The Wine Explorer: A Journey Through France and Greece

As I poured the wine, I was taken aback by the little bit of sulfur that lingered on my glass. But as soon as I took a sip, I knew I had discovered something special. This wine, which costs only nine dollars, is a true hidden gem. The fact that it's not a well-known wine from France is surprising and exciting all at once.

The region of Côte d'Iron in France is one of my favorite places to explore when it comes to wine. I love the Grenache-Syrah blend, which is the standard for many Rhone wines. This particular wine, a 2019 La Garrick, is a great example of what this region can produce. As soon as I took a whiff, I was hit with a wave of pepper and strawberries, followed by a hint of rosemary that added a fascinating herbal note to the nose.

But what really blew me away was the finish - it's long and satisfying, with a pleasant aftertaste that kept me wanting more. This wine is a classic Cote d'Iron, and I would highly recommend it to anyone looking to explore this region further. The combination of pepper, strawberry, and herbs is a perfect representation of what Rhone wines can offer.

Next up was a Boujoulet from Domaine de la Mandon, which I had been eager to try for some time. As soon as the cork came out, I knew that this wine was going to be special. The label said 2019, but when I looked at the cork on the back, it revealed that the bottle was actually older - 2017! This is not uncommon, and I'm glad I got to experience this unique vintage.

The Boujoulet itself is a great example of the Gamay grape, which can be tricky to work with. But when it's done right, as in this case, the result is pure magic. The first thing that hit me was a wave of cherry blossom-like flavors, followed by a surprising banana note that I'd never experienced before. It's like biting into a fresh banana peel - it's that fresh and vibrant! The temperature was spot on, which added to my overall enjoyment.

As the evening drew to a close, we headed back to the Côte d'Iron region for another wine tasting. This one was a Rhone from 2019, with a slightly darker color than before. It had a rich, full-bodied texture that I loved, and it reminded me of a classic Cote d'Iron with some modern twists. The flavors were complex and interesting, with hints of leather, graphite, and even a pencil note or two.

But what really impressed me was the finish - it was long and satisfying, with a pleasant aftertaste that kept me coming back for more. I have to admit, I preferred this one to the previous Rhone wine I tried. It's like it had a bit more oomph, a bit more personality. And at this price point, I think it's a steal.

Finally, we arrived at our last bottle - Zoe from Greece. This was an indigenous grape that I'd never heard of before, but the label promised big things. As soon as the cork came out, I knew I was in for something special. The nose was earthy and mushroomy, with hints of rosemary and sage that added a fascinating herbal note.

The flavors were subtle at first, but then began to unfold like a rich tapestry. There were hints of cherry cola and even a bit of sweetness, which I found intriguing. What really surprised me, though, was the finish - it was long and satisfying, with a pleasant aftertaste that lingered on my palate.

As I looked back on our wine tasting journey, I realized that some of the most amazing wines are those that fly under the radar. When you look beyond the familiar labels and styles, you can discover hidden gems that truly stand out from the crowd. My advice to anyone looking to explore new wines is to venture outside the box - ask your local wine shop for recommendations, and don't be afraid to try something new.

Ultimately, what I take away from this experience is the importance of balance in wine. When a wine has all the right notes working together, it's truly magical. And when you find a wine that hits the sweet spot, you'll know it - even if you can't quite put your finger on why. So go ahead, drink outside the box, and explore the world of wine with an open mind and a sense of adventure!

"WEBVTTKind: captionsLanguage: eni'm andre mack aka mouton noir aka the black sheep as a sommelier at some of america's finest restaurants i've selected and poured the world's most elite and expensive wines that's not what we're doing here today i also like a bottle of cheap wine and there's no one better than picking them out than me and that's what we're going to be doing today i have 20 wines behind me all 15 and less you absolutely do not have to know a lot about wine to enjoy it yeah you know for me i think wine tasting notes or just it doesn't matter it's what i taste and what i smell and it's all subjective right at the end of the day you're an expert in your own taste so i'm just an expert in wine so the first group of the 21s that we have are from italy so we've broken it down by country and to me italy is always kind of you know i always think of like old spaghetti westerns right slightly dusty rustic and that's kind of what i think about when i think about italian wine so we have the villa maduro so this is a little montepucciano de bruzzo 2018. looking at the back label you know you can see the vintage you can see the region you can see where it's bottled and you can also see the importer which is something i'll talk about later one good way to shop is by shopping by importer you know the other thing the multipucciano that tells me the area that it's from generally i just stick my nose in the glass i just want to smell first checking for the same motors if it's off if it's bad if it smells like my grandmother's basement you know there's just you don't want those kind of qualities in a wine plum blackberry a little bit of leather this is pretty tannic you know um let's say tan and tanning really dries out the sides of your cheek so think about more like black tea but this is pretty high tannin it's got some really great acid starting to salivate tannin is a very positive thing in a wine it just depends too like for you know tannin gives the wine structure so if i was going to pair this one with like you know beef stew or something that was rich in that way uh or steak uh you need tanning to help break down the protein so this wine you know even though it's under 15 i feel like it has longevity this would be a big thumbs up emoji you know i think like just like maybe a double one what i taste in a wine is not necessarily what you would taste in the wine and so i decided that maybe using emojis would be the best way to be able to communicate what i really think about this wine this is a little tuscana this is the dhanalora ali and this is from tuscany generally when you have anything labeled from toscana toscana as a region the grape that's grown there the indigenous grape is called sanjovese generally when it's labeled just toscana it's a blend of sangiovese and what they call some of the noble grapes from france either cabernet sauvignon or milan if you're really into the noble grapes cabernet and merlot this is probably not a great place to start because this is going to be predominantly more sandrovasy uh which is just gonna just add a little bit more vibrancy to it like it's you know it's the life of the party it's electric it's acid and you know a little bit more of those tannins you know first thing is always i'm gonna put my nose in the glass as far as i can i got a big nose so i just you know i want to fill up and i want to exhale through my mouth so i want to open up my factory senses so 80 of taste is actually through smell so you get a better sense of what you're smelling really great acidity i'm already starting to salivate so we already know that the wine is high in acid i'm going to be talking a lot about acid acids and amplifier the reason why you put salt on food lemon on seafood is really to amplify the flavors this wine over delivers for for the price i would pay double the price for this one emoji emoji cowboy hat electric bolt and a strawberry next wine franco serra this is uh barbara de oste 2018. barbara located right in the heart of piedmonte great region for great wines best known for the king of all wines barolo but generally if you ask what the local people drink on an everyday basis it's this one right here barbara i'm swirling just to kind of aerate the wine blow off any off odors or anything like that actually if we're on it and we're talking about glassware it's called stemware for a reason has a stem on it if you want to get technical this is actually so your hands or anything don't warm or change the temperature of wine this is fruity juicy ripe there is a little bit of tannins pretty decent acid not high off the charts of what i would normally like but you know that's due to the great barbara's not a real high acid grape this is quintessential barbarita osti anybody and everybody should enjoy this wine this should be your go-to wine this is your tuesday night wine pizza hot dog this is just great living fun kind of wine what's the smiley face with the stars in it yeah so next up we got a couple of wines from australia the illustrious and elusive yellow towel i'd have to say that i haven't had this wine and say about 35 years yellow toe so already when i'm looking at the color it looks a little too bright a little too polished i always look at the color wine first and foremost i wanted to see if it's free and clear of any debris uh you don't want to make sure there's no sea monkeys or anything floating around but this is pretty clear you can see through it there is a little bit of a nice some blackberry boysenberry smells like bubblegum like big league chew mmm has like the sweetness this roundness that doesn't it doesn't feel natural even the color doesn't look natural probably has you know color added to it you know megapurple13 and stuff like that uh which you're allowed to add to wine yellowtail was the largest producer of australian wine that was exported i would also say that it was probably one of the big reasons why wine became you know america's beverage of choice surpassing beer and i have to tell you that a big reason for that was stuff like yellowtail but i don't know this is all right next we have from australia this is called port oman and this is cabernet sauvignon cabernet generally speaking as a grape as a whole is one of the noble grapes from france it is a thick skin grape it is the sun or the offspring of sauvignon blanc and cabernet franc produces big style wines burley wines broad shoulders rich style wines especially when they come from uh warm places which uh australia is stealth enclosure as this is called affectionately known as just the screw cap was associated with wine for a very long time but you know for me and it's changed right screw caps are like i said there's really about just getting the party started right like you don't need one of these you don't need one of these you could just do this and we're ready to go and in wine speak that's called it you know the wine is accessible accessibility and we're going to find out oh man this is like a boysenberry i smell a little bit of lead pencil shavings raspberry currant is another one wow man that is a big fruit palm this is a barbecue wine you know big ribs from morgan's some coleslaw this is uh really rich in layer this is this is an awesome line for 15 bucks this would be the smiley face with the uh with the sunglasses yeah next up we have a few wines from spain some tempranillo all right so we have arcavio this is a tempranillo this is probably the most well-known grape in all of spain tempranillo it's more like barbara it's juicy it's fun it's an everyday drinking wine but you know a little bit different in this in its profile but it it fills the same void but from spain so i'm looking at the color here it's a little bit darker the wine does have some age on it uh as a wine starts to age color starts to fall from it so it has a little bit more brickish color it's not as bright uh that would just tell me that it's a little bit older i think the first thing off the back i get is like this rich kind of leather like brand new leather like sitting in a big leather sofa for someone who doesn't want to like drink the leather why is that why are you attracted to that um you know it's funny you know the grape juice the wine actually ages in air and oak barrels in red wine you know it's expressed in several different ways and it could be vanilla it could be leather that you that lots of people talk about those all things come from oak and being aged in oak they don't have a leather sofa do they who knows what they have there is an emoji of sofa there you go sofa cozy next wine here also from spain tempranillo this is called altos de olivia 2018. first off this wine is flawed already it's has volatile acidity if you smell it's really rancid it smells like fingernail polish remover so i wouldn't i wouldn't drink this all right so we're gonna try this again yep so this is awesome i wish you guys could smell we had like smell-o-vision you could smell the two glasses this is much better this is actually smells a little bit reduced like stewed plums raspberry boys and berries obviously the exact same bottle from the same producer but what's inside like i said one is flawed and one is not and it just brings me back to the important part you know when you're in a restaurant and it's not all for show when they pour you a little sip of the glass and you taste it and all those things it's really to taste it to see if the wine is of sound quality there's absolutely nothing wrong with this brand it's just this particular one that's inside this bottle and it happens all right last up in spain is the famous region of rioja it's 2015 this is campo viejo rioja one of the famous actually the famous most famous region in all of spain with its most famous grape tempranillo you can already see the color is a little not as bright almost a little brickish like i said that does tell you that it does have some bottle maturity to it not getting much off the nose it seems pretty muted that does happen sometime i have a little trick for that so you put your hand on top of the glass like that and then kind of swirl and then you want to just kind of bring it closer to your face all right now i'm getting a little something i'm just basically trapping the vapors trying to get a little lift even though this i find this wine to be somewhat one-dimensional it's pretty well balanced i i feel like this is a pretty remarkable wine like i've to be honest i've never had this wine before and i think i've heard of the brand every now and then but like this you know i'm pretty surprised by this one this is pretty solid and i would also say that this wine probably tastes like it could be 20 to 25 emoji is there a justice holding a balance i think so right so next up we're back in the good old united states of america this is behringer this is a little bit they're calling it main and vine and this is their cabernet sauvignon first thing that's jumping out it says american cabernet sauvignon which would lend me to believe that there might be a little bit of funny business going on the fact that it is so vague this wine can actually be sourced from anywhere in america the more specific you get on the label the better quality it is so if they're saying it's from california that's great but now if they're saying it's from napa valley that's even better now if it's saying it's from oakville which is inside of napa valley that's another thing and then if they're talking about a specific vineyard within that particular sub-region so the more details you get the better quality you get there's no vintage on the line that's another thing to look for so this means that this wine can be blended you know from many different vintages it's not a good thing at this price point when wines don't have vintages so this wine is uh it's pretty flabby that's a wine term when i say flabby just means that the wine has no acid it has no lift kind of sits on the middle palette has this round rich kind of sweet thing going on in the middle that i don't really associate with uh cabernet so we have another california cabernet this is 2018 this is called backstory so i'm looking at the labels it's cabernet sauvignon so we know at least that it has 75 of that grape in it by california law and it does say california whereas the other bottle just said america all right so this has a darker color than before yeah i smell a little black currant a little bit of licorice a little bit of nice there is some vanilla smells artificial does it feel like it's what you know it's abundance of it so it doesn't feel like it comes naturally from oak so maybe it's at it it's green it's vegetal all qualities that i wouldn't associate with california cabernet this is a hard pass another california cabernet this is actually from paso robles this is called chop shop this is 2018. if you see any wines from santa barbara from paso robles you know i would generally start there they have lower cost of entry just because the land is a lot cheaper look at the color the color is dark richer you know just has more hue to it you know it's starting to get those signs of current raspberry graphite now this wine has some vanilla as well but it's not in the same it doesn't seem artificial as as some of the previous wines that we had this smells amazing this is pretty well balanced wine but at that price point i'm just wishing that it would be a little bit more giving um seems a little shut down let's do a meat cleaver i don't know do they even have a meat cleaver all right next up is joseph carr joss schiller's cabernet sauvignon this is the craft man's collection this is vintage 2018. already i'm just looking at the color man just too ruby too dark it looks like it should be port but it's not it's just ripe bubble gum this is the same stuff it has like this this thing to it just i can't i can't get past it all right so we have a little bit of merlot here from the uh francis ford coppola diamond collection this is 2017 merlot i know there was a lot of talk about not liking merlot i like merlot this uh color looks great oh wow it smells pretty good it's too sweet i mean you could pour this over ice cream you know this is from california so it's gonna be it's warm there so it's gonna be ripe so it's going to have like this ripe fruit which a lot of people perceive as residual sugar but this is this this is just outright sweet the merlots you want to drink are probably from right bank bordeaux and they actually don't say merlot when they're labeled is there a catfish emoji can we put a catfish can we have somebody make a catfish and put it somewhere around there last but not least in california we have 19 crimes this is called cali red no it has snoop dogg on it look at that you see that it's kind of meshes on the cork oh look at that it's got snoop on there see that you know it's interesting you look at the bottle it's like this matte black kind of finish this is generally what you find well i mean what they would probably call frosted and generally you would think that it's you know it's frosted or coated to help protect it right for longevity against the sun i don't know if anybody's aged 19 crimes but we'll see 19 crimes let's hope this is not the 20th uh get a little bit it's like a it's a little bit of um sulfur it's like a hair salon action going on here it's got pretty decent color it does vacillating that's kind of weird we're kind of like purple color that this really exist in grapes mmm cupcakes let's put some cupcakes on it so next up is argentina and the world famous malbec we have the adelante this is from mendoza that's a good place so mendoza is a good place for malbec so i'm excited to try this all right well it definitely has that color when i think about malbec very dark ruby purple kind of color it doesn't have that hue that makes me think that it's you know got some chemical in it or something or a mega purple 13. oh wow this smells raspberry tobacco smoke pretty earthy this wine kind of catches me off guard i was expecting something to be a little bit more rustic this is pretty refined i think a lot of cabernet drinkers kind of migrate over to malbec just because it doesn't have as long a finish so it's better with food in some ways if you take a sip of wine swallow and now you just kind of want to mentally count how long do you still have the taste in your mouth this is a pretty long finish i'm still tasting the wine now but it's not like cabernet which would last probably until the next sip depending on how fast you're drinking but that is a sign of of quality but also in malbec you're looking for you know wine that's full with tannins right so we talked about the drying out of the inside of the mouth generally moderate alcohol raspberry blackberries uh licorice uh and it definitely is going to have a little bit of earthy component to it i'm kind of speechless this wine is is great let's do mushroom emoji for earthiness cigarette smoke for smoke there's some tobacco on the wine and let's do it uh what do they call that a flexing muscle emoji all right so next up colony las libres all right i think i got that right and this is 2019. look at that color it's really dark looks rich kind of almost looks thick when i was pouring it there's a little bit of sulfur i get like some vegetation like cherry tomatoes graphite raspberry blackberries kind of like a fruit cocktail of sorts of berries this is a blueberry pie the fact that this wine is nine dollars is really surprising and kind of taken back i'm also i'm just like stupefied like what do you mean this wine is not this wine it is amazing for nine dollars for fifteen dollars for twenty dollars this is the hidden gem emojis emojis starstruck i mean is that one i don't know all right so now we're on to france so this is one of my favorite regions this is from the cote d'irone this is rhone wines think uh grenache syrah or vedra and this is kind of like the standard bearer and this is 2019 la garrick great color this is 2019 this is pretty fresh first thing right off the nose is smell pepper ground pepper a little bit of white pepper almost wanted to make me sneeze that's the first thing i get strawberries strawberry jam smuckers there's a little bit of rosemary there's some some herbs in there it's slightly sweet to me i guess my perception would be it's ripe it's pretty ripe fruit this is classic coterone this is a beautiful expression and a great place to start for anybody wanting to venture out and taste wines from the rhone valley let's say strawberries herb a big thumbs up now a little bit of boujoulet this is domaine de la mandon and this is boujole village 2019. so this says 2019 here on the front label but when i look at the cork on the back it says 2017 interesting in all honesty the labels are regulated the corks aren't regulated so the corks can have anything on them so to speak well has the right color when i think about gamay oh so a little bit of cherry blossoms you know i get this funny thing with boujole it's like actually taste smell bananas right it's like this this thing of like fresh banana being peeled man that is a perfect wine that is amazing good job ba on the temperature to temperature is spot on i mean this gets double thumbs up you know this could easily sell for 30 or 40. all right looks like we're headed back to the coterone so the rhone this is 2019 this is bueller see the color's a little bit darker for sure that's a heavy bottle it doesn't matter it's not a sign of price or quality ah this is uh a little bit of deal definitely smell some leather there that kind of reminds me of like my dad gave me his old baseball glove all the friends all my friends made fun of me it was just like this old wrinkly glove oh wow wild strawberries uh there's a little bit of eucalyptus mint it's got really great long finish i'm still tasting it now so some acidity right my mouth is starting to water i like this one actually better than i liked the last one and i was really surprised by the other one this is like i said a little bit fuller and modern take on it um but i like it so my advice to all of you is make sure you go to your your wine shop your local shop and ask for wines from the coterone emoji maybe a baseball and a glove it's a little catcher's mitt i remember that reminds me of leather a little bit of graphite so pencil and the fire emoji it's wine street fire all right so we are down to our last bottle it's called zoe it's the tree of life and this is from greece so 2019. it's an indigenous grape from greek and it's about 10 cabernet all right slightly earthy mushroomy herbaceous rosemary sage this kind of cherry cola not a lot of fruit it definitely feels like it's a wine that could be sure of chilled but very pleasing on the palate you know i would i would totally drink this one emoji uh let's go with the herb is there a surprise looked emoji and a big okay my biggest takeaways for you is drink outside the box right look for off the beaten path grapes because i do believe that they over deliver on quality right because the demand is not high looking shopping by label it's a landmine like you're better off building some type of relationship with your local wine shop where you can build trust i know that all of our tastes are different but for me when i think about a sound and quality wine it was always about balance i really would encourage people to embrace that philosophy when drinking wine all right so that's it that's a wrap let's all go home and drink more wine i don't drink 15 dollar wine i'm sorry no that is not truei'm andre mack aka mouton noir aka the black sheep as a sommelier at some of america's finest restaurants i've selected and poured the world's most elite and expensive wines that's not what we're doing here today i also like a bottle of cheap wine and there's no one better than picking them out than me and that's what we're going to be doing today i have 20 wines behind me all 15 and less you absolutely do not have to know a lot about wine to enjoy it yeah you know for me i think wine tasting notes or just it doesn't matter it's what i taste and what i smell and it's all subjective right at the end of the day you're an expert in your own taste so i'm just an expert in wine so the first group of the 21s that we have are from italy so we've broken it down by country and to me italy is always kind of you know i always think of like old spaghetti westerns right slightly dusty rustic and that's kind of what i think about when i think about italian wine so we have the villa maduro so this is a little montepucciano de bruzzo 2018. looking at the back label you know you can see the vintage you can see the region you can see where it's bottled and you can also see the importer which is something i'll talk about later one good way to shop is by shopping by importer you know the other thing the multipucciano that tells me the area that it's from generally i just stick my nose in the glass i just want to smell first checking for the same motors if it's off if it's bad if it smells like my grandmother's basement you know there's just you don't want those kind of qualities in a wine plum blackberry a little bit of leather this is pretty tannic you know um let's say tan and tanning really dries out the sides of your cheek so think about more like black tea but this is pretty high tannin it's got some really great acid starting to salivate tannin is a very positive thing in a wine it just depends too like for you know tannin gives the wine structure so if i was going to pair this one with like you know beef stew or something that was rich in that way uh or steak uh you need tanning to help break down the protein so this wine you know even though it's under 15 i feel like it has longevity this would be a big thumbs up emoji you know i think like just like maybe a double one what i taste in a wine is not necessarily what you would taste in the wine and so i decided that maybe using emojis would be the best way to be able to communicate what i really think about this wine this is a little tuscana this is the dhanalora ali and this is from tuscany generally when you have anything labeled from toscana toscana as a region the grape that's grown there the indigenous grape is called sanjovese generally when it's labeled just toscana it's a blend of sangiovese and what they call some of the noble grapes from france either cabernet sauvignon or milan if you're really into the noble grapes cabernet and merlot this is probably not a great place to start because this is going to be predominantly more sandrovasy uh which is just gonna just add a little bit more vibrancy to it like it's you know it's the life of the party it's electric it's acid and you know a little bit more of those tannins you know first thing is always i'm gonna put my nose in the glass as far as i can i got a big nose so i just you know i want to fill up and i want to exhale through my mouth so i want to open up my factory senses so 80 of taste is actually through smell so you get a better sense of what you're smelling really great acidity i'm already starting to salivate so we already know that the wine is high in acid i'm going to be talking a lot about acid acids and amplifier the reason why you put salt on food lemon on seafood is really to amplify the flavors this wine over delivers for for the price i would pay double the price for this one emoji emoji cowboy hat electric bolt and a strawberry next wine franco serra this is uh barbara de oste 2018. barbara located right in the heart of piedmonte great region for great wines best known for the king of all wines barolo but generally if you ask what the local people drink on an everyday basis it's this one right here barbara i'm swirling just to kind of aerate the wine blow off any off odors or anything like that actually if we're on it and we're talking about glassware it's called stemware for a reason has a stem on it if you want to get technical this is actually so your hands or anything don't warm or change the temperature of wine this is fruity juicy ripe there is a little bit of tannins pretty decent acid not high off the charts of what i would normally like but you know that's due to the great barbara's not a real high acid grape this is quintessential barbarita osti anybody and everybody should enjoy this wine this should be your go-to wine this is your tuesday night wine pizza hot dog this is just great living fun kind of wine what's the smiley face with the stars in it yeah so next up we got a couple of wines from australia the illustrious and elusive yellow towel i'd have to say that i haven't had this wine and say about 35 years yellow toe so already when i'm looking at the color it looks a little too bright a little too polished i always look at the color wine first and foremost i wanted to see if it's free and clear of any debris uh you don't want to make sure there's no sea monkeys or anything floating around but this is pretty clear you can see through it there is a little bit of a nice some blackberry boysenberry smells like bubblegum like big league chew mmm has like the sweetness this roundness that doesn't it doesn't feel natural even the color doesn't look natural probably has you know color added to it you know megapurple13 and stuff like that uh which you're allowed to add to wine yellowtail was the largest producer of australian wine that was exported i would also say that it was probably one of the big reasons why wine became you know america's beverage of choice surpassing beer and i have to tell you that a big reason for that was stuff like yellowtail but i don't know this is all right next we have from australia this is called port oman and this is cabernet sauvignon cabernet generally speaking as a grape as a whole is one of the noble grapes from france it is a thick skin grape it is the sun or the offspring of sauvignon blanc and cabernet franc produces big style wines burley wines broad shoulders rich style wines especially when they come from uh warm places which uh australia is stealth enclosure as this is called affectionately known as just the screw cap was associated with wine for a very long time but you know for me and it's changed right screw caps are like i said there's really about just getting the party started right like you don't need one of these you don't need one of these you could just do this and we're ready to go and in wine speak that's called it you know the wine is accessible accessibility and we're going to find out oh man this is like a boysenberry i smell a little bit of lead pencil shavings raspberry currant is another one wow man that is a big fruit palm this is a barbecue wine you know big ribs from morgan's some coleslaw this is uh really rich in layer this is this is an awesome line for 15 bucks this would be the smiley face with the uh with the sunglasses yeah next up we have a few wines from spain some tempranillo all right so we have arcavio this is a tempranillo this is probably the most well-known grape in all of spain tempranillo it's more like barbara it's juicy it's fun it's an everyday drinking wine but you know a little bit different in this in its profile but it it fills the same void but from spain so i'm looking at the color here it's a little bit darker the wine does have some age on it uh as a wine starts to age color starts to fall from it so it has a little bit more brickish color it's not as bright uh that would just tell me that it's a little bit older i think the first thing off the back i get is like this rich kind of leather like brand new leather like sitting in a big leather sofa for someone who doesn't want to like drink the leather why is that why are you attracted to that um you know it's funny you know the grape juice the wine actually ages in air and oak barrels in red wine you know it's expressed in several different ways and it could be vanilla it could be leather that you that lots of people talk about those all things come from oak and being aged in oak they don't have a leather sofa do they who knows what they have there is an emoji of sofa there you go sofa cozy next wine here also from spain tempranillo this is called altos de olivia 2018. first off this wine is flawed already it's has volatile acidity if you smell it's really rancid it smells like fingernail polish remover so i wouldn't i wouldn't drink this all right so we're gonna try this again yep so this is awesome i wish you guys could smell we had like smell-o-vision you could smell the two glasses this is much better this is actually smells a little bit reduced like stewed plums raspberry boys and berries obviously the exact same bottle from the same producer but what's inside like i said one is flawed and one is not and it just brings me back to the important part you know when you're in a restaurant and it's not all for show when they pour you a little sip of the glass and you taste it and all those things it's really to taste it to see if the wine is of sound quality there's absolutely nothing wrong with this brand it's just this particular one that's inside this bottle and it happens all right last up in spain is the famous region of rioja it's 2015 this is campo viejo rioja one of the famous actually the famous most famous region in all of spain with its most famous grape tempranillo you can already see the color is a little not as bright almost a little brickish like i said that does tell you that it does have some bottle maturity to it not getting much off the nose it seems pretty muted that does happen sometime i have a little trick for that so you put your hand on top of the glass like that and then kind of swirl and then you want to just kind of bring it closer to your face all right now i'm getting a little something i'm just basically trapping the vapors trying to get a little lift even though this i find this wine to be somewhat one-dimensional it's pretty well balanced i i feel like this is a pretty remarkable wine like i've to be honest i've never had this wine before and i think i've heard of the brand every now and then but like this you know i'm pretty surprised by this one this is pretty solid and i would also say that this wine probably tastes like it could be 20 to 25 emoji is there a justice holding a balance i think so right so next up we're back in the good old united states of america this is behringer this is a little bit they're calling it main and vine and this is their cabernet sauvignon first thing that's jumping out it says american cabernet sauvignon which would lend me to believe that there might be a little bit of funny business going on the fact that it is so vague this wine can actually be sourced from anywhere in america the more specific you get on the label the better quality it is so if they're saying it's from california that's great but now if they're saying it's from napa valley that's even better now if it's saying it's from oakville which is inside of napa valley that's another thing and then if they're talking about a specific vineyard within that particular sub-region so the more details you get the better quality you get there's no vintage on the line that's another thing to look for so this means that this wine can be blended you know from many different vintages it's not a good thing at this price point when wines don't have vintages so this wine is uh it's pretty flabby that's a wine term when i say flabby just means that the wine has no acid it has no lift kind of sits on the middle palette has this round rich kind of sweet thing going on in the middle that i don't really associate with uh cabernet so we have another california cabernet this is 2018 this is called backstory so i'm looking at the labels it's cabernet sauvignon so we know at least that it has 75 of that grape in it by california law and it does say california whereas the other bottle just said america all right so this has a darker color than before yeah i smell a little black currant a little bit of licorice a little bit of nice there is some vanilla smells artificial does it feel like it's what you know it's abundance of it so it doesn't feel like it comes naturally from oak so maybe it's at it it's green it's vegetal all qualities that i wouldn't associate with california cabernet this is a hard pass another california cabernet this is actually from paso robles this is called chop shop this is 2018. if you see any wines from santa barbara from paso robles you know i would generally start there they have lower cost of entry just because the land is a lot cheaper look at the color the color is dark richer you know just has more hue to it you know it's starting to get those signs of current raspberry graphite now this wine has some vanilla as well but it's not in the same it doesn't seem artificial as as some of the previous wines that we had this smells amazing this is pretty well balanced wine but at that price point i'm just wishing that it would be a little bit more giving um seems a little shut down let's do a meat cleaver i don't know do they even have a meat cleaver all right next up is joseph carr joss schiller's cabernet sauvignon this is the craft man's collection this is vintage 2018. already i'm just looking at the color man just too ruby too dark it looks like it should be port but it's not it's just ripe bubble gum this is the same stuff it has like this this thing to it just i can't i can't get past it all right so we have a little bit of merlot here from the uh francis ford coppola diamond collection this is 2017 merlot i know there was a lot of talk about not liking merlot i like merlot this uh color looks great oh wow it smells pretty good it's too sweet i mean you could pour this over ice cream you know this is from california so it's gonna be it's warm there so it's gonna be ripe so it's going to have like this ripe fruit which a lot of people perceive as residual sugar but this is this this is just outright sweet the merlots you want to drink are probably from right bank bordeaux and they actually don't say merlot when they're labeled is there a catfish emoji can we put a catfish can we have somebody make a catfish and put it somewhere around there last but not least in california we have 19 crimes this is called cali red no it has snoop dogg on it look at that you see that it's kind of meshes on the cork oh look at that it's got snoop on there see that you know it's interesting you look at the bottle it's like this matte black kind of finish this is generally what you find well i mean what they would probably call frosted and generally you would think that it's you know it's frosted or coated to help protect it right for longevity against the sun i don't know if anybody's aged 19 crimes but we'll see 19 crimes let's hope this is not the 20th uh get a little bit it's like a it's a little bit of um sulfur it's like a hair salon action going on here it's got pretty decent color it does vacillating that's kind of weird we're kind of like purple color that this really exist in grapes mmm cupcakes let's put some cupcakes on it so next up is argentina and the world famous malbec we have the adelante this is from mendoza that's a good place so mendoza is a good place for malbec so i'm excited to try this all right well it definitely has that color when i think about malbec very dark ruby purple kind of color it doesn't have that hue that makes me think that it's you know got some chemical in it or something or a mega purple 13. oh wow this smells raspberry tobacco smoke pretty earthy this wine kind of catches me off guard i was expecting something to be a little bit more rustic this is pretty refined i think a lot of cabernet drinkers kind of migrate over to malbec just because it doesn't have as long a finish so it's better with food in some ways if you take a sip of wine swallow and now you just kind of want to mentally count how long do you still have the taste in your mouth this is a pretty long finish i'm still tasting the wine now but it's not like cabernet which would last probably until the next sip depending on how fast you're drinking but that is a sign of of quality but also in malbec you're looking for you know wine that's full with tannins right so we talked about the drying out of the inside of the mouth generally moderate alcohol raspberry blackberries uh licorice uh and it definitely is going to have a little bit of earthy component to it i'm kind of speechless this wine is is great let's do mushroom emoji for earthiness cigarette smoke for smoke there's some tobacco on the wine and let's do it uh what do they call that a flexing muscle emoji all right so next up colony las libres all right i think i got that right and this is 2019. look at that color it's really dark looks rich kind of almost looks thick when i was pouring it there's a little bit of sulfur i get like some vegetation like cherry tomatoes graphite raspberry blackberries kind of like a fruit cocktail of sorts of berries this is a blueberry pie the fact that this wine is nine dollars is really surprising and kind of taken back i'm also i'm just like stupefied like what do you mean this wine is not this wine it is amazing for nine dollars for fifteen dollars for twenty dollars this is the hidden gem emojis emojis starstruck i mean is that one i don't know all right so now we're on to france so this is one of my favorite regions this is from the cote d'irone this is rhone wines think uh grenache syrah or vedra and this is kind of like the standard bearer and this is 2019 la garrick great color this is 2019 this is pretty fresh first thing right off the nose is smell pepper ground pepper a little bit of white pepper almost wanted to make me sneeze that's the first thing i get strawberries strawberry jam smuckers there's a little bit of rosemary there's some some herbs in there it's slightly sweet to me i guess my perception would be it's ripe it's pretty ripe fruit this is classic coterone this is a beautiful expression and a great place to start for anybody wanting to venture out and taste wines from the rhone valley let's say strawberries herb a big thumbs up now a little bit of boujoulet this is domaine de la mandon and this is boujole village 2019. so this says 2019 here on the front label but when i look at the cork on the back it says 2017 interesting in all honesty the labels are regulated the corks aren't regulated so the corks can have anything on them so to speak well has the right color when i think about gamay oh so a little bit of cherry blossoms you know i get this funny thing with boujole it's like actually taste smell bananas right it's like this this thing of like fresh banana being peeled man that is a perfect wine that is amazing good job ba on the temperature to temperature is spot on i mean this gets double thumbs up you know this could easily sell for 30 or 40. all right looks like we're headed back to the coterone so the rhone this is 2019 this is bueller see the color's a little bit darker for sure that's a heavy bottle it doesn't matter it's not a sign of price or quality ah this is uh a little bit of deal definitely smell some leather there that kind of reminds me of like my dad gave me his old baseball glove all the friends all my friends made fun of me it was just like this old wrinkly glove oh wow wild strawberries uh there's a little bit of eucalyptus mint it's got really great long finish i'm still tasting it now so some acidity right my mouth is starting to water i like this one actually better than i liked the last one and i was really surprised by the other one this is like i said a little bit fuller and modern take on it um but i like it so my advice to all of you is make sure you go to your your wine shop your local shop and ask for wines from the coterone emoji maybe a baseball and a glove it's a little catcher's mitt i remember that reminds me of leather a little bit of graphite so pencil and the fire emoji it's wine street fire all right so we are down to our last bottle it's called zoe it's the tree of life and this is from greece so 2019. it's an indigenous grape from greek and it's about 10 cabernet all right slightly earthy mushroomy herbaceous rosemary sage this kind of cherry cola not a lot of fruit it definitely feels like it's a wine that could be sure of chilled but very pleasing on the palate you know i would i would totally drink this one emoji uh let's go with the herb is there a surprise looked emoji and a big okay my biggest takeaways for you is drink outside the box right look for off the beaten path grapes because i do believe that they over deliver on quality right because the demand is not high looking shopping by label it's a landmine like you're better off building some type of relationship with your local wine shop where you can build trust i know that all of our tastes are different but for me when i think about a sound and quality wine it was always about balance i really would encourage people to embrace that philosophy when drinking wine all right so that's it that's a wrap let's all go home and drink more wine i don't drink 15 dollar wine i'm sorry no that is not true\n"