With a steady stream of wines in the $10-$15 range hitting the LCBO in time for summer season, there appears to be a good wave of South African entries. This new wine from the Distell conglomerate fits into that category and delivers a hip/trendy label and blend of Shiraz, Mourvedre and Petit Verdot. With the Distell group grabbing all price ranges and a full spectrum from ultra sweet to super dry they are not everyone’s cup of tea: BIG scale producer. If you are not worried about that sort of thing then this wine is one of several to come to Canada of late from them. Inception “Deep Layered Red” is an odd one, an almost semi-sweet red. In the traditional, ‘old-fashion’, way of calling the sugar content, I’d put it in a 1 (with 0 being dry and so on). As I do not have official tasting notes, and Google let me down trying to out some, I can only make hap-hazard guesses as to its true sugar figures, but the residual sugars are enough to say this wine is a slight sweeter than a standard red table wine. What does it look, smell and taste like? Read on!
A deep, young purple colour is the visual you will get on pouring. The nose is smokey, plummy almost jammy. First few swirls will give you berries and chocolate. The berries separate themselves into raspberries and blackberries. The chocolate remains with hints mocha and vanilla, The tannins on this wine are subtle and the finish is shorter than you’d expect for a young vintage. Overall the wine is balanced enough and firm enough to handle some summer BBQ grilling, but keep it to chicken, lighter pork’s and even a Cajun styled fish. The residual sugar will actually compliment many of your standard summer fare. At $13.90 this wine is priced to be what it is, a good red table wine to drink now through 2015.
The CWG Subjective Rating is 84 out of 100.
