I was scrolling through the posts on this site the other day and I realized that I’ve been neglecting some of our audience. I noticed that the focus of most of my posts was gravitating toward the rare gems, wines that may be a little difficult to track down — but of course very interesting and rewarding. I’ve been writing about the wines that personally interest me the most, but are not necessarily easy for all our readers to find.
It’s an easy trap for me to fall into, as a total wine nerd, but it doesn’t necessarily best serve the mission of this website — which is to help you find great wines at bargain prices. With that mission in mind, I wanted to profile a good wine I tasted that you should be able to find without too much trouble.
Red blends is a category of wines that tend to deliver exceptional QPR (quality/price ratio) these days, particularly if you’re into Californian wines. And this is one of those wines.
Coastal Crush Red from Robert Mondavi Private Selection is a blend of 67% syrah, 24% merlot and 9% malbec. The grapes come from primarily Monterey County, but also from San Benito County, Paso Robles and Valley South. The wine saw 10 months in a combination of French and American oak.
This really is a fun wine and an exceptional value.
The aromas on this wine are slightly angular, but still interesting and enjoyable. By “angular” I mean that rather than a fully balanced experience this wine has some angles that stand out more and come off rather sharp — hence, angular. It offers plenty of bright red fruit aromas, like strawberry, raspberry and cherry, but also has a touch of nutmeg , cola and chocolate to add some spice. The palate is loaded with fruit flavors, like raspberry, plum and strawberry, which come across as slightly tart and slightly sweet at the same time. By no means would I call this a sweet wine, but there certainly a very noticeable residual sugar (RS). The RS is technically at 8 grams per liter, which is at the high end for a “dry” wine. The mouth feel is good, as is the acidity. The finish is medium in length and highlights tart, red berry flavors.
Wine: Robert Mondavi Private Selection Coastal Crush Red
Variety: Red blend
Vintage: 2011
Alcohol: 13.5%
Rating: 85
Price: $11.00
Disclosure: This wine was received as a media sample.
Find Robert Mondavi Private Selection Coastal Crush Red with Snooth