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Home > Blogs > Uncorked > Archives > 2005 > December > 07 > Entry
Wine Blog Wednesday: Judge a Wine By Its Cover
First, if you’re looking for the “Trader Joe’s Wine-Buying Experience� post and accompanying comments, or the post about the Wine Spectator Cadillac-sponsored Top 100 Wines of 2005, simply click on the links in this sentence.
But it’s “Wine Blog Wednesdsay,� when wine bloggers from around the country and beyond pick a theme, choose a wine and review it. This month’s eclectic theme: “Judge a Wine By Its Cover,� in which we were asked to pick out a wine with a pretty label and check it out.
So I did just that, a wine that just showed up on the shelf in recent weeks here in Dayton, Ohio:
Lulu B. 2004 Syrah (Vin de Pays D’Oc), $8.39 Ohio retail:
This creative label is apparently the brainchild of French vigneron Louis Bernard, leader of a Rhone-based negotiant/winemaking cooperative who informs us on the back label that Lulu B. is his daughter. “After studying in France, Lulu …
…toured the world’s wine regions and has now returned home to the family estate. Inspired by tradition and innovation, Lulu B. created this wine with you in mind.”
She also apparently created a pinot noir and chardonnay with just me in mind too. Very considerate of her.
The syrah has impressively deep color and a nose of gamay-like candy-apple and fruit-cocktail fruit. In the mouth, it delivers jammy fruit and sufficient acidity, followed by a slight medicinal note on the finish. All in all, this is a well-priced and satisfying quaffer.
Just one nagging question about the artsy label: how DO French women fit their feet into those tiny little shoes?
Derrick at the “An Obsession with Food (and Wine)� blog is hosting this month’s Wine Blog Wednesday and will be posting a roundup at his site sometime this weekend, he tells me in a comment posted below. Check his site to find out what other wild labels bloggers found.
Cheers!
Mark Fisher Uncorked www.daytondailynews.com/wineblog
(Photo by Jim Witmer)
Comments
By Alice
January 15, 2006 12:09 PM | Link to this
Do you know for sure that LuLu is a real live person or is she a Boisset marketing concept?By mel
December 9, 2005 2:34 PM | Link to this
I have been known to take a flier on a bottle based on a catchy label. If the varietal is one I like and the cost is reasonable an attractive label may tilt it into my basket. Life is too short to drink the same stuff all the time and if its a bomb you can always use it in stew.By Derrick Schneider
December 8, 2005 2:35 AM | Link to this
Mark, Thanks for participating. Great choice on the label. My write-up should be up this weekend, so your readers can find out whether they should judge a bottle by its label.By Niki
December 7, 2005 7:32 PM | Link to this
I don’t know if I ever buy a wine because of the label’s visual appeal, although I certainly buy unfamiliar wines from information contained on the label (like “Vintner Select” listed as the importer!) When we were newer to wine, we used to have a rule about never buying wine with a leaf on the label (Turning Leaf, among many other disappointing wines, led to that particular rule). I’ve had great wines with lousy labels, and vice-versa. In the category of interesting wine AND interesting labels, I nominate Randall Grahm’s Bonny Doon. Cheers NikiBy lori
December 7, 2005 4:16 PM | Link to this
I wonder how many people actually do this — buy a wine simply because the label’s pretty. I know I’m guilty (I’m also a wine idiot, so that probably makes sense). Anyway, last night my boyfriend and I were looking for a bottle and we avoided most of the Australians, in part because the labels were so hideous. Was that wise? DO labels say something about wine? Does anyone track the prettiest bottles with the worst contents?