I've seen this one around town for a while now and finally grabbed a bottle to see what's up with it.
14.9% alcohol. $23, from a place that's usually a buck or two higher than some other places around here.
Deep ripe strawberry color. Musky dark fruit aroma, with a hint of minty sharpness. Rich, heavy fruit character with some sour acidity, mild tannins. It comes off as pretty well balanced to me with the exception of the alcohol, which I can both taste and feel. Nice, smoothly tannic finish. Pretty decent stuff.
California grenache has come a long way. I don't remember any that were worth drinking up until the last ten or fifteen years. Now a wine like this is nothing special. Indeed, for the money I'd rather have a grenache by Cedarville, Terre Rouge, or something from Tablas Creek. And that's only because those seem to handle the alcohol a bit better than this one, but it's a sound wine that will appeal to a lot of people.
Mike