Pleasant Wine, Pleasant Night

Ahh, the NCAA Tourney Finals. Since my bracket died a slow painful death back in the Elite 8, I sat down tonight to enjoy the final between Michigan State (who I had going out in the Sweet 16), and UNC (who I had going out in the Final Four), with a nice, somewhat value oriented red meritage by Ryan Patrick. The wine in question, the 2006 Ryan Patrick Rock Island Red, is a bordeaux blend, with 70% Merlot, 16% Cabernet Sauvignon, and 14% Cabernet Franc. I picked up the bottle at Bello Vino in Richmond, VA for about $20 even.

Initial Impressions: Overall the wine looks a little thin and watery, has a medium to dark grimacey purple color, and resembles a lot of Merlots at this pricepoint and lower. Not a blockbuster, but not a huge disappointment either. The intial nose is pretty tight, with a faint amount of light chocolate and woody aromas coming through.

Nose: The Cab Franc really comes to the forefront of this nose. The nose is kinda tight, but bell and sweet peppers come to the forefront and dominate a lot of this nose. After searching around a bit, there is a component of red cherries and strawberries, along with a faint aroma of sugarfied dark chocolate. A little flat on the nose overall, but not totally dead.

Taste: Very different from the nose. Really easy drinking, with little structure or tannins to speak of. By no means a "sweet" wine, but does have some sweet characteristics to the tannins that are there. There is a nice milk chocolate component, with nice rounded flavors of cherry and strawberries coming along for the ride. It is pretty simplistic, but also very tasty and pleasant to the tongue. It is pushing the pricepoint a little, but still not overpriced in the least.

Overall: This is simply a good everyday or night type wine, depending on your tastes and what you look for. It is pretty simple and easy to drink, not asking a lot out of you as long as you dont ask a lot out of it. There are better values for the pricepoint, but I think a lot of people new to reds would find it nice because of its simplicity and sweetness. 85 Points