WARNING: this juice is seriously delicious.

As you may recall, one of my absolute favorite things to do (and something I suspect I’m pretty good at) is finding wines that represent truly incredible values.  This wine is spectacular because it is just that, and more…

1.) it is an excellent price point of $17.

2.) $17 for a Columbia Valley Red wine, especially of good quality, is somewhat astonishing.

3.) add 1 and 2 together and THEN add in that this wine is very small-production.  what do you have? a tremendous value.

4.) GROW-shaw.  I had to write that down and say it about 15 times to myself before I remembered.

So, more about this wine; it is a blend of 65% Cabernet Sauvignon, 30% Merlot and 5% Cabernet Franc.  Like the Guild White (here), it is labeled as being from the Columbia Valley- the fun thing about the Columbia Valley is that most of it is in Washington State, but part of it is in Oregon.  So the grapes in this bottle are from the Columbia Valley, but you don’t get to know what specific percentages are from each individual state.  Kind of a fun way to make wine, in my opinion.  John Grochau has been making this particular bottling for several years, and every year the blend is different.  He also makes some pretty stellar Pinot Noir- check ’em out.

So moving on to more fun descriptive details about this wine and why you’ll like it!  It has a perfect alcohol content at 14.5%, giving it a great balance of fruit that has a little density, but not so fat as to knock you on your ass.  It makes a great sipper.  There are some beautiful ultra-smooth notes of blackberry, cassis, mocha and a subtle hint of brighter red fruits that really lift the palate up.  The most standout characteristic of this wine is definitely its effortless grace, smoothness and length- especially when you (once again) consider it’s pricetag.  It makes a great Summer red, too, as it is not tooooo rich- just a pleasant medium body.  I personally can’t usually fathom Red in the Summer months; but this one I can do.  The other great thing about this wine is its versatility- it is juicy enough to be good with a Wednesday Burger night, but could definitely stand up to a more luxurious Ribeye or other form of pick-your-poison carnivorous indulgence.  You could even lighten it up and do grilled Pork Tenderloin with a variation of a berry vinaigrette over mixed greens.  Or even Tuna the same way.  It covers all the right ground for you to pick up what it’s puttin’ down in all categories!

Here’s another good tidbit: this wine is currently by the glass at Cellar, AND will be at tomorrow’s (June 1st) WINE SALE from 12-2pm.  and I’ll go ahead and tell ya- tomorrow’s sale list is looking impressive.  Lots of new goodies!