We received ours on Wednesday and managed to control ourselves until tonight.
Which Vie Variant did you try and what did you think?
I am happy I got the Rose because I love pretty pink wine although I am myself, pretty much teetotal drinking maybe once a year and barely a swallow. I don't really like the taste of alcohol. However I do want to find a quaffable light wine that I can drink to join in and be sociable because I do feel left out sometimes. However I cook with alcohol a lot including sorbets and cakes where i add it to a sugar soak. I find Rose lovely to use in cooking imparting a pretty colour as well as gentle bright tastes. I can see that Rose could be seen as more feminine by many men and the bottle design with its Orchid graphic in pinks probably reflects these stereotypes. The prominence of the lower alcohol content on the front (5.5%) also makes it appeal to people trying to reduce blood alcohol levels and calories.
My husband doesn't care about the wine being pink and doesn't consider things like this when he buys. So he had no problems trying it.
How would you describe the taste of Vie to your friends
Both myself and my husband tasted the wine and here are both our thoughts.
Husband - Sweet w/ a gentle floral nose. Very perfumed in the glass. It reminded him of high quality Turkish Delight made w/ Rosewater. He didn't detect as much strawberry as I did and had he done so would not have drunk it as he dislikes strawberries intensely! He would describe it as a sweeter wine, one for people who do not like dry wines.
Me- I detected the strawberry cut w/ a warmer deeper note immediately. I hadn't read the description deliberately so as to avoid suggestion. I didn't do my usual 'judder' that drinking drier wines normally invokes so it must be pretty sweet! I would describe it as a Rose wine that tastes both exactly as I would hope based upon its pretty colour! It is gentle but the 'cut' stops it being sickly.I would love to make a Granita with this wine.
Would you recommend it to them? If so, why If not, why not
I would recommend it to my friends that I know like lighter wines. I definitely think a lower alcohol wine is a good thing especially considering the huge glasses many people use but I'm not sure I know anybody who would bother that much about the reduced calories. Most of the men I know drink real ale and they worry about the effect this has on their waistline and the bloating. They might enjoy an ale w/ reduced calories but no reduced taste!
What would be the perfect Vie time for you
I have long wanted to find a rose I could drink on picnics, at parties, BBQ's etc. I could imagine drinking this on Holkham Beach on a warmer Winters day, wrapped in a blanket and also in the warmer months. It feels like an 'outdoors' wine. I don't really drink at home but my Husband does and he like me said he thought this would market well in colder months not just Summer. He sees himself drinking this at an outdoor event such as a concert.
Did I know that Blossom Hill Vie has 30% fewer calories than Blossom Hill Still Wine
No because I know very little about makes of wines. i know now though.
Any Other thoughts you'd like to share
We would buy this again. Only because I actually tolerated the taste better than I normally do. Being a Supertaster, wine just tastes sour to me unless I cook w/ it so it was a lovely surprise to find I could bear to drink it. it reminded me of the only other wine I've ever liked called 'Villa Lantana'. I've never found that wine again. I don't drink enough alcohol to worry about the alcoholic volume, neither of us drives with any alcohol in our system and again ,the reduced calories is not a factor that affects my buying choice. But I can imagine it appealing to dieters.