TN: '08 Little Penguin Pinot Noir (seriously)

WINE TALK
1

Well I was standing in the store today and realized that all my wine geekness has prevented me from being silly and trying some inexpensive wines. This wouldn’t even classify as a qpr as it was $5 and really not a serious wine but obviously I knew that going in. Here goes:

So basically it’s Pinot flavored water with a little sugar added. Thin, sugary, no nose, mid palate or finish. It’s like a driveby shooting… over before you know it and sloppy. But… This is definitely worth a buy is you need bulk wine for people who are clueless about wine and think penguins are cute. It resembles wine, but totally generic.

So no, I won be buying this again unless I wanted to get drunk on the cheap. I thought this would just be a fun little exercise to help me appreciate all the good wine I’ve been fortunate to acquire over my very few years of wine drinking. I recommend everyone gives this a try. It’s quite shocking how you become spoiled by good wine.

2

Man, Jeb, I hope those bottles I sent you get over the shipping shock soon to save you from this dreck!

Actually, funny you posted this … I just bought a bottle of Little Penguin Shiraz recently … to cook with. It was the cheapest I could find. [thumbs-up.gif]

3

Tom, you should probably send me some more bottles, but this time out of pity and not trade.

Actually, the real reason I picked up this bottle is because I wanted to try that method that was posted on here of opening a bottle by hitting it against a wall while using a shoe as a buffer. It didn’t work. Could have been the synthetic cork. But I figured I should at least get a Pinot since it’s my go-to varietal.

4

I love this. Excellent point, and this is very close to what I was thinking tonight at dinner. Went to a very run-of-the-mill restaurant with a dreadful, predictable, mass-produced wine list. Thought about passing, but then thought, “Nope, have to go back once in a while and see where I once was.” Ordered a bottle of Ruffino Chianti Classico.

Only it was actually just Chianti. Little menu fail there. Heh. The wine was like Wile E. Coyote, ugly and cartoonish, with Wile E’s propensity for going off the cliff on the finish. To complete the analogy, I’d have preferred to have the anvil land on my head rather than finish the glass, but it was instructive nonetheless.

5

Very interesting. Glad that you decided “what the hell” and went back and gave it a try. Hopefully others will chime in with some random beginner bottles.

6

I tried a bottle of Little Penguin Shiraz a couple of years ago, don’t remember the vintage, but it actually didn’t suck. I’ve definitely had worse wines.

I usually get my fix of crappy wine by drinking the bottles that friends bring over for parties. I never open their bottles during the party, I always tell them that I had the wines planned out in advance. I’ll have them with dinner at some point later. They’re mostly pretty bad, but every once in a while there’ll be a surprise. Kendall Jackson Chardonnay is not as bad as I thought.

7

Well I’ll be trying an '07 La Crema Sonoma Coast tonight. Should be a bit better than the Penguin, but we shall see. I have to say there was a little satisfaction walking out of the store with five wines for $60. [dance-clap.gif]

8

I had one of these recently and thought it was a very good value. Nothing mind-blowing, but balanced and tasty. $16.99 at Target!

9

Get this rip-off… It’s $28 at Safeway (Fairfax, VA), but $21 with a shopper’s card.

10

In 2006, I bought a case of the Little Penguin 2005 Cab at $5/per at the suggestion of my local wine shop owner who rarely recommends such wines. Jammy, over the top, overextracted, all of the things I don’t like even in higher-end wine, but all non-wine visiting friends loved it. For what it was (an entry-level unapologetic Aussie Cab), it was a very good value. I’ve had a few sips of two or three other Little Penguin wines, and they wouldn’t be good values at a tenth the price.