Wine Reviews For The Average Wine lover: April 2025

Tuesday, April 29, 2025

2023 Members Mark, Chardonnay - Suscol Ranch, Private Reserve

Wow, what a privilege. Today I get to review a wine that is labeled at being a "private reserve". How lucky I am...right? Well, perhaps I'm really not lucky. What do you mean there Desert Wine Guy, the wine is a private reserve, it has to be good, no, it has to be great, doesn't it? Well actually, no, no it doesn't. What you are falling for here is in a nutshell good old marketing, that's all. In America and most other countries, the word "reserve"on a wine label doesn't legally have to mean anything. I do wonder though just how much that one word adds to the price of a wine. Speaking from my own personal experience, I have found that the word most times really is meaningless and simply as I said,only a marketing tool. Don't feel bad though because when I first started out learning about wine, I was fooled as well and thought many times that I did indeed have a super classy wine in my hands. This belief continued until I came across a video one day that talked about this subject and I discovered that there actually are a lot of words that the wine industry uses to sell their product at a higher price that legally don't have to mean anything and most times don't. Have you been fooled as well? If you have, let me know in a comment as I am curious. Okay than, let's get into today's wine review.

Today I will be tasting and talking about the 2023 Members Mark, Chardonnay - Suscol Ranch, Private Reserve. I was at Sams Club the other day and while checking out their wine section I came across this particular wine. I thought it was interesting as it actually specified a particular area in the Napa Valley which is Suscol Ranch. This area of Napa has a pretty good reputation as far as wineries are concerned as names such as Cakebread, Alta and Nickel & Nickel get their grapes from there and it is located in the Spring Mountain District as well. Seeing this really cemented my purchase decision as I just had to see what the wine was all about. The wine comes in at 14.2% and cost me $9.98.

As far as the label is concerned...yeah...I really am not impressed at all. For a wine that comes from the Spring Mountain District of Napa, I expected something much more visually appealing.

On the nose, oak is evident. Having said this, I didn't mind it too much as it seemed to go along with the varietal in general. There is a Honeydew melon note here that is fairly forward as well and the two notes at the strength they are showing themselves was a bit scary to me as I had the feeling I knew where this wine was headed and it isn't the direction I like my Chardonnays to head.

On the palate now I can tell you that there is definitely an alcohol note here which really is unfortunately not well incorporated into the wine as I felt it and while there was no burn, it was noticed. There is a note of oak here as well and it too was over the top and a good bit much for my liking. Continuing on now, there is a dewy type note here that is on the harsher yet sweeter side and this just adds on in a bad way to the first two notes I mentioned.

That green melon is fresh tasting but the first three notes dominate/subdue the real flavor of it in a negative type way. Aside from that, the green melon only seems to manage and compound on to what these other notes are offer up causing the wine to sink even further on The Desert Wine Guy rating scale. Keeping it real here as always, I am only going on with this review because it is early in the afternoon and I have nothing better to do. On a positive note (the only positive note) though, acidity is right on point here. This acidity spreads throughout the palate and does it's best trying to assist the wine but to no avail. Guys, I'm sorry, I really tried but I can't go on...like really can't go on, I have to put an end to my misery and end this review.

Sooooo...in the end, this is a very simple wine made by a winemaker who has an awful lot to learn about making wine. I will even go as far as to say that in my opinion, Sams Club should be ashamed to carry this product. On The Desert Wine Guy rating scale, I am giving this wine 86 undrinkable points.

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Wednesday, April 23, 2025

2021 Matt Parish, Merlot - Napa Valley

Do you guys find yourself "jumping on bandwagons"? I think that so many people seem to do this and honestly, I'm not sure why. It seems as if most people today just either won't or can't think for themselves. Having said this, I myself do not "jump on bandwagons" whether it is for wine or anything else. My tastes are my tastes and I stick to them no matter what the likes of Robert Parker might say :) This is why I suggest to you guys, if you find a wine varietal/style that I happen to like and you compare my feelings to your feelings on that varietal/style and we agree, then you can most likely trust my review on that particular varietal/style. Why do I bring this up you may ask? Well, I bring it up because of the winemaker of today's review wine which is Matt parish. To my surprise, there has not been a single wine that Matt has made that I do not like and that includes his Rose which is a varietal I do not normally enjoy. From the very first wine of Matt's that I tasted, to the very last wine, I have found myself loving all of them. This was the case even before he became well known on the site I buy his wines from which is Naked Wines. Of course, Matt does also normally make the most expensive wines that Naked Wines sells and that is probably at least partially why his wines are so darn good but a ton of it is due to his wine background and knowledge as well. Now, having said this we are off to today's wine review.

Merlot Grapes

Today I am going to be checking out the 2021 Matt Parish, Merlot - Napa Valley. I paid $22 ($29.99 if not a member) for this wine at Naked Wines and the alcohol percentage comes in at 14.2%. The grapes for the wine come from the Napa Valley and the bottle is cork sealed.

On the nose now, I get a limited note of an oaked Black Cherry. This is followed up with a rather nice tobacco leaf note. Overall the wine smells like it is going to be delicious and I am getting the strong feeling that the wine is one that takes itself very seriously.

On the palate now...yeah...let me begin by telling you that as I thought, this is a pretty serious Merlot. To begin with, the wine displays delicious and slightly bracing tannin's along with a slight bit of a delightful chalkiness as well. These notes work very nicely at providing a slight coating to the palate which I happen to love in my reds. I like how these notes take the lead in the wine as they are well placed. As a quick note, this presentation says to me that the wine is still rather young and can benefit by at least another year of proper cellaring.That oaked Black Cherry I got on the nose is nicely evident here and it is certainly very lively, fresh tasting, and delicious. Acidity is high but goes along with the wine in general. Guys you should know that everything in this wine is in perfect balance and aside from the tannin's needing to soften a bit (for some), the wine is pure enjoyment. Black Plum is very evident here as well and it wants you to take notice for sure. This Black plum tastes like it was fresh picked from the tree and is also very lively indeed. As a whole the wine is fresh, has a vibrancy and offers up a juiciness that is amazing. You should know that the wine is not a fruit bomb nor is it a red wine that relies on fruit to be the only thing you taste as I am also picking up a bit of a leathery note here that really fits right in perfectly and is a note that I would expect from this level of Merlot. At this early stage of development, the wine might be considered to be on the astringent side for some and while I personally love it, I do believe that some people would want to put the wine away for at least a year to soften just a bit. Sitting back now and tasting further, I get a bit of cassis as well. This note really expands the wines significance in the aspect of elevating it highly over the ordinary Merlot.

Beautiful Merlot Waiting To Be Enjoyed

As a last note, while the wine does offer up a sort of slight richness that is deep within it. This slight richness is not a sweet richness by any means as this wine isn't sweet by any means however, that slight perception is there. If I were guessing, I would say that this note comes from the oaked Black Cherry.

Now that we are at the conclusion of this review, let me tell you what this wine is not. This wine is not a sweet and overly fruity wine, this is not a fruit bomb. This is not your $10 Merlot set at a high price because of the winemaker, this is a real Merlot, a Merlot designed to impress and at a very reasonable price due to where it is sold. Overall, this is also a wine that needs to be held on to for a couple of years if you do not care for tannin's as there are some and they are on the slightly robust side. This is a wine that offers up power and as I say occasionally with a wine such as this, is what I call a "confused Merlot"as it puts out much more than a typical Merlot normally does. On The Desert Wine Guy rating scale I am giving this wine 94 points and with the assumption it continues to age as I expect it will in the next three years it will probably reach 95 points.