"Black Dog Wine (Review)" Topic

This is hopefully to be the first of many upcoming wine (and booze) reviews by your good buddy Murph, here in hopes that I may perchance aid you in finding something wonderful to drink, or to steer you clear of…
All reviews will be rated from 1-5 stars with 5 being the best, (an absolute!)…
So for my first review, I am looking at Black Dog Wine.

Read on…

Yesterday I purchased a bottle of Black Dog Wine. (www.madisonvineyards.com). Madison Vineyards is a small vineyard down in Madison, Indiana on the Ohio River. A beautful town that is slowly starting to find a way to bring itself back from the "death of small towns in the 80's and 90's" due to art festivals, river events, and of course, the vineyards.
The Madison Vineyards were started around 1994 and they seem to be pretty dedicated to growing and producing a great variety of wines.
Perchance on this thought process is what I have discovered while trying a bottle of Black Dog, that they are simply trying to cover "too many bases".
The first thing you will notice about Black Dog is the bottle and this is the interesting point. In Indiana, (I do not know if this is sold outside of the state, I would hope so…), there are THREE things missing from the label.
1: The size, (standard 750 ml bottle)
2: The alcohol content.
3: The Proof

Instead you have a nice label with a pretty black dog looking at you with the title "Madison Vineyards Black Dog Ohio River Valley Table Wine", and the fine print on the back "For sale in Indiana Only"….hmmmm
The back also reads…"Black Dog is a rich sweet red wine produced from French Hybrid Grapes growin in our Madison Indiana Vineyards"….
Okay that is nice to know…

Opening the wine.
Upon opening the wine, the first thing that caught me was a very brief yeasty, heady fruity scent almost reminiscent of Andre "Cold Duck"…
I let the bottle breath for a few minutes and then poured the glasses.
This is a DARK red wine, (almost a garnet red, reddish purple, again like Andre Cold Duck), and is so dark in color that holding it right up against the light, there is very little illumination.
It looks like the dark red wines of horror novels…

The aroma of the wine…hmmm…well it's strong, and one can definately, DEFINATELY feel the grapes aroma and the scent of richness. Perhaps too rich. For some reason all the time I was thinking "Andre Cold Duck"…
weird.

Okay…taste time.
The first swish into my mouth….
Numb.
Yes. You heard it right.
With a lot of wines you get a tongue taste, (followed by a palate taste and an afteraste). Here I got no tongue taste, and the swish around my mouth seemed to actually numbed my tongue like a lightweight dental medication. Finally, I got a first taste and WAS like a lightweight dental medication with flavoring. I swallowed, and there was no palate taste and the aftertaste was of….medicine.
I discovered that on the whole, in order to get a good flavor with this wine, you have to do the following:
1: Take a swig of wine,
2:Inhale.
3: Swallow.
4: Exhale
5: Repeat until you are done, or the wine is gone.

If you do this, after the 2-3rd swallow you will start to taste flavoring. Exhalation leaves a "medicinny" feel and flavor to your mouth.
All in all not very pleasant.

After my second glass, I proceeded to pour the rest into the toilet where the murky redness looked like a bad bowel movement.

Soooo…what are my ratings?
1: Price: ***
2: Bottle: **
3: Color: *** (very dark)
4: Aroma: **
5: 1st Taste: *
6: Full Glass: *

Overall 1 and a half stars…*1/2

Final Call: This is a wine that could be promising, but isn't. It could be a good, decent table wine, but for some reason it's not. Perhaps it was me, perhaps it was the bottle, but when I want to drink wine, I want something that has good taste, and dances on the way down and makes me relish it, whereas this one reminds me of my last root canal…

I would advise you to steer clear of this wine.

Black Dog is available at Cost Plus World Market.

Submitted Respectfully;
Murphy

Here's my recommendation: leave swilling old grape juice to the French, pour that down the toilet where it belongs, and drink either: a) whiskey, b)rum, or c) beer.

You know what I say? I say the band, that's what I say!

A medicine flavor to a wine? Yeesh! Never heard that description before.

There are a couple of wine tasting rooms in the Carmel area where you bought that one. Buying direct has its benefits – as you found out.

Grape Inspirations Wineryż is the only one I've been to, though.

I'd rather drink rotgut while playing Gutshot!

Keep 'em coming, though. I'm a fan of earthy red wines, so perhaps you'll discover something I might like.

My one suggestion: have someone else taste it (you know who I mean) and let us know that opinion, as well. Also, if you had finished the bottle you could provide us with useful info on your perceived alcohol content (in other words, how good is the buzz you get from it?).

A Buzz rating would seem a mandatory part of any good review.

Good call….

Okay..buzz rating…* 1/2 stars…

Hmmmm, I would hazard a guess that the wine is too young, if its still got a yeasty smell but a medicinal/chemical taste.

What year was on the bottle?

That or its actually rebottled austrian anti-freeze.

Good call….

Okay..buzz rating…* 1/2 stars…

That's cause you poured the rest away…

I'm a fan of earthy red wines, so perhaps you'll discover something I might like.

I was on a Tuscany kick last winter (sort of a "Poor Man's Brunello"), so I know what you mean by "earthy wines"

Unfortunately, the wife has completely differnet tastes than I, so we rarely buy a nice, expensive bottle of wine any more…

Not sure I've ever seen a guide to the Fine Wines of Indiana

So you didn't care for the wine, Murph?

Um, shouldn't you be oh, I don't know, working on your NaNovel instead of boozing it up? ;)

You have your muse, he has his…

Maydell Country Wines from Maydell Texas! Now there is some good wine. I just might be sock puppeting here, you just don't know.