Tabor Hill Red Arrow Red NV

Ok, I've been a long-time believer that no good red wine could possible come from a place like Michigan.  Unless you are into the super sweet fruit or berry wines that have more in common with pancake syrup than real wine, you're better off looking elsewhere, particularly when it comes to dry red wines.  And after tonight's selection, I can definitively confirm, I was right!

I bought a bottle of Tabor Hill Red Arrow Red, named for the famed "Red Arrow Highway" in southwest Michigan, on a lark as I was passing through Stevensville Michigan on the way home from Chicago.  I found this "dry red table wine" on sale for only $7, which is by far it's most redeeming quality.  Having tried some other red blends from my more favored wineries in Washington, like the recent Helix Pomatia from Reininger, or the classic L'Ecole Columbia Valley Red Wine that are such spectacular house reds for not that much more than this wine, the Red Arrow Red was just a disappointment.

The color of the wine was a translucent red, similar to cranberry juice, or perhaps cherry Kool-Aid, but nothing that would suggest a hearty dry red wine blend.  The label claims that it's a blend of Cabernet Franc, Cabernet Sauvignon and Merlot, but I just don't see it, as it simply has the appearance of a rose gone wrong.  The nose is somewhat medicine like, with a scent of wet cardboard, and maybe a hint of fruit.  The taste is certainly dry, there is no hint of boysenberry syrup here, but there was little flavor at all, outside some hints of leather and a bit of oak.  There was virtually no finish, which is actually a plus, since if I had to endure a long finish of this set of flavors I would have dumped this much earlier in the evening.

Thankfully, I had a descent dinner to enjoy this evening, so I didn't even notice the wine (though it saddens me how much better my dinner could have been with a descent bottle!).  In fact, as I was eating my porterhouse with grilled sweet corn and green beans, I thought how much this wine was like simply drinking water with my meal!  Of course I also thought how much better this wine would be on my salad in a few months after turning to vinegar, which is why I seriously thought about rating this under 4, but alas, I'll relent for the hometown producers and give this one a generous 4.5...ugh.