1983 Novitiate Red Diner Wine

[Kcwhippet]

What part of the old Novitiate Winery did Testarossa actually purchase, Drew? We've been a few times over the past few years to the actual Novitiate Winery and it's now the Mirassou sparkling wine facility. Mirassou may actually be making some still wines there as well since Gallo bought their old facility on Aborn Road and renamed it La Rochelle.

Philip,

Any Novitiate wine is long since dead. Besides their sacramental wines, they also made some commercial wines. However, as Drew and Winoweenie have mentioned their wines were not of the best quality. They were made to be drunk young by people who weren't really all that knowledgeable about wine, because they were made with a touch of residual sugar to appeal to non-wine drinkers. So, the weren't the best wines to begin with and 1983 wasn't that good a year, and taking that all together means that the the wine has no real value. It's possible you might find someone on Ebay looking to fill a vertical of Novitiate or someone who has a soft spot for something from an old memory. With any luck you may get about $25 or $30, but it's really not worth anything more, and it's nothing personal. That's just the way it is. If you find anyone who has tasted this particular wine and found it a drinkable wine, I can guarantee it was about 15 to 18 years ago, not recently.