2014 Ravenswood Besieged
Community Tasting Note
oakville72 Likes this wine:
Tuesday, January 2, 2018 - I've tasted several California red blends lately, with most — e.g. Michael David's Freakshow — over-the-top jammy, alcoholic & sweet. UGH! Most would be better served on pancakes on a strong hangover morning.
This wine, while using many of the traditional California red blend varietals — petite sirah (durif), carignane, zinfandel, syrah, alicante bouschet, barbera & mourvedre — is NOT jammy, overoaked, sweet or >15% alcohol. It even shows a reasonable amount of acidity. Kudos to Ravenswood for creating a red blend with some restraint.
From a marketing standpoint, by calling this wine "Besieged", Ravenswood is attempting to go head-to-head with other popular red blends on the market. Yet it will fail simply because it is NOT too sweet, too fruity, too oaky and too alcoholic — elements that appeal to many in the newly minted wine crowd. Here is where Ravenswood perhaps should have appealed to its base — those who recognize this producer for its fine Zins and reasonably priced varietals. Perhaps calling it "Ravenswood Red: an old-vine traditional bend from Sonoma County" would have done the wine, and its target market, more justice.
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