ve only tasted before in NZ Sauvignon blanc (also under screwcap).
You are too kind.
To be fair, my area of expertise is pretty limited to mass market Roses, so I’m going out on a limb here.
Hi
My use of the phrase is fairly pejorative, and I don’t believe there is a hard and fast rule that puts this wine as industrial and another one not. Some rather good wines are made on a very large scale and the look of the huge fermentation tanks would make you instantly think - industrial. The phrase isn’t necessarily about the size of production, but what the end result implies about it.
It’s why I lean towards ‘Commodity’ if I’m feeling snobby about wines that sound / taste like they are made with no sense of passion or ambition - just to get a wine of a certain style to hit a specific price point and if that means a clipped finish, added acidity / oak essence, notable residual sugar, etc. then that’s what happens. Kind of anti-terroir. It is still a snobbish phrase, as much targeted against the Supermarkets who squeeze the producers to hit the price points, as the producers who attempt to do so.
The odd, interesting thing is the 1) Pinot Gris tends to be a reductive grape to begin with and 2) with the drought that was ongoing in California at the time, lower nutrient levels were quite common leading also to reduction – thus the wine may have been more reductive because less was done to it rather than more.