While we were at Madison RV and Golf Resort in Madison, Florida, we decided to have a wine tasting when our Vilano Okie Friends stopped by for a visit. Karla wanted to share her two favorite wines with our friends. Since she couldn’t decide which one she really liked best, we decided to have a blind tasting and add in our “go-to” box wine.  The following describes the wines we tasted.

The Wines

• Prisoner: The most popular wine of The Prisoner Wine Company in Napa, California is a red blend. This wine has lead the revival of interesting blends by incorporating Zinfandel with the unlikely mix of Cabernet Sauvignon, Petite Sirah, Syrah, and Charbono. According to the Prisoner website, bright aromas of ripe raspberry, vanilla, and coconut give way to flavors of fresh and dried blackberry, pomegranate, and vanilla, which linger harmoniously for a smooth and luscious finish.
• Eight Years in the Desert: This wine from St. Helena, CA, is made by the same vintner who developed Prisoner, Dave Phinney, who sold The Prisoner brand. By doing so, he entered into an 8-year non-compete clause where he could barely utter the word Zinfandel. In that 8-year exile, Dave published a book named 8 Years in the Desert which would become the name of this wine. The wine, according to their website, is a deep maroon core with a ruby rim that opens with aromas of wild blackberry, pepper, oatmeal raisin cookie, Sequoia forest floor, bay leaf, and spices. The entry is broad and opulent with a mid-palate of brambly raspberry, black cherry, ripe blueberry, and a hint of cacao. The wine has superb length through the finish with ripe tannins and a close of sweet oak. This wine is a blend of Zinfandel, Syrah, and Petite Sirah.  
• Pour Haus Wine: The box states it’s distributed by Pour Haus Wines, Ripon, CA. After about an hour of online research, Mick found this information with the following embedded link. Pour Haus Wine is made by a company called Vinden Estate. Vinden Estate is a family-owned business out of Australia that has been making wine for over three generations. The company is based in the United States but sources its grapes from all over the world. Vinden Estate has a commitment to quality and sustainability, and all of its wines are made in small batches using traditional methods. The company’s flagship wine is Pour Haus Red, a blend of Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot, and Syrah. Pour Haus Red is a full-bodied wine with notes of dark fruit, chocolate, and spice. It pairs well with red meat, grilled vegetables, and rich cheeses.

The Tasting 

There were five tasters, including Karla and me. Each wine, starting from left to right, was brought out to the tasters one at a time. We all knew how to taste wine, with three of us (me included) having lived near Napa, CA, where we’d been on multiple winery tours. Karla’s goal was to see whether she really preferred Prisoner or Eight Years in the Desert. I wanted to see how the $14 box wine held up to the two $45 bottles in a blind tasting.

The Results

I and two others chose the Pour Haus box wine as the best tasting. I had never done a proper tasting of the Pour Haus by going through the tasting steps. I was impressed that the wine had high-quality legs running down the glass. The other two tasters who chose Pour Haus liked the lower tannin quality and the slightly sweeter taste as compared to the two bottled wines. Having drunk Prisoner on many occasions, Eight Years in the Desert a few times, and Pour Haus a lot, I thought the order of the tastings were Prisoner, Pour Haus, and 8 Years in the Desert. I also thought 8 Years was on the young side with a tannin taste to it. 

Karla and the other taster chose Prisoner as the best. Karla thought the first wine we tasted was Prisoner until the second wine came out. Then she determined the first wine was actually Pour Haus. When the third wine came out, she couldn’t decide if the second was Prisoner or 8 Years, but she definitely knew the second and third wines were Prisoner and 8 Years in the Desert. She did, however, decide she liked the second wine the best, but the third wine was a very close second. To be honest, I think she’s still trying to decide between the two. 

Final Thoughts

When we first started our RV adventure, we carried bottled wine in cute-little plastic crates. The bottled wine was inconvenient to store and obviously heavier than an equivalent amount of box wine. We started trying the various brands of boxed wines at home and when on the road. Pour Haus Red Blend became our “go-to” wine, with Bota Box Red Revolution being the second choice when we cannot get Pour Haus. We will continue to keep boxed wines as our wine of choice, especially while traveling in an RV. We will save Prisoner and Eight Years in the Desert for special occasions. We get Pour Haus at Total Wines & More, and you can also get it online, depending on state laws. We’ve found Prisoner and Eight Years in the Desert in better wine stores, as well as Walmart and grocery stores that sell wine.