An excellent example of good Spanish wines. Very dark fruits, black pepper and spice, good balance and a little bit of oak. Before decanting, aromas are a little fruity: blueberries, black cherry... But once this has a moment to relax, the fruity/sweet settles down to expose more interesting flavors, with some earth, spices, licorice. For the money, it is well worth it.

Usually, I don't like this much oak on wines, but for some reason it works here. Give it at least 30 minutes in the glass to open up, or decant for an hour or more. The dark fruits and spices that are typical in old vine zins are loud and clear, but the precarious balance of oak will bite you if you don't let this one open up. Nice plum/raisin flavors, worth a shot and a good QPR.

I've always been partial to the Shiraz/Viognier blends. This is a decent effort, not sensational, but reasonable for the price. Good aromatics, but not amazing as typical from this blend. A little heavy handed with the alcohol. Price wise this is okay, worth trying a bottle, but not the best way to start with Shiraz/Viognier blends.

Ravenswood's Lodi Zinfandel is always a good solid bottle to pick up. The 2006 seemed a little too heavy on the alcohol, like it started to get away from them. Big dark fruits with some spice and a tiny bit of black licorice. Definitely let this one decant for at least an hour as it does wonders for the overall balance. Huge QPR at around $12.

If you like the buttery oaky Chardonnay wines, put down the bottle and take 2 steps back. But, if you want the crisp and full flavors of apricot, pear and green apple for less than $10 without the oak monster lurking anywhere, this is a solid bottle with great QPR.

When first popping the cork on this, I was a bit underwhelmed. So into the decanter it went. A little taste every couple of hours as this opened up. Six hours in, things got much more interesting. The aromas got much richer and the flavors got much darker and richer raspberry. So for the price and a little of patience, this wine is a real winner.

Start with about an hour in the decanter, and then just bury your nose in the glass and take in all of the aroma of this Shiraz-Viognier blend. Just wonderful fruit and floral combination with some smoke and leather to round it out.

Flavor is fabulous blend of big complex fruits and a nice long finish with a great balance. Seek this one out.

This wine takes a very long time to open up. Probably way too young to drink now. The tannins are too bitter for my taste, but after about 3 hours of decanting, this wine is a pleasure to smell. I liked the initial attack, but the finish suffered from the bitter tannins.