Tag Archives: Red blend

Wine Review: Quinta De Fafide Reserva Tinto Douro 2016

12 Tuesday Nov 2019

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quinto de fafideIn wine and dating, first impressions can be misleading.

My first impression of this Portuguese blend was that it showed good aromatic intensity and depth. Black Cherry, raspberry, clove and cinnamon surrounded with a penumbra of dark toast were almost intoxicating—but the more I sniff the more I get blasts of tire rubber that come and go.

On the palate it’s full bodied and round up front and when the tannins emerge they are unexpectedly soft and fine-grained, almost cashmere like, which is unusual for Douro reds. But acidity becomes really prominent on the finish pushing the prominence of stony mineral notes just as the fruit power is dying. The final gasp is a disappointing mélange of powder and sour berry. The wine shows good tension from the persistent seam of acidity but its quite linear until the bottom drops out. Firmer tannins on the back end would have given the wine more balance.

The personality of this wine doesn’t come together. Its spicy and flavorful, soft and tender, but then turns irascible as the finish unfolds, like a person eager to charm but just too cynical to pull it off, an attitude captured well by Jenny Lewis on Red Bull and Hennessey.

The price is all over the map on this wine. At the average of $15 there are better options available. For the $23 I paid it’s not good value.

Technical Notes: A blend of Touriga Nacional (60%), Tinta Roriz/Tempranillo (25%) and Touriga Franca (15%), 12 months in new and used American oak barrels.

Score: 87

Price: $15 (ave.)

Alc: 14%

Budget Wine Review: La Grande Côte Paso Robles Petite Côte

15 Friday Feb 2019

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la grande coteHmmm. This looks like an oversupply picked up by TJ’s for pennies. There is too much intensity for a $3 wine. It’s a blend of Zinfandel, Petite Sirah, Cabernet Sauvignon and Cab Franc from a premium wine producing area and vinted by a respected winery—Russell Family Wines. I saw ads on the Internet where it sold for $12 when it was available.

If you like big, jammy wines get thee to Trader Joe’s and pick some up before it’s gone.

There is nothing subtle about this wine. Intense, ripe-Zin-nose, berry, sweet vanilla, and baking spices. The fruit stays in the background covered in an alcoholic haze.

The palate is round and mouth-coating with good acidity. Despite the high alcohol, it doesn’t feel heavy although the hot finish falls off a cliff, with the tannins providing bit of dryness without adding structure. As to the flavors, well, there is a prominent seam of sweet fruit on the candy side of jam which conspires with the chocolate and vanilla to satisfy your craving for a snickers bar. It’s over the top, falls apart on the finish, but you can’t beat the price.

Brazen to the point of cartoonish, indulgent and trashy, a Bad Romance says Lady Gaga.

Score: 84

Price: $3 at Trader Joe’s

Alc: 15%

Budget Wine Review: Leftie Wine Co. Red Blend NV

18 Saturday Aug 2018

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leftieIn many parts of the country wines made from fruit other than grapes are an important product, especially in northern states that have trouble getting grapes to survive the cold winters. Blackberry wine is one of the better fruit wines. But I’m not sure we need grape wine blended with blackberries.

The geniuses at E.J.Gallo have a new product in which raspberry juice is added during the secondary, malolactic fermentation. I have heard of this technique when making beer and mead but not wine. So in the interests of science I’ll give this a try.

So what does it taste like? Blackberries. You get a strong whiff of blackberry on the nose with some cherry character as well. The palate also is dominated by blackberry but you can detect some chocolate and coffee notes, with discernable sweetness, between off-dry and semi-sweet. The round, full mouthfeel is soft and the short finish shows a bit of drying tannin but overall it lacks acidity.

It’s being sold as something innovative and eccentric, but it’s really just another option for the soft, smooth, and sweet crowd. If you’re tired of coke but can’t quite get your arms around grown-up wine this will do– think of it as gateway juice.  It isn’t awful but it doesn’t taste like grape wine and lacks the punch and zesty acidity of the best blackberry wines.

Kim Petras “A Heart to Break” has enough fluff and bubblegum to resonate with this wine.

Score: 80

Price: $10 (purchase here)

Alc: 13%

Budget Wine: C’est La Vie Pinot Noir/Syrah Vin De Pays 2016

04 Friday May 2018

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c'est la vieWe complain when supermarkets sell generic products so I suppose we ought to praise them when they sell long tail, “niche” products designed for very specific customers. If you are the sort of person who finds poverty ennobling, or perhaps you’re contemplating life as a monk for purely aesthetic reasons, or you find self-flagellation lovely—this wine is for you.

I bought this because it’s an unusual blend of Pinot Noir and Syrah. Pinot Noir is almost never blended—it doesn’t play well with others. So I thought the experience would be at least enlightening. Nope. Just bad wine. Really, why does this wine exist? If I paid $5 dollars for it I would be disappointed but it sells for an average of $15.  If you still want the tasting note, here it is.

Oddly transparent in the glass for a blend of 40% Syrah, but it shows some purple highlights. The nose is simple cranberry and red raspberry with a candied note and a bit of pepper. I could call it light and crisp on the palate to be generous, but that is going too far. It’s just thin and watery with a polished texture but not enough fruit power to give it a distinct flavor. The finish shows tart orange peel if you’re still paying attention.

Even a plate of pasta couldn’t mask the green, coarse acidity.

I did find some polished techno-pop from Gabin that boosted the glassy, empty potential but in vain, in vain, c’est la vie.

Score: 80

Price: $15

Alc: 13%

Budget Wine Review: Casa Santos Lima “Colossal” Reserva Lisboa 2015

27 Friday Apr 2018

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This blend of Touriga Nacional, Syrah, Tinta Roriz, and Alicante Bouschet lives up to its name.

colassalUnusually concentrated for an inexpensive wine, it’s dense, but not too heavy, with a rich, full entre of sweet blackberry, almost soft, that rushes to a slashing, mineral midpalate with cut, and a long, puckering, slightly grippy finish as bitter as a scorned lover. Thankfully there’s a core of juicy fruit persisting through the abrupt transition. But all the theatrics are worth it. They are why this wine satisfies.

The nose of dark plum, smoke, and tar against a faint vanilla background hints at the muscular structure on the palate.

Volatile and reckless, its like a quiet thick night that falters then flares, this wine lies to you like Promises in the Dark.

Technical Notes: The largest producer of Lisbon regional wines, Casa Santos Lima exports 90% of their production. Aged for 8 month in French and American Oak barrels.

Score: 90

Alc: 14%

Price: $13 but Costco had it for $8

Wine Review: Kuhlman Cellars Alluvé Red Blend Texas 2014

19 Tuesday Dec 2017

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kuhlman cellarsSome wines matter because of their distinctive aromas or exquisite balance. This one shines because of its emotional resonance.

The initial impression of strawberry jam is cut with tarragon and muted notes of freshly turned earth. With aeration whispers of cinnamon and clove grow louder.

The palate is soft, the modestly concentrated cherry, cedar, and earth notes providing a linear experience until the acidity adds a juicy and high-toned mineral element. Fine-grained tannins drop off quickly on what seems like a short finish.

So the first impression is of a small, elegant wine, hushed and a bit shy, lacking depth but with no rough edges. But a second more careful look reveals a wine with an interesting character.

The wine is like a lazy, mid-afternoon boat ride down a quiet river, languorous, slow-moving, tranquil. Even the aromas are parceled out at a leisurely pace, the transitions between opening, mid-palate and finish rendered seamlessly, bound by a delicate filament of minerality that permeates the journey. It is the very opposite of bombast. And as the tannins fade the finish hangs on by a thread for a long minute until a lovely burst of menthol lights up the finale.

To get the full enjoyment from this wine you have to intuit it’s pace, match its slow pace with relaxed attention and wait for that final burst of joy. Too shy to attract attention you have to seek out its considerable charm.

This blend of Sangiovese (30%)  Carignan (20%), Mourvedre (21%), Tempranillo (16%), Touriga (7%) and Merlot (4%) is another Texas wine that plays against the stereotype of big and brash. It is nevertheless unforgettable.

The 2014 sees 80% new French oak. The blend changes from vintage to vintage but winemaker Bénédicte Rhyne’s old world sensibility is the common thread.

Pair with the spare and languid Gnossiene  #4 by Erik Satie.

Score: 91

Price: $28 (Purchase here)

Alc: 13.7%

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uj3m5KMJ02o

Budget Wine Review: Gnarly Head Double Black 1924 Red Blend 2015

12 Friday May 2017

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gnarly head 1924This Zinfandel-driven blend is called 1924 because it’s suppose to remind us of prohibition when wines were field blends and most were sweet. They were also swill made under the pretense of being sacramental. So marketing guy. Which association do you prefer I latch onto?

Inky in the glass,  the nose is a bit smoky, with a hint of raw wood wrapped around bold, berry aromas.

In the mouth it’s thick, round and sweet with cinnamon notes complementing the berry fruit. It’s not dessert sweet but if you’re used to dry wines you’ll find it cloying. The medium length finish has a core of sweet fruit which covers up a bitter woody note.

This is not my style. After 1/2 a glass I crave a shot of tequila blanco to erase all vestiges or 5 or 6 to erase all memory.

But wines like this are flying off the shelf. If you enjoy sweeter wines, this one has lots of big flavors and will excel at washing down a burger.

Score: 85

Price: $10

Alc: 15%

A gothic ballad of a wine, sweetly delivered

Budget Wine Review: Castle Rock Red Wine Blend Reserve Columbia Valley 2013

09 Tuesday May 2017

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castle rock blendCastle Rock’s negociant, business model produces value-priced wines with some personality. And this one is no exception.

They claim it’s fashioned after the “great wines of Bordeaux”. But Bordeaux has nowhere near the sun and temperatures of the Columbia Valley. This is no Bordeaux but it’s not jammy or alcoholic either, and it’s made from Cabernet and Merlot so there’s that.

Black cherry, charred wood and smoked meat aromas make you think barbecue.

On the palate it’s simple but structured, dry with sneaky, medium-grain tannins and bright medium-plus acidity. The charred wood carries through on the palate, but chocolaty, midpalate richness blooms before turning nervy and taut on the finish.

Very nice with steak, this one grows on you, a wine for grown ups.

Edgy and defiant. “I’m learning to survive on earthworms and houseflies”

Score: 88

Price: $12

Alc: 13.5%

Budget Wine Review: Mural Reserva Red Wine Douro 2011

10 Friday Mar 2017

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muralThe land best known for its Port makes red wine as rugged as the slopes on which their vineyards sit. They typically deliver big flavors and firm structure at a modest price but they aren’t for the “soft and smooth” crowd. Most are blends dominated by the robustly tannic Touriga Nacional. But this wine is a bit different being a blend of 40% Touriga Franca, 40% Tinta Roriz (known as Tempranillo in Spain) and only 20% Touriga Nacional. It’s still well structured but the tannins have softened, especially now that it’s 6 years from its vintage date and it doesn’t quite have the midpalate heft and concentration of many Portuguese reds.

It is nevertheless a good value  as it delivers a seriously strange evolution.

The nose of roasted meat, earth, and saddle leather surrounding a core of dark berry is stunning. But in the mouth the full, structured fruit flattens out midpalate acquiring a metallic tone and a bit of severity, with powdery tannins lingering as the textured, prickly finish slowly fades in a cloud of dust. This is an odd trajectory starting round and full but hollowing out and then becoming exceedingly long and granular.

It’s good, cheap and weird. Points for originality.

25% of the wine saw used French oak for 9 months.

Works well with some dirty synth layered over a repetitive pulsing beat.

Score: 88

Price: $10

Alc: 14%

Budget Wine Review: Orleans Hill Red Blend “Cote Zero” California 2015

03 Friday Mar 2017

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orleans hillI’ve found the organic wine section of the supermarket to be a  reasonably good place to buy budget wines. There is no evidence organic wine tastes better than wine made from conventionally-grown grapes but I’ve found these organic producers (here, here, and here)  to be on the whole reliable. This wine, however, is an exception.

The nose shows bright red fruit but it has the raw, yeasty aroma of cheap wine. The palate hints at being juicy but is diluted with a bitter finish and almost no tannin. Oddly it seems low in acidity as well.  It’s light enough to play well with a variety of foods. It won’t ruin dinner but it is exceedingly ordinary. The name “Cote Zero” is a play on Cote du Rhone and zero sulfites.

It’s vegan too so there’s that.

Score: 81

Price: $10

Alc: 12.5%

You really can make a wine taste better by finding a piece of music that matches its mood. This lovely, light hearted track from Angelique Kidjo keeps your attention on the juice and not the bitter.