Straight out of the fridge, the first whiff out of the bottle is of simple strawberries and pepper, pleasant enough; there’s also a hint of something unpleasantly funky, a dark note that seems out of place.

In the mouth, the first thing that hits you is a lot of undifferentiated fruit sweetness, which calms down into something like blood orange peel, but the wine is unbalanced and flabby, with not nearly enough acidity to counterbalance the sweetness. It’s all a bit thin as well, with a finish that isn’t particularly pleasant – it’s kind of like eating Triscuits that someone’s already licked all of the salt off of, combined with strawberry fruit leather stolen from a lunchbox someone found behind an abandoned schoolyard.

So what do to with this wine? I think the answer’s pretty clear: make sangría. The wine quality’s OK, but it really needs some additional flavor there to detract from its flaws.

Saludas [but really fresh&easy]
Price: US $2.99
Closure: Stelvin
Tasted: November 2007