Tasting - Barefoot Sweet Red Blend

 

Wine: Sweet Red Blend

Name: Barefoot Red Blend

Variety: Blend with Pinot Gris

Country of Origin: United States

Region of Origin: California

Vintage Year: NV

Price: $15.09

Description: Barefoot sweet red blend is a smooth and sweet red wine blend with luscious aromas and flavors of black cherry and plum. This wine pairs well with marinated flank steak, grilled vegetables, and all spicy treats!

Shop/Wine Critic/Winery Review: “In the glass, this wine is light garnet in color.  A pretty good amount of light shines through, leaving dancing red lights under the glass. The wine appears quite thin with no apparent legs at the outset.  However, it became more leggy with air and time. Very little alcohol was noted in the aroma.  I would describe the aroma as raspberry candy with cherry mixed in. Barefoot Sweet Red Wine alcohol content 10.5% per the bottle. As the name suggests, this wine is sweet in flavor.  It’s actually extremely sweet.  Similar to Beringer White Zinfandel in terms of sweetness. The flavor is a combination of raspberry, strawberry and pomegranate.  Truthfully it’s a sugar bomb and you’ll find no dryness in this wine at all. The wine has a delicate syrupy mouthfeel.  Very slight tannins noted on the palate. Barefoot Sweet Red’s finish was medium to long.  Shorter when chilled.  Given the abundance of sweetness, I was surprised the finish wasn’t longer. Overall, I didn’t like this wine.  For a sweet red I’d prefer something with at least a little dryness like Cupcake Red Velvet. I found Barefoot Sweet Red to be too sweet for my tastes.  It certainly delivers on its promise as a sweet red wine.  And, it might be good for someone who really really likes their wine sweet.  But, to me this was comparable to a fruit wine, given its juicy pomegranate flavors. I also wasn’t pleased there was no way to tell what the varietals were.” (Jon Rogers, Honest Wine Reviews)

Wine Folly: I didn’t taste any of the characteristic flavors of white peach, lemon zest, cantaloupe, raw almond, or crushed gravel which are characteristic of pinot gris which was supposedly one of the grapes in this blend. (p.149) This is likely due to there being a lot of different red grapes in this blend and potentially some added sugar which overwhelmed any of the more nuanced flavors.

My Review: The Barefoot Sweet Red Blend was both quite sweet and maybe a bit dry. It had primary aromas and tastes of raisins and blackberry. It also had some flabby and kool-aid like qualities due to the high levels of sweetness.