The wine has a deep, rich ruby color with nice silky ‘legs’.  The wine opens with a smooth, mellow nose initially followed closely by cherry cola, black licorice, black cherry, and candied fruit.   As the wine opens more berry aromas appear.  It is a very smooth with intense jammy blackberry, cherry and dark chocolate with a toasted oak finish and good levels of acidity.

I give it a solid B and at under $7 that makes this a great deal.

Red Diamond 2007 Cabernet Sauvignon. Blend: Cabernet Sauvignon 80%, Cabernet Franc 10%,Merlot 7%, Syrah 3%. AVA: Washington State. 13.5% alcohol. Case Production: 165,000

In a slight change in our site usage, I have decided to “spotlight” value wines with a regular BLOG posting rather than simply and entry in our review database.

The first wine to go under our Spotlight is the Columbia Crest Two Vines- Merlot 2004.  This wine is simply exceptional for the price.  On a good sale it can be had for under $7 a bottle.  The wine not only tastes good the first night; but if you are like me and it takes you two evenings to drink a full bottle (750ml), it is still good on the second evening (assuming you vacuum sealed the bottle on evening one).

The vintner has a rather accurate and complete write-up of this wine as well. You may even buy a bottle (case?) from their site.

About the only things I can add to their review are:

• the wine holds up well, if vacuum sealed over-night
• the body is medium… perhaps just a tad light for my preferences
• the berry notes on the palate and in the finish are very nice are the earthy ‘coffee-like’ flavors.

This wine is a real winner; especially given its flavors and its price point.

We are pleased to announce that we have implement AmbientWebs MetaQuery functionality on our site. To use this function simply double-click on any word and you will be pointed to relevant, useful related sites and content. To give this a try simply double-click on any of the words in this posting, this is obviously best when you are looking at Wine related terms like:

• Merlot
• Vinyard
• Oenology
• Enology
• Viticulture
• Sommelier

We hope you find this feature to be a useful adjunct to our site.

..mark (resident geek)