French Nose Cuvee No 1 from Costco

How’s this for a rave review: “It’s not nearly as horrible as I was expecting”

If you’ve read a few posts here you know that I’m not much of a fan of supermarket wines. It’s actually a silly statement as by default, supermarket wines (in Quebec) are the bottom of the barrel. Costco has to follow the same local rules for supermarket wines, being that they can’t have a vintage or varietal information on the label (I’ve yet to find out why) but at least they are trying to up the quality a bit – and they’ve for the most part succeeded. These French Nose wines from bulk wine distributor Julia Wine are just that, bulk wines – there’s no hiding it, although they try. But for a warehouse store wine, one could do worse.

This wine, French Nose Cuvee #1: The nose has notes of red berries and confectionery, not complex but not bad. The first few sips left me with a feeling of ‘watery’ not a great thing for a wine supposedly made from old vines. At least it goes down relatively smooth. Nothing much to speak of as far as tannins or a finish goes. I’ve said this before – what bugs me isn’t the wine itself, I would drink a bottle once and a while – it’s not horrible. It’s the fact that the marketing seems to try and pull the wool over its patrons’ eyes. The website actually suggests it would be better to cellar this fro 2 or 3 years. Come on. I’m going to cellar a warehouse store bulk wine for 2 years just to wait until it reaches its full potential?

I’ve said the same thing with the other French Nose wines, to my Quebec friends: Take you $14.00 and pop into the SAQ, even if it’s a new experience for you. The folks that work there are friendly and knowledgeable and they’ll find a wine for you that will kick some french nose butt. For this price you can get some very nice wine, maybe a Solaz or a Pater San Giovese – why get the bulk dregs?