Wine Awesomeness April 2016 Review & Coupon

Wine Awesomeness is a wine club that’s  like a subscription box  – the wines are really well curated around a cool theme.  We had been subscribing to the 3 bottle box but we upgraded to the six bottle box, which is an even better deal on price. Every month you’ll get themed, wine-fueled adventure complete with 3 (or 6!) excellent wines and “The Back Label” mini-mag! You can choose reds, whites, or mixed — we’ve been getting the mixed since we switched to the six bottle box.  One of the things that we like about this subscription is that they include rosé in with the whites.

You’ll get 3 (or 6, depending on your choice) wines every month or every quarter, depending on how often you’d like to receive it. The 3 bottle box costs $45, and the 6 bottle box is $75.

The six bottle box doesn’t ship in the rad Wine Awesomeness boxes. Guess that’s where the savings are! When you get a 3 bottle box this is what the box looks like – it’s really neat!

The theme this month is “Back to the Bloc,” and it’s a revisit to some of Eastern European countries that made up the former Soviet Bloc.  They featured wines from these regions in February of last year, and they found so many great offerings on their research trip that they had to grab some more to share with us.  Every month you don’t just get 3 “really good” bottles of wine (for a great price, I might add), you got 3 really good bottles curated around a specific theme along with an introduction to the theme, very readable educational materials about all the grapes in this region or the theme, and page by page introductions to each wine.

This is such a great, accessible mini-mag.  This is my favorite wine subscription because of the theme and the magazine (and the great wine!). The Wine Editor’s letter was about the traditions and characteristics of Eastern European wine!

There are stories and other features like recipes in the magazine as well, like this one for a traditional Hungarian “stovepipe” cake that is like a stack of doughnuts on a stick — how can you go wrong with that?

Each wine information page includes the following:

• Wine Name
• Grape
• Location
• What you should do while drinking this wine (many tongue in cheek)
• What to eat with the wine
• What to listen to while you drink the wine
• A cool chart showing a visual on the Acid, Body, Tannin, and Fruit of the wine (this is new!)
• Wine Bouquet
• Tasting Notes
• Description
• The recipes appear facing the wines, which you can make to eat with, or use to guide your selections.  We are simple folk, so wde usually pick the recipe that is closest to what we’re already eating and grab the corresponding bottle!  This month, all the recipes were curated by the chef/owner of Bronwyn, a German and Eastern European restaurant in Central Square in Somerville, Mass — that’s just down the street from where I used to live!  Small world.

Not only was this super informational, it helps you learn about wine in a really low key way.

Oh look, it’s all the wines that come in my 6-bottle box!  I love the way the collection of bottles nearly always comprises labels (and presumedly winemakers) that include the old-fashioned, the irreverent, the modern, and the quaint, all in the same box.

April Wine Awesomeness: Whites

Szoke Israi Oliver 2015:  Produced from the Irsai Oliver grape, a cross between Gewurztraminer and Muscat Ottonel, this aromatic Hungarian wine is fruity, chalky, salty, and minerally. We really enjoy the mineral taste in the wines – it wasn’t something we had ever really had a lot of before this box!

Crnko Jarenincan 2015:  Hailing from a region of Slovenia that has cultivated grapes for two millennia, this full liter bottle has great minerality and a light, acidic body.  I recognized the Crnko label from a previous box and recall having been very fond of the prior varietal as well.

Kindzmarauli Mtsvane 2014:  This Georgian offering has a fruity and citrus-laden character and a peculiar rice wine nose.  Mtsvane means “green,” the color of the grapes used to produce this wine — they are known by many names, but are a specifically Georgian variety well suited to producing dry white table wine.

April Wine Awesomeness: Reds

Dingac Vinarija Plavac 2012:  This wine is made on the Peljesac Penninsula of Croatia, where the winemaking tradition goes back to the Greeks.  The nose is sweet and fruity, followed by an herbaceous palate.

Pfneisi Blaufranker 2014:  Made in Hungary from Austrian grown Blaufrankisch grapes, this wine exhibits a fruity nose and spicy palate with hints of leather.

Shumi Saperavi 2014:  This Georgian red is made from the most ancient, and still most popular, grape in the region, the Saperavi.  Though the grape itself is very versatile, this wine is dry and retains the fruity and acidic character of the grape, with a berry nose and full body.

I’m so glad that we returned to the former Soviet Bloc — the wines of this region are the product of some of the most ancient wine-making traditions in Europe (even pre-dating the Roman-inspired vineyards of Italy and France), yet they were unavailable in the West for so long that they haven’t received the accolades they deserve.  I love the curation of WA — the editors know their wine, and they pick some fabulously eccentric, but always highly drinkable selections.

Visit Wine Awesomeness to find out more or to subscribe. You can get your first month (3 bottles) free, just pay $22.50 shipping and handling – click here to activate the offer – no code necessary!