2008 Gooseridge Vineyards g3 Red Wine, Washington

Color – Dark purple edging to black

Nose – Blackberry, black currant, spice box

Taste – Grabbed this on a whim when I was looking through the wines at my local supermarket. The bottle art reminded me of the Horse Hills Heaven H3 Merlot that I’d tried earlier in the year. The blend is Cabernet Sauvignon, Merlot and Shiraz and that particular blend of varietals grabbed my attention as well. That being said, this wine has everything that I love about a big, bold red. It looks amazing in the glass; dark and inky and when swirled it clung to the glass quite nicely. The aroma wafting from the glass after a good swirl brought to mind everything I loved in the Courtney Benham Cabernet and the Clos Pegase Cabernet; dark berries, spice box hints and musty/earthy compost tinges. On the attack this wine runs through quite the gamut of flavors and textures. Firstly I can taste blackberry, black currant and dark cherry with equal parts jamminess and chocolate riding behind the berry flavors. Second, comes slight flavors of black pepper, vanilla and licorice all mingled together with a butter-like mouthfeel. The mid-palate seemed strange to me, in that is holds little or no astringency, the alcohol shows up as sour acidity, and the tannins show up subdued but still present. The finish is medium-long with stewed berry goodness, semi-sweet dark chocolate, vanilla, licorice, spice box and wet leaves/forest floor flavors. There are textures of warmth, weight and “filmy” butter-like consistency as the finish fades into a rather dark, molasses/vanilla flavored aftertaste. This is a wonderfully full bodied wine that covers all the bases a good red should cover.

Overall, this wine was a pleasant surprise gaining it a good-to-great QPR. I believe I paid 10 dollars for this (it was on sale normally going for 14). Had I paid full price for this I would still be touting the qualities of this wine and how great it is for the money. I enjoy red blends, especially those that don’t bounce all over the place flavor-wise or simply end up bland and flat in the glass. This red blend fits the bill and has the quality/flavor to push the price point closer to 20 dollars without making me cringe. I’d recommend this wine to anyone that enjoys a big, bold red blend with wonderful complexity of flavor and rich textures.

GooseRidge Estate Vineyard & Winery

2009 Callaway Cellar Selection Cabernet Sauvignon, California

Color - Dark red

Nose - Raspberry and cherry jam

Taste - This is about as plain as they come, not terrible, but quite forgettable and somewhat bland. On the first sip I find out the flavor matches the nose; cherry and raspberry fruit, then alcohol bite (just a little too much), and finally a red berry-like jamminess that is a little too fruity for me. There are some sour notes on the finish, but they aren't too noticeable as the alcohol and the tannins tend to mask them. Normally I like a decent amount of tannin and alcohol, but here they distract from the actual fruit and trample on what little depth of character this wine has. The wine has a medium body with a medium finish. Not much to speak of as far as mouthfeel goes and little complexity. This is a pretty poor QPR for an 8 Dollar wine.

Overall, the lack of depth, muddled taste, and mediocrity of this wine force me to recommend that you pass on this wine. As I said before this doesn't taste "bad" (like Lucky Duck, Manyana, Manina, or Double Dog); it just doesn't do anything that well and doesn't stand out either. You can get a lot of 8 dollar bottles that taste as good or better than this. Pick up a bottle of Anakena if you want something from the Southern Hemisphere or Columbia-Crest if you want something from the Northern Hemisphere. You can also do an "eeny-meeny-miny-moe" at the wine shelf and chances are you'll get a better bottle.

Callaway Winery