Toad Hollow’s Erik’s the Red – Uncorked!

Uncorking a bottle of wine is typically the first thing I do when I get home from work on a Friday night.  So I have decided that my Uncorked! segments will be regular Friday night segments.

Tonight’s Uncorked! is dedicated to Toad Hollow’s Erik’s the Red.

Consider yourselves introduced.

We got this as part of wine club shipment that I think we will be canceling soon because we haven’t really loved any of the wines we’ve gotten with it.  It is a red blend of 18 different grapes, none of which really stand out in the flavor.  Maybe that’s a good thing in a blend.  Who knows?  (I’ll be sure to look into that for you guys.)  You can check out Toad Hollow’s description of it here.

In the glass it’s a lovely dark currant color, but it’s got pretty thin legs when you swirl it around.  Upon first sniff it was a little too peppery for my taste, but I could definitely smell more cherry/berry as it opened up.  To me, it tasted a little bitter and my taste buds could never pick up on the cherry/berry flavor I assumed would accompany the opened aroma.  It generally had a smooth but thin texture, and the finish – I lie to you not – seemed soapy.   I know that may seem ridiculous, but I had a distinct “soapy” after taste in my mouth after each sip.  It was just odd.

Since I’m really trying to learn and hone my tasting skills, I’m always interested to see how my personal notes on a wine tasting stand up against those of other wine lovers.  A quick Google search of this wine led me to a tasting site called Cork’d, of all things.  Wine lovers on this site used words like “disappointing,” “flabby,” “metallic,” and “weird” to describe this one.  A couple reviewers enjoyed it, but for the most part the wine-o’s either didn’t love it or weren’t sure exactly what to make of it.  Check out the Cork’d reviews for yourself here.  In fairness, I should mention that someone known as The Wine Curmudgeon seemed to really like it.

My final thoughts on this “vintage” are… Meh.  It smells better than it tastes…and it tastes kind of cheap.  I don’t think I’ll be uncorking another bottle of this one.

Sorry I don’t have a better review for you tonight.   If any of you have tasted this one, I’d love to know what you think of it too.  Don’t forget to stop by and see what I uncork next Friday night!

Cheers, y’all!