For some reason in Halloween movies, the deadbolt just never works.  Given how scary Skeleton Malbec was, can Dead Bolt Winemaker’s Blend lock the door, and keep it out?

Sight:  A purple core with a hot magenta edge.

Smell:   The nose is green, but incredibly hot.  There are good elements of blackberries and cocoa that lace through the start of the nose. Touches of green and black peppers remain with a bit of black plum and smoke across the background.

Sip:  The body is smoky, with a lot of green elements running around in it.  There’s a decent amount of weight handled here, thanks to a little bit of the sweetness in the background.  Good dark fruits, like plum, blackberry, a  hint of earth, and black olive make up the body.  A hint of balsamic comes into play.  Lots of green pepper comes into play with herbs to back it up.

Savor:  The finish carries green pepper and stemmy characteristics forward with the jammy plums.  High tannins are ready for food.

Dead Bolt Winemaker’s Blend has a lot of green elements conflicting with lots of jammy dark fruit elements.  The net effect here is very disjoined, where one part of the wine trying to be sweet and jammy, while the other part ends up being green and herbal.  There’s a lot of good elements here, but it seems like it was harvested just a little bit too early.  Dead Bolt Winemaker’s Blend is solid as a wine, but just doesn’t have a lot of elements going in the same direction to make it cohesive.

Verdict:  Green, Blackberry, Herbal, Plum
Rating: 71
Price: $10
Kenwood, CA

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