St. James Winery Velvet Red

Apologies to my cat, Latte, who normally
proudly poses with the bottles of wine. I
was out of town when I took this photo.

How good can a bottle of wine be if you purchased it in a gas station out of a cooler that also contains energy drinks, bottled water and pop?

I was about to find out.

When I visited Missouri a couple of weeks ago, I picked up a bottle of St. James Winery Velvet Red, which advertises itself as sweet red wine, in Kingdom City. St. James is a local winery and I always enjoy trying something local whenever possible, but I was skeptical for a couple of reasons.

First, I bought it in the aforementioned gas station – the same place hot dogs have probably been rolling around on a metal rack for eight hours. Second, I don’t really trust wines with twist tops. I’ve never seen a bottle of expensive wine with a twist top. Of course, I haven’t really seen all that many bottles of wine since I’m new to the lifestyle, but something about a twist top just screams beginner. Maybe I just don’t like to be reminded that I’m a wine novice.

Velvet Red is advertised in the following way, “Tastes and smells like ripe, just picked Concord grapes. Velvet Red is fruity, sweet and velvety smooth.”

I have no earthly idea what a just picked Concord grape looks, tastes, or smells like, so that didn’t help me. I do agree that it is fruity and sweet. The velvety smooth part would probably be true if my palate wasn't changing. I used to prefer the sweetest red win possible. But now I prefer a semi-sweet or just a simple red table wine.

Given my changing taste, Velvet Red won’t make my favorites list. But that doesn’t mean it is bad – especially at $7.99 per bottle. I would buy it again if I were traveling through Missouri and I didn’t want to go out of my way to find something else.