After drinking this wine, I was surprised to see the low scores and negative reviews. Either this wine has changed a lot or my palate just doesn't agree. Ripe red fruit on the nose immediately after opening. It quickly becomes more floral with an obvious note of chili powder with an occasional hint of barnyard. The chili powder and floral components continue on the palate and right on through the finish. The wine is medium bodied with medium acid and tannins as well. It held up very well over 4-5 but didn't change a whole lot other than becoming more floral. It certainly did not need to be decanted to be drinkable. I thought this wine was very pleasant, easy drinking and a great value.
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A musty smell with little else to ponder as you take a whiff. The wine itself is quite bad. A horrid syrup, sweet-grape bombardment of a wine. Soon after our first pour we put the wine through a decanter and to our amazement the wine was drinkable. With (a lot) of air the body and tannins opened and the sweetness was quailed to a tolerable level. But I do fear going back for round two now that it has been in the refrigerator for several days.
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Probably got what we paid for. Nothing really bad, but not all that enjoyable. Started off with a really bright magenta color. The nose was raspberry and cranberry, and maybe a little industrial. When you first taste, it is more or less true to the varietal, maybe more cranberry than typical. As it slides down the palate, things start to get a little contrived. Probably some of the good tasty stuff was filtered out. Then red fruit flavors get real artificial, as does the taste of tartaric acid. So, I decanted and swirled, things started to come together enough to continue. Just a little disjointed. Dry, non integrated acid on the finish, with some welcome and appreciated red raspberry and cranberry.
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1/8/2014 - matthewjhale Likes this wine: 89 Points
After drinking this wine, I was surprised to see the low scores and negative reviews. Either this wine has changed a lot or my palate just doesn't agree. Ripe red fruit on the nose immediately after opening. It quickly becomes more floral with an obvious note of chili powder with an occasional hint of barnyard. The chili powder and floral components continue on the palate and right on through the finish. The wine is medium bodied with medium acid and tannins as well. It held up very well over 4-5 but didn't change a whole lot other than becoming more floral. It certainly did not need to be decanted to be drinkable. I thought this wine was very pleasant, easy drinking and a great value.
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10/25/2013 - ShaneTierney Likes this wine: 83 Points
Was passable on opening. Spent a week in the decanter, and turned into a decent table wine.
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12/28/2012 - FrugalGlug Does not like this wine: 78 Points
A musty smell with little else to ponder as you take a whiff. The wine itself is quite bad. A horrid syrup, sweet-grape bombardment of a wine. Soon after our first pour we put the wine through a decanter and to our amazement the wine was drinkable. With (a lot) of air the body and tannins opened and the sweetness was quailed to a tolerable level. But I do fear going back for round two now that it has been in the refrigerator for several days.
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1/20/2012 - Mike Kopanski wrote: 84 Points
Probably got what we paid for. Nothing really bad, but not all that enjoyable. Started off with a really bright magenta color. The nose was raspberry and cranberry, and maybe a little industrial. When you first taste, it is more or less true to the varietal, maybe more cranberry than typical. As it slides down the palate, things start to get a little contrived. Probably some of the good tasty stuff was filtered out. Then red fruit flavors get real artificial, as does the taste of tartaric acid. So, I decanted and swirled, things started to come together enough to continue. Just a little disjointed. Dry, non integrated acid on the finish, with some welcome and appreciated red raspberry and cranberry.
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