Black Opal Cabernet Merlot - Friday July 24th

Tonight is, *gasp*, a glass of wine. I occasionally enjoy a glass (or 8) of wine when my parents manage to buy more wine than they know what to do with and, subsequently, turn to me to get rid of it. Apparently I'm like the alcohol garbage disposal in the family as my mom tries to pawn off everything she doesn't like on me. Including absinthe. Yech. Tonight, however, was a perfectly serviceable bottle of Black Opal "Cabernet Merlot", a blend of about 2/3rds Cabernet Sauvignon and 1/3rd Merlot. Now...I love Cabernet. I had probably the best wine I've ever had in France. It came from a grocery store, it was some sort of Cabernet table wine, and it was bitchin. Like, it was seriously the tits. The cat's pajamas. I managed to smuggle back several bottles in my luggage (even though I was under 21) and drink it at home. It was a sad-ass day when that last bottle's contents fell into my gaping maw. Regardless, I felt like some red wine and the liquor cabinet was getting full, so I popped this.

To start, its a screw-top. I immediately had low expectations. A healthy glug into one of our never-used wine glasses and I crammed my nose in there. Now, I'm no wine expert, but here's my finds. It smelled like Welch's grape juice with strawberries. Slightly pungent and not in the greatest way. Very ripe fruit, almost too ripe. And it smelled like black pepper. I was less than amused. Since I've seen Sideways, I did what Paul Giamatti did (I sometimes make decisions on the WWPGD line). I put my hand over it and swirled it vigorously, lifted the hand, and inhaled. Much better. Very ripe fruit but the moldy/mustiness was gone. The pepper was gone, replaced by a more fiery, "I think I'll have jalapenos on my taco" kinda smell. I love jalapenos, so this was a significant step up. The taste followed the smell. Not too try for my tastes, it was a rich grape flavor (hurf durf) with raspberry and slight black peppery-ness. Honestly, not too bad. Now it all depends on how much it costs per bottle. Went well with pizza margherita though.

Edit: It's, like, $8 a bottle. Hot diggity damn. Might be a new pizza wine, although I dunno if I could drop the old family favorite: Ruffino Chianti. For poor Italians only.