It seems that initially, everyone is apprehensive but ends up genuinely amused after trying gatorwine, a quirky mix of inexpensive red wine (costing under $12) and Gatorade. It’s essential, as the aficionados assert, to use the Glacier Freeze Gatorade—a light blue variant that is said to have berry and citrus overtones. reportedly describes this particular detail.

The drink, seemingly emerging out of thin air, actually owes its discovery to “GoatsNowhere,” a YouTube commentator who shared this concoction during a special tasting episode on the Babish Culinary Universe channel, hosted by the well-known chef and YouTuber Andrew Rea, also popularly called Binging with Babish. Rea’s entertaining and perplexed response significantly highlighted the beverage.

Rea, experimenting with the drink, remarked, “It’s not like anything I’ve ever tasted, ever,” later comparing it to sangria. Despite its unconventional blend, he amusingly admitted preferring it over certain commercial wines, laughing at his own paradoxical enjoyment. He suggested possibly serving it on the rocks after drinking it from a chilled glass. Throughout the testing, he adjusted his rating of the drink from a 6 to a 7 and even had a few refills during the tasting.

Since shared with Rea’s vast audience, curiosity spiked among many, with numerous viewers willing to taste it, albeit with slight hesitation. Nevertheless, the general consensus turned out more positive than anticipated.

“I tried gatorwine yesterday. I was ready to hate it. I made more today. You win,” commented mattyj5751 on YouTube.

“It’s kind of calming down the wine, for people who don’t drink wine,” says Instagram’s @wendellion.

“Oh no. Oh no! It’s good,” says chagrined TikToker @wanderingmallory.

Cocktail creator-reviewer Prescott Vanmeyer III, better known as Unemployed Wine Guy, likes gatorwine well enough to suggest using the idea to stretch your red wine supply, and also tests out the admonition that it must be the light blue one. When he tries it with the Glacier Cherry and Grape flavors, his face tells you everything you need to know.

Well, I’ve put it off as long as I can. Although many testers just eyeball it, I’ve laid out my ingredients and a cocktail jigger to make sure I get it precisely 50-50.

I’ve decided on a pinot noir since we are reportedly in sangria territory, and given both the instruction to limit expenditure to $12 and the relative gravitas of this assignment, the brand Low Hanging Fruit was too good to pass up. One of the cheapest wines out there but actually not one of the worst, it’s on the tart side, heavy on the berry notes, and just astringent enough to be interesting — what professional wine tasters might charitably call “approachable.” You don’t have to fret about unwanted bits falling into the wine during uncorking, either, because the cork is plastic.

Pictured is 2.5 ounces each of red wine and Glacier Freeze Gatorade. I’m surprised that the color isn’t all wrong, purple or muddy; it’s just a nice burgundy, although a bit more translucent than a regular glass of red. Since the alcohol content is cut in half, it has about as much leg as a snake on skates.

A good red should balance acidity, astringency, fruit and alcohol in pleasing harmony. The Gatorade reduces the acidity to somewhere in the vicinity of a milkshake, and much in the way adding a pinch of salt to coffee can reduce bitterness, the electrolytes mean the tannins are missing in action. The finish falls off a cliff and it has all the complexity of a straight line. Smooth, nonthreatening, mildly patronizing — akin to drinking a Care Bear.

But Care Bears are pretty delightful! They spread joy, demanding nothing in return. Gatorwine isn’t going to do anything to upset you; in fact, it giggles a little bit when you sip it. I decided to really lean into the sangria angle and let it chill with diced fruit for a few hours, and honestly, although the fruit at the end is the best part and I don’t suggest ice since it’s already dilute, you could serve this at a dinner party. The only people who will know are the ones who have tried it before, and they’re not going to want to admit it by way of revealing your secrets.

Surely by this point, you have questions. I still have some myself. But as a registered dietitian, I’ll take a crack at some of the ones that show up in the comments most.

First, is there any benefit to drinking this? Well, on the one hand, I’ve never said to a client, “You know, as your dietitian, I really think you should start drinking.” There is nothing in this experience that you can’t get from a great mocktail, and any alleged health benefits are vastly overstated. But, on the other hand, it has half the alcohol by volume of wine by itself, so if you’ve already decided to have a glass, that’s a good thing in relative terms.

Second, will the electrolytes help ameliorate the risk of hangovers? Maybe just a little, in that it could reduce the dehydrating effects of alcohol, but if you’re drinking enough gatorwine to need hangover amelioration, maybe you should reevaluate your life choices.

Lastly, is it worth the shame of going through the grocery checkout with these ingredients just to try a guilty glass with your next frozen pizza night?

Yeah … it kind of is.

This article was originally published on TODAY.com

Kevin Purdy

– Aug 28, 2024 5:15 pm UTC

Microsoft has donated the Mono Project, an open-source framework that brought its .NET platform to non-Windows systems, to the Wine community. WineHQ will be the steward of the Mono Project upstream code, while Microsoft will encourage Mono-based apps to migrate to its open source .NET framework.

As Microsoft notes on the Mono Project homepage, the last major release of Mono was in July 2019. Mono was “a trailblazer for the .NET platform across many operating systems” and was the first implementation of .NET on Android, iOS, Linux, and other operating systems.

Mono began as a project of Miguel de Icaza, co-creator of the GNOME desktop. De Icaza led Ximian (originally Helix Code), aiming to bring Microsoft’s then-new .NET platform to Unix-like platforms. Ximian was acquired by Novell in 2003.

Mono played a crucial role in de Icaza’s initiative to port Microsoft’s Silverlight, a plugin aimed at running rich-media applications akin to Flash, to Linux platforms. Novell advocated for the use of Mono to create iOS applications using C# and other .NET languages. In 2009, Microsoft extended its “Community Promise” to the .NET frameworks, thereby ensuring that Mono could thrive independently of Microsoft’s direct oversight.

By 2011, however, Novell was nearing its end, being absorbed and effectively becoming obsolete. During this period, de Icaza initiated Xamarin to promote Mono’s use on Android. Following this change, Novell (via its SUSE subsidiary) and Xamarin entered into an agreement allowing Xamarin to assume control over the intellectual property and clientele, integrating Mono within Novell/SUSE.

What implications does this development have for Mono and Wine? Initially, not much. Wine, which facilitates the operation of Windows applications on POSIX-compliant systems, already incorporates Mono in its fixes and features a custom Mono engine. By transferring Mono to Wine, Microsoft has effectively dispelled any lingering doubts regarding its influence over Mono. While today’s Microsoft, more conversant with open-source norms, has made this transition, it remains a significant, positive gesture regardless.

Lecturer, Faculty of Business and Law, School of Business, University of Wollongong, University of Wollongong

Paul Chad does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.

University of Wollongong provides funding as a member of The Conversation AU.

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Wine is the most popular alcoholic beverage in Australia. The country boasts over 2,100 local wineries, in addition to a substantial variety of imported wines. Given the extensive range available and the vast price spectrum – from under $5 to over $1,000 – even seasoned wine lovers can find selecting the right bottle a challenge.

Does a $1,000 wine necessarily provide 200 times the pleasure of a $5 bottle? The enjoyment of wine is profoundly personal and subjective. However, without the chance to try before buying, one must rely on other indicators of quality.

When purchasing wine, consumers often consider factors such as the brand’s reputation, critiques, ratings (including suggestions from friends), flavor preferences like grape type and sweetness, the occasion for drinking, price, and the attractiveness of the label, packaging, or product name.

Moreover, wineries and alcohol retailers frequently engage in marketing their products by showcasing high ratings from wine reviews and competition results. But the real question remains, how beneficial are these ratings and accolades?

First, what qualifies someone to be a wine reviewer? Although there are no specific qualifications, reviewers will typically have extensive training and experience in wine appreciation and/or winemaking.

Importantly, wine is generally rated based on its quality relative to other wines of the same grape variety and growing region. This means it is problematic to directly compare ratings across different wine varieties and regions.

Robert Parker, one of the world’s top wine critics, developed a 100-point rating system for wine. While variants exist, the 100-point scale typically starts at 50, with points awarded for colour (5 points max), aroma/bouquet (15 points), flavour/finish (20 points) and overall quality (10 points).

In Australia, James Halliday is a legend of the wine industry and founder of the Halliday Wine Companion, which provides tasting notes, ratings based on Halliday’s own version of the 100-point system, winery ratings and annual awards.

Renowned critics such as Huon Hooke and Bob Campbell, who is one of the few with the esteemed Master of Wine title, contribute to The Real Review. This platform provides wine critiques, scores, an annual “top wineries” list, and a “wine classification” scheme for wines from Australia and New Zealand. More on Bob Campbell and The Real Review.

While submitting wines for evaluation at Wine Companion and The Real Review is free for wineries, the control of these reviews remains with the respective platforms. If wineries wish to use the reviews for promotional purposes, they must obtain a membership from Wine Companion or The Real Review.

In addition, Wine Pilot, initiated by Angus Hughson in Australia, levies a $70 fee plus GST for each review, which the winery can then employ freely for marketing. Concurrently, Wine Orbit, under Sam Kim in New Zealand, reviews each bottle of Australian wine for $30, and the reviewed wineries may use these assessments in their marketing without further charge. Details on Wine Pilot’s fees and Wine Orbit’s charges.

Opinions diverge on whether upfront charges for wine reviews are justified, comparing this approach to the model of offering free reviews and then requiring annual memberships for marketing use. Diverse perspectives on wine review payments.

This is a question readers will need to judge for themselves.

There are many discussions about the objectivity of reviewers and their potential financial incentives to provide favorable reviews. If a reviewer consistently rates a winery poorly, it’s possible that said winery might cease to seek their services, impacting the reviewer’s earnings. However, the reviewer’s personal integrity is also at stake.

The Conversation spoke with Sam Kim, who explained that his $30 flat fee assists in the operation of his small business, adding that offering his services for free was not sustainable.

When questioned about his unbiasedness, he remarked, “I would like to say ‘no’, but it’s not up to me to judge. Consumers will ultimately decide that. And given I have been around a while, perhaps I’m doing okay much of the time.”

Angus Hughson of Wine Pilot noted that “various factors could sway opinions of wine reviewers,” including personal relationships with vintners fostered by their profession.

He mentioned that the essence of wine review relies on personal integrity, emphasizing that reviewers who exaggerate their scores for more visibility or recognition might harm their reputation, ultimately “diminishing their impact over time.”

Jacinta Hardie-Grant, Managing Director at Halliday, asserted that the platforms’s subscription-based marketing approach does not affect the neutrality of reviews. She clarified that the reviewers are unaware of whether a winery submitting samples for review holds a subscription.

The Real Review was not available for comment before the deadline.

Let’s now consider wine shows and awards. There are some prestigious wine shows such as the London-based Decanter Awards, as well as various smaller shows.

Show operators typically charge wineries to enter their wines, so you really do “have to be in it to win it”. Some wineries choose not to enter, while others are renowned for repeat entries.

But there is a potential problem with the wine show process. Ideally, a rigid, scientific method would be used to determine the winners – but this is not always possible, or indeed practical.

Wine is judged “blind”, whereby judges are unaware of the brand. This is a positive. However, the judges will typically judge numerous wines, so the order of judging can affect the results, which is a negative.

Wine show results and awards also often compare across wine varieties and regions, or have a “Winery of the Year” award. These results and awards have their own sets of judging criteria and are often viewed with a level of scepticism.

Consumers should remember these results and awards, while they do have some science behind them, are subjective.

Wine reviewers regularly release results of their wine review activities. My inbox subsequently gets bombarded by wineries promoting their winning wines, referring to reviews and award results.

But these reviews and results remain subjective. Just because one person likes a wine, that doesn’t mean someone else (you) will definitely like it!

It’s always wise to sample before making a purchase. To do this, consider attending wine tastings at local shops, visiting wineries for cellar-door experiences, or ordering a glass of wine at various restaurants.

When you decide to purchase a bottle, referring to reviews or awards can still be helpful, but remember to stay within your budget.