Red Bicyclette, Vin de pays D'Oc ABV 13.5

I have to admit I was wary of this one--after all, if they really wanted to give a French name, they would have called it "Bicyclette Rouge"--but any wine with a picture of a bicycle on the label has my full attention, and thus it had to be sampled. Overall, my impression is that it could be a suitable wine to be paired with fancy assorted h'ors d'oeuvres, such as stuffed mushrooms, spinach and artichoke dip, or bruscetta (or you could go the cheap route we had it with Wheat thins and processed cheese spread), but nothing about it, as Brian and I agreed, was sufficiently entertaining to make a wine to be enjoyed simply on its own.

Tasting notes:

Color

Sara: Hint of orange, red, clear, crisp

Brian: transparent, ruby (orange zest)

Nose

Sara: alcohol, berries, sweet

Brian: light, mellow, young

Taste

Sara: Berries, strong aftertaste, tannins, slightly sour note, and I swear, even though they don't admit it on the label, there is a hint of mushroom--Overall, the confusing lack of balance in the flavors results in a score of 3.0 from me.

Brian: extremely light body--which uses tannins to achieve its flavor--just not much "fruit" apparent in this wine--this fairly dry wine--strange, you'd think a bit of residual sugar might pull out some fruit flavors, but the wine would probably be annoying at that point.

!Not enough body!--it's like the light-beer of wines! Crisp, clear, but not very entertaining. 2.5 of 5