I went to Heights Chateau located not too far from the school. I thought highly of this retail store because it was offered on the wine list that Professor Goodlad provided. Unfortunately, I did not have a pleasant experience. Once I entered with my friend into the store, I stated that I am a City Tech student and I am going to take a few pictures for my wine project. All the sales representatives do not really seem thrilled. Maybe they were just having a bad day or something. Besides the weird vibe I received, I got to look around the store. There were plenty of shelves and rows of wines and sparkling wines from all over the world. It was great to see so many options. The downside was that there were no shelf talkers. I looked everywhere and could not locate any.

As I was roaming around the store, I thought it was so cool that the more we are learning in class, the more I know where these wines are from. There are so many regions and countries that they have in store. All the prices are reasonable prices, they ranged from $7-$40 for average. They do have more expensive wines but I did not look into detail. I explored and looked for the wines I needed to take pictures of. At that moment, there was no red wine from Spain. I did stumble upon on wine from Australia. The label was what caught my attention. “The Gatekeeper” with a gate and a creepy man. It was a 2015 South Australia Shiraz. I did not know that Australia produces wine. “Gruet Brut Rosé” is a sparkling wine made in New Mexico! It has a beautiful rosy pink tint to it. They used Method Champenoise to produce this sparkling wine.

I did not know Australia made wine.

I visited my local neighborhood liquor store. I did ask the owner if I can see any of his red wines from Spain. Luckily, his store carried only one kind! I asked if I could snap a picture. In the end, I bought 3 bottles to make some sangria. He suggested that red wine from Spain makes the most delicious red sangria. It was Campo Viejo, with Garnacha grapes. I never knew this grape existed! I had a better experience at my local store than Heights Chateau.

Red from Spain made from Garnacha grapes, 2016