Tasting - Journey & Discovery Red Blend

This is me with the wine bottle

Name: Journey & Discovery Red Blend

Variety: Red Blend (Touriga Nacional, Castelao, and Aragones)

Region: Portugal (does not specify where exactly)

Country: Portugal

Year: N/A (wasn't on the bottle and I couldn't find it online)

Price: $3.99 for a half bottle

Online Review: This wine features three grapes with big personalities. Touriga Nacional is known for its dark berry flavors, while Aragones- also known as Tempranillo in Spain- lends a strong backbone of structure to the blend. Castalao, named after the parakeet, gives the wine a deep color and loud, fruity flavors. These three grapes are blended to create a bouquet bursting with blackberry, blueberry, plum, cocoa, and a touch of nutmeg.

This is my babushka and I with our
wine. P.S. I did have wine in my glass
but I drank most of it by the time we
took this picture.

My Review: This wine was decent, it didn't have a strong alcohol flavor which I enjoyed. It was more acidic than sweet and was not dry in my opinion. Some flavors I could taste were fruity flavors such as orange or berries. I would rate this wine a 7/10, it wasn't the worst red wine I've had but definitely not the best. My mom and babushka (which means grandma in Russian) joined me for this wine tasting. We did not pair it with any food. My mom was not a fan of this wine at all, she said it was very sour and dry. She even also said it tasted like straight vinegar and it is "the kind of wine I drink after two glasses of a very good wine". My mom rated it a 5/10. My babushka enjoyed this wine a little more. She said she could also taste a fruity or berry flavor, specifically the black currant berries she would eat in Russia. She mentioned that she's not a wine drinker so she can taste when it's high in tannins because she doesn't like dry wines. She said the aftertaste was nice and made her want to keep on drinking it. My babushka rated it an 8/10.

Textbook:

*Unfortunately, my Wine Folley subscription ended and since we only have two weeks left in class I can't buy it again. However, I do have the Zraly textbook which I will be using to include references.*

This is my mom and I during the tasting

The textbook mentioned that over the last ten years, Portugal has shifted to concentrate on dry reds and whites (Zraly, 300). On the contrary, the wine we tried was not very dry. Because of American law, at least 75% of the grapes that were used must be from the variety that's on the label (Zraly, 63). Since three different grapes are used to make this wine, it has to legally be labeled as a "red blend".

My family and I with our wine.

Our setup with our glasses of wine.