Tasting - California Dream Red Blend

 Tasting - California Dream Red Blend

(We forgot to take a picture holding the cali dream, it can be seen in the background of our picture of the Bay Bridge White Zinfandel in my tasting post for it)

The California Dream Red Blend is a red wine made with a blend of Zinfandel, Merlot, and Cabernet Sauvignon grapes from California. Our bottle was a 2022 at $10.99.

A review on vivino.com described it as "fruit forward with strawberry, cherry, and hints of rhubarb and oak. Not overly toasty. Smooth with a short finish. Nice weekend sipper."

Swirled around in a wine glass, the red blend had some of the scents you would expect from all three of the grape varieties present in the wine. There was a fairly prominent cherry scent, which Wine Folly lists as a usual characteristic of Merlot. There were also some strawberry scents and black currant, which Wine Folly attributes to Zinfandel and Cabernet Sauvignon respectively. Overall, the smell was fairly fruity, but also acidic.

The taste was extremely dry, which leads me to believe Merlot is the most prominent grape in this blend. There were also some cherry flavors and slight hints of tobacco and graphite. Drinking this wine without food as we did was very unpleasant. All three grapes in the blend have medium-high tannins and are dry tasting, which felt almost shocking to my palette. This wine might have paired well with some really good, marbled steak to try and counteract the dryness and tannins, but even then I think the flavors themselves were unimpressive. I would not recommend this bottle.

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