Brilliant garnet with a definite ambering rim. Strong vegetal in the nose: soggy produce forgotten in the crisper drawers, green artichoke fiber and crushed multi-vitamin. Awkward black cherry visible vague but jutting in the background. A bouquet only a mother could love and bodes poorly on tasting.
Sweet and syrupy in the mouth, and while fruit remains angular in configuration–intersecting the briar and texture at odd angles–it feels cheap and cloying, a nuance collapsing into a throat-tightening and eye-watering shock of heat not unlike your first shot of JD. A bitter, grating harshness either tannin or virgin American oak appears late-middle, fading before the sweetness early in the finish.
This wine suffers from a myriad of issues, NONE of which will necessarily spell doom in the TR or among the denizens of retail and resty, but a thinking person is gonna have some trouble working through them. Try as I may, I can’t get behind it, and age is not on its side.
2018 MEADOWLARK VINEYARDS Meritage ME/CF/Cab Santa Barbara Co. 14.68
Stephen McConnell 