The Desert Wine Guy - 2014 Passion Cellars, Merlot (?)

   Today I am going to be taking a look into a wine from the state of Arizona. Todays wine review is of the 2014 Passion Cellars, Merlot that I purchased from the Winery itself while taking a trip to Jerome Arizona around two years ago. The wine cost me $35 and comes in at 13.6% on the Alcohol scale, it is aged for 15 months in French Oak. Let's go ahead and dig into this wine and see what it is all about and what I thought of it.
   Pouring this wine into my glass I noticed immediately that it was extremely light almost like a watered down Cherry Cough Syrup. Seeing to the bottom of of my glass was not a challenge at all and brought potential issues immediately to my mind. Yeah, watered down Cherry Cough Syrup, that doesn't sound to appetizing does it? There was no Carbonation obvious nor any other weird issues noticeable.

Cherry Cough Syrup Appearance

   Moving to my nose now I will let you know that there is a strong Cherry/Wood type note intertwined with Cocoa. The nose is rather pleasing actually and reminds me of something I would drink on a cold Winter night, almost like a Madeira. I know, weird huh. Now please don't misunderstand what I am saying here, this wine did not turn out to be anything even similar to a sipping Liquor by any means it's just that the Bouquet that reminds me of one. Topping off the Bouquet is a wonderful scent of Caramel. Overall this wine has a welcoming scent almost like a Candle and one that presents the promises to be sweet as well.
   So far if I am a reader of this review I am in a toss up so to speak. I can't figure out where this review is going. Did I like the pour and the Bouquet or not? Well, I guess you are indeed paying attention because in order to understand where I am going you would have to be unless you could read my mind. I get that this review so far is understandably sort of cryptic but I will begin to clear that up soon.

   Let me go ahead and move to the wine on my Palette where it really counts. To begin with I will give confirmation to you that this wine certainly did indeed sit in French Oak for a while. French Oak is known for imparting spice into a wine and folks, there is indeed peppery spice in this wine, it is nicely done and the spice was nicely placed spice on the Palette. For those of you who are familiar with the Tempranillo varietal, the referenced spice is not that prominent nor is it to that level of deliverance. It seems to me that Arizona soil itself imparts a super note of spice in their reds in general, that's actually one of the things that I love about them. This peppery spice is on the front of the Palette and is good enough to grace the wine throughout all the way to the finish. Here is a word of advice, if you don't love spice in your reds, don't buy this wine because you will not like it. So it appears that this wine is sort of a mixed bag of poor visual presentation and a rather simple yet nice Bouquet presentation. As for my final opinion of the palette let's get that answer by digging a little further into the wine.

   This wine presents itself as a bright, thin wine on the Palette. This "bright, thin" presentation is very evident on the sides of the Palette where these notes seem to display themselves for one purpose which is to throw quite a bit (too much in my opinion) of contrast to the spice.Unfortunately neither the "bright, thin" presentation, the French oak nor the Cocoa or caramel are affective or efficient in conveying any sense of darkness or depth to the wine. Another item to report and one that drags this wine down is that this wine is slightly more than moderately Acidic and displays a sort of overall harshness to it. Yes, there is are the nice notes of Cocoa and Caramel but they seem out of place here in the wine due to the way that the wine presents itself and the notes that end up dominating it. On the positive side, there are some mild yet overall enjoyable Tannins that are presented and this is another one of the aspects of the wine that attempt to help it along it's way. One last thing guys and this to me was the final blow to the wine. This is a sweet red that is not what one would consider "fruit Forward" but just......sugary and therefore of course, sweet. I think that I have said enough and that you now get the complete picture of this wine so with that it is time to head to the closing Paragraph so let's head over there and close this review out.

   Well I made it, the end. I have half a bottle left and I simply can't drink any more. There are many issues with this wine and it is a terrible representation of the varietal known as Merlot as I don't think it displays any characteristics of one. If you were to tell me that this was a blend with Merlot in it I could definitely go for that but a single varietal such as a Merlot, no way. So since you have indeed read words such as "harshness", "bright" and "thin" in the body of the review, what does all that mean? Well....it means for one thing that this does not fit the characteristics of any Merlot that I have ever tasted and I doubt that you would recognize it as one either. It means that the Palette (at least mine) is....offended. If the Palette presentation kept in line with the nose (which I liked) I think we would be looking at least a presentable wine, unfortunately this is not the case. Unfortunately this wine has no depth, no darkness, nothing solid to it, no structure. When you taste the wine you can taste that there are a few positive things to it but the harshness or "brightness" is simply too much to overcome along the way. I hate to have to do this but on The Desert Wine Guy rating scale I am giving this wine 84 (and I am being nice) points.

                                                                                                               The Desert Wine Guy

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The Desert Wine Guy - 2016 Baus Family Vineyard, Sauvignon Blanc - Private Reserve

   Oh how deceptive and effective advertising can be. What's that you say there Desert Wine Guy? Well I have just recently competed writing an article (https://desertwineguy.blogspot.com/2017/10/the-desert-wine-guy-wine-label.html) where I discuss the wine label in general and just how we have to be careful what we assume or are led to believe. I guess I should have read my own article because I myself just got fooled. I was out today at a big box Liquor store today and I was actually thinking about that particular article as I searched through the many different labels of Sauvignon Blanc. I wanted a wine from a real identified Vineyard to write an article about. Now, please don't get me wrong as there is nothing wrong with winemakers buying grapes from specific Vineyards and making wine. I have reviewed countless wines that were made that particular way. My problem comes when I try to get some information about the wine to put in my reviews and can find nothing. That isn't cool for me and it isn't cool for you, the reader either. Yeah I can tell you about what I am tasting but there is so much more that I can't tell you. Okay, anyway. There is no Baus Family Vineyards. The name is owned by Great Domains & Estates LLC. which is located in Windsor, California. According to Buzzfile (http://www.buzzfile.com/business/Beverage-Alcoholic-Consultant-716-568-8096) Great Domains & Estates LLC is "engaged in importing activities at this facility". Well anyway, I was indeed fooled but I still do have a wine to review so let's get to it.

  Today's wine is the 2016 Baus Family Sauvignon Blanc - Private Reserve. The wine cost me about $15 and came in at 13% Alcohol. Let me go ahead and pour the wine into my glass and see what I can find out about this wine. The wine sits almost crystal clear in my glass and there is nothing else to say about it. As I have said before though, that doesn't really mean anything as I have had many wines that were unimpressive in the glass and yet turned out to be very good. While the visual presentation of wine is considered very important to some, to me it is not that high up there in importance. Moving to the nose now I found the wine had a rather nice tropical fruit Bouquet to it. Honeydew defenitly took the lead here by a slim margin followed closely by the rather nice note of Lemon Grass type spiciness. On the back end is a note of White Peach that is in it's rightful place judged by the lack of prominence on the nose. What I found here is that eventually all of the notes of this wine all come together once the wine sat open in the glass for a short time. I have actually come across a lot of wines that whose initial Bouquet is dominated by this note or that note but settle down rather quickly and nicely to where you would be hard pressed to find one particular note that dominates. This wine also has a unique note on the nose of almost like a baked goods or Buttery type note that you must search to find but if you persist and take the time to break down what you are sensing inhaling you will indeed be rewarded with it. Overall however this wine exposes the drinker to enjoy a wine who exhibits slight fruit notes on the nose.

   Now, onto how the wine came across my Palette. This wine presented a dominant Lemongrass note right out of the gate. I don't know about you but to me this is how the varietal should express itself, anyone can make a wine that mimics a Wine Cooler. Now, I know that is harsh but it is how I feel. Moving from the Lemongrass there is a a moderate amount of fruit on the Palette that the wine has to offer. The note of White Peach that was present on the nose translates rather nicely onto the Palette as well. The wine does not come across as sweet at all and I think due to the Lemongrass which is okay with me because I do not want a sweet wine. Following up here I will tell you that the wine is loaded with Green notes, notes that pull this wine in the direction of dryish dominance which again, is just right by me in the varietal. A Green Pepper note appears to be tagging along for the ride here as well here. This is rather a grassy / green sort of wine and tastes almost to an extent like a fruit that isn't ready to eat.  Lets get to the sweetness factor and if there is indeed any. Yes, the wine has a small bit of sweetness that you will taste and hopefully as I did, appreciate. Does it envelope the senses, dominate the Palette or distract from the other notes? The answer is a resounding no, it most definitely does not. Let's remember here that this is a Sauvignon Blanc and not that previously aforementioned Wine Cooler. The Sugar that I tasted is slightly more than enough to ensure that the wine is not harsh or lacking of any tropical fruit at all. Speaking of tropical notes, let's talk about that Honeydew shall we? As on the nose, the Palette will experience some Honeydew melon that is mostly where the sugar note will come from. Let me go back to that White Peach for a minute. Lower in acid and taste sweet whether firm or soft the White peach has a bit of tang to balance the sugar. Add this to the Lemongrass I mentioned and you have a match made in Heaven right here. As you can see, there is a decent enough amount of sugar or sweetness in this wine without it being a fruit forward wine or "sugar bomb". O.K, we getting close to the end of this review. Before we go however I want to get a little something clear. 

   You might ask if I like the more fruit forward side of this varietal. My answer to you would be, I do because that note of Lemongrass as well as other notes are present to cut the sugar on the palette and to help avoid the wine from becoming close to Sugar or sweetness dominated wine. Let me be a little clearer though for those of you in question. I have said this before and I will say this again. If I want a Wine Cooler or a Moscato, I will pick up a bottle. This is a Sauvingnon Blanc and clearly identifies itself as such.
   Wrapping up this review now I will tell you that this is a Sauvignon Blanc that you would expect to find from a wine grown in a climate that is not subjected to great heat. The wine was sort of a mix between a Brazilian or Chilean Sauvignon Blanc a New Zealand-influenced Sauvignon Blanc with it's tropical notes and the Mondavi-influenced Fumé Blanc and a more rounded wine with with melon notes. Where exactly the grapes for this wine are grown is unknown as I can find nothing (including photos) on the Vineyards or anything else for that matter while I searched the Internet. Whomever put this wine together did a nice job however as I have given it 89 points on The Desert Wine Guy rating scale.

                                                                                                                The Desert Wine Guy

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