Gatzby wrote:And thus Judy becomes the first to labrat woot! Brand Animal Tranquilizer. =P

Hah! I can't be a labrat right now - all the meds I've had to be on lately (surgery, complications, etc.) explicitly say "Do NOT drink alcohol while taking this medication."

I'm thinking of dumping all the meds and switching to an all alcohol medication program. If only I didn't have to drive my kids around....

Rat report on the Zin, even if it is sold out.

First I will let you know more about me since I am not a expert on reviews. I started drinking wine about 8 years ago. I liked White Zin the best. After a few years my taste changed I love Merlot, Zin, and Cab Sav in that order. I have drank the cheap Aldi $2.99 stuff, wont buy that again. I can drink a cheaper wine but I enjoy a better wine and savor the flavor in each sip. I try to stay in the $20 bottle range if I can. I can easily finish a bottle of wine I like in one night.

This 2004 Zinfandel:
I honestly like the label, not that it matters. The color is a deep red with clarity. Nose isn't much to me, not bad or good.

Taste: I get more berry than anything, slight vanilla and spice after that. it has a smooth touch that goes down nicely with some slight heat.

I would buy this again if avail. It has now been open about 1 hour, I am going to pour glass two. I am off to my jacuzzi with that second glass, I might buy two more of the new offer even without the Zin.



Thanks for the chance to rat. If I left out anything LMK, it's my first time.
Thanks

Labrat checking in...2006 Merlot. I tought it was going to be easier for my first time since it was sold out but now it is available again so I have to try harder. My wife leaves in the morning but she also participated in the tasting. I am going to copy some format from the above labrat since I'm not entirely sure this will be the greatest review ever.

Background: Over the last year, I have developed a much greater taste for Cab above all else. I just recently had the Pinot for Roessler and realized that I need to keep drinking Pinot! Merlot was my go-to wedding drink because it is usually available there and I do enjoy but have never had a lot of high quality merlot's.

First Tasting...
Look: I feel, like others, that the label looks very nice. I'm not huge into the label and I don't think it means anything about what is inside but figured I would comment

Color: I felt it was a garnet color. My wife said brick but I would think a dark red brick if you were thinking that way. It was cloudy but there was no sediment that was visible to either of us.

1st Sniff: Saw dust, saw dust, and more saw dust. I can't say that at first smell, we got anything else.

Deeper: There are some definite berry flavors in there. Our palates are not developed enough to tell you exactly which ones yet but we are working on it! The saw dust was still powerful but you could get more on the second sniff.

Taste: Acidic, Oaky, strong tannins (bitter) at first taste. This was pretty dry and the taste definitely lasted. We both felt that berries came into play once swallowed although the flavor continued for a long period.

Overall: We are still in the process of drinking the wine. I will be posting more as we continue to drink. I feel that this is definitely going to open up and become a much fuller wine for us. We are not the most complete wino's out there yet but our first responses were this:

Wife: She didn't like it right away. Too bitter and acidic.
Myself: Very strong tannins. I felt it needed time to open up.

Update (1 hour later): We both feel that it is smoother and the flavors are coming out. The saw dust is less over-whelming and it has become more of that Merlot taste that I know already.

WD: Seriously, thank you so much for the chance to try and rat a wine. It may not have been perfect but we feel that this helped us gain incredible knowledge. It is very possible that I will be in for some more later tonight but I am waiting to see how this opens up before buying. We don't have much merlot around and for the price, I don't think that there would be much that could beat it from around the stores!

Labrat for 2003 Syrah. I'm also going to follow the same sort of format since I have never attempted to do anything like this before.

Background: Full disclosure, I'm much more of a vodka drinker. I started getting into wine just a little over a year ago. I feel I've developed a bit of a palate for it, but am still quite a n00b. I even managed to slice my index finger open taking the foil off the top of the bottle. My preferences run to malbecs and pinot noirs.

So, I popped the cork and gave it a sniff. Smelled strongly of fresh flowers and grass. Really refreshing and surprising. I noticed there was quite a bit of residue around the inside of the opening after I took the cork out.

Color: Once poured the color seemed rather muddled, ever so slightly viscous. It was not a dark red, more of a medium.

First Sniff: very oaky, a hint of tar. After the freshness of the cork, I was very taken aback. Really hardly even a hint of fruit.

First Taste: Holy tannins! After decanting for only about 15 minutes, the taste was fairly astringent, especially toward the back of the tongue. Felt very brisk as I swished it around in my mouth. Slightly peppery.

Upon longer decanting (about 45 minutes) the fruit taste finally came forward. It felt very velvety in my mouth. The astringency was nearly gone, and what was there really didn't linger after swallowing. There was more than a little dregs left in the glass after drinking it all.

I enjoyed this wine. On a scale of 1-10, I'd give it a 6. It complemented my dinner, which was marinated beef, red potatoes, and asparagus. I tried some milk chocolate with it and that further mellowed the taste, making it much fruitier and creamier feeling.

My boyfriend (who is really not much of wine drinker) tried this with me, pronounced it "too boozy" and "a little bit funky". He then proceeded to dump the rest of his in my glass.

I hope this wasn't a bad review for my first try. It certainly was a great experience for me. I hope to be a labrat again soon! Thanks.

runner0382 wrote:These wines are very good. A few have showed up at Big Lots around me for $4, and they were a steal at that price. I'm upset not to get in, but enjoy for those who did! I was impressed.

You lucky dog! What state has wine for sale at Big Lots? Here in Ohio, you need a license to sell alcohol. Our local Target just opened a year ago, and they can't even sell alcohol because there were no permits left for that ward.

mines arriving tomorrow - i can't wait

Mine as well. I'm looking forward to it!

Got mine yesterday. Cracked open the Merlot to go with a gyro I'd picked up for a quick dinner. I didn't have a lot of time to think about it, but the first thing I got from the glass to my nose was almost yeasty. Seemed a rather odd aroma, but I kept coming back to it. Not a lot of fruit, though the color was nice and rich. Overall, it seemed pretty unbalanced--very tannic without much else there. Some milk chocolate I had later smoothed it out quite a bit though.

Overall, I can't say I'd get it again, but hopefully the others are more to my taste.

Got mine. Resisting urge to use 5 O'Clock Somewhere Rule and open one now, as they are technically DH's belated Valentine's gift.

Thanks for the followup WD!

Trying the Zin. Right out of the wine fridge and out of the bottle it is a little funky. Hoping it opens up after it warms up and breathes for a while. Will update after the kiddo goes to bed.

Mellowed out immensely after warming up and breathing. Still not an amazing zin, but for $9 or whatever I paid it was decent.

Winedavid39 wrote:*** Heads up, JanKris buyers! ***

We wanted to get out in front of what appears to be a problem with a small portion of the JanKris Merlot bottles. We've learned that some cases may have been exposed to extended sunlight or heat which can cause “volatile acidity” in the wine. External symptoms are protruding corks and/or leakage. The likelihood is that the Merlot issue is isolated to a small batch. However, if you have received a bad bottle, please contact service@woot.com. They are aware of this issue and are ready to pounce. Very sorry to those of you impacted.

I never seem to get the bad bottles. The Merlot was fine. Not great, but drinkable.

I had the merlot last night and it was my favorite of the 4 we've opened so far. Don't remember but it was either the Picaro or Riatta that seemed like it went bad. Almost an effervesence to it which I knew shouldn't have been there. Gave off an interesting zing in the mouth. Ended up drinking most of the bottle before I got sick of it.

I've had two bad bottles of the JanKris 2004 Picaro -- the first was completely undrinkable, it actually burned my eyes and smelled like ammonia. I asked for a replacement bottle, and it, too, is afflicted with the same problem, but not to the degree of the first bottle I had. I am not pleased.

Corrado wrote:I assume it's a bit of secondary fermentation happening in the bottle. After 3 JanKris orders, none of mine have had it yet, but I did have a bottle of their Zin at a restaurant that had it. I'm wondering if decanting a swirling frequently would degas it.

I had the same issue with the Picaro. Had a really zing on the mouth almost like it was slightly carbonated. Not the best. Decanting didn't really improve the wine too much. Probably just a bad bottle. The merlot and zin bottles did not have this issue and were good value for the price point. Still have the syrah and riatta so I hope they don't have the same "zing."

I have finally finished and scored all 10 bottles I bought. Nothing great, but no bad experiences either. Lowest individual score was 81 (twice), highest was 87. In order of the average score, I place them thusly:

1. Riatta (86/86)
2. Syrah (84/87)
3. Zinfandel (82/84)
4. Merlot (81/84)
5. Picaro (81/83)

Note that that I liked all of them better the second time around. Not sure why. But overall, $85 for 10 bottles of drinkable 80+ wine? Yeah, I'll take that.

Finally got around the opening the bottle of Merlot tonight. Looks like I was the lucky recipient of a bottle of the "volatile" wine. I can honestly say I've never smelled wine like that before.

I contacted service@woot to see if they can still help. It's an unfortunate way to start the evening nonetheless.

Moving on to the Syrah...

I was in for 2 back in February. Every bottle I opened from that batch (of every variety) was bad and tasted of vinegar with a nose-hair singing smell.

I contacted woot, they sent me a replacement set of 10, which I put into storage. Tried seeing if any of them were drinkable this weekend - ten more bottles down the drain.

Not sure if it would be worth asking for a refund this late, or if it is even worth posting this late, but if you got a bad batch you aren't alone.

Don't know what would explain 20 bottles being bad, across five different varieties. Maybe a batch of bad corks, maybe bad warehouse conditions, who knows?

*edit* - I contacted Woot and they gave me a complete refund, even though it was eight months after my original purchase. Thanks Woot!