East Hill Bottle Shop Tasting 23 Nov

The best way to buy wine that you will like is to taste it first. Sounds ridiculously obvious, but most people, maybe you, buy wine based on something else without ever tasting it. A catchy label and a biased wine score (do you have the same pallet as James Suckling, or the tasters at Wine Enthusiast? Maybe. But probably not!) round out the top two reasons, outside of price, that people pick an unfamiliar wine off of the shelf.We are very fortunate to have so many great and frequent wine tastings in the Pensacola area that there should be almost no reason to buy a wine that you haven’t tried first, just to find out later that 92 points by James Suckling doesn’t mean that you will like it.We had a tie for Crowd Favorite this evening at the East Hill Bottle Shop, and both are great picks for Thanksgiving, or that upcoming holiday party. The two were Dehesa Gago 2016, a Spanish Tempranillo; and Austin Paso Robles Cabernet Sauvignon. Both were easy drinking and would pair well with a holiday meal. Dehesa Gago, at $12 a bottle is a little more earthy. Austin (wine maker Austin Hope), at $23 a bottle, is a little more deeper in fruit, but not fruity. Which one should you get? Well, go to the tastings and find out for yourself.