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FROM THE WALL STREET JOURNAL

The Joy of ‘Jug’ Wines

Big bottles, big pleasure: Five tasty wines to toss into the ice tub or put on the picnic table By DOROTHY J. GAITER AND JOHN BRECHER
It’s a funny thing about that big tub of ice on the Fourth of July, the one filled with the beer that everyone is enjoying so effortlessly. Put a regular bottle of wine into that tub—no matter how delicious, inexpensive or unintimidating—and it will sit there, unloved, as though it’s just too formal and stuffy for the occasion. But take the same wine and put it in a big, happy 1.5-liter bottle and suddenly everybody is yumming it up.
In that spirit, we went looking for some jug wines for your ice bucket next weekend and throughout the summer.
Jug wines are the “Paul Blart: Mall Cop” of wines, lovable yet ridiculed. After all, fine wines in big bottles are called magnums or “large-format” bottles. Jug wine has come to embody a specific meaning and that meaning is “cheap.” Over the years, most of us have had some really bad wines in big bottles. But there’s no reason good wines can’t come in big bottles at good prices.
Jug wines used to mean low quality. However, "Tastings" columnists Dorothy Gaiter and John Brecher have found several that break the magnum stigma and come out on top.

To see what was out there, we tried many jug wines over the past few weeks, including jug wines that have been among our favorites in the past. We tried both reds and whites. If the wines were vintage-dated, we got the youngest we could find, because these informal wines are meant to drink immediately. We set our price limit at $15. We did not include boxed wines in this tasting; we have tasted wines in boxes in the past and surely will in the future, but this tasting was specifically for tub-of-ice wines in jugs.
We were looking for wines that were tasty and easy to enjoy on a summer day, but that also had enough character to proudly represent real wine against all of the ice-cold beer in the bucket. We were also looking for jug wines that are widely available so that we could offer some specific recommendations. We tasted quite a few bad ones, the kind made by greedy vintners who figured they could disguise second-rate fruit with sugar and oak flavorings. But there are some good ones out there. At the end of the day, these were the five we’d recommend to friends. In each case, the price is generally representative, but prices, as always, vary widely.

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Concha y Toro “Frontera” Sauvignon Blanc 2008 (Chile). $9. This wine is a steal. It’s fresh, fruity and fun, with lively Sauvignon Blanc green-pepper character. If you have a floating chair in the pool that holds a little plastic cup, this is the wine to pour into that cup. Lusty and easy to like, it would also make cold summertime dishes like cold poached fish sparkle. In our tasting, we found that too many whites lacked character. They tasted so much like lemon-lime water that we’d rather have Perrier with lime. This is a white with character, but oh-so-easy to gulp, too. In general, if you are looking for a crowd-pleasing, inexpensive white this summer, the new vintage of Chilean Sauvignon Blanc is one good place to start.
Barefoot Cellars Pinot Grigio Nonvintage (California). $11. We are generally not big fans of Italian Pinot Grigio, which is often watery and charmless. U.S. wines called Pinot Grigio can have the same problem, though we have better luck with U.S. wines called Pinot Gris, which is the same grape. We had a terrific Pinot Gris from J Vineyards & Winery at Disney World recently (2007 Russian River Valley; $60 at Wolfgang Puck Café at Downtown Disney) that had hints of earthy honeydew melon, with some weight. It had a certain clarity of fruit and some richness and it was really pleasing and satisfying. In a tasting of American Pinot Grigio/Pinot Gris last year, Barefoot Cellars was one of our favorites. We tried it again for this tasting in magnum size and, once again, thought it was a real winner, especially for the price. It’s fleshy and peachy, with some weight and true white-grape tastes. We’d pair it with more-flavorful, more-complex summer dishes, like salads with all sorts of toppings, and pastas.
Folonari Soave 2007 (Italy). $12. In a broad blind tasting of Soave earlier this year, good old Folonari was among our favorites. Soave is such a classic name for so many of us that we were delighted to find some we liked, including this old friend. Soave can be fairly neutral, and this wine is quite clean, but we like its weight and hint of minerals. There’s also a little touch of white peaches that is quite summery. It’s important for a white wine to taste like just-picked, perfectly ripe grapes and too many jug wines don’t. This one does and that makes it an easy pair with all kinds of summery foods, especially grilled fish and grilled vegetables.
Bolla Bardolino 2007 (Italy). $14. As we were trying to pin down what we liked so much about this red wine, Dottie finally used the perfect word: “It’s gentle,” she said. Perfect. When you think about the kind of wine you want in that tub (or, since this is red, perhaps on the picnic table after a good dousing in the tub), isn’t “gentle” a good idea? We love the color of this—lively, with fiery highlights. It looks a little like a dark Beaujolais, which is a good sign of its vibrant fruitiness. John took one sip and wanted to order pizza with anchovies. Our daughters stopped him—anchovies, yuck!—but his craving is an indication that this wine would enhance a variety of foods, including cold roast chicken; Italian subs with Genoa salami and provolone cheese; and vitello tonnato, veal with a tuna and anchovy sauce, served cold (a serious summertime treat).
Citra Montepulciano d’Abruzzo 2007 (Italy). $10. We really enjoy this wine, which was a favorite in a tasting of jug reds several years ago and also in a broad, blind tasting of Montepulciano d’Abruzzo (which is a great bet in general, by the way). It has a dark color that looks rich and serious, with some minerals on the nose. The taste is blackberries and blueberries, with good tannins and some body. Too many jug reds seem heavy to us, with unidentifiable tastes and plenty of creamy, vanilla wood stuff. Summer is an uncomplicated time and we like uncomplicated wines that taste like fresh fruit—and this one does. But its extra depth means it’s perfect with a rare burger off the grill or a big, thick steak.

On hot days, does anyone drink "wine and soda" these days? Is that what they now call a "spritzer"? As a kid, I remember wine and soda being very big with my parent's crowd.

Schuarta wrote:On hot days, does anyone drink "wine and soda" these days? Is that what they now call a "spritzer"? As a kid, I remember wine and soda being very big with my parent's crowd.

Yes, that's a spritzer. I don't do that, but I have been known to put white wine over crushed ice to make a wine "slushie".

On a recent sailing trip, the provisioner took the liberty of substituting our wine. Arrrrrrggghhh....we had several bottles of "swill" and nothing good. Soooo, we made pitchers of "Island Sangria" and drank it all week. We used some club soda and just about anything else we had on hand.
We even grabbed some fruit before leaving the dock...it worked out great.
(until the plastic pitcher froze to the bottom of the freezer and a big chunk of the pitcher was missing and we didn't know it so it oozed all over the freezer...talk about a sticky mess!)

Schuarta wrote:On hot days, does anyone drink "wine and soda" these days? Is that what they now call a "spritzer"? As a kid, I remember wine and soda being very big with my parent's crowd.

in Mexico, I've had sangria made w/ red wine, soda, and a lemon flavored simple syrup, ice and a squeeze of lime. they start w/the syrup, then the soda and float the wine on top...it looks nice layered, but I drink them too fast to appreciate for too long, until the next one. I do the same here at home w/both red or white wine to rehydrate during these ball n chain days of summer.