Region:  Washington State

Price: $11.99 at Total Wine

Sight: black-purple with ruby facets

Smell: alcohol, plum, cherry, smoky

Taste: medium-bodied, bitter chocolate, cherry, barbecue sauce

Overall:  First of all, let’s talk about the color of this—it’s incredibly dark, almost a blackened purple, but it isn’t inky.  It’s not dense enough to blot out all of the color, so in the light or at a tilt it catches these beautiful ruby facets, like you’re staring straight into a gemstone.  The nose isn’t quite a face full of fruit—there is some plum and cherry, but it’s amply supplemented with a tense smokiness and the low purr of alcohol.  Moving on to the actual taste, the wine seems to increase in body as it moves across the palate.  It starts out silky with a round cherry emphasis, and when it crosses the mid-palate, the alcohol swells and some intriguing complexities emerge—especially the bitter edge of dark chocolate, and a smoky, savory, slightly acidic finish that somehow evokes the character of barbecue sauce.  My experience with Charles Smith wines—and this is no exception—is that there’s always a lot of depth, polish, and finesse, but also something a little rustic or wild that basically guarantees that you’ll remember it.  The last thing I’ll say is that this drinks way better than $12.  Think about it!

For those of you who don’t know, I’m currently training to be a Wine Manager at one of the Total Wine locations in Charlotte, NC.  Training is happening in Tampa, FL, and I’m there for a total of four weeks with three other trainees.  One night after work, we decided to each bring a bottle of wine that we were curious about, and we opened them up, ordered a pizza, and tasted through our themeless flight.

Here’s a collection of my tweet-length reviews from that night:

2007 Edgewood Cabernet Sauvignon - $18
blackberry, cassis, sweet cigar smoke, touch of earth

2005 Accordini Amarone Classico - $50
baguette crust, black peppercorns, dried cherry

2009 Château Arnauton Fronsac - $25
strawberry Twizzlers, silt, cherry brandy

2008 Hugh Hamilton Jekyll & Hyde Shiraz/Viognier - $40
blueberry central, dense velvet, grape Blowpop 

The Amarone & the Shiraz were probably my favorites, but every single one of those bottles was super tasty.

—a

Price: $9.99 at Total Wine

Region: Yecla, Spain

Sight: deep purple

Smell: cherry, blueberry, licorice, mint leaves

Taste: black cherry, licorice, black pepper, dark chocolate, grape chewable Tylenol

Overall: We had just sold out of the 2005s of this bottle at work and I didn’t get to try it, but luckily the 2009s had just arrived.  This has been a consistently highly-rated wine, and since Spain is horribly under-represented on my palate (I don’t really know why), I was eager to give it a try.  The nose of this wine explodes out of the glass, bearing a rich bouquet of dark fruits and spice.  It tastes strongly of cherry and dark berry flavors, accompanied by a licorice-like, spicy punch and a hint of dark chocolate.  This is a full-bodied wine, although the tannins aren’t grippy at all.  The biggest feature of the wine by far is the fruit, though it isn’t one-dimensional as it is accented by other spices and flavors.  You may have noticed one of my notes—“grape chewable Tylenol.”  Do you remember those from your childhood?  I sure do.  I loved those things.  If my mom hadn’t hidden them from me, or if those foil packages weren’t so darn difficult to get into, I probably would have eaten them like candy.  And I get a little bit of that nostalgic flavor on the finish.  My only hesitation about this wine is that it is hot.  It smells hot, and it tastes hot—the alcohol is at 14%, and I feel it could be a little better balanced in that department.  However, it is absolutely delicious, an easy drinker, and I’m in love with this wine’s spunk.  Looking for a wine you could serve with dark chocolate?  This wine is for you.  Also, if you tend to lean toward zinfandels, or even merlots, you would probably enjoy this one a lot.

I would like to dedicate this post to my friend Hannah.  She is crazy, and I love her, and we laugh a lot and have great fun together.  This post would not have happened without her—we were having a girls’ night last week & she suggested we crack open a bottle of organic wine, and of course I couldn’t refuse.  It is a 2008 Greener Planet Shiraz-Merlot-Cabernet Sauvignon from the south of France, and the label boasts a complete lack of pesticides, industrial fertilizers and herbicides.  Even the bottle and label are made from recycled materials.  Let’s see how fresh and natural it tastes!

Region: Vin de pays de l’Hérault

Price: $15.99

Breakdown: 40% Shiraz, 40% Merlot, 20% Cabernet Sauvignon

Sight: Vibrant purple

Smell: Earth, vegetal, black cherry, blueberry

Taste: Cherry, forest floor, firm tannins, black pepper, medium-bodied

Overall: This wine was incredibly fun to taste!  I can’t say I could “taste” the organic, but as far as this blend is concerned, this wine contains the best of all worlds.  This young wine is robust and could benefit from being decanted if you prefer calmer tannins, but it was exciting to taste right after opening.  More vegetal than fruity (although cherry is clearly present), the greenness of the flavor plays straight into the teeth-coating tannins, which add a fullness to the mouthfeel without making it too heavy. And for all its concern for saving the planet, this wine tastes like the earth itself—I got a lot of dirt, forest floor, and herbaceousness, and a little bit of black pepper to spice things up towards the finish.  I would definitely drink this wine again, and maybe even pair it with a hearty beef soup.