Bud Wine

There's this new wine brand that is showing up on store shelves, 101 North, which implies the US 101 highway that runs from L.A. then through vineyards, coastal areas, over the Golden Gate, through more vineyards, redwoods then all that way up through Oregon and Washington. Their home page shows many vistas you might see along US 101. I'm not sure what the winery has to do with any of this.

This brand is a joint venture between Anheuser-Busch and The Wine Group. I'd guess A-B for money and distribution because who has a better distribution network than Bud? Okay, maybe Gallo. The Wine Group is a generic-sounding name that's home to over two dozen mostly mediocre wines such as Almaden, Benziger, Cupcake, Flip Flop, Franzia, and, yes, MD 20/20. Headquartered in Ripon, in the middle of the San Joaquin Valley, an area known for jug wine production.

Even though this joint venture was announced just a few months ago, the wines are already available -- three whites and a red. They all show a very low alcohol on the labels by California standards, around 12.5%, and a touch of residual sugar (except the Moscato which, of course, has more sweetness). The wines are cheap and probably light-bodied and soft by looking at these numbers. They are labeled as California meaning the grapes can come from anywhere in the state. In this case it'll be the Central Valley because of the low price.

I don't know how he gets his alcohol level that low with ripe fruit from the hot Central Valley. I haven't tried the wine yet and maybe never will. They do mention the outdoors and adventure a lot in their marketing materials, so maybe I'm not enough of an outdoorsy type for their product.

Could this be a new favorite cheap wine for many consumers? They're cheap and probably easy to drink without having to think about the wine. Kind of like a lite beer -- something Anheuser-Busch knows a bit about.