Tennessee Red Wine Tasting!

 Name: Arrington Vineyards

Variety: Red blend

Region: Tennessee

Country: USA

Year: Vintages blended from 2018, 2017 and 2019

Price: $30.00

Winery Review: Arrington Vineyards is located just 25 minutes from Nashville. With award-winning wines, spectacular vineyard views and breathtaking sunsets, this vineyard is loved. The winery is owned by a country music artist Kix Brooks and Kip Summers who is the winemaker. This particular blend is a newer release, they refer to it as the "Blend 1718. " 1718 does not refer to the vintage, rather it refers to the blending of multiple vintages, specifically from the years 2018, 2017 and a little of 2019. They did this to "maximize a consistent Antebellum Red "Tennessee-whiskey-barrel-aged" flavor that everyone loves."

Personal Review: In the past I have enjoyed drinking the whiskey barrel aged wines and I have really enjoyed the red blends, so I was excited to try this wine! First impression based off of smell was very strong scent, with a hint of berry, filled the nose and went down the throat powerfully. First taste was blackberry, with the tart aftertaste. Unlike the other barrel aged wines I have tried, this one was much more subtle, although there was a hint of oaky flavors, I tasted fiery/wilderness more predominantly. It had a smooth finish and was not too powerful on the palate. Felt like I kept wanting to take sips because it was so different yet so delicious! I prefer wine to not be too dry and this wine was just that! I was intrigued on how the winemakers decided to mix 3 vintages in order to match the consistency of their whiskey barrel aged wines so I decided to look more into the mixing of the flavors, found on page 57 of wine folly. Prominent tastes that I picked up on were bitter and fiery/hot. Shown on page 57 is a taste chart, which shows the discordant match between bitter and piquant, also known as spicy. I find this surprising due to the fact that I thought this wine was wonderful and these were the two most prominent flavors I found. However, bitter flavors match best with salty and fat, while piquant flavors match best with sweet, salty, fat.