Thursday, May 20, 2010

Releaf - Cab/Merlot/Shiraz

Price: $8.99
Region: South Africa
Year: 2007

Even though I had a little time on my hands this past weekend to browse a bit, this was a very quick trip to the wine store. I had pretty much decided the week before that I was going to pick up this bottle of Releaf red. As I mentioned in last week's review, as I was checking out, the cashier recommended I grab a bottle of this as well. Considering I generally try to purchase as much organic food as is reasonable based on price, etc. I thought it was just natural that I try a bottle of red wine made out of organically grown grapes. I didn't even know this was a South African wine until I got it home and read the label. Since the general trend is you pay a bit more for organic food, I was a little bit scared of the $9 price for this wine, and was hoping it wasn't a $6 bottle in terms of quality.

We ordered Chinese take out for dinner, so after I got back from picking it up, I poured myself a glass. I thought the wine has a nice looking ruby color, with good depth. It definitely didn't give the impression of a weak wine, but I would think being 50% Cabernet, 30% Merlot, and 20% Shiraz, you would get a nice dark red wine. I then took a sniff of the wine, and was a bit surprised that it seemed a little faint, but it had a pleasant fruity smell nonetheless. It has close to 2 years now that I have been writing these reviews, and I am definitely trying to concentrate of identifying particular tastes, but I would be the first to admit I still tend to notice more general flavors as opposed to specific ones that people identify on more "professional" reviews. I do tend to pick up hints of blackberry with this wine for sure. My only complaint is that the wine was a bit acidic, but generally a nice flavor. I would have to do some more research on the benefits of drinking organic wine, but my philosophy has always been, if you can get someone without chemicals, for the same price, and quality, why not. This was a very solid wine, at a great price, and organic to boot. I will definitely pick up a few bottles to have around as it could be a very good everyday wine.

Rating: 3.5 (Gets a little higher score for being organic :)

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