I am invited to a wine tasting in a week or so with a bunch of 22-30 year old friends. None of them are wine drinkers. Most prefer Coor's light in a can over a bottle of good wine. The tasting is any merlot/cab/cab franc/malbec/petit verdot or blend. Each attendee will bring a bottle. All of the wines will be tasted blind with a vote at the end to declare the wine of the night. The person who brings the WOTN will be comped their dinner later that evening by the others in attendence. Any suggestions for a wine that would be able to impress a bunch of non wine drinkers would be much appreciated. Under $20 would be best as probably anything better would be a waste with this group.

Thanks
saul

You might be able to find 2001 Edge Cabernet (CA) for about $20. That is very good.

For non-wine drinkers Aussie wines might be the most impressive. Tait Ball Buster is a Cab/Merlot/Shiraz($15). Koonowla is decent ($18) Thorne-Clark Shotfire Barossa Cuvee ($16) is a Cab/Merlot blend and quite nice.

a

"What contemptible scoundrel stole the cork from my lunch?" -- W.C. Fields

2000 rollan de by. and you will owe me a dinner, if it wins.

p.s. coors in the can? who drinks beer in the restroom?

Free Martha!

Anyone know where in LA area to pick up the Thorne-Clarke??

And to clarify.. the other attendees are the type who actually drink Coor's light from a can while in the can

saulbass,

If you are looking the '02 Shotfire Ridge Barossa Cuvee or the '02 Shotfire Ridge Shiraz, your best bet is probably asking a fellow So Cal forumite nicely to see if they would sell you a bottle at cost. Good luck with your search.

---------------------------
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2004 Whirlwind Tour

Stick with a fruit forward wine. If they are non wine drinkers, they will not be as impressed with a subtle or earthy, or even dry wine.

Simple is best here. A fruit forward cab, that isn't too dry would work. I agree with considering an Australian Cab.

I would treat this group like I treat some wives of my friends. I can't tell you how many times I would bring a Brunello or CdP or Amarone, and a simple Cab and the wives run for fruit Cab all night. Non wine drinkers look for Fruit and some sweetness and rarely appreciate much else.

Had something like this myself awhile back - see the results here for three possible winners.

Winners of under $20 casual drinkers

I agree, non-wine drinkers i have found to fall in love with heavy frut forward wines, I would try a Petite Sirah.

Looked through my notes from the last year and here's a list of possibilities:

02 Chat Lasgoity Merlot Madera (CA) ~$9
02 Paringa Cabernet Sauvignon (Australia) 90B ~$10
02 McManis Cabernet Sauvignon (CA) ~$10
01 McManis Cabernet Sauvignon (CA) ~$10
00 Castell del Remei Gotim Bru (Spain) ~$10
01 Hedges Three Vineyards Red (WA) ~$11
00 Chateau Ste Michelle Cab. Sauvignon (WA) ~$12
01 Louis Martini Sonoma Cab. Sauvignon (CA) ~$14
00 Benziger Merlot (CA) ~$15
01 Hahn Meritage (CA) ~$16
99 Kendall Jackson Great Estates Cabernet Sauvignon Napa (CA) ~$16
00 Penley Cab. Sauvignon Phoenix (Australia) ~$20
99 Martin Ray Mariage Cabernet Sauvignon (CA) ~$20
00 Flemings Cabernet Sauvignon (Australia) ~$20

I'm hoping these would all be friendly to non-wine drinkers. I know the 2000 Castell del Remei Gotim Bru is friendly, my Budweiser drinking brother really liked it at xmas, my gin drinking Mom liked it too, but you might want to find out if they'll allow this Cabernet Sauvignon/Tempranillo blend.

I see the other thread has more votes for Paringa, and it was one of the first to come to mind and perhaps one of the easier to find. The McManis ought to be easy to find and I bet will get votes too - either the 2001 or 2002 vintage would be fine.

Good luck!

Nancy

Aussie Shiraz! That's all that age group buys in my store for the most part. The less tannic the wine is, the better off you'll most likely be, esp if the crowd is a bunch of "non-wine drinkers."

Another nod to Aussie Shiraz-

Two Hands Angel's Share might be just the ringer for you.......

Would like to bring a Shiraz - but the tasting is only the Bordeaux grapes.

Would really like to find a bottle of the Thorne-Clark Cab/Merlot from an LA forum member either for purchase or trade. Possibly for a 375 of 2001 Neal?

Saulbass...if you have any plans to come to San Diego, I'd be happy to make that trade, as I have 3 of the Cuvee left in my cellar (great wine). Alternatively, I urge you to seek out the 2002 Morambro Creek Cabernet Sauvignon (much better than the Shiraz in my opinion)...it's about $15, and the best QPR since Thorn Clarke.

"...and cloaked with wine I'll tell you that you're great."

Let me see what my shedule ends up looking like - but getting to SD in the next week will be very difficult...

try to stick with an Australian shiraz or cabernet,even a blend would probably be great.Australian wines tend to be more fruit driven thats why americans love the australian wines.Mcguigans Bin 2000 Shiraz or the rosemount 2002 shiraz

I ended up having to organize the event and brought three wines:

Solaris CS 1999
Chateau La Clotte 1999
Justin Reserve Cab 2001

The final top 5 rankings of the group of 13 novice tasters was:

#1 2001 Justin Reserve Cab (5 1st place votes)
#2 2001 Vincent Arroyo Cab (3 1st place votes)
#3 1999 Chateau La Clotte (2 1st place votes)
#4 2001 Bella Serra Cab (1 1st place votes)
#5 1997 Franciscian Oakville Estate Cab (1 1st place votes)

My first place was the Justin with 2nd going to the Franciscian.

Great event. Converted a few to wine drinkers from purely beer drinkers...