Tasting - Sepal Estate 'Soft Red Blend'

Name: Sepal Estate - Sepal Vinyards - Soft Red Blend
Variety: Syrah, Petite Sirah, Malbec, and Cabernet Sauvignon
Region: Santa Rosa, California
Country: USA
Year: 2016
Price: $12

Wine Critic Notes: This is a light and lightly sweet wine that looks like a dark rosé, smells very fruity and tastes like cherry juice. It is simple and soft: something to please people who don't like dry wines. - Jim Gordon; Wine Enthusiast; 84pts

Wine Folly: pg 172 Syrah - full body, mid to high acidity, mid to high tannins, mid to high alcohol, and minimal sweetness, along side notes of blueberry, plum, milk chocolate, tobacco, and green peppercorn.
pg 147 Petite Sirah - full body, high alcohol, low to mid acidity, with low levels of sweetness, along side notes of sugar plum, blueberry, black pepper, black tea, and dark chocolate.
pg 125 Malbec - full body, mid to high alcohol, low to mid acidity, with low to mid sweetness, and mild tannin, along side notes of red plum, blueberry, vanilla, sweet tobacco, and cocoa.
pg 292 California Cabernet Sauvignon - At their best, California Cabernet Sauvignons offer lush black fruit flavors which unravel into multiple layers typically consisting of cedar, dusty minerality, and tobacco-laced tannins. Often notes of blackberry, black cherry, cedar, baking spices, and green peppercorns can be found.

My review: A 'soft' red blend indeed - it is silky, soft, and smooth, with a medium body. The color of this wine is deep, almost like a Rosé that spent more than usual time laying against the skins, but it leaves the wine being quite shocking and even attractive. The nose is incredibly fruit forward, lots of cherries, raspberries, and even pomegranate. The mouthfeel, as I said, is soft and silky smooth, ripe with the same notes as were apparent in the nose, as well as notes of florals, light tannins, a mild sweetness you would expect from a ripe red cherry, and an almost juicy consistency as one would assume from an ripe raspberry. It's lightly dry, lightly sweet, pleasant all around - a good pool side wine, or even one to entertain the family with.

No food was had, while tasting this wine - just a glass, and some good music.