Fun with a monkey- Blue Monkey '03 Zinfandel

I was in BevMo the other day and was in the mood for an inexpensive Zin. I've never been a big Zin fan, but lately i've found myself a little more interested. In my quest to find a good one, I came across the Blue Monkey '03 offering. My penchance for cool labels took over, and I bought the bottle. I'm glad I did.

The Blue Monkey experience starts with the unique cork. The cork is a blue plastic inscribed with the words- "Let the monkey out EEE EEE EEE." It's a nice little twist on a typically boring part of the wine bottle, and it definitely got me more excited to try the wine. The wine itself was pretty good. It wasn't as great as the Rosenblum I reviewed last week, but it was good nonetheless. The Monkey had a nice balance to it- never overwhelming, and with a pleasant aftertaste. I drank the Monkey on it's own, but I imagine it would go really well with some fried food or barbeque. Given it's unique bottle traits, it would also be a fun wine to bring to a dinner or party.

Recommendation: Definitely buy it

Comments

[victoria]

I've seen this bottle at BevMo but never picked it up. Who doesn't love a fun lable, the problem is though that a lot of times the lable is way better than the liquid inside. Looking forward to grabbing this next time I see it, knowing that inside that cool bottle is a very drinkable wine...

[joycebell]

How much was Blue Monkey where you bought it?
thanks!

[Budget Wino]

Joyce,

I picked up Blue Monkey for $7.99 at BevMo. Here's a link to the product on their site.
http://www.bevmo.com/productinfo.asp?sku=00000074422&Dn=166+168&Nr=Store%3A99&Ntt=blue+monkey&N=168+0&Nty=1&D=blue+monkey&Ntx=mode+matchallpartial&Ntk=All

[Joyce]

Thanks for the info, though there's not a BevMo near me (Milwaukee). If there's one in Chicago I'll keep my eyes open for it.

BTW, a group of us are going to do a tasting of budget wines: Charles Shaw, Tisdale, and the Winking Owl. I'll report on what we find out. Also try the Woodbridge 2005 Zinfandel--not bad for the price.