most drinkable carlo rossi??

I want to make some mead and need some bottles!

I like the sangria.

Thats like asking which is the best looking golden girl, all are pretty bad.

I recommend mixing with something else or chugging, otherwise give it away.

I drank a bottle of the chianti to get a fermenter and it wasn't "terrible".
Next time I will just get a gallon jug at the LHBS for 5 bucks but for $10 more it did come filled with wine

huesmann said:

I like the sangria.

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I'll second that. Chill it, maybe throw in some fresh lemon, lime, pineapple. (fruit is optional, but definitely chill it.

Do those even come in gallon jugs? Gallon jugs go for 4.50- 5 bux new. I have no idea what the carlo goes for but if you go that route pick whatever style you prefer.

-cheers

3 gallon better bottle cant be much more than a bottle of carlo.

Are the wines really that bad or is it drinking wine from a big jug make you think people will think you are going to go sit on the sofa on the front porch and get drunk and yell at the neighbor's kids?

The liquor store by me has almost a whole wall of his wine jugs for sale, somebody must like it. I think next time I am there I am going to pick one up just too see for myself, you know, go sit on the sofa on the front porch and get drunk.

bubbachunk said:

Thats like asking which is the best looking golden girl, all are pretty bad.

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Uh, Blanche! I mean come on, Dorothy?

So yeah, Carlo Rossi's Sangria is Blanche, err something like that.

jgln said:

sit on the sofa on the front porch and get drunk and yell at the neighbor's kids

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LOL!!

I went to the grocery store and unfortunately it was fairly busy. I walked out with two bottles of Rossi and was embarassed as hell. I'm sure people thought I was homeless.

I made a wine reduction sauce with part of one gallon, tried drinking some and just couldn't (I'm no wine snob, I just flat out didn't like it). I got the Merlot and the Chianti and had to give most of it away to a wino friend - which beats pouring it down the drain!

I like the idea of a Sangria. You'd think with enough fruit you could cover up most of the flavor!

Maybe I'm just a lush, but the sangria does go down awfully easy.

FWIW, the large Carlo Rossi jugs are 4 liters, which is good because if you want to make a gallon batch of mead, you'll have a little headspace for your yeast to bubble up into before fouling your airlock (1 gal is 3.785 L).

I used to drink the Sangria in college. It was a good deal for a college budget. you could get good and dee-runk on about 10-15 bucks. Used to snag some fruit from the cafeteria for a dorm-sangria.

I'm feeling nostalgic now and need some small fermenters.... I think I'll pick up a jug. It may be an interesting weekend.

I prefer to either find someone that drinks the shi..um.. stuff. Or my route, I made friends with the guy at the recycling place in town.

Yea the Merlot was probably the most "drinkable". I fed most of it to my alcoholic mother-in-law though. LOL. It was in the fridge for almost a month before that...

I usually go with the gallon of apple juice in the glass bottles. I get it for about $7 and you can make some apfelwein while you're at it.

Watch those apple juice bottles though - some of them aren't quite a full gallon!

I think it's cheaper to just buy an empty gallon jug for $5 from the LHBS.

If you buy Carlo Rossi, get the Rose' and don't forget to pinky-schwill!

Ok now see, you make sangria with the Rossi stuff in a big bowl. let sit with ice cubes. Pour a glass while sanitizing your new carboy. When you are done with this its time to make the must and drink a glass of sangria. After that step is the all important fruit slicing and raisin pitching. Drink a glass (gosh do I even have to tell you people this? You are the pros and Im just a noob)... anyway... next you cap, and shake your must like a mad-man. Drink another glass because this is tiresome. Dont switch these steps or you could drop the jug (dont ask how I know this). After pitching the yeast and putting the balloon on its time to pour a glass, and another for SWMBO and then you can wash the empty bowl out. SWMBO will be annoyed that you drank most of a gallon of wine, and that you bought Rossi in the first place, but notice how she still drinks it. Curious.

Finally, for the love of God, eat something.

Use spring water jugs!!! They are the best!! You don't have to sanitize anything when you make mead! Just dump enough water out to make room for your ingredients and dump them in and jam an airlock into it. That's what I do with EVERY one gallon batch I make, which happens to be most of my batches. Works everytime, I promise :intensity:

The Sangria is damn refreshing over ice with a splash of margarita mix.

I can't stand the thought of sangria, all I can think of is it spewing out of my buddy's nose after deployment.

That could mean one of two things. I hope its the "we drank so much cheap stuff he vomited through his nose" option. If not... sorry. Thank you for your service either way.

The burgundy is excellent in spaghetti sauce! It's really the only one I can use.

the sangria is good when you add to it a bit, a little fruit juice, a couple cans of ginger ale with a bit of brandy also, but watch out cuz it sneaks up on ya... i think i know what im makin this weekend!

CreamyGoodness said:

That could mean one of two things. I hope its the "we drank so much cheap stuff he vomited through his nose" option. If not... sorry. Thank you for your service either way.

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How did you know? Lol

CreamyGoodness said:

Ok now see, you make sangria with the Rossi stuff in a big bowl. let sit with ice cubes. Pour a glass while sanitizing your new carboy. When you are done with this its time to make the must and drink a glass of sangria. After that step is the all important fruit slicing and raisin pitching. Drink a glass (gosh do I even have to tell you people this? You are the pros and Im just a noob)... anyway... next you cap, and shake your must like a mad-man. Drink another glass because this is tiresome. Dont switch these steps or you could drop the jug (dont ask how I know this). After pitching the yeast and putting the balloon on its time to pour a glass, and another for SWMBO and then you can wash the empty bowl out. SWMBO will be annoyed that you drank most of a gallon of wine, and that you bought Rossi in the first place, but notice how she still drinks it. Curious.

Finally, for the love of God, eat something.

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I like the way you think, sir.

If you buy apple juice (I bought Knudsen, which was ~$7), you can use it to make applewine. I bought two gallons and added that to three gallons of Apple Top. I have five gallons of apfelwein and two gallons of mead in the closet

I saw some people (not here) say they liked the Pisanno (sp) so I picked up a bottle. Well, I like all my wine cold, it was not yet, and I prefer pink/white wines over reds, but I guess it was ok. I was strong though at 11.5% I think. I think I will pick up a white before I make a complete decision, and try the Pisanno cold.

Just tried a jug of white zinfindel and I thought it tasted pretty good.

Sweet Red does away with most of the 'make it taste like wine' parts. It's all quite good enough cold.. I love the 4-liter bottles for small batch secondaries or even new recipes I'm not sure I wanna throw a ton of money into.. plus you gotta love that headspace (it's saved me more than once).

Oh and, about the headspace. Mark the gallon level with a sharpie, because it's not quite where the 4-liter level is.

If there are lady types in your life, or even near you, "come over, please, I have so much wine and I frankly need to get rid of it" has worked well for me.. but I work in medicine and nurses are always pragmatists

Tw0fish said:

Sweet Red does away with most of the 'make it taste like wine' parts. It's all quite good enough cold.. I love the 4-liter bottles for small batch secondaries or even new recipes I'm not sure I wanna throw a ton of money into.. plus you gotta love that headspace (it's saved me more than once).

Oh and, about the headspace. Mark the gallon level with a sharpie, because it's not quite where the 4-liter level is.

If there are lady types in your life, or even near you, "come over, please, I have so much wine and I frankly need to get rid of it" has worked well for me.. but I work in medicine and nurses are always pragmatists

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Tried the Sweet Red recently also, a little too sweet for me probably been better off as plain "red". Didn't taste bad, just very sweet.

What is funny to me is they are all the same price no matter the type or ABV.

Sangria is what I choke down to get the mead jugs hehe

I didn't think the Cabernet was that bad. Granted I would NEVER buy it if it wasn't for the bottles, but it ain't exactly rotgut. Just alternate with drinking decent wine.

The real question is how do you get the labels off

I have been called a wine snob by family and friends, and I have like the Paisano wine from CR. My cousin who works on the vinticulture side of the CA wine industry agreed that it is a classic American wine, despite the price tag. MANY Italian immigrants I know drink it almost exclusively.
Drink it in context and it makes total sense: it is a condiment, not a beverage. Invite several friends over. Boil 3 pounds of spaghetti and make or buy some simple red sauce. Toss the grocery store garlic bread in the oven and make an iceberg lettuce salad with too much Wishbone italian dressing. Paisano makes the food taste better and the food makes the wine taste better.
Also, keep in mind that CR is one of the rare opportunities in the current wine market to try a wine that hasn't undergone malolactic fermentation. Thus, it tends to lack the refined character of pricier wines, and you will taste more grape than anything else. No whisps of kiwi here! IMHO, Paisano is to wine what ordinary bitter is to beer.

Flumpy said:

The real question is how do you get the labels off

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Soak overnight in the sink/a bucket with some dish soap.. go after it in the morning with your fingernails or a butter knife. Any kitchen brush should be able to get the last of the adhesive off.

s'easy, brah

Flumpy said:

The real question is how do you get the labels off

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30 minutes in a sink full of hot water and oxy clean. the label will peel right off then hit the white milky glue with a kitchen brush, takes about 10 seconds to complete.

"Would you like to take a look as our monthly special list?"
"No. I'll take that big f****** jug over there."

I didn't drink wine for nearly 8 years, as I thought I had a sever sulfite allergy. Turns out, Uncle Carlo just is no friend of mine. I get sick half way through a glass of the stuff. I've been buying jugs of apple juice, I plan on making a cyser in one pretty soon. Much more drinkable, and way easier to find things to do with surplus organic apple juice than surplus hobo wine.

Franc103 said:

I have like the Paisano wine from CR. My cousin who works on the vinticulture side of the CA wine industry agreed that it is a classic American wine, despite the price tag. MANY Italian immigrants I know drink it almost exclusively.

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Are you referring to all the CR line or just the Paisano?

What kind of upsets me about CR is I can't imagine the steps they have to omit to make THAT MUCH of it. It would have to have about the same quality as McDonalds beef. And if you look at their web site at the pics of the wines themselves it looks like their bottling machine(s) aren't able to fill the jugs to the same levels, which worries me. Some are filled straight to the top and some have lots of headspace, even in the company's own photos:

http://www.carlorossi.com/the-wines/TheWines.html

The last thing that makes me nervous is their slogan: "good, honest wines for real people." Clearly bought by Gallo's massive advertising budget. The deep, sad irony is that the slogan "good, honest wines for real people" is not a good, honest slogan by real people, it's some Madison Avenue creative department's take on what honesty should be by people who've never encountered it before.