Know your Wine Terminology: House Wine

A winery may have a wine which they call their "house wine". This wine will often be among the winery's most popular wines. This wine is often blended by the winery. Often, the wine will not have a year vintage, as it will often be blended over several years to obtain as consistent taste as possible.

While every winery won't explicitly label their "house wines" as such, its easy to spot. In a grocery store, the house wine is often the only wine the store will carry. For Oliver winery, their "Soft" wines could be considered their house wines. For Brown County Winery, their "Vista" brand of wines could be considered their house wines. In the Midwest, the house wine is often a Semi-Sweet wine.

House wines can offer some interesting tastes, but often nothing overly complex or exotic. These make good wines to drink every day, but could also be considered for a party too due to their economy and broad appeal.

What I'm Drinking: Brown County Winery Traminette

In mid-May this year, we took a family trip to Nashville, Indiana. Nestled in the 'Little Smokies' in the Hoosier National Forest, Nashville has been an artist colony for around 100 years. There are numerous shops in town and a number of Inns. Also in town are two tasting rooms, one for Chateau Thomas and for Brown County Winery. On our trip I stopped at the Brown County Winery's tasting room to try a glass of their Traminette. Impressed with the taste, I bought a bottle to have at home.

This is much like other Traminette's I've tried. It retains the spiciness common to Gewurztraminner.

When opening the bottle, it had a sharp taste to it, not unlike the taste salsa gets after sitting in the fridge for months. But after the wine was opened for a day or two, the taste mellowed and was like I had remembered from the wine tasting. It seems my bottle just needed some time to breath.

Overall, a decent balance for a white wine. For a $10 to $15 bottle, I'd rate this at 75 out of 100. While I think this wine was on par with Easley's Traminette, it's not quite as good as Creekbend's Traminette.

Acid: 2/5

Alcohol: 3/5

Sweet: 2/5

Tannins: 0/5

What I'm Drinking: Forbidden Fruit Moscato

Another bottle of wine that I brought to the Symphony on the Prairie was Forbidden Fruit Moscato from St. Julian winery. I found this bottle in a central Indiana Kroger's store. When browsing for a bottle of wine it meet my two main criteria: it was less than $10 and it had a screw cap. When you have wine at a picnic, screw cap bottles mean one less item to bring and keep track of.

This bottle exceeded my expectations and turned to be an unexpected favorite. It has a nice tropical fruit aroma with a hint of citrus. The wine was ideally suited for the setting; a cool summer evening picnic on the lawn listening to good music.

The wine was not overly sweet with a nice bite of acidity and low level of alcohol. In all, it was a nice, refreshing wine.

Overall, this was a nicely balanced wine. As a sub $10 wine, I'd rate it at 80 out of 100.

Acidity: 3/5

Alcohol: 2/5

Sweet: 2/5

Tannins: 0/5