When you see the label on the Dancing Bull Merlot you might think that the design looks similar to that found on Rancho Zabaco Zinfandels. Well, it is… and the two are related. Rancho Zabaco, part of the E&J Gallo portfolio, has been around since 1996 and has developed a good reputation for Zinfandel over the years. They also produce Sauvignon Blanc, but they are best known for their Zinfandel, of which they have a few different offerings.
The Zinfandel under the Rancho Zabaco label comes from the Sonoma County region, but starting with the 2000 vintage, winemaker Eric Cinnamon started experimenting with a Zinfandel made with grapes from other parts of California. The new wine was released under the Dancing Bull sub-brand, which has a lower price than other Rancho Zabaco wines. Now, to transition from Zinfandel to the topic of the day: Merlot. In 2006, Dancing Bull added a few additional varieties to the brand, including Merlot.
If you’re a fan of jammy Merlot, this is a good pick for you. It’s fairly simple but pleasant on the nose, with jammy blackberry, plum and a dash of leather. The palate is big, fruity and well rounded with lots of boysenberry and plum. The mid-palate brings a quick hit of raspberry. The finish is relatively short. It’s not elegant or extravagant but is a simple, tasty Merlot.
Wine: Dancing Bull
Variety: Merlot
Vintage: 2006
Alcohol: 13.5%
Rating: 85
Price: $12.00
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Last fall, Sebastiani Vineyards was one of the wineries I visited on my trip to Sonoma County. If you’re ever doing a wine tour in the area I would recommend giving them a visit as they have a beautiful wine room with enormous old redwood casks. It’s a sight to see.
Sebastiani is a family-owned winery, and has been since 1905, when it was founded by Italian immigrant Samuele Sebastiani. Over the years they had grown to become a mega-producer, making some 8 million cases of wine per year. But in 2001 they sold the Turner Road brands of wine, bringing the production at Sebastiani down to under 200,000 cases per year.
Currently, they have produce a few different lines of Sebastiani-labeled wine and the Sonoma County line is their entry-level wine.
There is some classic Merlot plum on the nose of this wine, along with ripe berries. There’s also some rose and a wee bit of black pepper. The palate is soft and fruity with lots of berry flavors and plum. I’d even say there a hint of bubblegum, but it’s not overly artificial tasting. The finish has a touch of chocolate, but not a lot of complexity.
This is a good wine. I would have liked a touch more acid and a touch more tannin, but it’s still quite enjoyable.
Wine: Sebastiani Sonoma County
Variety: Merlot
Vintage: 2004
Alcohol: 13.5%
Rating: 86
Price: $14.97
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Red Truck is a relatively young wine brand, but one I seem to see everywhere I go. Perhaps it just stands out on the shelf with the big red truck on the label and I notice it more than other brands. I have to give them credit for creating a memorable brand identity that breaks through the clutter.
The brand was first introduced in 2002 as a single red wine blend, but has since expanded into a line of different wines. And although the brand is young, winemaker Charlie Tsegeletos has been in the wine business since 1979 and has produced wines for Pendelton Winery, Hacienda Wine Cellars, D’Agostini Winery, Glen Ellen Winery, Cline Cellars and Jacuzzi Winery to name a few.
I’ve had a couple different Red Truck wines over the past few years and have never had a bad experience. And this Merlot continues that trend.
This is a tasty Merlot, especially for the price. The nose is somewhat predictable, but still interesting. It’s a little smoky, with vanilla, raspberry and plum aromas. The palate is big and juicy. This is definitely a wine for fans of fruit-forward wine. Abundant ripe plum and cherry flavors give this wine a fresh and approachable quality and smooth tannins give it a full feel. The finish is medium in length and enjoyable as well.
I found this wine for an outstanding price of $7.69. Now that’s a bargain for a wine that’s this tasty.
Wine: Red Truck
Variety: Merlot
Vintage: 2006
Alcohol: 13.5%
Rating: 86
Price: $7.69
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I’ve tried a number of wines from Barefoot Wine and to be honest, I have a love/hate thing for them. I love the affordability of their wines. But I dislike the fact that their wines are non-vintage. I’ve mentioned this before, as well as my position that I don’t expect consistency when there isn’t a vintage denoted. However, the wines I have tasted from Barefoot have been relatively consistent.
Barefoot is definitely mass producing wines and using technology to their advantage to get pretty good results. They are not a small, family winery with a quaint story about how they do everything by hand using techniques passed from one generation to the next. Often times, wine consumers want to hear those charming stories about producers, but even more often consumers are just looking for some tasty wine that doesn’t lighten the pocketbook too much.
I too will often look for the charming story behind a wine. But although I don’t get that from Barefoot, I have to give credit where it’s due. Barefoot wines are extremely affordable and a few of them that I’ve tasted have been tasty, including this one. It’s tasty, although not exceptional.
The nose is fairly tight (i.e. there’s not a lot of intensity to the aromas) and it’s relatively simple with soft plum and a delicate perfume. The palate is fruit forward with lot’s of plum and blackberry flavors. Like the nose, it’s simple but satisfying. The tannins are soft and smooth. It’s an enjoyable wine, without complication.
I won’t say this is an extraordinary Merlot, but it is good. And for the price, it’s great! At a glance some folks might think that a score of 83 isn’t very good—in a world where everyone wants to drink 90+ wines—but this is a very drinkable and enjoyable wine. It lost some points for lacking complexity and intensity, but there are no faults with this wine and I enjoyed it.
Wine: Barefoot
Variety: Merlot
Vintage: N/V
Alcohol: 13.5%
Rating: 83
Price: $6.99
Last month we reviewed the McWilliam’s Hanwood Estate Shiraz which was a good Shiraz—especially for the price. And today we’re giving the Merlot from this brand a try.
Like the Shiraz, the grapes for this Merlot come from the New South Wales region in Australia, and more specifically the Riverina region within New South Wales. Riverina is produces 60% of the wine grapes from New South Wales and the first vines in this region were planted at Hanwood Estate by John James McWilliam in 1913. So, you could say that McWilliam’s has a few years of experience producing wine from this land.
I mentioned in the Shiraz review that McWilliam’s Wines tout themselves as “Australia’s most awarded winery,” and this particular Merlot has gotten a number of awards. It has recieved at least 10 silver, gold or double gold medals from various wine competitions—and that is specific to this vintage of the wine.
While not incredibly powerful, the nose from this Merlot is very enjoyable. It’s a little bit smoky, a little bit black cherry, a little bit vanilla and a little bit licorice. Although the intensity is rather soft the complexity is very good, which makes it interesting.
Similar to the nose, I would say that the palate doesn’t have strong concentration but is still very nice. It is a fruit-forward style Merlot, with abundant ripe black cherry and plum flavors. Soft, yet rich tannins give a full mouth feel but end up slightly oak-heavy on the finish.
All told, this is a tasty Merlot for the price. It is well balanced, varietally correct and complex. I gave it a solid 86 and would have given it a couple more points with more intensity & concentration. But if you prefer a Merlot that isn’t overly powerful then this would be a great choice.
Wine: McWIlliam’s Hanwood Estate
Variety: Merlot
Vintage: 2006
Alcohol: 13.5%
Rating: 86
Price: $12.00
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Today is Earth Day and there are actually a number of different environment-related topics that I could write about relevant to wine. Sustainable agriculture, organic wines and bio-dynamic wines are a few topics that come to mind. But I’m going to write about a less sexy topic—packaging. Actually, packaging can be sexy, but it’s something that we often take for granted and don’t think about much.
There is dialogue in the wine community about the carbon footprint of glass bottles. The carbon footprint represents the carbon dioxide emissions created by the manufacturing, distribution and disposal of a product. The weight of glass bottles has a particular impact on the carbon footprint of wine due to the impact that weight has on shipping. Some have even speculated the eventual demise of the glass bottle. I don’t think that glass bottles will disappear from shelves any time soon, but there are a number of producers looking for alternatives. The FOUR “wine tube” is the latest example I’ve seen of alternative packaging for wine.
At its core, this packaging isn’t entirely new. It is essentially a bag in a box, just like other boxed wines, but they have done a few things differently to distinguish this product. First of all, they put some really good wine inside the package. Many consumers will avoid boxed wines just because they have a bad reputation for having low quality wine, but this is good stuff. Another difference with FOUR is that rather than a square box, they use a tube shape, which gives an elegant appearance that is less of a departure from the traditional bottle than boxes.
The producers claim that the FOUR wine tube reduces the carbon footprint by 50% versus traditional packaging. I could definitely tell a big difference in the weight. When I picked it up I thought it felt like two bottles worth of wine but, as you may have guessed by the name, this container holds the equivalent of four traditional bottles of wine.
Another advantage of the reduced weight of the packaging is lower shipping costs and some of those cost savings are reflected in the retail price. This tube sells for $40, the equivalent of $10 per traditional bottle. To add to the eco-friendliness of this wine, the packaging is 100% recyclable and the labels are produced by a printer that uses wind power.
You may be reluctant to buy a container with this much wine because you’re afraid it will go bad before you finish it, but that is not as big of a concern as you may think. Air is the enemy of wine after you open it and is what causes wine to lose its freshness. The wine in this packaging isn’t exposed to air when you start pouring it and therefore will keep longer than traditional bottles after opening. The producers claim it will stay fresh for 30 days after opening. The wine was gone long before 30 days for me, so I can’t verify that fact.
Given the prejudice that many consumers have toward boxed wines I wanted to see what some would think of this wine, without knowing it to be a boxed wine. I served this wine in a blind tasting alongside some other wines that were in the $30+ price range. Seven of the nine people at this tasting selected FOUR as their favorite.
Cheap Wine Ratings Review
I found this to be a very good wine. The nose is not very intense, but it is good and quite fruity. Blackberry, plum, raspberry and vanilla aromas come together to make a good, although soft bouquet. The palate is big and full of ripe blackberry, plum and strawberry. The tannins are smooth and silky. There is some Petite Sirah added to this wine and it is particularly noticeable in the richness on the palate and the feel of this wine. The finish is medium in length and reasonably complex. A bit of a toffee characteristic comes in on the finish.
Wine: FOUR
Variety: Cabernet Sauvignon
Vintage: 2006
Alcohol: 14.8%
Rating: 87
Price: $40.00 (equivalent of $10/bottle)
Sometimes in the wine business the convoluted world of holding companies, parent companies, sister companies, etc. can get confusing. To a degree, that’s the case with Redwood Creek, which is part of Frei Brothers, which is owned by E&J Gallo. In many cases the large parent companies in the wine business just act as holding companies and allow the wine brands in their portfolio to operate fairly independently. To be honest, I’m not sure how that relationship works in the case of Redwood Creek, but despite the hierarchy of relationships I assume they operate somewhat independently.
The wines from Redwood Creek are reasonably priced, with many of them selling for around $10.00, such as this one that was $11.00. That makes them wines worth a try in my book, and I’m glad I tasted this one.
An extremely herbaceous nose stands out with this Merlot. Nutmeg, anise and mint all have a strong presence, along with cherry and blackberry to add some fruit to the bouquet. On the palate it’s very well balanced. Plum, cherry, blackberry and chocolate flavors fill your mouth. Soft and smooth tannins give a nice mouth feel. The finish is medium in length and brings a mild cola flavor to the equation.
This is a very good Merlot, but for the price it’s outstanding.
Wine: Redwood Creek
Variety: Merlot
Vintage: 2004
Alcohol: 13.5%
Rating: 87
Price: $11.00
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If you’re a budget-conscious wine consumer like me, you know that wine at restaurants is frequently overpriced. A great way to save a few bucks when dining out is to bring your own wine—hopefully a wine with an outstanding QPR that you discovered on Cheap Wine Ratings. But how do you find a restaurant that will let you BYO? That’s where GoBYO.com hopes to help.
GoBYO.com is a new website designed to help diners find BYO-friendly restaurants. It let’s diners search restaurants by region to find those that will allow them to bring a bottle of their favorite wine. Additionally, GoBYO posts a few different ratings. At first I found all the different ratings to be overwhelming, but after a couple minutes it starts to make sense. They post a “composite” rating, which is an average from multiple published restaurant guides, Yelp reviews, and they have their own “wine-friendly” rating based on the restaurant’s wine list, allowance of BYO and corkage fees.
Speaking of corkage fees, I hate them. They put me on total tilt. My favorite thing about GoBYO.com is that they list the corkage fees so you know what you’re in for before you get there. Of course if the corkage fee is more than you’d pay for a bottle of wine to begin with, you may not want to go to that restaurant… and some do charge that much.
Another feature that I appreciate is if a restaurant uses OpenTable, GoBYO provides a direct link to make reservations online. If you’re not yet familiar with OpenTable.com you should be. It lets you make reservations online, and you earn reward points toward dining discounts—another way to stretch your dining dollar.
GoBYO.com currently only has information for 10 major metropolitan regions: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, New York, Philadelphia, San Fransisco, Southest Florida and Washington DC. Unfortunately for me, my region is not on their site. And they don’t currently have plans for expansion, but I’m hopeful that they will eventually have info on restaurants in my neighborhood.
Although I’m sad that I can’t use it yet, it seems like a handy website. And so I thought I’d give them a shout out so you can check them out.
Last year I tried the Red Diamond Cabernet Sauvignon and ended up being one of my favorites, so I was looking forward to trying the Merlot. This one didn’t come through as strong as the Cabernet though.
Like some other Merlots that I’ve been tasting, this has a more than just Merlot in it. It is 79% Merlot, 18% Cabernet Sauvignon, 2% Cabernet Franc and 1% Syrah.
The nose is OK, although it lacks both intensity and complexity. It’s mostly plum and blackberry on the nose, but also some mint—which some Merlot can have, but it seemed out of place in this one.
The palate seems that it lacks acidity, although the technical data would suggest otherwise. There is plenty of fruit in this one, in fact it’s downright juicy! It has lots of blackberry and plum on the palate. Perhaps the fruit is just overpowering the acid. The tannins are somewhat subtle too.
The fruitiness was definitely my favorite part of this wine and if you’re a fan of very fruity Merlot you may appreciate this more than I do. It’s an OK wine and very drinkable, but not spectacular.
Wine: Red Diamond
Variety: Merlot
Vintage: 2007
Alcohol: 13.5%
Rating: 82
Price: $9.00
At this point in time, there is only one variety of wine under the Red Rock Winery label and that variety is Merlot. I don’t know if they have any plans for other varieties, but for now it’s Merlot. And it’s a good Merlot.
Actually, while it only says Merlot on the label there are a few other varieties in this wine. It is 95% Merlot with 2.5% Cabernet Sauvignon, 2% Petite Sirah and .5% Syrah. Red Rock is a winery but not a vineyard, that is to say they source their grapes from different vineyards in different parts of California. The appellation for this Merlot is defined as “California,” so the grapes can come from anywhere in the state.
This is a fairly simple, but good Merlot. Plum dominates the nose, but there is also a subtle herbal aroma and a bit of blackberry. The palate is medium-bodied and fruity, with plum and blackberry dancing over your tongue. Kevin, at Under the Grape Tree, describes it as “almost-full-bodied” and I think that’s a good description. It’s well rounded and very well balanced. The tannins are soft and pleasant. A gentle spicy kick comes in on the finish to add a little interest to this wine.
If you prefer an approachable, fruit-forward Merlot, this is a good choice at a good price. The suggested retail price is $12.00 but I’ve seen it for as low as $9.00 in my region.
Wine: Red Rock Winery
Variety: Merlot
Vintage: 2006
Alcohol: 13.9%
Rating: 85
Price: $12.00
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