Unfortunately, with wine, most non geeks do not know the custom of if it is a gift, open it when you’d like.
They are usually bringing something as they want the feeling that they are contributing to the evening. Be hospitable. Open it. Let them win vs. feel like their contribution wasn’t good enough, or to put any doubts in their mind of why you didn’t open it.
This doesn’t need to be hard.
Open it. Pour it for them. Take even a small glass for yourself- (now 3/5 of the bottle gone already). Share / say something nice without lying (about the wine, the region, the gift, the label, whatever). Move on (or not).
Just a guess but it might be due to several of their contracted vineyards being smoke tainted in 2020 (Monterey and Sonoma) they decided to try blending out the taint as much as possible with other vintages.
Have them swish that around in their mouth and crowd pleaser it will not be. That is always fun to do with the Prisoner also. Most wine drinkers drink wine like water.
The busiest restaurant in town probably sells more Meomi than anything other than their house wines probably because of the price difference ($14/glass for the Meomi). It’s been BTG there for years. If it didn’t sell in volume (multiple bottles, often cases per day), they’d swap it out for something else.
I have had Meomi one time. We were on a cruise 4-5 years ago and the couple we were with ordered it. I remember thinking, “How bad could it really be?” I did not finish my glass, on a cruise, when there were not many good options.
I told someone once, if the choice is Meomi, or any other liquid, I choose the other liquid.
I was visiting my parents with my 2 kids a few weeks ago while my wife was helping her mom with something else. I got in and my mom asked if I wanted a glass of wine … she said the Meomi had the best score on the shelf at Sams so that’s what she got. I told her I was just detoxing for the weekend. Decided to just eat my calories in takeout pizza — which I very much did enjoy.
Thread drift. There was this one time two years ago when the guy insisted and snuck into the back yard. I told him to take the wine back but he refused. He insisted that I take the bottle out of the brown paper bag. This is what I found.
Maybe that’s for the clientele who want to build a vertical.
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Although its fun to beat up on sugary ‘wines’, I’ll confess that we drink a lot of the Kirkland Sangria around this house, amped up with cut fruit and coarse brandy, served over ice. It’s like a seasonal big kid poolside Kool Aid, in colored plastic tumblers (to be classy). IIRC the back label discloses it’s ‘wine product’ not really wine. Are they getting Spanish mega purple in tanks and then reconstituting it stateside? It’s kind of inexplicable that it has remained $7 a magnum for as long as I can remember, with a $1 discount early/late season, if one buys a sixer.
My gripe with Meiomi is not that it is sweet oaky purple fruit bomb of a soda replacement. Rather that it is sold to consumers as a “dry” pinot.
Meiomi is also personal for me. It poisoned my mother’s view of CA wines for years. She thought all CA wines have become this sweet and flabby. I had to convince her that it was an outlier once I found out about it.
I am pretty sure the NV is mostly 2020. I’ve noticed a lot of Constellation’s wines went suspiciously NV around the time of the 2020 release and went back to having a vintage for 2021.
And y’all are making me want to open the 2006 Meiomi I won at auction. I really wonder has it always been like this.
A dear friend from the U.K. is visiting for the next few weeks, and although he enjoys wine a lot, his tastes tend towards “which bottle is the least expensive”—not even “best bang for the buck.” For example, on his last trip he excitedly introduced me to a “great new wine” that he found—Charles Shaw Cabernet Sauvignon.
So last night he came over and generously brought a bottle of 19 Crimes Cabernet Sauvignon. I dutifully thanked him and opened it for the group. The conversation was wonderful. The wine, not so much.
The conundrum is that he will be coming over most evenings this week, and will undoubtedly bring a similar wine each night as a thank you, and as his way of chipping in. One night of 19 Crimes I can do, but I don’t think I can do this all week.
But this morning I remembered this thread and all the suggestions it had for dealing with well-intentioned guests who bring bad wine. So tonight (and in future evenings), I plan to open a few wines at the same time. His offering, as well as a few that are more to my taste, and let people pour from “the buffet” however they like.
So, yeah, I know I’m bumping an old thread here, but thanks to everyone who chimed in with suggestions. Those suggestions are being put to good use!
