Transcript and Show Notes
Episode 22: Cursive Brand Wine Review (+ Special Guest Alexa) 00:00
Hello! And welcome to the Wine Pair podcast. I’m Joe, your sommelier of reasonably priced wine, and this is my wife and wine-pairing partner in crime - Carmela. And we are the Wine Pair.
Ok, Carmela. This week we are once again trying something new on the podcast. I mean, are you feeling a little whiplashed by all of this new stuff we are doing?
So for this one, we are going to start a series of episodes where we try several varieties of wine made by the same vintner, or producer, or label or whatever. We have done that a little bit with Costco Kirkland brand wines, but there are some common names in the grocery store that you probably run into quite a bit - like Bread and Butter, Barefoot, Bogle, Coppola, Mondavi, Josh, Chateau Ste. Michelle, Menage a Trois, etc. - and we thought it might be fun to see if there is some consistency in a wine label, and if they maybe make wines that you might like and that you can rely on on a regular basis. In other words, tp see if they can become a sort of shorthand for you because you like the style they create. That way, you don’t have to think so hard. You’re in the store, you see the label, and you go - ok, I probably will like that.
For example, even with varietals I don’t love, I can generally manage wines by Chateau Ste. Michelle because they make their wines in a fashion that I find very palatable. I can handle their Cabernet and Merlot, for instance. So, maybe we’ll find the same thing with some other wine labels.
And, last week, we went on a date - do you remember what our date was? To a brand spanking new Amazon Fresh store that opened relatively close to where we live. If you have not been into an Amazon Fresh or Amazon Go store yet, if you use your Amazon app, you can put things in your cart and in bags and walk out of the store without ever checking out. It is really crazy! What did you think of it, Carmela? And there is a hilarious SNL skit on it - link in our show notes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zS9U3Gc832Y
So, for this episode, we are going to taste and rate three wines that are Amazon exclusives - they are under the Cursive wine brand which you can only find via Amazon stores - although not at Whole Foods at this point - and so we thought for this episode we would focus on a few different types of Cursive wine since we could only get them at the Amazon store. Because we can try a series of a lot of those other wines at almost any other store.
The wines we are going to try by Cursive are their Sauvignon Blanc, a Pinot Noir, and a Red Blend. I thought hard about what to purchase, so in the end, I chose two varietals I like and one I am not sure about to just get a sense for the types of wine they are creating. I thought if I chose too many varietals that I don’t like, I may not be able to tell if it is the Cursive wine production I don’t like or if it is the varietals themselves. So, we’ll see!
Quick reminder - each week on our podcast we taste and review three reasonably priced wines - that means under $20 - that should be easy to find to help you find some gems or avoid some crap at your local grocery store. We release a new episode every Sunday, and we would love it if you would give us a review and a rating, subscribe if you like us, and tell your significant other that you should listen to us together while you are driving in the car. Hooray!!!!
Topic: An Interview with Amazon Alexa 07:16
Before we get into the specific wines for this podcast, we thought we would take our customary left turn and talk about something related to, and maybe only tangentially, to the topic today.
So, because we are talking about Amazon, we thought it would be interesting to talk a little bit about the Amazon Echo and Alexa. In fact, we are going to interview Alexa in this episode as well. And, this may be one of those things that may just bomb. I mean, it could be one of those things that I think is funny, but just is not.
Ok, a few fast facts about smart speakers that I got from the interwebs (and just note that I try to put links in our show notes on our website as often as I can, so there is a link to this article)
https://voicebot.ai/2022/03/02/the-rise-and-stall-of-the-u-s-smart-speaker-market-new-report/
So, there are a lot of Alexa smart speakers out there, and some people find them very useful, while others feel that they are maybe a little creepy. But before we talk to Alexa herself, Camela, let’s talk about your relationship with her.
Ok, now we are going to ask Alexa some questions.
Ok, I think we should just stop now. This is getting weird.
Making Alexa say whatever I want her to say - Bing video
Maybe next time we talk about Cursive wines we should just talk about learning cursive in school.
All right. So, we evidently don’t have a lot of time, so maybe we should just get to the wines. Are you ready?
Brief overview the Cursive Wines we chose 13:24
So, this was totally new to me - these Cursive wines. I did not even know they existed - did you know they existed? But when I saw them when we went to Amazon Fresh, I thought this would be a good thing to know and good to share on the podcast.
The Cursive brand is a brand they started in 2020 with the opening of Amazon Fresh stores, which are supposed to be lower cost than Whole Foods, but much more automated. (About 23 Amazon Fresh stores in the US and 17 in London)
Cursive has, from what I can tell, 10 wines. The wines are meant to be low cost - most, including their sparkling, are under $10, although they have a couple of higher cost versions - at the huge price of $15.99 - which are under the Cursive Signature designation - which seems like a pretty lame rip-off of Kirkland Signature. Like, who couldn’t have come up with a more clever name? I guess its better than Amazon Basics wine or something like that. Another brand of theirs is Aplenty.
I found it pretty tricky to find out too much about these wines, so if anyone out there has more information, please send it along to us and we will share it. I am not sure who the actual producers of the wine are - but my guess is that they are negociant wines - wines that are private labeled for Costco but made by a major producer. Much like Gordon Biersch makes Kirkland brand beer.
They make the wines easy for the average consumer to understand. The varietals are pretty common - Chardonnay, Merlot, Cabernet, Pinot Grigio, etc. - and on each wine they have two scales on the back label that tell the customer where the wine is on two dimensions - although these are different for white and red wines. White wines dimensions are body (light - full) and sweetness (dry - sweet), while red wine dimensions are body (light - full) and intensity (light - bold).
So, again, we purchased three different wines for this episode from Cursive brand - a Sauvignon Blanc, a Pinot Noir, and the Red Blend. The red blend I can almost guarantee that I won’t like, even though I am not really sure what the grapes are that are in it, but I am going to stay open minded!
All right, let’s get to it! I am excited for this episode because this is another opportunity for me to learn.
Wines and Ratings in this Episode 17:33
Wine: Cursive Sauvignon Blanc
Region: New Zealand, Marlborough
Producer: Cursive (Amazon brand)
Year: 2020
Price: $7.99
Retailer: Amazon Fresh
Alcohol: 12.5%
Grapes: Sauvignon Blanc
What we tasted and smelled: Pineapple, tropical fruit citrus, fresh squeezed lemon, POG, apple. Tart. A good summer wine, a good day-drinker.
Alexa, what are you tasting?
Food pairing with: Fish, vegetables, grilled vegetables. Tart and sweet, so it could overpower lighter foods and lighter fish.
Rating: Joe 6 Carmela 8 Alexa 10
Wine: Cursive Pinot Noir
Region: California, Central Coast
Producer: Cursive (Amazon brand)
Year: 2018
Price: $9.99
Retailer: Amazon Fresh
Alcohol: 13.8%
Grapes: Pinot Noir
What we tasted and smelled: Very smoky, wood chips, matchstick, raspberry, cherry, blackberry, red berries. Smooth. Candy. Cherry nibs. Twizzler. Stone. Herb. Not a lot of character or depth. Flat.
Food pairing with: Harder to pair. Big Mac. Something with mayonnaise. Fliet o Fish. Fish and chips.
Rating: Joe 6 Carmela 5 Alexa 10
Wine: Cursive Red Blend
Region: California, North Coast
Producer: Cursive (Amazon brand)
Year: 2018
Price: $9.99
Retailer: Amazon Fresh
Alcohol: 14%
Grapes: ??? Assuming Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot
What we tasted and smelled: Pencil, pencil shavings, metal, plum, black cherry, jammy. Rich, deep smell. A little sweetness. Almost a Sangria taste. Smooth. Great party wine. Cook out wine.
Food pairing with: Steak, grilled food.
Rating: Joe 8 Carmela 7 Alexa 10
What is your overall take on Cursive wine? Pleasant. Reliable.
Which one of these are you finishing tonight?
Carmela - Sauvignon Blanc
Joe - Red Blend
Taste profiles expected from these wines: 36:37
Outro and how to find us 39:46
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