Immediately after pouring this in my glass, I thought that this wine smelled like just-fermented grape juice that someone had bunged in the bottle quickly and then shipped over to California. After a few minutes, though, it settled down into something a bit more recognizable as Barossa grenache: dusty, high alcohol dried cherries with a hint of spiciness. What's really appealing here, though, is a distinct sourness that you don't often find in wines at this price point or in this style; for every sickly sweet, tiring super-alocholized grenache out there, this wine makes a good counterpoint. Although it's still huge, alcoholically speaking (15%), the sourness makes it all work. The overall rawness of the wine - even after fifteen minutes, it still tastes freshly made, somehow - is actually kind of fun and would make this a great match for tacos al pastor.
Sure, there's really not much here in the way of tannins, or structure, or complex aromas... but c'mon, the label is kind of awesome, it's amazingly cheap, and it tastes pretty damn good.
R Winery
Price: US $7.99
Closure: Stelvin
Date tasted: March 2008
Sure, there's really not much here in the way of tannins, or structure, or complex aromas... but c'mon, the label is kind of awesome, it's amazingly cheap, and it tastes pretty damn good.
R Winery
Price: US $7.99
Closure: Stelvin
Date tasted: March 2008
I can't quite decide whether the name is amusingly outré or just silly. Certainly, it's a distraction, and I wonder if most people would dismiss the wine inside on that basis. It actually sounds alright, in a full-on sort of way, which can be fun in the right situation. :)