2012 Oliver Winery Dry Red Blend

What a day!  Saturdays are always full of chores but today was off the charts!  I started at the local nursery and bought some new hydrangeas and astilbe for the back yard, then went grocery shopping, then mowed the yard, then planted the plants and with all that activity I'm now up to 18,520 steps so far today and I haven't even had a glass of wine!  Well that's about to be corrected as I found a bottle of 2012 Oliver Winery Dry Red Blend at the local supermarket on sale.  Now I must admit I'm a bit skeptical of this as Oliver Winery is based out of Bloomington, Indiana, and I remember when I was in graduate school at Indiana University, the winery was known for white wines and sweet fruit wines, but definitely not the dry reds that I so love.  The interesting thing about this wine was that the grapes were sourced from California, but the wine was made here, so here goes nothing!

The wine is a bit lighter in color but it has nice clarity and a deep ruby at the center of the glass.  The nose is certainly better than I was expecting, some nice blackberry and black currant notes along with some green grass and hint of spice.  The taste is rather fruit forward, but not overpowering, nice fresh dark fruit flavors of blackberry and currant which transitions rather abruptly to some Asian spice and fresh herbs midpalate.  The finish is nice and dry, but it's very short, making it a bit disappointing, but still not a bad effort overall.

I would rate this wine a solid 7, it won't knock your socks off, but it's a pretty decent wine for only $8!  Tonight I am enjoying this wine with a rare grilled T-bone, baked potato and some haricots vert, as this wine has enough backbone to pair quite well with beef.  I can't say this will be a go to wine in my house, but I wouldn't have any problem serving this to my guests.  A new perspective on the old home town winery, cheers!