Wine Purchasing 101

We bought a couple cases of wine recently.  One was The Paring Red Blend which was included in a slew of samples our vendor poured for us.  Frankly, it was the best of the lot.  

Later that same day another vendor brought in his samples that we proceeded to taste through.  After purchasing some from that bunch, he verbally offered the Angels & Cowboys Red Blend from Sonoma.  He made it sound so good, we went ahead and bought a case.

The obvious difference between the two purchases was the ability to taste the wine in the first case and just getting the salesman's pitch in the second.  The backstory?  We've known the first vendor for just a couple months.  The other fellow we've known for decades.  That makes a difference.

The Paring is a Cabernet-driven Bordeaux blend from the Screaming Eagle people; Screaming Eagle, being the most expensive wine of California.  It has no prestigious appellation of origin other than California in general, but we tasted it and it was good.  

A field blend utilizes grapes like Zinfandel, Syrah, Petite Sirah, Grenache, Sangiovese, Carignan, and/or other blue collar types, in various combos that somehow comes out tasting pretty good.  Angels & Cowboys is that kind of wine.  Right up my blue collar alley.

So The Paring has provenance; it has the Screaming Eagle connection and it's Cabernet, the most reliably fine red grape in the marketplace.  Angels & Cowboys, by contrast, has Sonoma-legs but little else to recommend it.  And I bought it without even tasting it!  

Yet I will recommend both to you all.  If you like the Screaming Eagle Cabernet provenance, get The Parings.  If you have a history with me here then lets talk.  Angels & Cowboys isn't for everyone.  But it might be perfect for your needs.