Nose: Fresh blackberry preserves, like your grandmother just prepped 'em for mason jars. Also: licorice, beef, basil, coffee, and some funky dirt. The meat and herb scents really came out after an hour of decanting. Before that, the nose was mostly fruit.

Taste: Blackberries and tart plums transition to basil, green beans, green peppers, dark cherries, and a meaty taste, with a coffee undercurrent. Accompanying everything is a shot of acidity and a soft tannic grip that leads to a drying cherry/blackberry/basil finish.

The cab franc vegetal kick subdues and balances the fruit. Anyone looking for a sweet, superfruity, backboneless merlot will probably be disappointed in this wine. I mean, the tannins aren't ripping my tongue out here, but they're quietly making themselves known. They're just about at the tannic level I like to find in wine.

Some folks ask me why I love French merlot. I tell them it's because of wines like this one. Sure, I like fruitier merlot every now and then—like the Spring Valley Uriah I tried a month ago. And now I want to taste this wine and that Uriah against each other and invite a friend or two to taste along with me. (Note to self.)

Nose: Flowers, grilled bread, something meaty, and some blackberries & plums.

Taste: Sour cherries and blackberries, some green bell pepper, green beans with black pepper and bits of meat, something herbal (I keep wanting to say it's basil), and a little black licorice. Tannins are soft but not missing. Mouthfeel is a bit lighter and more delicate/elegant than I expected, and very silky. The finish leaves me tasting naturally sweet cherries, with a little toasted bread at the very end.

It had been a while since I last tried a L'Ecole merlot blend. This one did not disappoint.

Varietal Blend: 60% Merlot, 31% Cabernet Franc, 4.5% Cabernet Sauvignon, 3.5% Petit Verdot

Nose: 2 hours of decanting rewarded me with flowers (violets and something else I can't quite pin down), blackberries, plums, leather, bacon, and a little spice.

Taste: Like biting into a plum. The plum flavor transitions quickly to blackberries, currants, sour cherries, and meat, rubbed in spices and mixed with green peppers. (Why hello there, cab franc.) The fruit carries no artificial sweeteners and tastes like the real deal to me. As delicious as this wine is, it's no slouch: there's some good tannin structure propping it up. (Howdy, petit verdot.) And despite the 15.8% alcohol content, my mouth is not aflame.

The finish is full of blackberries, sour cherries, and... have you ever eaten a sour plum? I like sour plums. Hell, I like tart more than sweet when it comes to fruit in general. This finish reminds me of tart plums, along with the other fruits I mentioned. It's a fairly long finish too.

I'm drinking this on its own—no food accompaniment—and now I wonder how it would pair with certain foods. I'll have to try that with another bottle. Meanwhile, I'm glad I took a chance on this wine. I wish the price was lower ($40-50 USD) but, eh, this is still good stuff.

Nose: One whiff of this (after 2 decanted hours) and I'm down on the farm, eating a chunk of roasted meat lightly coated with crushed blackberries while wearing thick old leather gloves.

Taste: Cherries, currants, meat, cedar, and spices. I also taste that mourvedre/monastrell sweetness I've come to know so well, along with a green herbal taste. Flavors coat my entire palate. This wine is a little dry, with tannins that are just shy of in-your-face. Yes, it's a little bitter. Yeah, it's a bit acidic. But it's not nearly bitter/acidic enough to thwart me. It's a maturing, softening bitterness that will probably mellow out in a few years. The finish is spiced cherries with a slightly herbal sweetness.

I plan to buy another bottle of this to put away and taste a few years from now. I wonder how I'll feel about it after the tannins and acidity soften up.

Nose: Two hours of decanting revealed plums, blackberries, clay mixed with granite, musty laundry, and tobacco.

Taste: Sour cherries, sour blackberries, some oak, a little chocolate at times, spice, celery and green peppers, a bit of mint, and a slight bloody flavor (like sucking a fresh cut on your finger). Like other 100% monastrell wines I've had, there's an initial burst of sweetness, but it's very mild here. This wine is tart. It's also on the dry side, with tongue-numbing tannins. Cherries on a cedar skewer are long on the finish, though my palate had to fight through some initial bitterness to appreciate them. After my first two sips, I did a little more research on this wine to make sure it's 100% monastrell with no cab franc.

Caveats:This wine is old school. Sugar/fruitbomb lovers, beware!
Decant this one. Your nose will thank you.
If you're looking for a naturally fruity-sweet monastrell, this ain't it. See caveat #1.
Pair this with food. It went well with my Mediterranean steak dish.
Don't fear the tannins, though they need more cowbell—er, maybe more aging time to mellow out.

Update - 11.15.07: I shared another bottle of this tonight with a friend. We discovered that this wine is a perfect match for picholine olives (my favorite olive variety). A glass of this + a handful of picholines = the good life.

Also, I forgot to mention that the tongue-numbing effect I mentioned up there wears off after the 1st or 2nd glass. We went through about 1.5 lbs of picholines and a bottle of this wine with blissful ease tonight.

Nose: Black plums, strawberries, raspberries, currants, leather, tobacco, black pepper, and almost a black tea note. I wish I could make potpourri or a scented candle or something with this wine. I could smell this wine all night.

Taste: Peppered blackberries, plums, and black currants, with a hint of cherry, something green/herbal, and a meat-on-a-cedar-skewer flavor. Juicy elegance—or elegant juiciness, whichever you prefer. Either way, this is a lush wine. Tannins are mellowing out but haven't disappeared. Finish is pure blackberry/plum/cherry and fairly long, though not quite as strong as I've experience with some other wines.

Overall, a delicious wine. If the finish was a bit stronger, I'd rate this wine even higher. I have another bottle to share with family later this month.

Nose: Raspberries, wet cedar, oak, spice, some blackberries, and a little vanilla.

Taste: Woo, raspberries! Also blackberries, sour cherries, and a little bit of blueberry. There's also plenty of spice, along with some cedar and vanilla oak (eh, not quite enough to deter me). Mouthfeel is lush, dense, and surprisingly silky; my palate expected a much rougher ride than this, what with all the spice and hyperberry flavor. A spicy raspberry/blackberry tang coats my mouth and persists on the long finish.

If this wine had a touch more oak, I probably wouldn't like it. It's just shy of the danger level on my palate's oak-o-meter. And it's a fruit bomb (woo, raspberries!)—another almost-strike against this wine. And it's a little hot (15.2% alcohol)—that should be strike three. And yet... I think I've fallen victim to the spice and berries here: those flavors keep me from hating or even disliking The Guilty. What can I say? It's tasty.

Nose: After 2 hours of decanting, I get spiced black fruit, pencil lead, and a meaty leathery scent. Sometimes I also smell dark chocolate and an herbal note that I can't quite pin down.

If you don't usually decant or leave bottles open for at least an hour before drinking, and you plan to try this wine, I strongly recommend decanting/airing. Otherwise you won't get much of a bouquet at all. A good dose of air will make this wine play nice with your nose.

Taste: Smokey and spicy dark cherries, blackberries, and a bit of plum. I also taste a little pencil lead, dirty rocks, cedar, something meaty, and... that green herbal note again. This wine is more lush than I expected. It has the kind of tannins I like: present, sturdy, not a pushover, but not in-your-face or mouth-shredding. There's a nice sweet vs. acidic balancing act going on. The finish is long and lush with dark cherries and berries on a cedar skewer that's maybe resting on a rock.

This wine is delicious and went well with my steak dinner. Its much more balanced and far less bitter than many other Rioja wines I've tried. I bought only one bottle of this on a whim. I plan to buy more.

Nose: Blackberries, dark cherries, coffeeshop mocha, a little bacon, and... bubble gum? Yeah. Huh.

Taste: Spiced black cherries, a little bacon on a cedar plank, and a bit of chocolate. Mouthfeel is elegantly lush. Tannins are on the soft side. Finish is dark cherry with a little spice.

I had this a few days ago and jotted down those tasting notes. It was tasty, and more elegant than I thought it would be.

Nose: A muted dark cherry scent is buried in a pile of veggies. Smelling this wine makes me crave roasted green & red peppers, grilled zucchini, celery, and green beans, with a few warm cherries on the side and a garnish of violets.

Taste: Everything I just wrote about up there? It's all on the palate. The bit of cherry flavor is sour, tart, and not sugared. I mean, a hint of sweetness is there naturally but no sugar or artificial sweetener is added. And the more I drink, the more I taste black olives along with the peppers, green beans, and celery. Things get slightly meaty on the mid-palate; maybe there are tiny bits of aged ham amidst the veggies. But vegetables are definitely the ruling flavor.

Mouthfeel is lighter (though fleshy) and more juicy than I expected. Tannins are a little strong, slightly bitter, but not dry. Sometimes I get a slight medicine taste that throws me a bit, but not enough to discourage me. The finish is more of that vegetal sour cherry flavor. The cherries sweeten up a bit at the end—or maybe that's a floral note I'm getting.

I've always liked the cabernet franc influence in wine blends. I wanted to try a wine that's nothing but cab franc, so I bought this on a whim during a Whole Foods shopping trip. Now I'm committed to trying more Chinon wines, because veggies are awesome and this particular wine was tasty.