Mini-reviews 91: Black Friday 2016 edition

Reviews of wines that don’t need their own post, but are worth noting for one reason or another. Look for it on the final Friday of each month. This month, the Black Friday 2016 roundup: Wines not to buy.

• Little Black Dress Cabernet Sauvignon 2015 ($8, sample, 13.5%): Sometimes, this supermarket California red wine wins gold medals at prestigious competitions. Sometimes, it’s undrinkable, which is the case here. Horribly overcooked, with the classic and very rarely seen anymore taste and aroma of stewed tomatoes.

• The Federalist Zinfandel 2014 ($23, sample, 14.5%): The nicest thing I can say about this California red is that it’s not hot. Otherwise, it’s sadly predictable — massive sweet black fruit, nary a tannin in sight, and one more example where the marketing is better than the quality of the wine. The Bogle zinfandel is twice as good for half the price.

• Los Vascos Rose 2015 ($8, purchased, 13.5%): Cheap and adequate dry Chilean pink wine, and nothing else. And this this is a Rothschild property and used to be one of the top producers in Chile.

• Cave de Lugny Les Tuiles 2014 ($13, purchased, 13.5%): Cave de Lugny usually makes the best, affordable white Burgundy in the world. Not this time: Unripe and stemmy, without any chardonnay varietal character. And a couple of dollars more than the previous vintage, adding insult to injury.