Recap: Budget-friendly Wine Tasting at The Urban Grape

Thursday night, I co-hosted a budget wine tasting event with TJ, owner of The Urban Grape. Quite a few talented writers, bloggers and foodies joined me for the event, including Lara, Jon, Katie, Melissa, and Emily. Over the course of the evening, we tasted four "budget-friendly" wines as well as two "splurge" bottles (and even some extra bottles, per TJ's recommendations).

Here was the line-up:

Economical bottles:
-Luna Vineyards Pinot Grigio, 2007 ($13)
-R Collection by Raymond Chardonnay, 2008 ($10)
-Chateau Jean Gassie Bordeaux Rouge, 2006 ($14)
-Vignamaggio “Il Morino” Sangiovese, 2008 ($13)

Splurge bottles:
-Calistoga Cellars Cabernet Sauvignon, 2006 ($22)
-Chateau D’Estoublon Red Blend, 2005 ($22)

While we sipped, TJ explained how The Urban Grape organizes their wines and why, and taught us a heck of a lot about vino. 

Some things I learned that evening (which some of you may already know):

-Red wine is red because it's made with the grapes skins; white wine is white because it is not.

-Pinot Grigio and Pinot Gris are made from the same grape.

-An easier way to determine the "weight" of a wine is to compare it to dairy products. For instance, "skim milk" wine is light and watery; "heavy cream" wine is thick and creamy.

All of the economical wines we tasted were delicious, and TJ picked a great variety for us to sample. My favorites of the evening included the Chardonnay and the Sangiovese. I even bought a bottle of the Sangiovese before I left that evening. I can't wait to break into it!

The splurge bottles were also indulgent, but I felt like the budget-friendly bottles had the same amount of quality and flavor (if not more). TJ did a great job explaining each of the wines, and reiterating the fact that affordable does not mean low quality. The wines he shared with us that evening proved his point.

What's the maximum amount of money that you'd willing to spend on a bottle of wine?

Drinking Wine Just Got Easier

It’s always refreshing to meet people who are passionate about what they do – and are eager to share that passion with everyone that crosses their path.

I had the pleasure of visiting The Urban Grape earlier this week on their media day, a new wine shop located in Chestnut Hill – with a very unique (and extremely effective) set-up.

Husband and wife owners Hadley and TJ Douglas opened the doors to The Urban Grape just last weekend, but are already turning heads with their varied wine selection (including kosher, organic and biodynamic wines), as well as how they organize these wines on their shelves. Unlike most wine shops that display wines by region or varietal, The Urban Grape organizes their wines by weight, or body. 

The Douglas’ even have two wine tasting machines in the store to help customers choose the right body of wine for them. 

One of TJ’s goals with The Urban Grape is to make all kinds of wine approachable to wine “snobs” and amateurs alike, and I believe organizing wines by body makes purchasing a bottle that much easier. Personally, I’ve never cared which region a wine comes from or what varietal it is – I just want a wine that tastes good and is affordable. And The Urban Grape made that easy for me. 

Another bonus about this new gem? The prices. 50 percent of the wines at The Urban Grape are $15-25, and about 30 percent are under $12. Not too shabby for a wine shop right outside of Boston. The Urban Grape also loves their discounts, and gives customers special pricing on case orders. They even have a feature called Tuesday Tweets where the staff’s favorite wines of the week are 20 percent off until the following Saturday evening. 

I could go on for quite a while about the cool, unique features The Urban Grape has to offer, but I’ll just mention one more: Wine 4-pack, anybody? 

This treasure sells for $50, and the wines change every three to four weeks. The current sampler is inspired by the World Cup, and selections include wines from Italy, South Africa, and France.

In addition to wine, The Urban Grape also sells craft beer, liquor and sake. Since the store just opened a few days ago, the selection will only grow from here – TJ plans to have over 850 kinds of wine, 200 craft brews, and 30 or so sakes.

Oh, one more thing – have you ever bought a bottle of wine at a store and, when you go back, can’t remember for the life of you what the heck you bought? The Urban Grape has a magical system that remembers your wine purchasing history. Hallelujah.

When purchasing wine, what do you care about most? Taste, affordability, varietal, region?