Robert Mondavi, Private Selection Merlot, California

Medium ruby red in color with a nose of jammy black fruit and touch of chocolate. The palate was much the same with raspberry and oak as well.

Like the other Mondavi Sauvignon Blanc, this one was on clearance. The Merlot had good color, but taste wise it is the Melot that I have like the least.

We don’t often drink merlots, so this was a treat. Aroma of spice and perhaps anise and new leather; the taste is peppery but smooth with deep, dark fruit. Low in tannins. I served it with roasted pork loin au jus, roasted carrots with parmesan, and a garlicy quinoa/lentil/vegetable blend. It seemed to fit the meal well.

Undrinkable

I'm going to a believer, and try to explain why I think this is a fairly decent Merlot. It is not fruit forward and actually a little tight. The color is almost textbook Merlot dark Magenta. The nose is very precise and expressive for an under $10 wine. We get charcoal influenced dark cherry with lanolin and flint that also is almost textbook. Medium plus bodied. Fairly weak mid palate. The fruit has a spearmint, spicy, red licorice entry to …

Delicious. Full bodied.

The wine looks Rosy colored. The legs are Fast. It smells like Petrol, and Ethanol. It tastes like and Strawberry. The body is Medium. The wine has Angular texture. The wine finishes Short. Not so great but not terrible. Sort of alcohol on the nose and angular on the palate.

color: medium purple x ruby red; nose: zero, nada -- has all the aroma of water; taste: medium-bodied mouth feel and a vague cherry taste, medium-length oaky finish; overall: a huge cheap-tasting dud which has nothing good about it and should never have been bottled or sold. Wouldn't even pass muster as economy-class airplane wine. Shame on Robert Mondavi for producing such nasty plonk!

Ok. A very standard wine. Did not like the taste of this product.

Spices, bacon fat, eucalyptus, meaty. Very little fruit, light body/acidity. meh ten bucks

Soft tannins, with limited acidity. Therefore acceptable as a red wine - rather than as a decent merlot

To Jay and Abha