5/24/2012 - stlwine wrote:

Beautiful strawberry color. Very bright and fruit-forward. Cherry dominates, with raspberry and blueberry. Medium bodied, conservatively oaked, a little yeasty, and very clean. Not terribly deep, but fun, balanced, and refreshing.

3/17/2011 - stlwine wrote:

Awkward and extracted; not what I'm looking for in Barbera. Falling apart completely on day 2.

3/13/2011 - stlwine wrote:

Showing some brett and a little black olive, with lots of plum & black cherry, charred meat, baking spice, and vanilla. At once rustic and modern, but not at all graceful or particularly exciting.

1/23/2011 - stlwine wrote:

Big and plummy with vanilla, pipe tobacco, and musk. A touch hot, and a little volatile, but clean. The fruit isn't cooked or stewed. Enjoyable.

12/8/2010 - stlwine wrote:

I love the balance of this. There's plenty of rich California fruit, but this never attempts to be massive. A little light in the spice/non-fruit department, but there's still enough to keep things interesting. Held well for a few days in the fridge. Just plain fun to drink

12/7/2010 - stlwine wrote:

Rich fruit, meat and spice completely drenched in overbearing vanilla. Like eating a Slim Jim dipped in vanilla extract and dusted in cocoa.

11/29/2010 - stlwine wrote:

Plump black cherry over slightly green and medicinal tannin. Losing fruit and interest by day 2. Solid, and relatively ripe, but far from complex. Drink up.

6/5/2010 - stlwine wrote:

Loads of fresh baked bread on the nose, along with ripe pear, butterscotch, and a whiff of parmesan reggiano. Rich and creamy, if not overly exciting mouthfeel. A good fit for fans of softer California sparklers... and I'm definitely a fan.

12/29/2009 - stlwine wrote:

While it manages to hit 15.1% alcohol (!), this one never really seems overly ripe. Sure, there's fruit. Expect Rainier cherry, green apple skin, a little blackberry jelly and a little cranberry. I even got a little bit of something that brought to mind melted strawberry ice cream. But for all that, it's not terribly jammy, and manages to avoid cooked fruit flavors. There's even a fair amount of green character to accompany the cinnamon, dill, and rosemary. Oh, and there's vanillin... lots of it. Think cheap vanilla cream wafers from Walgreens. The end result is silky with decent (though perhaps not natural) acidity and very little tannin. Good, but certainly not wowing anyone at this price point. And at 15+ ABV.... I prefer my pinot with a little less headache.

10/6/2009 - stlwine wrote:

Huge glycerin entry evokes canned fruit, then fades to stone and, finally, lemon juice. Long.

9/29/2009 - stlwine wrote:

Concentrated, with juicy red apple, perfectly ripe strawberry, and a whole mess of other red fruit. Plenty pf spice, but the oak is in check. Fall forest floor, and maybe even a little anise. Good acidity. It's got heft, but everything seems to be in balance. This bottle disappeared quickly.

9/29/2009 - stlwine wrote:

Awfully purple, with strawberry jam, cherry candy, and a little bitter grapefruit. Overall pleasant, but it's sharp, and tingles just a little on the tongue. My guess (and it's just a guess) is that they used a fair amount of whole cluster fermentation on some pretty ripe grapes, lost a good bit of acidity, and acidified it all to hell. I left a glass in the bottle for the next day. The result: a flat glossy wine that has little mid-palate but plenty of bitter grapefruit in the end. If you've got it, drink it.

9/24/2009 - stlwine wrote:

Uggh.... Vanilla, cocoa, burnt mashmallow - s'mores anybody? Of course, there's fruit (blackberry jelly, plum, raisins), but mostly there's just a heapin' helpin' of sweet smokey wood. Throw in a touch of nail varnish, a little residual sugar, and a 14.5 alcohol that drinks like it's hotter, and you've got a recipe for... a high Spectator score?!? Harvey Steiman ought to be forced to drink only this for a week.

I've been sipping at this bottle for a few days, hoping it might magically transform. No dice. Structurally it's not bad, full and a little sweet, but the rest is rich candy wine at it's worst.

9/10/2009 - stlwine wrote:

Medium to light bodied, but full of red apple skin, tart cherries, and strawberry preserves, with plenty of cinnamon and the prerequisite brown spices that accompany French oak. Add a dash of autumn leaves, and you'd really have something. But someone's set these leaves on fire. The wine is smokey to a fault, and there is an indistinct but overly pronounced green character. Drinkable, even enjoyable; but I'll drop my next $20 somewhere else.

8/13/2009 - stlwine wrote:

After a 90 minute decant: tight nose of cherry, dark fruits, blueberry, cedar, and dried tarragon, with a whiff of washed rind cheese, smoke, and grape Bubbleyum. On the palate, much of the same, with the addition of a little anise and a faint medicinal note. It's worth noting that most of the fun strangeness in this wine is just the French oak, but there is enough restraint in the winemaking to allow for this kind of complexity. There is however, no restraint in the alcohol (14.9 according to their web site), and the whole thing is just a little boozy. On day 2, the nose had become more compact, but the palate was better integrated, and even richer. I'm guessing this will be at it's fruit-forward peak in about 2-3 years. I'll be picking up a few more to find out.

5/20/2009 - stlwine wrote:

Tasted immediately after decanting, acidity was a little wild. Decanted 5 hours. This wine is strikingly acidified. Nose of smoked bacon, new leather, anise, and dill. Cranberry, pomegranate, cassis, and blood orange on the palate. There is a definite liqueur quality here. With food (balsamic marinated tenderloin with a honey mustard sauce), the wine began to taste like Hi-C fruit punch despite obvious sweetness and acid in the dish. Not a failure with food, just not quite ideal. Better to drink this one on it's own. Otherwise big, juicy, concentrated, and perfectly enjoyable.

2/14/2009 - stlwine wrote:

Drank from a half bottle and decanted for two hours (it needed it). After decanting, this was a downright jammy wine with cherry, blackberry, and even a little bacon fat on the finish. Great for the money.

2/10/2009 - stlwine wrote:

A muddy wine with aggressive wood. Smelled of hearth, and finished with burnt marshmallow. This treatment of such a beautiful grape as barbera ought to be criminal.

2/18/2009 - stlwine wrote:

Loads of ripe pear, vanilla, and even a slightly floral character lead the way in this fruit bomb. The finish is more pear, butter, and cantaloupe. Had it with Blackened Crab cakes, and it killed. Maybe this style is becoming unfashionable, but I couldn't have imagined a more perfect wine for the food. Great stuff, and still more fruit than butter.

2/18/2009 - stlwine wrote:

This sweet smelling chard is plenty fat and moderately acidic, but a strange cedar character in the otherwise short finish will keep me from buying it again.

2/10/2009 - stlwine wrote:

Firmly acidic, with mineral, pear, apple, and tropical fruit. It's refreshing, but finishes just a little too green and tart.

1/19/2009 - stlwine wrote:

Past Prime.

1/19/2009 - stlwine wrote:

Fairly extracted with concentrated, expressive cherry and a little pepper. All around great wine for the price. Had it with a slightly spicy beef stew, and couldn't have asked for a better pairing. All the fruit of a Spanish Garnacha with a reasonable abv. and respectable Rhone acidity. Tannins are very soft, but I'd recommend a decant anyway as my bottle had more than its share of sediment.

1/9/2009 - stlwine wrote:

Nose of cherry juice, roses, and roast beef. A little simple on the tongue, with lots of round tannin. Blunt finish. Easy drinking.

1/5/2009 - stlwine wrote:

Graphite, Cinnamon, Strawberry, Aloe/Eucalyptus and whiff of smoke. More expressive and maybe even more enjoyable after a few days in the fridge. Medicinal, spicy, and fruit forward.

1/5/2009 - stlwine wrote:

Flabby and dominated by vanilla. Otherwise very clean. Not unpleasant.

12/15/2008 - stlwine wrote:

Pencil & a little barnyard up front, firm acidity and restrained oak. All around a rock solid wine for $7. Had with with a goat cheese pizza and didn't think too hard about it; it was perfect.

12/8/2008 - stlwine wrote:

Rubbery nose with a fair amount of pencil shavings. Slightly green and meaty finish. This opened up a little after three days in the fridge, but it's just not that much fun. Not what I was looking for in a cheap Jumilla wine.

12/10/2008 - stlwine wrote:

Drinking pretty well now. Mint / medicinal nose with blackberry, gobs of fruit on the palate. The finish reminded me a little too much of blue sweet-tarts, that strange sort of thing you get after drinking red bull. Maybe I'm just a weirdo. Either way, it was clumsy with food.

12/3/2008 - stlwine wrote:

Completely dominated by oak. Every time I thought I could pinpoint something in this wine, I was overwhelmed by vanilla. Disappointing, even at this price.

12/3/2008 - stlwine wrote:

Plenty juicy, with surprising balance, integration, & even a little softness. Not earth shattering, but for the price... pretty damn good. Drink now. It's not getting any better.

12/2/2008 - stlwine wrote:

Smoke and cedar up front, with a transition from palate to finish that reminded me of gelatin fruit snacks. Not exactly a finesse wine, but well concentrated. Decanted for a few hours, but it never really opened up. I just can't see that age would do much for it. Not all that interesting.

11/23/2008 - stlwine wrote:

Still very tannic, but delicious just the same. It does carry plenty of oak, but really pulls it off. There's a strong core of Cranberry and Cassis burried under all that fine-grained tannin. It has a fair amount of sweet smoky bacon on the nose. I decanted for two hours when it probably needed five.