Nice bright medium ruby with pink edges.  Perfumed and rich, with just enough Syrah banana-peel and tar to double the price-point.  Raw egg and fresh glazed doughnuts and al dente pasta.  A little lovely barnyard, and all through a great Bing cherry stream of fruit.  No indication on label of blend.  I’ve heard rumours of two black sisters, separated at birth, divided by continents, lost at sea and attacked by leviathans, left for dead in the Himalayas, both get into the wine industry–one Central Valley CA and one New Zealand–and find each other decades later and form a label.  Portions of this story may be inaccurate.  Anyway, there’s a ton of this floating around and I couldn’t resist.  In the mouth, actually far less ‘yummy-bottom-shelf-fruity’ than I expected, carrying with it a nice grouping of acid, structure and balance.  Viscous, and still bright–ripe and chewy at the entry, and dry and chewy in the finish.  This is a really nice little wine.  It lies somewhere between a decent Coti-Rotie, a Chinon, and a Languedoc.  Light and easy to drink, while brooding something greater deep down in its troubled past.  Gigondas.  That’s what it is.  A lil Grenache, maybe.  Anyway, it’s good, and well worth the 10 bucks.

2013 TRUVEE Red Blend Central Coast 13.5

http://www.truveewines.com