WBW 16, judge a wine by its label

I couldn’t make up my mind: sure the label was pretty, but an $8 California merlot?! Miles clearly would not approve. I was also unmoved so and asked my fellow shopper to help me decide with a game of roshambo, also known as “rock, paper scissors.” I lost. The merlot went in my basket.

Derrick at Obsession with Food blog (the only other wine/food blogger I have met in person!) decided to pick the theme of choosing a wine by its label for this month’s edition of Wine Blogging Wednesday. (By way of background, a different blogger each month picks a theme for anyone to contribute a tasting note on that theme.)

The merlot was from the Healdsburg, CA “winery + gallery” by the name of Roshambo where they apparently have “rock paper scissors” contests. The wine I chose was called “rockpaperscissors” (find this wine) and had a cute label with a hand in each of the three positions. The bottle had a Stelvin closure, wine geek speak for screwcap. The wine was very fruit forward but quite atypical of a merlot–more berry than the traditional plum. It wasn’t horrible but I’m not rushing out to get another bottle. I see from their web site that they have other wines and I’m always willing to be convinced.

As they no doubt say at the winery after losing a round: two out of three?

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5 Responses to “WBW 16, judge a wine by its label”


  1. It is a pretty label, but I’m sorry to hear it wasn’t a great find. The winery is quite popular here in the Bay Area among the young, casual wine drinkers, but I haven’t tried any yet. Even at $8, maybe I’ll skip this one.


  2. Hey…isn’t this one of Tom’s clients?

    I’ve never seen the wine…and I probably won’t seek it out now!


  3. Derrick – I hear their Zin is good and actually looked for that one after being drawn to the RSP label but the store didn’t have the Zin…Lenn, I didn’t know that. Cheers,
    Tyler


  4. I just had a bottle of their SavB this weekend..and it was just bad enough that it put the nail in the coffin for me on California SavB unless proven otherwise – only NZ SavB for me, thanks.

    I have had their Zin and it was quite tasty..although..I had it in a restaurant on their 50% off bottles night..so..that *may* have had something to do with it.

    No rush to try anything else of theirs. C’est dommage…


  5. Ha Tami – taking cover down under are you? I actually the 2004 Honig SB from Napa that was very good–and it had a pretty label too. It paired well with dried figs….mmmmm, dried figs!


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