Just in time for April 20th AKA 4/20 comes a long awaited Cannabis-infused wine follow up article. It has been over a year since I first planned to write this, but mostly due to the pandemic it just wasn’t possible until now.
If you don’t remember from my previous articles about cannabis-infused wines, a few years ago legally produced Cannabis-infused wine started popping up around the world from different brands. I say “legal” because what one does in their own home and trades (or sells) to their friends doesn’t fall under this category. Over the last few years Cannabis became legal in several US states and in order for Cannabis-infused wine to be legal in the US, it must contain no alcohol. So the winemaker must first create a wine and then run it through a process that eliminates all of the alcohol. This tedious process unfortunately also strips away valuable flavors and aromas making it a very flat wine. All of the Cannabis-infused wines I’ve tried attempt to replace them with new flavors which end up making them something closer to fruity cocktail-like drinks and less like standard wines. It’s completely fine as long as you going into them not expecting it to truly taste like the Chardonnay you buy at your local market.
I’m really not much of a marijuana guy, so I wouldn’t claim to be a ganja expert. These wines are interesting to me though as someone who can’t remember the last time I smoked anything so if you are like me and are still interested in the experience then these wines may be for you as well.
When I did my last review of Rebel Coast’s Cannabis-infused wine, the wine market seemed to be growing. There were a handful of companies planning infused wine releases and I fully expected to see lots more afterward. Eve several larger multi-label wine conglomerates were also discussing the possibility as well. Yet now when I research online I see that the scene hasn’t improved much. Not sure if this is due to the pandemic slowing things down or companies have just changed their mind. The overall market trend appears to have moved more towards canned carbonated / seltzer drinks with even brands like Pabst getting into the ring. It is obviously easier to drink one can of those at a time than to plan out how to drink an entire bottle of wine so maybe this is why. I have no factual answer just merely guessing. And no, I’m not currently HIGH.
House of Saka was the second US based winery I found that was planning to have a Cannabis-infused wine. Both their WHITE and PINK wines were released sometime around the Summer of 2020 for about $50 a bottle and could be delivered from a local dispensary through websites like Ganjarunner. Their founders came together to “create the world’s most advanced line of luxury, cannabis-infused products made by and for women”. They utilize Napa Valley grapes brought together with the latest advancements in infusion technology to craft their wines and are infused with a special THC/CBD blend unlike any other that I have tried. This was the first one that I’ve tried that also contained CBD as well as THC.
House of Saka’s WHITE wine made from Chardonnay grapes has a murky light yellow color, contains 30 mg THC / 6mg CBD, and comes in a solid white screw top bottle. There were subtle hints of other fruits but overall I found Cannabis to be most overwhelming aroma and taste. For me, I’d prefer something else was the majority with Cannabis being a little less noticeable. Some people I’ve known don’t like Cannabis simply because they don’t like the skunky aroma but they do like the high.
Their PINK wine is a Rosé style made using Pinot Noir grapes contains slightly less with 25mg THC / 5mg CBD and was in a solid pink screw top bottle. It’s color was murky pinkish orange which I’m sure comes from the infusion process of blending the Rosé and Cannabis. I enjoyed this wine quite a bit more for the reasons I mentioned above. Their PINK’s primary aroma and taste was pear for me and reminded me of opening a fresh can of fruit cocktail and was so much easier to drink with the Cannabis aroma and taste being secondary.
As for the Cannabis high, I managed to stumble through making my video before the affects fully set in. I didn’t feel too much for about 20 minutes and it really seemed to kick in at around the one hour mark after my first drink. The delay with these drinks are a bit hard for light weights like myself. I don’t think the winemakers themselves can do much about this delay, but just thought I’d give other light weights a fair warning! Word to the wise… sip it!
If you feel like laughing at my latest attempt to try and make my way through a video before it gets too hard to think, check it out below!
