This has a clear, bright, ruby red color. A clean nose has light oak, cherry, strawberry, and cola aromas. It is medium dry with low tannins and medium-low acidity, smooth on the palate with flavors of red fruit, cranberry, cola, and hazelnut. Lactic notes on the finish were offensive on
Starts out thinnish, then rounds out more as the evening progresses and a little more the following day. Some dark caramelized fruit dominates the flavors, with damson and leather, too. Still a pretty delicate wine, with integrated tannins and a shortish finish. Nicer with a meal than on its own. Drink with
Combining the pleasantly mineral and grippy character of Carignane with rounder notes from five other grape varieties, this inexpensive offering from Bonny Doon is rather easy-going, despite the contrarian attitude implied in the name (which also refers to Contra Costa County, where most of the grapes come from). That contradictory
When I visited Navarra a few years ago, I went home raving about the rosado (rosé) wines made from garnacha (grenache). This time, I found a whole new sphere of great red and white wines, made from both indigenous and-read more-
Surprisingly lush, the Cabernet Franc offers cured tobacco leaf, wrapped in some silky blackberry, black cherry and mocha from the Cabernet Sauvignon. Pencil lead shows up on the mid-palate. Tannins are dusty, fine. The Syrah flows under it all, offering-read more-
I am generally skeptical of the notion of signature grapes, but in the case of the Finger Lakes, it would be hard to contest that riesling is really what makes that region go round. It is well-made all around the-read more-
I first tried Pleiades, the everything-but-the-kitchen-sink blend made by legendary and idiosyncratic Marin County winemaker Sean Thackrey, back in 2003. On a visit to Chicago, a sharp salesman at House of Glunz, Chicago’s oldest wine store, easily filled my request-read more-