The Race for 57 – Day Twenty-One

I’ve been nothing if not a consistent hitter over the past few weeks but sadly for me (and you, loyal reader) I’m looking for extra bases, not singles.  In this league 3000 hits are not getting me to the wine tasting hall of fame.  It will just create a growing list of okay wines that I may or may not buy again.

I’ll tell you one thing, my mind has been circling the idea of doing a lights out under $10.00 bottle of wine.  Not saying it’s an easy endeavor, but it sure seems worth a try…

The Project Happiness has beckoned me before with its classic smiley face logo (is that in the public domain? – I mean this label is the exact yellow smile that’s been around forever) but I’ve never bit, grumbling to myself that it’s just too cliched a label, even given what the producer (Oreana) is going for.

But I suppose I’ll get through all of these labels eventually and while bypassing the Question Mark label – a surely uncopywritable (is that a word?) image, I grabbed good old “Have a Nice Day.”

The wine is a 2005 Syrah, though as I always wonder with a totally blank cork, is if Oreana simply bought this wine from someone else and with good concept in hand, is selling it as their own.  Again, I could write to ask them but according to an interesting piece at Vinography a few days ago, the last thing I want to identify myself with is being a wine writer.  I write, about wine, but I’m no wine writer…

So I just sit here in my ivory (blogging) tower making snap judgements on things I have no proof of.

At $5.99 I was expecting bigger things from this Syrah – and by bigger I mean more fruit.  It was a bit dirty on the nose (though to be fair we just got a dog so everything smells dirty around here, even the soap) and I caught a hint of licorice.

The fruit, as mentioned above wants to come through, it really does, but even after sampling some just now, a good twenty hours after opening it, still isn’t quite there for me.

I’ll give it a SINGLE, even though I’m sure to get flayed by my friend Howard who is already smelling some sort of scam here, like I’m really scoring these wines just good enough to further this blogging experiment.

I’ve not added up all the previous twenty wines yet but I think, a little less than halfway through, that many of the wines found at TJ’s are just that: SINGLES; nothing special but nor must they be at their price points.  And I guess I can move a little bit up the wine chain and act like Jay Z at a Vegas VIP room, spending upwards of $10.00 a bottle.

We’ll see.  For now, don’t complain to the ump.  I call ’em as I see ’em.