Gallo's better offering

The Gallo name is often associated with cheap supermarket wines, which is understandable given that many a times we do see that name on entry level supermarket wines. However, some of their better efforts are worth a second, more considered inspection. As Dorothy J. Gaiter and John Brecher wrote in "Tastings" (the weekly wine column of The Wall Street Journal), Gallo is a big conglomerate with clout and they had been suspicious about the talk of better wines, putting it down to clever marketing. That was until they were surprised when they ended up marking out for recommendation a top range Gallo wine through blind tasting.

Having read that, I jumped at the opportunity when I saw a bottle of their single vineyard offering, ironically enough at Wellcome Supermarket of all places. Well, I didn't mistake for a claret as Gaiter and Brecher did, but then I wasn't tasting blind. It was however a reasonably well made wine and certainly worth a try. There is still a more expensive flagship Cabernet, but whether you are interested in spending nearly $1000 on a Gallo offering is another matter.