From time to time, I suppose it’d be a good idea to briefly mention some wines that I’ve purchased that don’t really deserve proper blog entries for one reason or another: they were too boring, faulty in some way, or I just didn’t feel like writing about them at the time.Here are a few to get started:Merryvale Vineyards ‘Antigua’ Dessert Wine NV: I saw this in a local bottle shop for $14.99, and it looked interesting: a half-liter bottle filled with dark brown liquid and a badly scuffed label talking about fortified Muscat of Frontignac. Hrm. Plus, it was a Californian producer. The poor bottle looked lonely so I took it home. As I put it in the fridge to chill it down a bit, I noticed that the bottle had a huge amount of incredibly gross looking sediment swirling around in it; when I poured it a bit later, my partner asked if this wasn’t a health risk to be drinking this stuff. Well, probably not – I’m still breathing – but it wasn’t good. It shouldn’t have been that color – it was badly oxidized, and had obviously been sitting around the bottle shop for years and years falling apart. The taste wasn’t horrible – somewhere between Rutherglen liqueur muscat and oloroso Sherry – but two small sips was enough to send it down the drain.Segura Viudas ARIA Sparkling Pinot Noir NV – This is a $7 sparkling wine produced by the Freixenet folks strictly for the US market. It smelled like dying robots having sex in a puddle of stagnant water – awful, truly awful. It didn’t taste of anything other than weak strawberry cordial, the bead was lame, and it was overly sweet to boot. Blecch. This joined the Antigua in the sewers of San Diego in no time at all.Bonny Doon Le Cigare Blanc 2005: I shared this with my extended family at Thanksgiving, and I don’t remember much about it other than it was delicious and that both bottles were the first to go at the party. It had kind of a vague waxy, honeyed taste that wasn’t particularly strongly flavored; very pleasant and OK value at around $16. 60% roussanne, 40% grenache blanc.Redwood Creek Cabernet Sauvignon 2005: The polar opposite to the Cigare, this was revolting in every way, truly disappointing after other wines that had been drunk that evening. At $6, terrible value: the worst in industrial wine. Generic fruity alco-juice with totally unconvincing “new oak” flavor.