X Winery Red X

55% Syrah / 23% Tempranillo / 14% Grenache / 8% Zinfandel --- 14.5%alc. Aging: 19 months --- 24% new French / 6% new American / 70% neutral Nose: Bright red fruits, pepper, and mushroom. The nose darkens as it opens up. After 1 hour in the decanter, some sawdust appears. Taste: Cherry, oak, vanilla, spicy pepper, strawberry, and blackberry. After an hour in the decanter it becomes more velvety. I get both a sense of NW and OW style vying …

SF Vintners Market: Report on 27 Producers (Fort Mason Festival Pavillon, San Francisco, California) : Spoofilated, berry nose; tangy, ripe red berry, juicy palate; medium finish

Split a bottle with my brother at Cork in Austin. Not remarkable and not offensive. It paired well with the chocolate flight and was very reasonably priced.

Huge oak up front. Some strawberry notes buried under there somewhere. Overdone and over cooked. Alcohol on the finish.

I'm not usually a fan of kitchen sink blends, but we have to give some credit on this one. It feels good in the mouth, has some decent structure. Easy drinking in a non controversial way, I suspect it is pretty heavily filtered, rounding out some of the rough edges, but also limiting the fruit potential. The Syrah, and Tempranillo bring some dark heavy blackberry fruit with some strawberry and cherry. Has a touch of the old world earthy spiciness. …