2012 Dietro LaPorta Blu

Well, it's Sunday night after a long holiday weekend, so I've decided to open up something a little different tonight, a bottle of wine that was produced by my Aunt Jan and Uncle Rick out in Las Vegas, the 2012 Dietro LaPorta Blu.  Now before you start thinking they drip irrigate a vineyard in the desert, they source the grapes from California, in this case Cabernet Sauvignon (43%), Nebbiolo (19%), Cabernet Franc (19%) and Black Malvasia (19%).

The wine is a deep garnet color in the glass with nice clarity.  The nose is rather subdued, with notes of blackberry, plum, leather and a bit of lavender.  The taste is surprisingly good for home brew, some mellow notes of blackberry and cassis up front transition to some nice warm spice notes midpalate.  There is a bit of cherry on the finish, with some rather subdued tannins supporting a pleasant but brief dry finish.

Overall, I would rate this wine a solid 7, it's a very good effort for folks who are not winemakers by trade.  I don't know whether it would improve with age, particularly since my aunt told me about a year ago that I should drink this wine soon!  Tonight I am enjoying this casual wine with a nice piece of cedar planked wild Alaskan sockeye, some steamed Brussels sprouts and a big baked potato, yum!