Sombras del Sol 2009 Carmenère Valle Central, Chile The nose of this red wine is cayenne, allspice, and cardamom swimming in a medium of tart berries. That fruit is much more prominent when drinking. The wine is warming and on the thinner side of medium-bodied. Just-ripened blackberries dominate the palate until the spices kick in,
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Arrow Creek 2009 Pinot Noir California It’s on the browner side of red for a wine, mudlike in color. I smell rhubarb, plum, and tobacco, and the plum sticks with me when sipping. It or some other stonefruit is prominent. There are a lot of tannins, and the wine tastes dark with coffee and tobacco
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Tempra Tantrum 2009 Bodegas, Spain This wine with a moderately amusing name is a tempranillo and cabernet sauvignon blend. You’d think they’d go all tempranillo with the name, but trust me—they did well with the blend. They also sell a tempranillo and shiraz blend under the same name, just in case you get confused! The
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Tisdale Pinot Noir (vintage free, yo!) Modesto, CA This wine looks thin, watery, dark brown, and plum. It smells of bitter chocolate and currants. As expected, it tastes very thin and watery. Fleeting cocoa powder comes first followed by the currant and overripe figs with some apricot notes. Then the cocoa powder rushes back in
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Lost Sonnet Meritage 2007 Napa Valley, CA This is a blend of cabernet sauvignon, cabernet franc, and merlot. One sip at the Trader Joe’s tasting table, and I was sold on it being worth the $9.99 (hey, that’s expensive for TJ’s wine!). The nose is very appealing, with a scent of warmed spices and vanilla
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Lazurro Nero D’Avola 2007 Sicily, Italy The nose of this Italian red smells of fig with clove. It tastes like eucalyptus leaves, fig, raisin, cranberry, and clove. Overall, it’s too tangy but an okay drinking wine. I’m still trying to figure out why it was recommended to me when I said I liked Spanish wines,
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Terrenal Tempranillo and Garnacha 2009 Carinena, Spain Oh, this is so very thin and unappealing. My word, I haven’t had a wine this uninspired in a while. It tastes metallic, with thin strawberry and fig flavors. There’s a little bit of greenery involved that reminds me of eucalyptus. It’s okay, but there are so many
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Peter Brum Vino Noire Rhone, Germany I haven’t tried too many red wines from Germany, so I was intrigued by this bottle and its unique shape—it really is all about marketing, folks. It smelled of strawberries and light tobacco. The first thing I noticed while drinking it was a small bit of fizziness, just enough
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Col di Sasso Cabernet Sauvignon & Sangiovese Blend 2009 No photo this time! It was a casualty of my trigger finger. It smells mildly of fig and tastes of fig, too, with plum notes also. Besides the healthy portion of fruit, it’s dry, leathery, a bit bitter, and abundant in allspice.  Overall, it was too
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Arge & Tina Malbec 2009 San Juan, Argentina Who can resist a pun like this wine’s name? Mr. Gourmez won this bottle of wine at a trivia game—hooray, free wine! Nail polish and heavy spice meet my nose, but I’ve found a nail polish smell does not always make a nail polish wine. Tobacco is
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