 Hey there, NJRoot22.com back here again with another cheap wine reviews vlog. And today, it's like 29 degrees, I'm going to wear a little vest. I feel like Mr. Frickin Rogers, yeah I'm going to wear a stupid ass sweater. I'm wearing a vest. I don't know where I found this, it's way too big for me. Anyway, tonight, tonight, today we're talking about the Cape Original, or Cape Original, Shiraz from the Cape Academy Library. It's an Australian wine, I think. If you can see it, there it is. I hope you can see it. If not, I just need to get a better camera and better lens. This is an expensive camera lens. But it's a 2005. It doesn't have autofocus, so I'm going to crack open bottle number two here. This is going to be a one take, one video, so that's about, I don't know, a quarter of a bottle. I'm going to suck it down a little bit. I'm going to talk a little bit about it in a minute. That was a monstrous, satisfying, I'm going to make it a little bit thicker here. It's not going to be too much worse. That's like a third of a bottle I just poured in there. For that, this particular glass. This is a 2017 Shiraz. I got it at Wegmans, if you're one of their members of their stupid fruity shopping card. It's a $6 bottle. It's sort of like the two buck chuck way back 20 years ago at Trader Joe's that went up with the economy, two buck, three buck, whatever. I don't even know what it is anymore. It's like five buck chuck. I don't really like Trader Joe's as much as most people do. But this is a 2017 vintage. They're on the 2018 now. I don't give a crap. It's a 14%, which is made up in our mind level. I've had 12% that have been very good. Saddle bread sellers was one of those. It was a Pinot Noir, which I don't normally drink, which was surprisingly good. I'm looking for a napkin or a rag because I've got wine on my homemade workbench here. I have a bunch of these workbench. Angle irons and 2x4s and plywood and some wheels. You have solid, made in America, made in wherever town you live in. Anyway, I ramble. I'm going to try not to ramble. I'll keep you under 10 minutes. But this is a $6 wine at Wegmans. I don't know if any other people have it, but there's something important to note. This is imported from a company called Montia Tutan. I think the website is M-T-O-U-T-O-N dot, I'm not sure, worg.com.edu.eu, I don't know. But we've noticed in the past few weeks or months that wines coming out of this importer have been extremely affordable, the $5.99 range, $6.99 range, and they've all been good. Good enough to say they taste good, and several of them have passed the two-bottle test for us. We're burly and whatever, remember, I have to remind everybody, a two-bottle test for me is a one-and-a-half bottle test for somebody else, a one-bottle test for another person and a half-a-bottle test. The test I speak of is in regards to how many bottles can you drink where you know that a good wine, you don't feel like crap and a bad wine you do. But you have to drink, for us, three bottles of any wine, it could be a $300 bottle of wine, three bottles of that, and we're going to feel like crap. Whereas I can safely say that if I drink one bottle only of anything, it could be the worst wine in the world, boxed wine, it could be the shooty, the worst wine ever, and I will not feel like crap the next day. That's the key. So I try to find my limit in the sky where I know that if it's bad after that point, it's a bad wine, if it's good after that point, it's a good one. I think I may lower mine to like a one-and-three-quarter bottle limit or even one-and-a-half. I don't know. I'm on the fence here, it's between one and two bottles, just put it that way. Definitely not one. I can drink one of anything and feel like a champ the next day, anything, almost anything. Maybe the $2 wine, I might feel crappy, but I doubt it because it's just impossible because of my physical size. Anyway, this Monchio Tutan Importer, look out there, I don't think it's going to show up too good, but try, we'll see what happens. Maybe it'll focus, maybe it'll focus, maybe it'll focus. But look for that logo on the bottom, you can get the shape of it even if it's not focused. That Monchio Tutan is, we've had extremely good luck and we're finding them everywhere now. I don't know what has caused this phenomenon of seeing this wine everywhere in the last two or three months, but it's not just South African wines, they're all over the place. They have wine sources from all over the world, I think it's 40 countries, but this is so far so good. I might tell you in the write up on my YouTube or in the njrude22.com blog whether it passed the test or not, I guess the purpose of these videos to get time and page views and clicks is to wait till the end to tell you, I'm not going to do that. You can read ahead of time if it passed, but if you want to know more about this wine, I want to say one thing, this is the meat of the story here. I looked up, obviously you look up on the Google brain or whatever it is, utterly refreshing. Maybe everyone is utterly refreshing, that's not true, but when you water it down with ice cold water and then a straw in a big mason jar, it's possible that everything is refreshing, that's not true. We've had wines that were not refreshing or good and we've had wines, it's not too often, but most wines passed this test. But I read some reviews and I hate reviews, I really, really despise reviews and I don't ever, ever, ever follow them. I look at them almost as like a bird on a perch, 30,000 feet above the mountain looking down and seeing what these minions are doing down there. You get some people who talk and they're all snooty, oh this wasn't good and this had a peppery notes, but it wasn't the texture on the tongue and all this other nonsense. I water my stuff down and I already told you guys, I taste some wines that when you watered them down they got so ridiculously weak that you felt like you were drinking some sort of tainted cup that wasn't washed in the diner. I guess there is, if you look at a bell curve, the bell curve has I think 90 or 80 to 90% of the stuff is pretty good within the bell curve and then you get those fringes that are really either exceptionally amazing like one or two percent and then you get the one or two or five percent that are exceptionally bad. The bell curve is most of the stuff you'll see available at a store because their wine buyers will get rid of the bottom five percent of the bell curve and then they'll put their one percent in the $100 special cabinet, whatever they think, whatever. You get this bell curve, but the bell curve is the same for people's tastes because you'll have a percentage of the population that follows I guess the status quo and they're in the whatever middle 20%, 25% of the bell curve where it's the top and then you get some people say oh it was too watery, I didn't like detection, other people in that same bell curve will say oh it was great so those are the difference between the three stars, two and a half star, someone will say oh I liked it, I finished it, I won't buy it again, it was an okay value for six dollars to other people say hey it's undervalued, I really like it. So it's just personal opinion and our personal opinion here is probably the same because if I say it's a good two bottle wine watered down you might not agree with me which is which is all fine that's why I don't pay any attention to these reviews. If it gets 90 points or 95 points by some what's that guy's name, James Sickhead or whatever, Sickler-Suckler, what I don't even know what his name is but he's apparently well regarded and his tongue is so special. How? How is his tongue special? If it's not the same as mine it's not special at all, okay? This is why I think you need to just throw those wine magazines in the garbage, cancel the subscription and just try it on your own. It's so much more fun to try it on your own and decide. It's not like I guarantee you if this James Suckler whatever his stupid ass name is says it's good I would say 90% of the people that read and admire these people we're gonna like it because he said so maybe it's 80% maybe it's 50% I don't know but they'll like it in an artificial way because someone said and that adds into their brain that they should like it and they drink it and they convince themselves for some weird reason that they like it that's the oddity of it like I love buying stuff just on my own and deciding if on my own if I like it and if let's just say I want to entertain and compare my stupid opinion to someone else's stupid opinion and James Suckler or Sickler or Sinkling whatever what is his name can someone tell me I'll maybe I'll put it in the comments but he didn't he would never touch this with a 10 foot pole because it's well beneath him really you're a human being just like me what elevated you to this status where you you're unable to drink this you know what are you gonna collapse and die I bet you if I told James Suckling or Sickling whatever his name is that this was a $200 bottle of wine and he would drink it and love it and that that's how it works and I think I've mentioned this like countless times already on this vlog but so far after a bottle and a half this cape original original whatever it is it's a great wine for six bucks it's a so it comes out to a $12 plus tax for a 1.5 I still miss my $10 and nine cent um what was that uh whatever that one I bought they changed the percentage it sucks I forgot um Rex Goliath it was it was 20 30% less now 20 about 20% less than buying two of these cheapo bottles and it was really good I loved it 13.5 was it was the bomb and they ruined it 13.0 and I can no longer get that super duper affordable but there's another wine from this importer we've reviewed a couple already from this place uh I forget which one else we did but there'll be another one coming up next week or the week after that's uh I get even cheaper it's like five dollars a change over at shop right wine and liquor or wine and spirits or spirits and wine or wine and beer whatever it's called and I think it's right around the same um I this is my first time drinking this so I didn't put it vet it through its uh process to make sure I didn't feel like crap the next day my liver my liver depends on how much I've consumed in the past a few weeks or so I have no idea what the time is 13 minutes I've gone way way too long here but what I'm trying to say is I think this uh this cape original don't pay attention to the reviews you see on these stupid websites where you get a whole range of reviews and you can't really figure out don't bother it's six dollars it's 14 percent it's a screw top which means it's not going to be tainted it's going to be relatively consistent across every bottle you drink and I think it's a fine one um I haven't tasted it straight up I don't have a glass here I don't I do have a glass here but it's been sitting in the garage for a long time I don't care I'm gonna taste it this way just for a second hmm I taste sawdust and dead bugs hey it had notes of sawdust and dead bugs no now that I rinse it out I'm gonna try another sip I agree that some of the people said it had different texture yes I guess some wines are very complex and then they're very complicated on your tongue I don't know why anybody would put that much emphasis on this this this taste you get like how much analysis how much micromanaging of your tongue can you do I would break it up into into into two zones this this is a smooth kind of like um velvety I don't know I don't want to say velvety it's smooth like teflon it doesn't really have any texture it doesn't feel like there's angry pieces of sand grabbing my tongue and and and talking to me oh man this is my taste this into me no this doesn't have any of that that's sandy or whatever a sandpaper like like you're drinking a rug you know I drank wines like that consumed wines like that where it has texture like who needs to spend that much time analyzing it's just different this is more refreshing I think to drink and some people may sip it like this watch you sip it like this if I drank my wine like an idiot like that I would say that this thing just vanished from my tongue went down my throat and it's in my belly getting processed into buzz credits from my brain the people that need to sip sit there and sip like like a one milliliter sip like this how little can you sip take me a week to drink a glass of wine oh my god what are you gonna do write like chapters of like some sort of romance novel every time you drink a milliliter of wine oh no I love saying that no no this this wine fits I would drink I would bring this to a BYOB drink it straight up with my steak and whatever else I get with the steak I would probably get because I don't eat carbs I would get like a steak and like some bacon and some like a vat of butter to dip it in but a normal one ounce sip or half an ounce sip I don't think it's texture free it's not that liquidy a lot of these reviewers oh it doesn't have texture but I gave it a good review anyway that just proves you it doesn't really matter like some why would you give one wine just because it has a carpet like texture and you feel it like like fighting a battle on your tongue it's just a different way of drinking yes some wines are more interesting but I don't think that makes or breaks whether a wine is good or bad everything is is has its thing you know like you might like a thin crust pizza I don't eat carbs a thin crust pizza one day and one day you might be craving one of those stupid deep dish pizzas with the stuffed crust and like dipped in a deep fryer and like I don't know everybody your mood changes from day to day and this this is inoffensive and which is a very popular way to say things these days it's inoffensive you can't get offended by it and this is why people don't say oh it sucks it doesn't suck it it truly doesn't suck it doesn't suck you can't suck so you can't give it a bad review and like like when you start getting into these comparing if I I've already drank like 500 different brands of wine in my life maybe more like at what given point in time like how can you slice beans and slice split hairs as they say that's the difference between one thing and guess what after you're done splitting all those wines they're done forever because the vintage is over and there's like 10 bottles left in some dope cellars somewhere that are probably going bad as you speak it's just a little slice in time and you just what I like to do is I pick up many bottles I'll buy this bottle I bought a bottle of Italian wine at the Wegmans and Hanover tonight just to try it I don't even know what it's called what the what the grape type is apparently my significant other she said that she hates Italian wines because they're florally and I read this this one doesn't have this one does have a write-up it's saying about 2.5 million years ago matters to anybody and she said it had a flowery thing and I read I read the bottle this stupid Italian wine and said it had a bouquet finish so I may not like it I don't know if I like flowery stuff but either way this this Cape original does is not as bad straight up as some of the other wines I've had I think there were I think this I forget which one it was that I mean maybe it was a saddle bright or something else that had a bad watered down because it was so weak to begin with that it was super duper weak it almost felt like like backwash in my my style of drinking but this is fine straight up even in a wine glass it's been sitting in my garage with like beetles and like all sorts of centipedes I'm gonna keep that there that maybe that'll be my new thing drink out of the bottle the glass that's in there forever but I like this wine like I said I'll put in in the blog post or the comments of the or the description of the youtube video whether I felt rotten I don't think I'm gonna feel rotten by the way I'm gonna put a quick footnote here 20 minutes holy f and f it should be it should be five minutes but since I don't script these things and my thoughts change and the new thoughts that come in I have to keep it 20 20 30 minutes it has to be I want to add one real quick little side note here this is unrelated to the Cape original so something I've discovered remember I was I was talking about the spiked seltzers I'm gonna have more I'm gonna roll tonight I don't have any water to add to I don't have any alkaline water so I'm just gonna fill that up all the way fucking fill it now let's fill the top with water later this is drinking while vlogging FYI ding ding hashtag whatever that means hashtags are the dumbest freaking thing ever how people socialize these days digitally is ridiculous and they get their five minutes in fame a day or two and they're hot and then there's nothing there's something else that overcomes them anyway what was I saying oh yeah spike seltzers something interesting has taken place we reviewed these spike seltzers because we just wanted to just talk about it we reviewed a couple and we talked about truly we talked about one other brand and I think us smirnoff spike sparkling seltzer it was very hard to say but I have to give a little bit more credit to smirnoff spike sparkling seltzer while I don't like it I drank it three or four days in a row I didn't drink a lot I didn't drink nearly like it was hard let's put this way this is my my average wine drinking on a good street let's say during the summer I'll drink at least two bottles boom boom boom everything's fine something amazing happened with it despite the sparkling seltzers the 12 pack of that wine is equivalent in alcohol to about two bottles of wine and what I found was lately that in the last two weeks that I could be fine drinking nine cans I drank nine cans one night nine cans the next night I didn't I got tired you know I got because since I watered down that too as well given more so than this it was just a refreshing drink it was a nice slow way to get a buzz and enjoy the end of your work day I got to the point where I was drinking like five or four cans of this spike sparkling seltzer and it was enough for me to I didn't want anymore to drink so four cans of spike sparkling scent seltzers is the equivalent in alcohol to about six it was about a little bit less than like two-thirds of a bottle of wine so it's like 16 bucks 17 bucks 20 anywhere you go it was equal about it was equal or less than a bottle of wine and cost and you didn't the alcohol content if you only drink this much wine it's pretty good on your liver and I have to say that some of you might want to if you drink two bottles of wine a night like me and you're like oh my god what I'm worried about what's gonna happen to me you might want to try the some of those spike sparkling seltzers and I highly recommend you water them down because they're super duper refreshing you find the flavor you like and they cost more when you buy the flavors alone so buy the mixed pack and deal with the dis dis pleasant flavors for a little bit or unpleasant flavors you get I drink those first it's the easy way to get it over I don't like the cranberry lime my buddy Curtis at the shop right liquors likes that the best and the rest of them are pretty much equal I've determined the cranberry lime is my least favorite and the rest I think there was watermelon watermelon is the least second least favorite but the rosé and the raspberry lemonade are the two good ones but you you can actually drink four or five cans of this stuff it's 12 ounce fake beer whatever it is and it's actually pretty damn good um like pain wise next day it's it's truly a reliable way to to get a buzz fall asleep have a good time and and not suffer like I'm probably gonna suffer tomorrow but I will put it in the comments I'm not gonna do a tomorrow morning hey look at me I feel like shit no I'm not doing that but this is a poti this is almost like 90% alcohol so 90% wine so I'm gonna add another 20% 30% to it and that's it but I highly recommend this it's cheap it's at Wegmans if it's anywhere else I will put it if it's after I publish this I will put it in the comments or I will put it in the description um but six dollars a bottle not bad thumbs up and have a good night stay warm I think we're having a big winter by the way it's my uh snow equipment it's not ready that's a big sign take care