Stowells Chenin Blanc is a boxed wine purchased from SuperValu’s booze bin. Normally costing £20.39, this 3 litre box of 12.5% white wine cost only £10. As of today the wine is 3 months past the expiration date, but I’m not going to let that put me off. Having stocked up on many of these boxes while they were cheap, I am now quite familiar with this wine.
Happiness comes in a 3 litre box.
Stowells Chenin Blanc is a South African wine. I haven’t found any South African white wine that I’ve ever enjoyed. I’ll drink it, but I would never chose it over any other kind of wine. The variety of grape used in this wine is called “Steen”, so let’s hope the wine is as amusing as the grapes. The box describes it as “An aromatic, medium dry white with flavours of ripe pears, peaches and apricots”, suggesting that other wines takes like unripe pears, peaches and apricots. Finally it suggests drinking it with “tandoori prawns or a chicken korma”. I have neither, so I’ll be drinking it for the sole purpose of getting drunk.
The wine is quite clear, not that it really matters. It doesn’t have much smell either, other than a slight hint of honey. The taste is also quite empty. It isn’t bad, it just doesn’t really have anything. I suspect the wine has started turning shitty because it’s past the expiration date, but I don’t know how that works with boxed wines. It almost tastes watered down. The aftertaste leaves a very slight burn, but it isn’t anything you’ll notice unless you’re looking out for it.
I was expecting to hate this wine, but instead I just feel neutral about it. It doesn’t really have a taste which is good if you just want to get drunk, but shitty if you want to actually taste the wine. This is maybe because the wine is old, but I don’t care too much since it was really cheap. If this was a normal bottle it would score a 5 or 6, but because of the excellent price it scores higher.
Booze Review rating: 8/10 deliciouses
