I get supermarket wine, I really do.
Not everyone lives near a wine shop. Not everyone wants to bother with an additional trip to a wine shop to buy their wine. Many people just drink wine, and all they want to do is drink something familiar and inoffensive that won’t break the bank.
I was sent several bottles of an admittedly supermarket-grade wine (it was right there in their literature) to review here on Notes. One was a chardonnay that really pleasantly surprised me, and one was a cabernet sauvignon I couldn’t find much to say good things about.
There are two more bottles. This is one of them. It is far, far more the latter than the former.
The 2007 TRE Cellars California Syrah is the TRE in the pink label. Its grapes come from some of the most prestigious growing regions across California. The TRE Cellars motto is “Three generations of winemakers. Three brothers continuing the family legacy. Three unique characters, sharing a common vision, To create the perfect wine to be enjoyed as ‘One of Life’s Simple Pleasures.’”
None of this tells you anything about what’s in the bottle, of course.
In the glass, the syrah is a dark maroon red at its core, with lightening, pinker-but-still-red edges. The nose offers some interesting aromas, including strawberry, stewed cherry, and red apple skin. Not something I’m writing home about, but the nose certainly had me in the mood for a fruit-forward, young-drinking, quality wine.
Oops.
The wine is medium-to-full bodied, with harsh, unforgiving tannins and a hint of raspberry. But that’s not the main flavor note. It’s not what I walked away from still tasting, still thinking about in this wine. No no, the fruit is there–I just question whether anyone will know when they taste the note that dominated the bouquet on the palate. What aroma-slash-flavor is this, you ask?
Pen ink.
Yeah. Pen ink. A little metallic, a bit oddly minty, the 2007 TRE Cellars California Syrah tastes like pen ink. I guess I can’t judge people if they like this–but I certainly wouldn’t be able to understand them.
Verdict: sub-70/100