One of Your Worst Ever

It's a rare occasion that Boo and I can't see our way to finishing a bottle - even if it's not a wine that we'd ever buy again. I remember one Peruvian red that was nothing like we'd hoped for and we left that bottle unfinished at the foot of Macchu Picchu.

Tonight's wine ranks right up there in terms of "Whoa, what is this...?" - except we weren't as desperate for a glass of wine as we were in Aguas Calientes.  Neither of us even finished our first glass of tonight's wine.

1494.  2008 Stonefield Cellars - Noble (North Carolina)

The Noble grape is apparently the "primary red muscadine cultivar used in wine and juice production" in North Carolina. It is not, however, to be confused with the term "noble grape" that most students of wine will recognize as one of the grapes traditionally associated with the production of high quality wine. Historically, the six noble grapes are Pinot Noir, Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, Sauvignon Blanc, Riesling and Chardonnay.

I think it's fair to say that those noble grapes - or the folks making wines from those grapes - aren't going to lose any sleep over this grape or this wine. It might be called "Noble" but I'm afraid I don't have much use for this particular version - other than to use the bottle as a means of adding the grape to my Wine Century club tally.

The wine was sold as an off-dry, sweet wine, but I'm afraid that even that might be a bit of a misnomer. Residual sugar may be a catch call for winemaking nowadays but, come on people, there have to be limits.

As mentioned, it's the rare occasion that we don't finish a bottle - unless it's corked - but this was one of them. We tried some other Stonefield wines and even visited the winery when we met up with Boo's kinfolk in North Carolina. There were some decent wines to be had. Just not this time, it would seem. Ah well, on to the next...