One of the wonderful things about the late stages of the wine quest is that I never know what to expect when opening a new bottle. The surprises here started with popping the cork and carried through to the finish.Firstly this wine is under pressure and the surprising POP as the cork was forced out shocked, scared and then interested me. When I noticed that the cork had expanded greatly (think champagne cork) I knew that the carbonation was not a fault. The wine poured a grape juice purple and generated a slight "head" of bubbles which remained around the sides of the glass. The aromatics are enormous but sweet and floral. This wine has a mere 5.5% alcohol which puts it in league with many European beers. This reduced alcohol allows the fruit and sugars to really shine through. The carbonation adds the illusion of acidity so the wine doesn't need it and as you might suspect there is no tannic structure to speak of.
As you may know I am not a huge fan of very sweet wines but somehow this one really hit a soft spot with me. It is very well made, certain to be a crowd pleaser (served chilled on a warm summers day) and would be great served with a variety of the summers best fruits. Not easy to find but for $15 it is a compelling choice.
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