The winery: Hardwick Vineyard and Winery, Hardwick, MA.
The grape: Pink Catawba
Price: $14.99
Unfortunately for a first go, this is one of the worst wines I've ever tasted. I'm actually feeling sick to my stomach as I write this. The problems start very quickly for this wine. In a dim liquor store or even a wine cabinet with the light off it looks to be a light red, like a rose, but in better light it's true color is revealed: orange.
It's not even a particularly nice orange, either. It has the same color as orange scented dish soap or whatever that medicine with the little plastic cup children are given is. The packaging is bad as well -- getting the cork out broke my corkscrew. When the cork is finally out, things only go downhill.
The scent hits you in much the same way as a total stranger suddenly sucker punching you in the grocery store and it smells like a dry erase marker, only it doesn't make you dizzy. That's a pity, as it means you're still compos mentis when you taste it and thus can't claim that you did it because you were off your head. No, like mortal sin this wine requires full consent of the will.
One word describes the taste: tart. In more than one word: flat cherry limeade. It's so sweet I have a hard time believing it was fermented out of actual grapes in a real vinyard rather than out of powdered sugary drink in a prison toilet. There are no complex flavors, it doesn't develop on the tongue, it has none of the subtelty of a good dessert wine. It's like modern art -- it hits you over the head to say nothing at all.
Verdict: Vile. It's cheaper to sniff a marker and suck on a lemon.
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