Sideways observation (by the way)

I had a Gallo pinot noir at Applebee's the other night. I already know that you can't spell "gallon" without "Gallo," and pinot noir and Applebee's are just scary in the same sentence.

To prove that I am not a Sideways wine snob, I give you my assessment: it tasted like shit, but I shoulda known better for the reasons listed above.

While the color of the wine was pretty under the crappy light, I didn't quite get the hints of berry, vanilla and mint that I was expecting. In fact, it tasted sour and smelled like nothing --- perhaps the consequence of sitting in an opened container too long? The strangest thing was the microscopic bits of cork in the wine. The restaurant must have a shaker full of cork bits, to convince me that they poured the wine out of a real bottle, and not out of a box. (Though a boxed wine would have been less susceptible to becoming rancid. Yuk!)

This is my last wine-related post in a while.