Tag Archives: Barefoot

barefoot wine

Barefoot wine review 2021: Merlot and Crisp White Spritzer

barefoot wine
The guy in the middle must have tasted the Crisp White Spritzer.

• Barefoot wine (again): Value or just cheap?
• Barefoot wine: Why it’s so popular

Barefoot wine review 2021: A merlot that mostly tastes like grape juice, and a spritzer that takes sugar water where it’s never been before

The blog’s 14th annual Barefoot review focuses on the traditional and the au courant — merlot, about as old-fashioned as it gets, and a Crisp White Spritzer, which (I assume) is supposed to compete with trendy hard seltzers. The former tastes like most Barefoot wine — soft, just enough sweet, and devoid of varietal character. The latter breaks new ground — a cross between a hard seltzer and the infamous wine coolers of the 1980s.

The non-vintage merlot ($6, purchased, 13.3%) has a California appellation, and I had high hopes for it. The merlot has often been the most wine-like of the Barefoots, and it almost made the $10 Hall of Fame in the blog’s early days. But no such luck. This was formula winemaking using poor quality grapes. Each component was exactly where it should be — the sweetness (not quite as sweet as the red Apothic or Menage a Trois); generic fruitiness (think grape juice that isn’t tart); a murky finish common in this kind of red wine; and no tannins or acidity. In other words, cheap, smooth wine for people who want that.

I also had hopes for the Crisp White Spritzer ($6, purchased, 5.5%). Maybe it would be something like a vinho verde? No such luck. This isn’t legally wine, so it has ingredient and nutritional labeling. Hence, everything you need to know about the product is on the label — made with carbonated water, something called “grape wine,” and cane sugar. Almost one-quarter of its calories come from “added sugars.” So sweet, sweet, sweet, and not crisp by any stretch of the imagination. It’s so sweet, in fact, that it’s almost impossible to drink on its own. Mix with vodka or cranberry juice (or both), and hope for the best.

Photo: Sylvane, using a Creative Commons license

Blog associate editor Churro contributed to this post

More Barefoot wine reviews:
• Barefoot wine review 2020
• Barefoot wine review 2019
• Barefoot wine review 2018

Winebits 692: Barefoot, wine thefts, wine influencers

barefoot wine
Welcome to the club, British supermarket wine drinkers!

This week’s wine news: Barefoot is taking over the British wine business, plus wine thieves hit San Francisco, and who needs bloggers when you have influencers?

• Bring on the Barefoot: British sales of Barefoot, the $6 U.S. supermarket wine, grew almost three times faster than overall British supermarket wine in the 12 months ending in January, reports The Drinks Business trade magazine. This is an odd story, since it combines what seem to be legitimate sales statistics with a sponsored post label. Still, if it’s to be believed, British supermarket shoppers are going ga-ga over Barefoot, which the story says was the country’s best selling supermarket wine last year. And, to show that some things never change, one of the top Barefoot sellers was white zinfandel, a wine style that has been out of favor in the U.S. for a decade or more. And no, I have no idea why this is.

• Stealing Italian wine: Thieves are targeting San Francisco wine shops and bars looking for pricey Italian wine, says the Sfist website. The thieves robbed two locations, and tried to rob a third, and their haul focused on Barolo and Barbaresco, high-end Italian red wine. Interestingly, the thieves didn’t steal cash and expensive electronics at one of the shops. This has led to speculation that the robberies were commissioned to get just those wines, which are prized among collectors. Or, says the story, they could be sold under the table to restaurants looking to upgrade their wine lists.

• Yes, influencers: Some of us who write about wine are aghast at the influence of so-called influencers, people with large social media followings who are paid to post about certain brands in the expectations their followers will buy the product. This has aided rose’s growth in the wine business. So, if you’re one of those wine writers, don’t read the rest of this bit. That’s because “Wall Street analysts [are] monitoring Instagram posts to find out what the next consumer drinks trend might be.” Specifically, they’re watching to see if influencers are switching from hard seltzer, currently the market darling, to pre-mixed cocktails. If so, then it’s time to dump the seltzer brands in favor companies who make the cocktails. Ain’t post-modern stock analysis grand?

barefoot wine

Barefoot wine review 2020: Rose and riesling

Barefoot wine review 2019

• Barefoot wine (again): Value or just cheap?
• Barefoot wine: Why it’s so popular

Barefoot wine review 2020: Get ready for a dose of sweetness with the rose and riesling — but at least the front labels let you know what’s coming

Call it knowing your audience: The Barefoot wine review 2020 bottles don’t pretend to be something they aren’t. Looking for a dry, tart, Provencal- style rose? Then don’t buy the Barefoot rose, which says “Delightfully sweet” on the front label. Want a nuanced, oily, off-dry riesling? Then don’t buy the Barefoot riesling, which says “Refreshingly sweet” on the front label.

Which, frankly, is a much welcome development in this, the blog’s 13th Barefoot review. Few things are more annoying than Big Wine — or smaller wine, for that matter — claiming a wine is dry when it tastes like sweet tea. Barefoot, the best-selling wine brand in the country (depending on whose statistics you believe) has the courage of its convictions. And good for it.

The Barefoot wine review 2020 features the non-vintage rose ($5, purchased, 10%) and the non-vintage riesling ($5, purchased, 8%). Both are California appellation. The sweetness is obvious, and especially in the riesling. In the rose, it tries to hide in the background — and then you swallow, and it hits you.

The rose tastes of strawberry fruit, and has lots of acidity in an attempt to balance the sweetness. Which doesn’t exactly work — just sort of offers a counterpoint. The riesling smells like oranges (perhaps some muscat in the blend?) and then the candied sweetness hits and covers up what little fruit flavor (apricot?) was there. A smidgen of acidity is around somewhere, sort of like the cool of a summer morning before it gets hot, and then the  like the coolishness, the wine gets sweet again.

In this, these wines deliver what the front labels promise, though the back labels are marketing hurly burly — “smooth, crisp finish” and “hint of jasmine and honey.” But if you want a $5 sweet wine that is cheap and sweet, then the rose and the riesling fill the bill.

Blog associate editor Churro contributed to this post

More Barefoot wine reviews:
• Barefoot wine review 2019
• Barefoot wine review 2018
• Barefoot wine review 2017

Follow-up: The fifth $3 wine challenge

$3 wine
Consumers have gone through a lot — and I mean a lot — of empty $3 wine bottles since Two-buck Chuck debuted 18 years ago.

Does the continuing popularity of $3 wine, which isn’t all that tasty, tell us more about the wine business than the wine business wants to know?

Five times I’ve tasted $3 wine to see if wine drinkers can survive on ultra-cheap wine. Five times, the answer has been no – and the wines have tasted worse each time I have done it. So why do these wines still exist?

Welcome to the deep, dark dirty secret of the wine business — and which is rearing its ugly head this year: We buy wine on price, and if the price is low enough, nothing else much matters. Despite all of the hoopla about premiumization and trading up, $3 wine exists because people buy it. And we buy lots and lots of it.

Trader Joe’s has sold more than 83 million cases of Two-buck Chuck since the wine debuted in 2002, about 4.6 million cases a year. That would make the Charles Shaw brand the 10th biggest winery in the country by volume in 2020 if it actually existed. And, surprisingly, that total is closer to No. 9 Jackson Family and its ubiquitous Kendall Jackson chardonnay, than almost anyone could imagine.

It’s also worth noting the success of E&J Gallo’s $7 Barefoot, which is estimated to sell $1 billion worth of wine this year, about 18 million cases, That would make it the fifth biggest brand in the country if Gallo didn’t own it. And, when we parse the data, isn’t the popularity of White Claw and the rest of the hard seltzers about price? Why would someone buy flavored spritzy water with a bit of booze if it wasn’t cheap? Like Two-buck Chuck, they’re certainly not buying it for the sensual experience.

The other thing that fascinates me about $3 wine? That its adherents take it as a personal affront when I criticize it. How can you be such a snob? they ask (and not always that politely). We’ll ignore for a moment that I may be the least snobbish person in the wine business. What matters is that they need affirmation that buying on price is OK, because that’s the exact opposite of the way the wine business works.

And in this, they miss the point of my criticism. The first rule – and really the only rule – for wine is to drink what you want, but be willing to try different things. They can drink as much crappy, thin, and watery wine as they want. What does it matter what I think, as long as they enjoy it? So should the question they ask not be what I think, but if they really enjoy it?

Winebits 634: Barefoot, supermarket wine, artificial wine

barefoot wineThis week’s wine news: Barefoot wine sells some 18 million cases a year, which is no doubt why Google likes it so much. Plus, a look at on-line wine sales and more news about artificial wine

• Big, big Barefoot: How much wine does Barefoot sell each year? How about 18 million cases? That would make it the fifth biggest producer in the country if it wasn’t owned by E&J Gallo, which is the biggest. In this, the various Barefoot brands could account for as much as 2 ½ percent of all the wine sold in the U.S. each year. Is it any wonder, then, that Google sends so many people who are searching for Barefoot to the blog? Or that three Barefoot items were in the top four of the most read blog posts in 2019? That Barefoot is thriving while the rest of the wine business is heading downhill speaks volumes – if anyone in wine is willing to listen.

• If Amazon can’t. … : One of the great puzzles in the wine business is Internet sales. Supermarkets in particular would love to do it, but three-tier makes it much more difficult than selling razors and mattresses, two categories that have been able to embrace e-commerce. Notes consultant Zac Brandenberg: “But neither market presents anywhere near the opportunity that beverage alcohol does. Wine alone is a $70 billion market with less than one percent commerce penetration — signaling an enormous untapped opportunity for retailers and wineries.” But how do supermarkets do that, when Amazon failed three times? Brandenberg suggests using the Internet for local delivery, just like the local Kroger, Wegman’s, and Albertson’s do for food. The cost could be enormous, but he says he expects retailers to do what needs to be done because the profits would be so immense.

• Hold the grapes: The company has a new name, but it says it’s ready to give the world wine made without grapes. Hence, an Italian-style sparkling wine made with a combination of ethanol (the alcohol bit), assorted flavors, and caramel color and beta carotene for color. Interestingly, the latter can oxidize, which would mean fake wine can go off just like real wine. We covered the story on the blog almost three years ago when the company was called Ava, but the questions remain. Why does the world need this?

Barefoot wine review 2019

Barefoot wine review 2019: Cabernet sauvignon and chardonnay

Barefoot wine review 2019Barefoot wine review 2019: The cabernet sauvignon and chardonnay have a dollop or three of residual sugar, but otherwise taste like they should

This is the 12th Barefoot wine review I’ve written, and one thing is as aggravating today, for Barefoot wine review 2019, as it was 12 years ago: No screwcap. Why E&J Gallo, Barefoot’s owner, still uses a cork closure on most of its labels is beyond me. The only time these wines are “aged” is after they’re opened, when they sit in the refrigerator for another day. A screwcap would make that kind of aging so much easier.

The Barefoot wine review 2019 features the non-vintage cabernet sauvignon ($5, purchased, 12.5%) and the non-vintage chardonnay ($5, purchased, 13%). Both, save for a dollop or three of residual sugar, are among the best Barefoot efforts in years. Yes, that’s damning with faint praise, given the quality of the wines in many of the previous reviews. And their sweetness left that dried out feeling in my mouth for 20 or 30 minutes after tasting. But that Barefoot varietal wines taste like their varietal is worth noting.  Put a couple of ice cubes in the glass, and the wines are certainly drinkable, if too simple and not very subtle.

The cabernet tastes of dark berry fruit (boysenberry?), and there are soft tannins, a certain acidity, and restrained fake oak. No chocolate cherry foolishness here, though the sweetness gets more noticeable with each sip and may annoy wine drinkers who expect cabernet to be dry.

The chardonnay, ironically, is less sweet than the cabernet. Take away the sugar, and it’s a pleasant California-style chardonnay — almost crisp green apple fruit, that chardonnay style of mouth feel, and just enough fake oak to round out the wine. There’s even a sort of finish, which was about the last thing I expected. Once again, though, the sweetness gets in the way —  would that Barefoot had the courage of its convictions to make a dry wine dry.

More about Barefoot wine:
• Barefoot wine review 2018
• Barefoot wine review 2017
• Barefoot wine review 2016

Winebits 573: Sweet red wine, pension plans, Barefoot

sweet red wine
Eric Asimov is not a fan of Big Wine

This week’s wine news: The New York Times’ Eric Asimov takes on sweet red wine, plus wine helps a pension plan go belly up and Barefoot reaches 20 million cases

• An unlikely review: The Times’ Eric Asimov, who makes no secret of his disdain for Big Wine, discusses three top-selling Big Wine products in a recent Times’ wine school column. His comments about E&J Gallo’s Apothic and Constellation Brands’ The Prisoner and Meomi are almost as priceless as as the comments readers left. It’s also worth noting that the wines are sweet reds – Apothic more or less labeled as such, and the other two hiding sugar behind a dry red wine label. As such, there are three of the most contentious wines among those of us who do what Asimov does.

• How to make a million in the wine business: Dallas’ police and fire pension fund almost went broke last year, and only tremendous sacrifices by the cops and firefighters – who weren’t responsible for the collapse – saved the system (which is a story for another day). The point for the blog? The pension system was so badly mismanaged that it had investments in wine real estate. How is that mismanagement? Because the first rule of the wine business is this very old joke: How do you make a million in the wine business? Start with two million.

• Only 20 million cases: Barefoot, also an E&J Gallo brand, has grown to 20 million cases – or about one bottle for every drinking age adult in the U.S. That’s a mind-boggling statistic. The story from the Shanken trade news site is mostly puff (boxed wine is hardly an innovation in 2019), but it’s worth reading to note how important $7 Barefoot is to the health of the U.S. wine business. We can talk about premiumization all we want, but if Barefoot was a winery, it would be the fourth biggest producer in the U.S.