Big House Red 2005

After my review of Big House Pink (see the manly man post), I received a note from friend Tom Wyatt on my Facebook account. We'd previously discussed vintner Bonny Doon and how it doesn't do anything poorly.

He also said that Big House Red was his favorite.

Clearly he has good taste, in both wine and friends. (I should note that Tom was a frat boy in college, where any fruit flavor of Mad Dog mixed with Sprite rated 90 points -- IQ points that is.)

Big House Red is meant to taste like a Rhone and it does so by mixing a strange concoction of grapes, so much so it's like reading the ingredient label on the Twinkies package.

But it achieves its complexity in this brew of many varietals, with a mineral and stony base that has bursts of berry flavors, including strong hints of sweet, wild strawberry. You can also glimpse some citrus notes and pepper underpinnings. (I had to wear pepper underpinnings to my English boarding school -- but that's another blog entirely.)

For about $9, it's hard to do better.

Big House Pink 2005

First, understand that I'm a man. A manly man. James Brown and me. It's a man's world.

And understand I used to only drink reds or whites and the idea of some flashy pants rose or white zin or, God forbid, a pink wine, was beneath me.

Then I realized it's hard to get beneath my place in society -- a middle-aged dude who doesn't know much about wine but still drinks it.

But then, for a short time, I received this free report on my cell phone from Wine Enthusiast that emailed me the best-rated wines, and among the cheapest wines with the best scores (oh yeah, baby), they listed three from Bonny Doon:

-- Big House Red

-- Big House White

-- Big House Pink

Here's a $10 bottle that gets 90 points.

It mixes Sangiovese and Barbera with Fat Clemenza and Tattaglia the Pimp, as well as Petite Verdot and Gwen Verdon.

I think.

Well, having blown the rest of my money on Arby's, I spent my final 10-spot on some Big House Pink -- and it brought to light what a blush wine can do. (Which made me blush, by the by.)

I expected a cloying sweetness from start to finish, one that will give you gasps of coughing like Dr. Mucus Welby had made a visit.

And while this did start with a nice sweetness, it gave way to depth and structure. The sweet grapefruit flavors were balanced by some mineral flavors, along with vanilla and toast. It finished mostly with those mineral flavors so that your mouth isn't coated by sugars.

I enjoyed it with ham, which I think generally is a tough mix with most wine. They mixed perfectly, the slight sweetness played against the salt of the ham but it had enough structure and flavors behind it to compete.

I've always said that anything from Bonny Doon is good, but they've done well here, providing a true blush wine that has character -- for a wonderfully cheap price.

And I'm so cheap I spell it "cheeeeeeep." The more e's, the better.

You won't go wrong here and as summer advances, chill a bottle and take it along on a pic-a-nic.