Of any variety I taste, this is probably the one I have the LEAST experience with. Searching my blog now turns up exactly TWO Meritage’s with a tad of this blended in–NO straight bottlings. I’ve tasted it solo a few times, and here we have someone wanting to put the whole thing in a bottle. And I’m glad they did. The 6th Beatle, kinda, going back to pre-phylloxera days in France and commonly popping up in South America with their other favored odd stepchild: Malbec. Tasting this one now–and perhaps this is just an odd example–raises deep questions as to WHY it was once widely planted in BDX, as the OTHER 5 all clearly have noticeable merits to add to the blend, but this one just seems vague. Perhaps just *filler*? Like Grenache or Carignane? Still, I’m intrigued.
Deep Syrah-ish ruby-pink. A nose rich and fruity–quite forward–with slight woodsy backgrounds bordered with sweet vanillin oak. Rather simple in bouquet, bits of earth add to the mix of cherry and blackberry–all ripe and chubby. It *feels* well north of 14-5, but there’s a purity of fruit and ambiguous thin-ness which tells me lower.
Tasting it also reiterates *a rather simple wine*. Fleshy and nicely-fruited, it’s a lovely red wine, and labeled as such would quite possibly be more marketable to people who drink such wines than adding the asterisk of an unknown variety–a sure-fire death-knell to people less curious than you and I. Rich and fruity, a decent swash of acid: but barely enough to offset the thick, simple berry of the entry and middle. Quite devoid of tannin, it has a peppery depth akin to CF–and even a black bitterness hinting at PV, but without the complex fruit either can achieve on their own. Spicy to a certain extent: a heat attached to the fruit which I don’t feel is alcohol. Overall: rosy and easy, I don’t know anything about the fruit or volume or numbers it realizes at crush–or typical concerns as it works its way through the cellar. With ample air, a certain *blackness* evolves, doing little to sway me from calling this an easy-drinking red, but one with a certain swagger.
2018 DUBOST Carmenere Colbert Vyd Estrella Dist. Paso Robles 13.0
Stephen McConnell 