United States of Wine

Virginia

Horton Vineyards — Chateau Le Cabin — Blueberry Wine

Purchased: Total Wine

Price: $16.99

Imagine the worst wine you’ve ever tasted… and then realizing you spent $17 on it. That’s how I felt through trying to drink this blueberry wine.

Yes, I know there are possibly better Virginia wines, but I had never had a blueberry wine before and wanted to try it. I have learned my lesson.

Right from opening, it had a slightly unpleasant smell, like a combination of wine and a wet rag. I decided to give it a quick taste before I let it air out, and it was immensely bitter. I immediately put the glass down and let it soak in some air for 10 minutes, hoping the bitterness would go away and maybe a blueberry flavor could come through.

While the air did remove the full impact of the bitterness, the wine was still very tart, almost sour. It’s a full-bodied wine, but the flavor feels like you were trying to eat a mouth full of tart blueberries at once, squinting your eyes at the sour reaction.

Each sip that my boyfriend took caused his body to react violently, like a Spiderman villain being biologically transformed into a monster. It was a sight to see.

In an attempt to save this wine, I tried it with a bit of dark chocolate, but that only caused a wave of sugar to overwhelm my palette, before quickly disappearing behind the immense tartness. I also tried it with a bit of cheddar cheese, which did dull the tartness a bit, but the flavor of the wine wasn’t good enough to overcome my initial feelings of this blueberry wine.

When I decided to toss more than half of the bottle, unable to drink it further, my boyfriend decided one last way to try it. It’s what we do whenever we find ourselves with a bottle of unpleasant or cheap red wine: We turned it into a kalimotxo.

A kalimotxo is a Spanish cocktail made of equal parts red wine and cola over ice. Frankly, it saves any bottle of red wine from the drain. And it saved this one!

Adding the cola removed the tartness and replaced it with the sweetness of the soda. It allowed for the blueberry flavor to appear in a very flavorful way. Dare I say, it was actually pretty good as a kalimotxo. And it made me think that Coca-Cola could consider a blueberry-flavored soda.

Score: 3 (only because the cola saved it)