3/26/2023 - BenitoBlanco_ Likes this wine:

Really delightful - young, fresh cherry, strawberry, maybe a little cranberry with loads of acidity and a nice complex funk character due to the 4% vidal blanc orange wine that’s blended in along with brett and other bugs hanging out thanks to very low intervention, no fining or filtering and only 13 ppm sulfur dioxide in the 2021 vintage.

This is amazing with a chill on it. If you like beaujolais nouveau or fresh natty reds check this out. Definitely an exciting style of wine that I haven’t seen much of in VA.

5/9/2022 - forceberry wrote:

A blend of Grenache (75%), Syrah (15%) and Mourvedre (10%) sourced mainly from Paso Robles, but supposedly including fruit from Edna Valley and Santa Maria. 65% destemmed, 35% whole cluster. Aged in French oak barrels (65-70% new), bottled on 27th of August, 2021. 15,3% alcohol. Total production 400 cases. Tasted blind.

Very deep, almost fully opaque cherry red color with a subtle pomegranate red hue. The nose feels lush, opulent and very fruit-forward with almost jammy aromas of blueberries and cherry marmalade, quite pronounced alcohol, some toasty mocha oak tones, a little bit of vanilla, light nuances of stewed strawberries and a hint of peppery spice. The wine is very ripe, dense and voluptuous on the palate with a very full body and opulent flavors of strawberry jam and wizened black cherries, some vanilla, a little bit of toasty mocha oak, light blueberry juice nuances, a hint of peppery spice and a touch of boysenberry jam. The overall feel is chewy and mouthfilling, but flabby instead of firm, thanks to the quite modest acidity and very ripe and mellow tannins that offer no grip whatsoever. The high alcohol lends some obvious warmth to the palate. The finish is big, rich and quite weighty with quite a bit of heat from the high alcohol along with a lengthy, sweetly-fruited aftertaste of overripe blueberries and strawberry jam, some vanilla, a little bit of chocolatey oak, light marmaladey notes of ripe black cherries and a hint of soft black plums.

Well this was a huge wine if there ever was one. The wine is all about that super-ripe in-your-face fruit that feels way too much for me in terms of ripeness, sweetness and just overall intensity - there's not a smidgen of finesse over here. For me this is a wine with too much of everything, but I can see how this kind of very hedonistic, soft and straight-to-the-point wine might have lots of mass appeal. Definitely not a wine geek's wine, as there's nothing geeky about this. I guess this might be good if served on its own and slightly chilled (just to tone down the alcohol and boost the modest acidity), but I find it hard to come up with a dish to which this kind of soft, quite structureless and rather overpowering fruit bomb of a wine could actually bring something interesting. I first guessed the wine was a very ripe Californian Syrah, based on its dark color and slightly peppery nose, but when told it was not, I guessed it still must have some Syrah, so a Californian GSM. Correctomundo. Superb value at mere $8, if you are in need of a big, sweet and rather oaky GSM blockbuster.

5/19/2021 - jmcafee Does not like this wine:

Powerful funky musty nose at opening, overwhelming most of the wine's character. This improved by 75% 3 hours after decanting and aeration, but was still lingering quite a bit after 24 hours. On the good side, there is a nice Bing cherry on the mid palate with good acidity, and medium finish. If the funk was not there, I would say this could age nicely for another 3 years until 2024. If your bottle is like mine, pop and pour... down the drain.